Ah yes, welcome to my first real entry on this website. Today I'm going to be reviewing the first Ninja Turtles game on the NES.

Granted it's been many years since I last saw the 1987 cartoon, please bear with me if I make any mistakes.
Konami released this game around the same time the classic arcade game was released. Unlike it, it was a 2D platform game that had overhead combat segments and the action sequences. This game sold four million copies and won Nintendo Power's Game of the Year award for the NES in 1989. Now, my main issue right away is how many liberties the game took with the Turtles licence. None of the major villains besides Bebop, Rocksteady and Shredder appear. There were multiple cheap shots in the game.

The story is that the Turtles are trying to get a hold of the transformation gun to change Splinter back to his human form, and Shredder has it. He orders Bebop and Rocksteady to kidnap April O'Neill. Now we're off to save her and get the gun back.

All four turtles were playable, and it seems Konami really messed up balancing them. Leonardo had his katana and had decent range and acceptable power. Raphael had sais and had the worst range and power. Michaelangelo had okay range but unimpressive power. Donatello, however, boasted excellent range and power.

There are a few other weapons to use in the game. A boomerang, a shuriken, three shurikens and a scroll. The boomerang works as you expect it to be, the shuriken travels in a straight path, the three shurikens travel in a spread-out fashion, and the scroll summons a damaging wave of energy that deals massive damage to enemies in its path. There's an invincibility pickup that will cause your turtle to attack wildly, destroying enemies in one hit.

Now for the main part of the game, where it all falls flat - the gameplay. The game is way too difficult in some places, and I'm not sure if they balanced the game too well. There are six levels in the game, and I'll go in-depth on each level. Before I forget, you don't recover any health from beating a level. Enemies respawn if you so much as scroll a couple pixels away, and the enemy groups also randomly change.

Level 1 - The first level introduces us to a steamroller that will squash your turtles, one-shotting them. The bad thing is sometimes it shows up, other times it doesn't. As mentioned in the story above, April has been kidnapped. Now, if you lose a turtle here, the game lies to you as there's no extra turtle rescue in this level. Bebop serves as the midboss, whereas Rocksteady serves as the main boss of the level. I think everyone knows the trick on defeating him by now.

Level 2 - Ah yes, the dam. This was the bane of many players back in the day, and for a reason. The Foot Clan planted eight bombs underwater, and if they go off, it's game over, regardless of how many turtles you had remaining. The swimming controls aren't the best and it's easy to be pulled by the kelp or electrocuted by the seaweed. I'm not sure how the seaweed could be electrical but oh well. Once you disarm the last bomb, you'll watch a cutscene where Shredder taunts the turtles that he has kidnapped Shredder.

Level 3 - This takes place in the city. After hearing Splinter has been kidnapped, the turtles have to save him. The turtle van can shoot missiles to destroy steamrollers and barricades. By here, the jumping issues become much more pronounced because you have to make pixel perfect jumps to avoid being washed away by the currents or falling off a building. This is the first level where the game breaking Scroll weapon appears. You fight Mecha Turtle at the end of the level, who's a palette swap of the turtles, followed by some jetpack-wearing enemy who I don't even recognize from the show.

Level 4 - This level takes place on the Foot Clan's Air base. The blimp is guarded by a Giant Mouser, and along the way there's hatches that will lead you the way. There's molten lava that will destroy your turtle if you so much as step a toe into it. There's also a full pizza in hatch #18 where it's blocked by a sarcophagus-style spiked wall that will kill you in one hit. Whether it was a troll move by the developers or not may never be known. In the same hatch, you face a giant Mouser who can be exploited by pressing start at the right frame.

Level 5 - It's dark outside, and you're at an abandoned warehouse that was taken over by the Foot Clan. Now, this level has one of the hardest enemies in the game there - porcupines. I still don't remember that from the show where they shoot damaging quills at you that deals about a quarter of your energy. The boss of this level is the Technodrome itself. It has a chance of appearing in one of the three tunnels at the end. If you can't find it in one of the tunnels, you'll have a long trek back outside for you. Any of its attacks will deals massive damage to you. The scroll again makes quick work on the boss.

Level 6 - The final level takes place in the Technodrome itself. Keep in mind there's no checkpoints whatsoever in this level. If you die near or at the boss, you're going back to the start of the level. Laser soldiers are annoying to face because of how much straight up damage they do against you. There are three sections in the Technodrome, designated by colours, all while facing the most powerful foes you've faced. After all that work, you go face-to-face Shredder, and sadly, he's the easiest boss in the game. The scroll weapon knocks him back quite a bit, and if you stay on the right platform, he won't be able to do anything against you.

With that said, the gameplay is really unforgiving. Pizza power ups are scarce, after losing all of your turtles, you're only allowed to continue twice. The controls feel stiff at times, and the hitboxes sometimes aren't exactly accurate on both enemies and turtles. Remember what I said about the jumping precision? It's worse because of the floaty jumps, and steering them isn't too easy.

The enemy selection is also absurd, to say the very least. Besides Foot Soldiers and Mousers, I don't remember a single enemy who originated from the show. Some of the worst enemies, as I mentioned are the mutant porcupines and jetpack soldiers.
Overall: D+ It tries to capture the spirit of the Turtles series, but fails miserably in each way. Age has not been kind to the game either, as people like myself have been more critical of the game's flaws years after it was released.

Thank you for reading!