This game, released in the arcades was on of the first TMNT games that made full use of the horizontal scrolling fighting genre. The storyline is there's a fire in April 'O Neill's apartment building, go through level 1 but Shredder captures April and it's up to you to save April & destroy the technodrome. There were 8 levels in this game and here is a description of the levels:
Level 1: April's apartment building. Boss: Rocksteady
Level 2: The Streets. Boss: Bebop
Level 3: Sewers. Boss: Baxter Stockman
Level 4: Car Park. Boss: Bebop & Rocksteady
Level 5: Road to Secret Factory. No Boss
Level 6: Skateboarding on Highway. No Boss
Level 7: Secret Factory. Boss: Whatshisname(some Rock soldier General)
Level 8: Technodrome. Bosses: General Tragg, then Krang, lastly Shredder.
GRAPHICS: The graphics definetely convey the feel of the cartoon with the bright colours of the turtles and background. So it's very nice-looking. The fire in the apartment is suitably animated, and the stand-out colours easily differentiate from the various types of Foot Soldiers. However, the background of the Secret Factory bucks the trend and looks rather dull-looking. Shredder, when you face him, does not have the best use of colours & design in relation to what he looks like in the cartoon. GRAPHICS: 4/5
GAMEPLAY: A very simple control system, 1 button to jump and 1 to strike. You can easily go from striking down one Foot soldier to fly-kicking another. You can also strike with your weapon in mid-air. There's real good fluidity in the moves, but more moves would be desired. GAMEPLAY: 4/5
SOUND: The sound is excellent most times from the game. The speech voices taken from the cartoon like Shredder's laugh, his "i dine on turtle soup" quote and the robotic unicycles "do not resist us". There's also sondbites from General Traag, Bebop, Rocksteady, Splinter & Krang (which doesn't sound like the proper voice as is Splinter's). The sounds really add to the game with robootic unicycles clanking against your attacks, and the transport module drilling upwards into April's apartment. What's great about the sound is they managed to fit in the actual theme song complete with the singers and sounds really clear. There's just a few negatives about the sound like the speech for when a turtle falls into a manhole(talks too quick)"duh, who switched the lights out!". SOUND: 5/5
MUSIC: The music is very good in this game. Some are from the cartoon(like Car Park level & Krang's boss music) which are the best in the game along with level 1 & 2 music. The music is exciting and fast tempo. MUSIC: 4/5
LONGEVITY: This game is hard to complete if you have a limited number of lives like 5 or 10. The controls aren't frustrating so you would at least have a few go's at it. But like these type of games, once you complete it, there's nothing new to learn or look forward to, but it deserves another replay as it's a very good game, and it wouldn't hurt. LONGEVITY: 3/5
OVERALL: The TMNT arcade game is a monumental game for this franchise and really is one of the most memorable and best fighting scrolling games with great sound, catchy music, satisfying gameplay, colourful lovely graphics and of reasonable length. TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES(ARCADE) GETS A: 4/5 RATING.
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