Review #348: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Arcade Game

 Turtle soup.

 Usually, Arcade Games had to be gimped in order to be ported to home consoles, even the SNES suffered from this, Final Fight's SNES port lost a character and a couple of levels, not to mention the mandatory graphical downgrade. Interestingly, TMNT's NES port actually features extra content not found in the arcade version, as well as a couple of tweaks that make it more than a simple port.

 The story and gameplay remain the same, Splinter and April have been kidnapped and you, as one of the four turtles, must treck through Manhattan in order to rescue them. You can punch, jump and jump-kick your way through the game, featuring very simple mechanics. But the first thing that you'll notice is that this time around attacks actually have some weight behind them, attacks feel more meaty and less floaty than on the Arcade version, which does make a rather noticeable difference on how the game feels. And this time around you can actually pick your character, so now I can actually choose to be Leonardo instead of being forced to play as Leonardo.

 While graphical fidelity has been lost, as expected, the game more than makes up for that in the form of a couple of new levels and new bosses. Every common enemy type made it in, and while they come in fewer numbers, they feel a bit tougher. If you are playing by yourself you will need to get good at the game, continues are limited, and losing all your lives means going back to the start of the level. To be honest, I think the game hasn't aged very well, and 'getting good' at it isn't very worth it.

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 - The Arcade Game manages to be a slightly better game than the Arcade original thanks to the improved physics and the extra levels, but it's still a rather dull game that's best enjoyed by hardcore fans of the Turtles or beat'em up games.
 4.5 out of 10