Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game

teenage mutant ninja turtles arcade xbox live
5.5 Overall Score
Graphics: 5/10
Sound: 6/10
Controls: 5/10

Nostalgia, quick and fun

Controls and look of the game haven't held up

Game Info

Game Name:  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Developer(s):  Konami

Publisher(s):  Konami

Platform(s):  Xbox 360

Genre(s):  Action/Adventure/Retro

Release Date(s):  1989/March 14, 2007 (Xbox Live)

ESRB Rating:  7+

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Oh…shellshock!

Shredder has kidnapped Splinter and April O’Neil and it is up to Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo to get them back.  Facing some of their toughest enemies, the Turtles must battle the Foot and infiltrate the Technodrome to save their friends.

Released in 1989, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (released in Japan as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Super Kame Ninja or ティーンエイジ・ミュータント・ニンジャ・タートルズ 〜スーパー亀忍者〜 Tīneiji Myūtanto Ninja Tātoruzu: Sūpā Kame Ninja) is generally referred to as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:  The Arcade Game.  The game was released on Xbox Live for download as TMNT 1989 Classic Arcade Game with a port by Digital Eclipse.

teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-arcade-1989-xbox-live-review-tmnt-turtle-van-leonardo-raphael-michelangelo-donatello-graphics

Way to keep a low profile in your van painted like a turtle “ninjas”

I can remember lining up for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the arcade and joining in on games.  The game was a real game changer.  It was a continuous stream of players and it just was a matter of what level you wanted to play.  Now, twenty-five years later, the game is still fun but hasn’t aged as well as I hoped.

After Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out, a lot of other games took the multiplayer style of the game and advanced it.  Playing on newer systems shows what made the game fun, but the game is also dated.  The Simpsons and X-Men which followed TMNT were better and more varied.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seem more one dimensional.

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Mousers!

The gameplay and its controls don’t seem as fluid as in 1989.  The Turtles move a bit clunky and the Xbox control just doesn’t have the smoothness of the arcade joystick.  Jump kicks and generic weapons feel more tedious than when you were pumping quarters into a machine with a bunch of your friends.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a good game that has seen better days.  Improvements in the style of gaming have made this game a bit obsolete.  It is nice to get a multiplayer game going and with online play, that is easier.  Playing TMNT is a bit of nostalgia and the voice acting which brings back good memories also is a bit tiresome.  If you didn’t play Turtles as a kid, it isn’t worth downloading, but if you loaded up on quarters and played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it might be a fun hour or two of play.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Author: JPRoscoe View all posts by
Follow me on Twitter/Instagram/Letterboxd @JPRoscoe76! Loves all things pop-culture especially if it has a bit of a counter-culture twist. Plays video games (basically from the start when a neighbor brought home an Atari 2600), comic loving (for almost 30 years), and a true critic of movies. Enjoys the art house but also isn't afraid to let in one or two popular movies at the same time.

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