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The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game proved to be extremely successful in 1990. In fact, it was the highest-grossing arcade game in the United States that year. In our opinion, it still holds up as a solid beat ’em up. It may not be the most in depth but the sprite work is good, it’s colorful, the gameplay is fun, and it can be enjoyed with friends. The game was ported to the NES under the title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game in order to avoid confusion with the previous and horrible NES game simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Developed and published by Konami, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in January, 1991. It was re-released as part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection in 2022. For this review, we played the version in the collection for PC.
The story is unchanged as far as we could tell. Shredder kidnaps April O’Neil and Splinter and it’s up to the Turtles to defeat Shredder and the Foot Clan and save their friends. Compared to its arcade counterpart, Turtles II does feature some new content but also some changes. For one thing, this only supports up to two players as opposed to the arcade game which supports up to four. The voice acting has been stripped out, the presentation isn’t as detailed, it’s slower paced, and most of the original levels were extended, among some other things. On the plus side, Turtles II offers two new levels with new enemies and bosses. It can also be a very challenging game and the release in the Cowabunga Collection makes it a bit more accessible. You can select the starting level, enable God Mode and fancy jump kicks, give yourself extra lives and rewind the gameplay at the press of a button.
Just like the arcade game, you start by selecting one of the four turtles; Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. They each wield their own unique weapons and you can move them left and right and towards and away from the screen. Most of the mechanics from the arcade game have been carried over and it’s an easy game to pick up and play. Each level has you going from area to area, defeating enemies. You can attack, perform a special attack, and jump. Enemies will come from the backgrounds and off-screen and you’re typically outnumbered most of the time. While the game may be easy to jump into, it can be very challenging so repeated playthroughs will be required to truly master it.
Turtles II did take us significantly longer to beat than the arcade game and this is due to a few reasons. As mentioned before, it’s slower paced and most of the original levels have been extended. Plus the two new levels added in. While we appreciate the additional content, we do think some levels kind of drag on. Just like the arcade game, there’s not a whole of lot of depth here and Turtles II does feel simplified to an extent. You push buttons to attack and must try to avoid enemy attacks. Lose all your lives and you are given the option to consume a continue to keep going. Use up all your continues and it’s game over. There’s no traditional combos or score multipliers or anything like that. In fact, the scoring system simply tracks how many enemies you’ve defeated and earning enough points does reward you with an extra life. So with the slower paced gameplay, new and extended levels, and with how many enemies there are in general, we feel the game does drag on. While the arcade game can be beaten in under a half hour, Turtles II can take up to an hour or longer to beat.
Another thing to note is the game’s challenge. Turtles II can be brutal. We can’t say it’s as relentless as the arcade game but it is challenging nonetheless. However, compared to the arcade game, the Turtles seem to be able to withstand more hits before dying here and some enemies are easier to deal with, at least in our experience. But with the new and extended levels, there’s simply more dangers to worry about. Also, pizza, a pickup which replenishes health, seems to be scarce. The slower paced gameplay does give you a little more time to analyze situations and think but quick reaction times will go a long way and an additional player can make things easier.
The enemies present in the arcade game do make an appearance here along with new foes and bosses which are primarily present in the two new levels, Snowy Central Park and Shogun’s Hideout. Almost all the bosses from the arcade game are here with the exception of the Bebop and Rocksteady boss which has been replaced by Baxter Stockman in fly form. We are happy to say the bosses feel a little less cheap here than those in the arcade release and we know some can be exploited. Otherwise, jump kicks and hit and run seem to be the best strategies for taking them down in our experience.
While the action may not get as intense or hectic as the arcade game, it’s still beneficial to know what you’ll be up against beforehand. As mentioned before, Turtles II is challenging and repeated playthroughs will be required to truly master it. The original levels from the arcade release have been extended but nothing significant has been changed in regards to their design. With more areas to traverse, they just take longer to finish. All the hazards from the arcade release are here along with some new dangers that come with the new levels. Considering the story is pretty barebones, we can’t really tell you why the Turtles need to go through Central Park or to Shogun’s Hideout in this release but the new levels are nice additions that simply result in more environmental variety.
Visually, I think Turtles II looks pretty good and the Cowabunga Collection allows the player to remove sprite flickering and slowdown. It obviously looks more watered down than the arcade game but the presentation is clean, the sprites look good, some backgrounds showcase parallax scrolling, and despite lacking the same amount of detail as the arcade release, the environments do look good. The original game featured notable product placement like Pizza Hut logos for example, however they have been removed in the release for the Cowabunga Collection. As for the audio, Turtles II sounds like what you would expect an NES game to sound like and the action is accompanied by some upbeat and catchy tunes. On the technical side, we did not encounter any issues.
Ultimately, we enjoyed Turtles II and think it’s a solid conversion or port of the arcade game. Despite some aspects feeling watered down, there was nothing else quite like it for home consoles at the time it released. At least in terms of Turtles video games and it’s certainly much better than the previous Turtles NES game. Turtles II may not be as good a reflection of the 1987 animated series as the arcade game but we feel it does retain the charm and fun. Even with the simplified aspects, it is fun to play and is definitely more enjoyable if you have someone to play with. However, with the new and extended levels, we felt the game dragged on and we did get a little burnt out well before reaching the end. Turtles II is also a very challenging game so combine that with its length and it should keep you occupied for a while.
We would recommend Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game. It’s a solid port and a fun and beat ’em up that’s easy to jump into. We also think the Cowabunga Collection is a great way to experience it. Although the game can be brutal, the Collection does allow you to alleviate some of the challenge so anyone should be able to beat it. Definitely check it out.