Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (arcade)


 * This article is about the arcade game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. For information on the NES game with the same name, see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES game).

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an arcade game produced by Konami in 1989. It is a scrolling fighting game based on the popular comic and television cartoon of the same name. As with all merchandise relating to the Ninja Turtles, the name of this game was altered to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK, due to censorship issues involving the word "ninja."

The player chooses from one of the four Ninja Turtles: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael. After Shredder kidnaps the turtles' friend April O'Neil and their mentor Splinter, they must give chase, save their comrades and defeat their nemeses.

Controls
To perform a special attack, players press the “jump” and “attack” buttons simultaneously. This attack can kill foot soldiers in one hit and cause major damage to other enemies, including bosses. Using this attack won’t cause the Turtles to lose energy so the player can use this as many times as he like.

The throw attack is automatic. The Turtles can only throw foot soldiers by extending their weapons and tossing them overhead killing the soldiers instantly. Donatello can throw a foot soldier easily because his bo staff extends for long distances. Michelangelo takes the most time because his nunchuks are very small.

Difficulty: If four people play all four Turtles, the game will be at its maximum difficulty. There are more foot soldiers to fight, more hazards, and the bosses are more stronger than a solo player faces.

Enemies
The majority of the enemies the Turtles must face are the Foot soldiers. They wear a different colored uniform depending on what weapon they have. Below is a complete of list of enemies from the arcade version:

Foot soldiers:''
 * Purple: They are the most common enemy in the game. They can either be either unarmed or carry weapons such as spear or a missile. Occasionally, they hide in the background and throw a small stick of dynamite at the Turtles before coming in and fighting them in hand-to-hand combat. Unarmed soldiers usually jump-kick their way onto the screen, and they can punch the Turtles and grab them by the shoulders causing the Turtles to lose their energy. Players must wiggle the joystick and hit the buttons to free themselves. Spear soldiers first appear in the “Parking Garage” level, and are possibly the hardest normal enemy in the game. They attack by either jabbing the Turtles up close or by throwing them at a great distance. They don’t throw the spear too often. When a spear soldier throws it, he becomes an unarmed soldier. Unfortunately, there is no way to deflect the spear. The missile soldiers only appear on the Highway level. They carry a missile over their head and aim for the Turtles by throwing them causing major damage. After that, they become unarmed foot soldiers.


 * White: These soldiers are either armed with knives or a katana. The knife soldiers have an unlimited number of knives and they can either throw them across the screen or stab the Turtles from up close. The knives can be deflected. The katana soldiers either slash the Turtles or perform an aerial attack (jumping up and landing down with a slash). The aerial attack isn’t used often. Overall, the white soldiers are a common enemy in the game.


 * Orange: These soldiers are either armed with shuriken (ninja stars) or starting in the “Parking Garage” level, a machine gun. The ninja star soldiers are easy to kill and their stars can be deflected. The machine gun soldiers are harder. They shoot a spray of bullets at a good distance. Also, they gun-butt the Turtles from up close. The best away to kill these types of soldiers is to jump-kick or use a special attack. Overall, these soldiers are fairly common.


 * Yellow: These soldiers are always armed with boomerangs. They throw a boomerang at a long distance and must stand still to catch it. The boomerangs can be deflected like the ninja stars and the knives. They can also use hand-to-hand combat from up close. The frequency of these soldiers is moderate.


 * Light Purple: These soldiers always carry a sledgehammer. Even though they are slow, their attack can cause major damage to the Turtles. Luckily, if they miss, they take a second to lift their hammers up and attack again. Attacks such as a throw or one-hit special are effective on them. They don’t appear too often in the game.


 * Pink: These soldiers mainly appear on the Skateboarding stage but they make a tiny cameo in the Warehouse stage. They carry a green machine gun similar to the Orange ones or a fan. The Fan soldiers attack by sending out three waves at the Turtles from a distance. The Turtles should come up close to kill these kinds of soldiers.

Other enemies: Roadkill Rodney: These enemies appear by drilling themselves up from the ground. They again appear in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. They have the same two attacks: laser guns and an electric lasso. The electric lasso stuns them for a short period of time slowly taking away their energy so the Turtles have to hit the buttons and the joystick as fast as possible to let go. In the Turtles in Time, the electric lasso takes away half the Turtles’ energy. They take more hits to be defeated than a foot soldier. Mousers: The Mousers are created by Baxter Stockman. They appear in the Sewers and Factory levels. They only have one attack: bite the Turtles by latching onto their arms and slowly taking away their energy. The Turtles can let go of an attacking Mouser by pressing the buttons and wiggling the joystick as fast as possible. They can be defeated in one hit. There’s also an upgraded version (slightly more powerful) released from a machine driven by Baxter Stockman and they still can be defeated in one hit. Laser Bugs: They only appear in the Factory stage as a mini-boss. Their only attack is to shoot lasers all over on the Turtles. Since they are mainly in the air, it’s best for the Turtles to use aerial attacks on them.

Artillery Mechanism: These mechanisms appear in the Factory and Technodrome levels. They move up and down firing a constant barrage of lasers at the Turtles. The Turtles should jump behind the mechanisms and attack it until it turns red (deactivated). Helicopters: The foot soldiers control these only in the Skateboarding Level. They come in two forms: either by shooting a spray of bullets or dropping bombs from the compartment. The bomb-dropping choppers cause major damage than the machine gun choppers. The Turtles should act fast and use mainly aerial attacks or their special attack.

Levels
The Apartment - Boss: Rocksteady The player starts the game with the Turtles in a burning building. Their objective is to rescue April O'Neil from the fire and bring her to safety. The Turtles encounter Foot Soldiers from both sides of the hallway. Some Purple Foot Soldiers appear by breaking down doors, while others come out from the elevaor. The trap that the Turtles must avoid are the big cannon balls that fall down the stairs. They will lose some energy if they get hit. With four players playing, the Turtles must watch out for flames falling from the ceiling (unlike a solo player encountering the cannon ball trap only). At the entrance to April's room, the Turtles fight a few Roadkill Rodneys before entering. In the room, the Turtles battle some more Foot soldiers including the Orange ones with machine guns. A drill appears in the room, and coming out of the drill is Rocksteady. Rocksteady attacks the Turtles by shooting bullets at them in all directions including the air. He also kicks the Turtles from up close and also body checks the Turtles (that's when he puts away his gun and charges across the room). After Rocksteady is defeated, Shredder appears and kidnaps April and the Turtles follow them by jumping out of a window.

The Alleyway - Boss: Bebop

The Sewers - Boss: Baxter Stockman

The Snowfield - Boss: Tora Note: This level is not present in the arcade version.

The Parking Garage - Bosses: Rocksteady and Bebop (arcade) or mutant Baxter Stockman (consoles)

The Freeway and Skateboard Speedway (No Boss)

The Factory - Boss: Granitor

The Dojo - Boss: Shogun Note: This level is not present in the arcade version.

The Technodrome - Bosses: General Tragg, Krang's robot, and Shredder clone

Ports
This game was ported to the NES and the Atari ST under the title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game due to the fact that an unrelated game titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had already been released on these systems. These ports of the arcade game included two new levels for the benefit of home players, as well as altered graphics to include advertisements for Pizza Hut. The game was also ported to the Commodore 64, the PC, the Amiga, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and the Amstrad CPC. However, it was the NES version that became extremely popular with game players, and was followed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project for the NES in 1990 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time for the SNES in 1992''. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters'' also came out on the SNES as well as NES & Sega Genesis.

The original game was later ported as an unlockable extra in the multiconsole game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus, but with different music and most of the voice clips edited out.