The general plot should sound quite familiar by now. Despite the many other memorable, fantastic games released around it, it's arguable that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the one that is today most fondly remembered as well as the one that has aged most generously. But 1989 would usher in a golden age of beat-em-ups, with Golden Axe being amazingly successful, DJ Boy truly bringing hip-hop to the kids and Final Fight right around the corner. In the summer of 1989, Konami themselves had already released Crime Fighters and Special Project Y, both of which were mediocre at best. Even though the release of Double Dragon in 1987 opened the doors to hundreds of brawling action games, few attempted to move the genre forward and over just two years, it was by that point getting stale. The beat-em-up genre would see something of a resurgence in 1989. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn't enter the market without some fierce competition either. There was no mistaking who, what or where players would find themselves in this game, everything was tailor made for the fans in order to give them the best experience possible with the foursome.
It was released several months later in Japan, and was the first TMNT affiliated product to actually bear its original name there.Ĭontrasting the NES's somewhat inconsistent portrayal and daunting difficulty, the arcade game was stylistically grandiose, featuring visuals, music and locations right out of the 1987 cartoon series in a beat-em-up that perfectly fit the heroes in a half shell. The aptly titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles allowed players to take control of the four mutant teenagers at the same time, leading to awesome mayhem and lifelong memories. Finally, the graphics, especially in the arcade version, are standouts of the era and actually still hold up pretty well today.In October of 1989 across all arcades in North America and Europe, the game that would solidify Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles's place in gaming and set the standard for the beat-em-up genre going forward was released. The Turtles have different character stats but they all feel like viable options to play as. The combat feels amazing, which is impressive since there's only really two buttons to press. The music is phenomenal, as it's got an upbeat tempo that encourages players to keep churning through the waves of enemies. The arcade cabinet let up to four people pump quarter after quarter into the machine to take the Turtles on a beat 'em up adventure through time and space.Įverything about this game is firing on all cylinders.
Turtles in Time is the quintessential video game experience for the TMNT franchise. Not only is Turtles in Time the greatest TMNT game of all time, it is also one of the greatest arcade games of all time. 15 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: TURTLES IN TIME RE-SHELLED
The following list draws from the 30 plus year history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise to chronicle all the games, from worst to best. Each of these brands tried their best to capture the spirit of what makes TMNT such a special and long lasting franchise beloved by fans young and old.
As of today, the powerhouse Activision has the license to create new Turtles games. Then there was a brief interlude when Ubisoft was given the reigns to develop TMNT games. The TMNT games have gone through three major eras as of today: First was the Konami era, as Konami was responsible for early classics like Turtles in Time. RELATED: Teenage Mutant CRINGY Turtles: 16 Cringiest Moments Of The TMNT Trilogy Another key quality to a successful TMNT game is to differentiate the four pizza eating Turtles, as the best games give each character different skills and stats, while the worst games make each of them mere clones of each other. The best of them gives players satisfying combat as they tear through legions of the Foot Clan and other enemies. There have been TMNT party games, dungeon crawlers, and even Metroidvania (a genre of gaming that's basically a mixture of the classic games Metroid and Castlevania) style games. Many of these games are in the beat 'em up genre, but some game companies took more exotic routes. The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game premiered on the original Nintendo console in 1989.