Game Info

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Year of Release: 1991

Game Review & Impressions

When it was released in 1989, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles really raised the bar in terms of coinop production values. The cartoon show was already a massive success, and Konami's nextlevel graphics and audio, not to mention a cabinet supporting up to 4 players simultaneously, proved to be a massive hit for the heroes in a halfshell.

Fast forward a couple of years, and the sequel, TMNT: Turtles in Time, was released. The Turtles must do battle with Krang and Shredder once again, and as with its predecessor, you'll be beating the crap out of legions of Foot Clan goons and other adversaries across a series of sideways scrolling levels. In all honesty, very little has changed the game has changed very little from the original in pure gameplay terms, although if you have a winning formula, which Konami obviously did, it makes no sense to change it.

This isn't to say that there aren't improvements, however. Konami added a bunch of extra fighting moves to the Turtle's repertoire, including dashing, shoulder barges and slide kicks, and there's an also an awesome ability where you can spin hapless bad guys around and toss them into the screen, complete with sprite scaling effect.

The overall presentation, including artwork, animation and sound design, have all received upgrades. The original TMNT set the standard for 2D animation when it came out in 1989, but Turtles in TIme really ups the ante here. It wasn't until I was freezeframing through the footage after recording this video that I truly appreciated just how good the artwork really was; there's so much detail, particularly the character's facial expressions, that you really feel you're experiencing an episode of the show, rather than a video game.

Personally, I think Turtles in Time is a great game. It's a step up over the original, although somewhat curiously, I get the impression it's overlooked. TMNT comes up in discussion frequently when discussing classic arcade beat 'em ups, but for whatever reason, Turtles in Time doesn't Whenever I see this game mentioned, it's more often than not in the context of the SNES version, rather than the coinop, but as to why, I really couldn't say. All I can say is, if you were a fan of the original game then go check out Turtles in Time it's a worthy sequel with some some truly stunning animation for the time, another quality production from Konami's coinop division.

Information & Trivia


Video Notes


Related Longplays & Videos


Chapters

00:00 Attract mode
00:35 Stage 1: Big Apple, 3 AM
03:50 Stage 2: Alleycat Blues
07:20 Stage 3: Sewer Surfin'
10:39: Stage 4: Prehistoric Turtlesauras
15:59 Stage 5: Skull and Crossbones
22:21 Stage 6: Bury my Shell at Wounded Knee
29:43 Stage 7: Neon NightRiders
33:42 Stage 8: Starbase Where no Turtle Has Gone Before
43:41Stage 9: Technodrome The Final ShellShock
46:15 Ending
48:54 Game Over

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