Two well-received entries that I've done lately have been on the NES and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Well, what could be better than COMBINING the two to create a bastard child of awesomeness? Practically nothing, I say!
- Firstly, the initial Turtles game is already covered pretty well on the web by the Angry Video Game Nerd. You can watch his video here. It was one of the first games I ever owned, and while I thought it was OK, it has a punishing difficulty level because of the poor play control.Also, as the Nerd points out, it has almost nothing to do with the series as a whole. You fight Shredder and the Technodrome toward the end of the game, and Rocksteady and Bebop at the start. The rest of your time is spent doing crap like fighting flaming men with some weapon called a "scroll" that no one on the show actually uses. Oh, and you also have to go through an insufferable water level where you defuse bombs, and every god damn thing on the screen can kill you.
- In contrast, Turtles II: The Arcade Game and Turtles III: The Manhattan Project are both excellent. At the time, Turtles II featured fresh-for-the-NES style arcade action, and a difficulty level that was tough, but not impossible.Turtles III was more of the same. It was a little bit easier overall, but still very playable, and each turtles now had their own special move, as opposed to the generic jump slash of the second game. You could also lift enemies with your weapon and toss them.
Both games also did a much, much better job of including characters and boss enemies from the show and movies. Specifically, the second one ended with a showdown with Krang and Shredder. The only quibble I have with both games, which is a small one, is that the distinctiveness weapons are taken away. Especially in two, all of the attacks are generic, regardless of the length of your weapon.
- This post is just about the NES games, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention some other games. Turtles IV (or whatever silly name it has) is great, and although it can be really easy, it's easily the best of the hack-and-slash Turtles games. Likewise, the actual arcade version of Turtles II is excellent.On the flip side, all of the fighting games stink. Steer far, far clear of them.
The Turtles in Time photo is from here. The picture at the top is from these neat entries on the Turtles.
