Ska du ta bilen till källen eller den lokala backen? Oavsett vilket även typ som väntar är du välkommen till någon av tankastationer. Om du betalar med CarPay får du dessutom bonus som kan lösa sin motormedel till fler skidresor. Hitta din namnsta session på tanka.se. Vi finns för dig som behöver tanka. TMNT 2. The arcade game. You may have Shredder double teamed, but he still has you outnumbered.
And welcome to Nestalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. Is it possible to be outnumbered when while you're being double teamed? Yeah, I mean that that was a little bit of a weird cause like being double teamed implies that there's two to one against you. Right, but I guess he has the whole entire foot clan.
Right. What are we talking about? The back of the box. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. The feet. Oh. Well, so here's what he they call they're called the foot clam because they have more toes than uh the ninja turtles. So they're they're bragging. They're like, Look at us. We have real feet. True feet. We we have feet. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. Turt turtles have three uh three fingers and three toes.
Is that the end of the episode? No comment? Yeah. Jeez. No comment. Rough crowd. We're it's fine. We're all stunned by that fact of turtles. They're saying double teamed on the back of the box because you can play this two play. at the same time and you know, take that is the preferred way to play any beat em up, right? It's like if there were two player, beat'em up, if it was four player, beat em up. If it's six player, beat em up. It's always best to play with the maximum number of players.
Uh on screen because that's the most chaos, that's the most uh button mashing satisfaction, that's the most like way to stay alive in the game because you don't have to deal with all six at the same time. You can have your friends help you out. And that was clearly the intention with uh the game that this is based on, which is of course the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game. Here on the NES, it is not a uh a sequel to the first NES game, which we
I I you know, I don't wanna say we were like harsh on it or whatever. We just weren't fans of it. Uh it certainly gets a b uh a worse rap, maybe, than uh we gave it, so I I think like in general, TMNT is a franchise we like and we wanna like these games and this one uh took the arcade game and brought it right to uh the NES with more levels and more boss fights and uh new features, so like who's to say that uh
the old adage of the arcade game always being better than the eight bit counterpart is true here. We're gonna give this a real shake. I didn't know that there were more levels, um I've I I've never been very good at this game. Uh a in the arcade. Uh I basically, you know, you put a couple quarters in. Uh, you and whoever you're playing with die pretty quickly and then you move on to another game. At least for me. I know that probably you guys and our target audience
uh w would would have spent more time at the arcade machine than me. Uh so I I just had no idea that that this was this had more stuff. Well, I'm probably coming at I also had no idea, but maybe for the opposite reason. I I I I'm sure I played this in the arcade'cause it's it's kinda just ubiquitous, but like I feel like I don't really remember it so much in the arcade, but I did play this as a kid.
This, I think the first TN T M T and then the one that I actually liked, which we I thought was maybe this one that we still didn't get to was uh it was the one where the second level is the surfing level. I used to love that. It's not this one, but me and my cousin used to play a lot of T M N T games
It's not Petal Token. No, it's TMNT. But this is one of the TMNT games I did play as a child, and I also never knew that this was like an expansion on the original game. I just thought this was a port.
It's worth mentioning and we'll get into it of course about the expansion part. I guess I'm just saying that like it has more than the original game, but it also could arguably have less, right? Like the the presentation here, if you've ever looked at the arcade game or played it, Uh it it feels like it's you know, a a direct adaptation of the very, very popular cartoon.
uh it's it's using that same art style and it's uh the the the cutscenes and the um uh pixel art are are doing that much better than the NES could hope to. So I think for me this is the one that like I like grabbed my eyes a lot at the arcade was like, whoa, this is basically the cartoon now as a video game. And regardless of how you feel about beat-em-ups, it's the same reason why like
the Simpsons, uh, arcade game and the X Men arcade game are like fondly remembered. Uh, not just because they're good beat'em ups, but because it's like it's taking the the art style of that thing that you like and the world of that thing that you like and making it into a fun little mindless
video game where like the the characters that uh you've come to expect uh all make appearances and uh you're just kind of like Okay, I died, time to put in another quarter to keep experiencing what's happening and that's no different here and whether you're playing as uh Donnie, Mikey, Raf, or Leo
Change it up with the weapon, but I've never thought about like, oh well, I I wanna use the bow staff or I wanna use the nunchucks. It's like, no, I just wanna play as my favorite ninja turtle and hopefully nobody else in my party uh you know picks the same. Yeah, you make a good point that I hadn't really thought of until right now, but the fact that it's pretty rare for an NES game to have a pixel art that is so one-to-one to its source.
Like even when something's based on, you know, a cartoon, I feel like a lot of times it's like this tiny little pixel that like you can like squint and imagine it's the same thing. Like J not even just on like an artistic level, on a on a technical level, like it's kind of impressive that this does that these do look just like the cartoon characters, even in this like pixel form. I I'm surprised that I never noticed that we don't see that quite as much.
Yeah, and when they try it ends up looking kind of awful. Yeah. But maybe T M N T is just like especially that eighties T M N T is just like the perfect level of like not realistic looking enough, cartoony enough that you can kinda make it out of a few pixels as well. It's also a pretty realistic uh Pizza Hut logo. One to one. Yeah, yeah. For sure, and I'm I don't know about you, but I'm craving some Pizza Hut right about now. Get a slice.
Right, so go to pizzahut.com and order your slice now. Use the promo code No no, we're not chilling like the game did. Uh and it's worth mentioning, the game was made by Konami, but they use the Ultra Games label. uh uh for the NES. And that was I think we might have talked about this once before, so I'll be brief about it, but that's the workaround for Nintendo of America's licensing rules, where they had like a certain out a number of games you could release.
And uh since Konami had hit that threshold, they were like, All right, we'll just open up another uh company and release the games under that. So uh Konami used Ultra Games as its like a additional kinda funny d you know, that they would do that for something as like I mean T M and T is Arguably at its hottest in nineteen ninety. The the movie, the live action movie where they wear the suits. Um which is still amazing and absolutely holds up.
Uh, that came out in March of nineteen ninety, so that's out and a huge success and was a big box office success. The cartoon is on season four, uh, so it's having a run. Merchandise is like all that stuff that you should have bought in nineteen ninety and kept it in the box is now worth thousands of dollars. Um, because you you know, of course you should have never played with your techno drome and you should have just kept it in the box. Uh just like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers too. It's like
Who was the freak who kept that shit in the box? Like guys, that stuff was meant to be played with like for real real. I don't know if you're I would have thought it would have been you, Mike. I feel like you have more boxes maybe that keeps it. You have more boxes of at least old video games than anyone I know.
That's true, but that was my mom. See, like the kids I I I would have thrown out all those things in a heartbeat. My mom was the one who was like smart enough to realize we should keep them. But I guess what I'm talking about is like th you know, there were some really nice TMNT sets. Uh you know, if the action figures themselves are worth good money too, but there were some real like playsets or uh larger vehicles that, you know, now in especially in the boxes are just like ridiculous numbers.
Uh same with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with the Zords if you have those giant uh Zords still in the boxes, but it's like Those things were meant to be like smashed into each other. You were supposed to take one figure and smash it into the other figure, not preserve them for your investment portfolio. You gotta buy two copies.
And the game starts off with um Shredder is back and he's kidnapped April. Uh what's new? Uh the turtles have to uh it's it's set up like scenes, uh which I guess further cartoon uh thing. But uh each scene is just a different setting and a different boss, and so you basically uh otherwise are just doing the same thing that you do in any particular beat'em up where uh you walk for a little bit, encounter a bunch of enemies
take down all enemies and suddenly you're allowed to start scrolling again. Uh do we wanna talk to me? Remind me uh like what April does. For the t like is is she like their collective girlfriend? Like is it like a in this in this iteration, right? And then one of'em she is the like the love interest. Well yeah, but one of them is like crushing on her the whole time and it's different in the in the Nickelodeon version than the
Okay, so like yeah let let's remove the the the the romantic entanglement. Uh like let's just say that th this is like a works b a workplace. Like what what what does she do for the team? And she's just there too. She's got the scoop. She can tell them where you know, where what and uh things are happening in the city. Yeah. Also she's like a journalist.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, she's like the lowest lane to Clark Kent, you know, i is my is my dialectic Clark Kent. D I I don't know as much about the uh the eighties cartoon but I that's that was always my understanding of it. And you know as far as like any uh any any romance between April and the Turtles, like it is possible Sean to just also like want to save your friend. Oh I Like if you were if you were kidnapped
I would hope that I would be able to s rescue you. I probably not successfully, but I would try to. And I would hope that the news wouldn't cover it as, you know, host of nostalgia Michael uh Esposito tries to rescue his lover, Sean. I've never yeah, I've never been in a situation where I was trying to rescue someone that I wasn't in a romantic relationship.
Right. Well I mean it's true though. You're I get I get it. Like video games have trained us that you're rescuing um a princess with the expectation that you're gonna get a fucking kiss at the end. See, but i and it's funny because like is it ever implied in all in like most of these games that like you're gonna get a kiss? Like Mario does Mario get a kiss? He does. He does. Okay, does does Link?
Uh that turns out that like Princess Peach is actually like his aunt. Right. Sister, actually. Same thing. Yeah. Uh, we're getting so you're thinking of Star Wars. It's okay to get off topic, uh, but if you want me to get us back on topic I guess this is, you know, since I mentioned that you're not necessarily playing uh this game with a strategy in mind of like, I'm I'm gotta use the bow staff, right? You're playing with your favorite turtle. Who'd you pick?
Uh I picked Leo because that was the first option. I don't really have any like you you you you you are the turtle guy. I've never really Okay, hold on. Like there was no wrong answer and then you chose Leo.'Cause I was gonna say I think it is maybe a boring answer, but I also pick Leo. I I just like swords and I like blue. So I always I always used to pick Leo.
Yeah. I don't have any attachment to these guys. I I always did like see And this is maybe where we'll get into uh like the gameplay and the differences of I always liked in some of these TMNT games trying out with the swords and trying and then like trying the bow staff and like seeing what what different moves do they have based on uh you know based on their weapon. And uh there's not that many moves in this game.
Yeah. There's a tag. So it like doesn't feel like it matters too much. Now I will say I'm saying this right now, admittedly, in this playthrough I just played as Leo the whole time. I I guess I'm making some assumptions here about playing as Donnie or Mikey or whoever. But It just doesn't feel like there's too much difference. So Sean was gonna cover it and he got fifty percent of the way there. There's attack and there's jumping. Attack and jump kick.
Hm. Right. So uh that is the extent of the game and that is the extent of the Ninja Turtles personalities, um, at least in terms of inputs that you can do. the the only change up between them is is that it it isn't just a uh a pixel art weapon. The weapon actually does impact uh their reach and how fast they can attack. So As you can imagine, it is a pretty simple formula of Donatello with the staff has the longest reach, but it is the slowest attack.
And uh Raf has the uh uh shortest reach with the uh I think I'm saying this right, the size? Those forks. Yeah. I think I'm saying this right. Dinner forks. Um and And it is the fastest uh attack though in the game, so you can you know, y if you miss it's kinda like whatever, you can go back to attacking, whereas If you miss with Donny, uh you know, especially in the later stages, some of those uh more pesky enemies will start to uh be able to barrage.
But that's like it and so that's kinda strange, right? Like that that this is the whole personification of the turtle's personality. Arguably the most interesting part about the show is the four turtles and this is how they get covered and Meanwhile, like the all the enemies have various attack pools and all the bosses have uh you know, like flavors specific to them. Uh you know, like I'm thinking about, um
Rocksteady and his charge at you and um Baxter and uh you fight Baxter twice in this one or is that the arcade? I think you fight him twice in this one. What once in the machine and then once as
Um and and you know, so like i they're they're playing into those yeah, they're playing into those. The fly is pretty later in the game, but the the um the machine one where he's just like teleporting above the ground and he has those annoying Ah, I wish I knew the name of those guys, but they're like little pet dino things.
Uh those things are annoying. Yeah, those are annoying. Uh that's what I'm saying though. It's like, okay, cool. That's like that's some interesting stuff to both fight and take down while you feel pretty generic. Yeah, there's two things missing.
it for me that I feel like if one of them were there I'd be a little more okay with it. One is that there's no difference really other than the the minor one you mentioned between the turtles. So your character select doesn't really matter that much. And the other is that you don't
There's no evolution. There's no pickups of different weapons. There's you don't learn another move at any point during this game. And like I don't need that in every game, but like not having either of those things in this game being, you know, kinda long for a beat'em up, uh is to me is is is a little hard to forgive because it does get just so samey. There's only one thing you can do. I mean yes, you can jump kick and you can swing. But like I don't know.
Th there was another button, right? Like wasn't there like attack and kick or something or was it all just one attack? I only remember one attack too. Uh I I will look that up for us, but I I only remember one. Um And and I'm I think I'm like was came into this conflating it with other NES T M and T games where there's like
Everyone has like just one little super attack where like someone did like a s I think Leo did like a spin with both his swords out at his side and like Yeah. Or like a grab like they're c they're rafted like he rolled into a ball and like a tet whatever. but it's just having nothing like that at all it just makes it feel like these are just ninja turtles pasted over generic Video game fighters.
I mean it's even worse when you start to realize that the jump kick is better than uh than the regular attack too. So now you're just forced to be like jump kicking everywhere you go and now you're not even behaving like not even using the unique weapon. Right. So that sucks, but uh confirming that the arcade one for this one was just the jump and attack. Um, which is fine, you know, that's that's what we get. Um
But thinking about like the rest of the game, right? Like the the the not being the turtle, just like the world and all that. Do do don't they do a good job of making it like the T M and T world and not like the ninja turtles are in Forget about the fact that the Foot Clan's everywhere, but that like just the world itself and the the storyline and everything, it feels like a
a a Saturday morning cartoon and not just like, oh, they've been transported to some convenient NES video game like we've seen with some other franchises. Well I can definitely tell that they're that they're doing their best to sort of Uh create the same sort of landscapes as the arcade version. Like I I mean it looks like
a an eight bit version of of those backgrounds. So uh aside from all the Pizza Hut logos, which I assume were also in that game, um the it it just has that like beat'em up vibe. Yeah, in like the The art, the style, like the colors, everything. You're right, it does kind of remind me of I mean not even kind of. It does look like in the same way we said that the the sprites
look like a a decent translation of the cartoon characters. Like yeah, it looks like the backgrounds of the cartoons. It look even the like city, the skyline in the back there, which I don't remember exactly how it was the cartoon, but I think there was always just kinda like A generic New York City skyline like pasted in the back of the you know, background of things and stuff. Like it it looks like it looks like the animation.
Yeah, and so I think it's kinda like forget about the fact that the turtles are kinda lame, you're still like if you're buying this game for the the T M N T world and to to play in it, I think they're doing a great job uh of Uh yeah. But Sean, the Pizza Hut thing, if if you want to get into it for a minute, uh it it it was a uh it was a pretty big deal for this NES game because it's even uh advertised on the box. The box calls out that the game comes with a free personal pan pizza.
Uh Oh shit. So you got it there was a coupon. So you you had there was like a cutout? Yeah. Yeah. There was a cou No it was in the box. There was a personal pan pizza in the box. It was one of those like yeah, big box games. Uh you had to Yeah. Uh but yes, you could get a um Uh a Pizza Hut Pizza personal pan. I don't know like is that like is that actually any big or is like Pizza Hut Pizza scaled down. I've never had Pizza Hut, I've only had Domino.
Um, I'd say it's probably about the same size as like a personal Domino's pizza. Okay. So yeah, not a full size pizza by any means, but uh I think we talked about this when we were talking about still value. Definitely added value.
Okay. And when we were talking about the Noid Uh on that episode I was calling out that like Domino's fulfills a a different niche and I'm sure Pizza Hut does the same fulfills the same need that Domino's does where it's like it's not at risk of taking out, you know, Joe's pizza down the block, but it is competing with Domino's and likely um CC's and all that other stuff. It's a different I see to clarify this is a different niche. Because Pizza Hut was a sit down restaurant.
Oh interesting. Yeah, okay. That's a good call out. Maybe even for food that was pizza, there was like a like a little Not like it was kinda like a salad bar slash uh what do you call it when it's not just salad at a salad bar? Uh A buffet? And a pasto. Buffet. All right. There's kind of like a buffet vibe to it, so Yeah. I had some family dinners at Pizza Hut. They have like I I wish that it were true that they had like a section that was called Food That Is Pizza and Food That Isn't Pizza.
It's entirely possible. It's been a while. Now here's the part that sucks. The coupon wasn't just um inside the box. It was on the back of the manual. So you had to cut it out. Probably know a pain you could only understand years later when you're looking at your beautiful copy of the game and seeing a big hole. I'm sure that yeah the eleven year olds were like, Oh, is it gonna really reduce the collector's value of the
They should have just put it up printed it on the back of the cartridge. You gotta break the plastic off and bring it in. It removed The they removed the coupon after a certain amount of time because it did have an expiration as well. This wasn't a free personal pan pizza for as long as Pizza Hut remains open. It was until the end of nineteen ninety one. So you had a whole year to redeem it.
And so I wonder which print run is worth more. Is it the with the coupon run or the after without coupon run? Almost positively it's with coupon, with coupon not taken. Yeah, you you would you would think so. But I'm I'm trying to think there's like one weird there's one weird Xbox three sixty game where the greatest hits one is worth more or PS two game where the greatest hits game is worth more because they actually made less of them. God. Uh so that yeah.
You know, the the the original game just sold so many that's like, Yeah, time to put out a greatest hits and it just didn't sell as many and the game is artificially. Is this a promo for Metal Gear Solid or for whatever other Konami game we're gonna do? Yes, yes. Uh and Pizza Hut is not just a free pizza that you can redeem, it's also inside the game. Uh as Sean mentioned, uh blatant advertising. Uh the Pizza Hut signage is in the background as part of the city dressing and um
There are it's the only like business right that's ro operating in New York City. Well Shredder shut down everything else. Shredder has a Pizza Hut obligation. Yes. He's he's an he's a franchisee. Right. Well as a cheese shredder, you would imagine that he has a business uh implication in Pizza Hut. That's not why they call him the shredder? He's not shredding cheese? I never really knew. I mean I now that you mention it, like I I gotta make cause you know, T M N T being originally a parody
That's probably why they call him Sh. No, it's definitely not, but I appreciate you going along with the bit. Well so why do they call him Shredder? I it's funny how I've got sharp knives so definitively, but yeah, I actually don't know why I don't know the origin of I just remember a commercial for D M N T water to like water based toys, y uh
what what would you call like those super soakers? And uh and they were like, uh, you know, hey shredder, get wetter and they sprayed him with water And I was like, yeah. Uh and also just to show how on it I am today, I s I was looking up the origin of the shredder name and I just typed in Shredder on Google and I'm looking at pictures of Shredders, like paper shredders. I'm like really doing hard research, right?
Well, here's my hard reach research was just the AI overview, so always take with a green of salt. But uh named after TMNT co creator Kevin Eastman was inspired by the household cheese grater in the early nineteen eighties. Oh my god. And he originally called him the greater. Before people say inspired. Like it is inspired by the right.
I think Kevin Eastman had the same idea I had, which was like in middle school I remember thinking of like I should make a horror film where the uh the serial killer or whatever kills all of his people with a cheese grater.'Cause like could you imagine he's he has to go down on your skin and get to the bone and everything and like
I don't like that. So that's that's the Shredder. That's the Shredder. I can't believe that uh I so confidently came up with an origin story, dismissed it, and then found out it was true all in five minutes. I I did uh That's what you I did That's what you get me listening to nostalgia. I did once make a history of T M and T uh thirty fifth anniversary video, so I probably knew it then. Was that a school project?
No, it was a work project. Oh, okay. The TMNT Kawabunga collection did remove the Pizza Hut uh advertisements, Sean. So if you want a game free of advertisement, you can go play it on the Kawan. And it's just uh it's just generic pieces. Yeah, oh no, and they also added six additional attack buttons.
Wow. Yeah, not even a laugh. Come on. They all they all do the same thing. Yeah, six attack buttons, but they don't do anything different. He still just swings the bow staff or the size or size, that's what I was not dinner for. Um dinner fork. But you did say size. I did, I know. I was joking that I was trying to I got it. I can't do anything serious right now.
But everybody's did you guys okay we're gonna I'm gonna talk about the game. Yeah, because I was about to say everybody's here. Yeah. Everybody Everybody's hearing this. You got you got the Krang, you got Bebop and Rocksteady, uh you got uh made up characters like that uh The the snow level, uh whoever that guy was. He is not a real I was wondering he is not part of the canon. The snowplow is not a character from Teenage Mutant and Turtles.
Well I was specifically referring to the boss at the end of the stage, which uh apparently like he looks like he's friends with Bebop and Rocksteady. But um apparently his name is Torah and um he is only his only appearance is in this game. Torah. It's funny because
Like what other franchise has so many possible like obscure villains that you can tr choose from but like maybe they ran out somehow? I and on the other hand I don't think you shouldn't come up with original characters for your thing, but like they're trying to be so one to one with T M N T it's just surprising that they're like, and we'll make one original boss.
Right. The manual says'cause Shogun, uh, another uh boss later in the game who's also only canon in this particular game Uh they show up as these two infamous intergalactic bounty hunters are looking to tag team the turtles, which is weird because they don't. Uh th that you fight them individually.
Um Toro will test your skills in the radical new and never before scene three part one. That just rolls right off the tongue, right? Like he'll show up in scene three part one. It's like you couldn't just like Say the snow level, um, and then Shogun will shock your senses in scene six, uh, the entirety of The the one of a kind challenge that will change you from green to black and blue. They they paid people to write this shit.
I should go back to be a copywriter in nineteen ninety. If it honestly if it would be like a cheat code because they just would have no idea they would they wouldn't imagine that you could just tell them, actually we don't even need to write all this. Like you you could write less Just put the control scheme on the on one page and that's an insert. And so y those where those bosses show up is also the additional um
the additional add ons to the game. So it is not uh like a huge chunk. It's not like it's like a whole nother half of the game or whatever. It's just those particular things were added on. And I think that's interesting for two reasons. One, When you play it in the arcade enough And then you finally get the home port. Would you be like upset if it was just the same game? Like you kinda just didn't you just wanna bring it home?
Like were you expecting new content and new boss fights? Like did they need a selling point for this or could they have literally just been like, It's the game you love at the arcade now on the NES? Well, I guess b because you're not you're not like r required to put money into the machine anymore. You've you've front loaded your your your quarters when you bought the game, uh
Maybe it's just really short otherwise and they they just wanted you to think you got more value so they put they they they put some fluff in there. Um that's the only thing I can I wonder in the arcade game and stuff, do you have the same amount of lives and the same amount of continues and all that? Or did they make it a little easier on that point and which would which would then make the game feel shorter if they didn't add more?
You know, that is interesting because I d I did feel like I wouldn't have I didn't get to the end of this game on the NES, but I feel like I would have put more quarters in based on like my time at the arcade compared to playing this NES game and getting like the you know, theoretical game over. So I have to imagine it's one or the other. It's either that there i is less health or uh the the d difficulty of the enemies like they're just a they hit a lot harder or hit more often.
Yeah. Did you guys notice at all that um Th like there were just some some instances of Of your attacks not actually hitting even though you're rid of you're literally standing right next to them? Not necessarily I don't think so. Yeah, I think maybe like sometimes
Sometimes maybe I didn't see like a knockback, but it it still like sometimes I would kill someone and they didn't fall over, but like it's they still got the damage. But yeah, for the most part I I didn't really notice a hitbox problem or anything like that. Yeah, especially with the little dinosaur thingies, um, I y I would just be standing next to the guy and just uh and even like sort of m micro adjusting, I'm like, Oh, I must not be on the same
like access as him. So I'm like trying to get closer and closer and it just un until in un maybe it was like they needed to be in midair when you hit him. Maybe There were just moments where I just thought like, I don't think my hits are registering and uh that was kind of annoying.
TMNT famously started out as uh a lot grittier and uh uh, you know, as a comic, black and white, um a little more intense than what this cartoon ultimately wound up becoming that appealed to uh a a very young demographic, which wound up making the show maybe Funnier, like more of a comedy, more of a parody of itself. But is the game funny? Like it does the game lead into the comedy tropes at all? Like or is it strictly just like an action? I remember in Go ahead.
Well I remember in uh the arcade game that when you picked up the pizza, which was also a very detailed sprite, uh you would get the calabunga and Like th maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but that does happen. The cow kawabunga. They would say kawabunga. Like that felt pretty iconic to me, and you don't get And and I think they they could have done it. We've heard voice uh voices in NES games and I think that they could have done a Kawabunga and maybe that's not super funny, but it at least was
Like that that was the vibe of the game to me. Uh was just like Cool dudes doing cool dude stuff. Um and instead you just get a little chime when you were to pick up a pizza here. So Ma maybe not maybe not like a humor thing, but like a a a a fun a a fun attitude.
And I when I think about this this like original cartoon, like was it funny because it made a lot of jokes and was trying to be funny, or is it funny now to look back on it and be like, Wow, this is like so campy and so like childish, you know, and like and so like You know, they're also like happy and silly and fun. But like... It wasn't like it was a comedy. Yeah. That is a it was it's a good point. It's funny because it was bad. It's it's a good point, Joe. It almost has like uh
secondhand Batman sixty six syndrome going for it. Batman sixty six was never trying to be a c a comedy. That was that took Batman very seriously for the time and then wound up being incredibly funny. Yeah. So it ended up being not being like funny but being silly by accident and I or just like in vibe.
And I think like the one thing that stood out to me for this kind of having that vibe is like if you stand still for too long uh y whoever you're playing as will look at the camera and like blink, like in a cartoonish way. And it's just like yeah, like they didn't need to put that in and it's just kinda silly and like a little goofy and like not like
tough ninja behavior. So I I guess that's the one thing I can think of. That's usually the sign that uh the developer cared a little bit about the game when there's some kind of idol animation. We've seen it in uh Super Mario sixty four and in Sonic the Hedgehog. Uh where both of those have like something where depending on how long you have them sit around, they even change their item. Mario will actually fall asleep in Mario sixty four and have like a little like
bubble come out of his nose as he snores. Yeah. Yeah. Crash Bandicoot used to like juggle Wumpa fruit and you would throw one up in the air and would splatter on'em. But you gotta wait for like twenty seconds for that to happen. Last week we covered a uh I mean covered is one way of putting it. But uh basically they released a a version of an NES bundle that included four controllers and an accessory for it. This game comes out the same month as it. Was it a mistake not to try to like
Sacrifice some of the quality of the game to make sure that you could have four players play as all four Ninja Turtles at the same time. Forget if that's who knows? That's probably not even Right? But like it does feel a little strange that there are four turtles and they're saying, you know, play with one other player, like leave two turtles behind. Yeah.
I I was gonna save this for the Essential Games list, but like y it is really hard not to ignore the visual compromises that this game had to make for it to do what it was doing. Uh there's flickering on sprites. Uh the the there's only so many different enemies that you can have on the screen at once. Uh well just lots of visual downgrading here. I think if you had four players, it would be a mess.
Yeah, absolutely. I can't imagine this game running with four players. But technical limitations aside
I think that this is the game to do it with because it's like let's be honest, this isn't like this isn't winning some like gameplay award or anything. Like just just let people have fun if you can do it. But like yeah, I don't believe it would be doable. But like yeah, this is like Like the the new Super Mario Brothers series where it's like, Yeah, like the multiplayer is like not the best game design, but it's just like, oh, it's just there to have a party, you know?
And we mentioned uh that April was kidnapped and that the goal is to save her. That is a goal that gets resolved pretty early on. Uh you you have a lot of game Even get a kiss. Right. Uh you have a lot of game to go after that though. Uh you have to then save Splinter. And then it winds up becoming um a you know, a much bigger deal with the Krang and uh I believe
But I didn't get to it, but the final uh the final battle is in the techno drome. Uh do I have that right? Think so. That's that big I'm not sure of technodrome. Just a giant spherical truck thing. Oh, okay. Yeah, it sounds awesome, right? Um and you fight two shredders. So it sounds like he's got you double teamed.
Last question before the big question. Um This is a this is a part of an arcade game and I'm sure we've gotten into this on some level in in the past, so feel free to give a short answer here but For an NES game to be a good port, right? So s talking specifically about the NES, to be a good port of a game. Are we talking about
Visual accuracy or designing a version that plays well at home? Like which one would you rather have in the good? Yeah, I mean i if we're talking about like What what what what I'd want, it is just like, does it capture the feeling of the game? Like obviously you're gonna have to make some compromises going from what you can visually put on to an NES cartridge compared to an arcade cabinet. But yeah, that and and they and they did that here.
Uh it still feels like the game and I i if it were if they had to like switch up the mechanics And just like it f it looked like the arcade cabinet a bit more, then that would be a very different Yeah, I think I mean I I think I yeah, I definitely want both, but I I gotta say it's probably like sixty forty, maybe even seventy thirty. Like i the the feel is way more important to me. But like yeah, it's gotta look a little bit like it.
All right, and now we will get down to the uh what's like a turtle pun here? We'll get to it's turtles all the way down, it's the Essential Games list all the way down, is that what I'm going for? It's turtles all the way down. In some religious. Or elephants standing in a circle. Joe, you don't have to take it there, okay? Jeez. It's not a bad thing. Uh yeah, it's time for the essential games list.
Wow, it's been a while since we had an official Essential Games list. Um here we are. And look, here's the actual verdict. Whether it's the arcade game or it's the NES game, uh like neither one is Neither one is like perfect or or what I would go to for uh my my beat em up experience, right? But both Whether it's you know the the compromises on the NES port or the arcade game, both are an incredibly good hacker.
And I think that's what's important. Is like they Konami once again made like a fun game for the Ninja Turtles, even if it's very basic punch and jump punch or a jump kick. and uh somehow they still managed to capture the essence of T M N T in the process. And so this game Can can be, especially if you're not a T M N T fan, almost monotonous, uh, if you're playing solo, but can be transformative once you add a second player in there and have more fun.
But trust me, the real experience is with four players at an arcade, and this arcade was all over the place, so it can't be that hard to still find some out there. So that's the way I would recommend checking this thing. The NES port winds up being serviceable for the time period, but now very lacking. So it's a note for me. What about you, Show? I was gonna say Sean, actually. I was only going to direct that at Sean, but I wound up like choking on my breath.
So what do you say, Sean? Yeah, I mean I know that I just sort of finished saying that it it it's a good port in that it it still feels like the arcade game in a way, but I think that more so says that the arcade game is is really leaning a lot on presentation. uh going for it. Um so you're really just getting the purest form of
up to two player version of the arcade game. Um and I don't think that that's really that great. Uh i if you d if you downgrade it, it's no longer all that impressive. So Um, I'm gonna say it's not essential. Joe. Yeah, I was a little disappointed in this because these T M and T games are like uh
a a big nostalgic part of my childhood, but there are also games that I haven't revisited in a very long time. So it's kind of excited to see this one come up and honestly like I don't know. Uh I I'm pretty underwhelmed with it. The presentation is great, but uh it's
To me it was pr a pretty boring experience. Like I I I don't know, it just not e not having that third option of an attack made a huge difference where I just felt like, oh they're they're really and I did play this two player and it kinda felt like yeah, there it didn't really make too much of a difference
um which character we were and and it and it was kinda samey. I it it's you know, they're throwing a ton of enemies at you, which a lot of beat'em ups do, but then without any variety it just felt too repetitive for me. So I I as much as uh it pains me because this this had a place in my heart in my childhood, I I didn't really enjoy this. So I'm gonna say not essential. Alright, that is uh three no's in our second non essential TMNT NES game, but we do have more on the way. Uh TMNT three
Uh I don't know why that was hard for me to say. I'm maybe I'm just uh tapping out here towards the end of the episode, but TMNT three, the Manhattan Project. Uh is the next uh is the next game up. And then there's also TMNT Tournament Fighters, which is like At what point does every franchise just get a tournament fighter game? You know, like like where where is like who who do you want to have the next like little uh Street Fighter esque style fighting game? Which franchise?
Hmm. Grub curve. Why didn't Crash Bandicoot get one, Joe? You mentioned that earlier. I don't know. They got the the cart racer and then they got like the Mario Party rip off, but then uh Oh is the Mario Party rip off Crash Bash? Because I never knew what that was. Y you know a little hot take here? So much better than Ryan. Yeah, but you say the same thing about the C T R, yep. Better than Mario Kart. Mario Mario Kart is maybe better for like oh let's just sit down and like have like
just kinda goof around and play or whatever. I think No C T R is when you're getting serious. C T R I think can be a more competitive racing game, just fewer people play it, so C TR's faster. My memory of C T R is pushing Joe to um go a little faster. That's right. And I did. Yes, yes he did. Let the record show. We can't end the episode unless we show that Joe did in fact go a little faster.