Alex's Cowabunga Collection Marathon, Pt. 8 of 13
A lot of these TMNT games are essentially the same idea, you go left to right, start on the street, go in sewers, end in the Technodrome. This second Game Boy title still hits those same beats, but it's great to see the ways they tried to improve on what came before with each release.
Back from the Sewers improves on Fall of the Foot Clan quite a bit! There's some really impressive sprite work for a Game Boy game, with the first level beginning with a gorgeous little animation of your turtle climbing out of a tunnel in the wall, emerging towards the camera. It's brief and only happens once, yet some animator at Konami in the 90s decided it was worth knocking out of the party. This brief entrance shows the care that was put into the visuals of Back from the Sewers. The artists drew a rad foot-first inverted high jump, a hilarious squashed-by-a-boulder sprite, bug eyes when slipping down a slope, and more. The turtles have a lot more charm and life to them this time around.
The level design has improved too, with tiered level paths being a big part of this game. Stages have a bit of verticality early on, but it's just a higher platform and a lower level like some of the arcade games. Later on, the third world features a construction site that will have you climbing girders to a third story, and the fifth world employs loads of floating platforms in the sky, which becomes an impressive maze that you can navigate however you'd like. It becomes a bit repetitive, but it's a welcome change from walking a simple left-to-right path.
Fall of the Foot Clan was Kirby-levels of easy, but the bosses here really put up a fight, making Back from the Sewers much more of a challenge. Thankfully, health isn't too hard to find, with bonus levels after each Stage is finished giving you an opportunity to grab as much pizza as possible within a set amount of time.
You'll also find the funniest part of this game once or twice in each level: A Foot Soldier pizza delivery guy. I don't know what this person's deal is, but he's just hanging out holding a pizza box. Not moving, not attacking. Just frozen, paralyzed, waiting for you to kill him and steal his lunch.
A lot of these TMNT games are essentially the same idea, you go left to right, start on the street, go in sewers, end in the Technodrome. This second Game Boy title still hits those same beats, but it's great to see the ways they tried to improve on what came before with each release.
Back from the Sewers improves on Fall of the Foot Clan quite a bit! There's some really impressive sprite work for a Game Boy game, with the first level beginning with a gorgeous little animation of your turtle climbing out of a tunnel in the wall, emerging towards the camera. It's brief and only happens once, yet some animator at Konami in the 90s decided it was worth knocking out of the party. This brief entrance shows the care that was put into the visuals of Back from the Sewers. The artists drew a rad foot-first inverted high jump, a hilarious squashed-by-a-boulder sprite, bug eyes when slipping down a slope, and more. The turtles have a lot more charm and life to them this time around.
The level design has improved too, with tiered level paths being a big part of this game. Stages have a bit of verticality early on, but it's just a higher platform and a lower level like some of the arcade games. Later on, the third world features a construction site that will have you climbing girders to a third story, and the fifth world employs loads of floating platforms in the sky, which becomes an impressive maze that you can navigate however you'd like. It becomes a bit repetitive, but it's a welcome change from walking a simple left-to-right path.
Fall of the Foot Clan was Kirby-levels of easy, but the bosses here really put up a fight, making Back from the Sewers much more of a challenge. Thankfully, health isn't too hard to find, with bonus levels after each Stage is finished giving you an opportunity to grab as much pizza as possible within a set amount of time.
You'll also find the funniest part of this game once or twice in each level: A Foot Soldier pizza delivery guy. I don't know what this person's deal is, but he's just hanging out holding a pizza box. Not moving, not attacking. Just frozen, paralyzed, waiting for you to kill him and steal his lunch.