Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time (1992)

Genre: Beat ‘Em Up  |  Players: 1 to 2 co-op  |  Developer: Konami

It’s time to play with power, both the Nintendo and especially the Turtle kind because today we’ve got a brief overview of a fan favorite SNES title.

Did Konami score a 9.95 in a time when most licensed titles kinda totally blew or did they just make a funny?

Gameplay:

Walk from the right side of the screen to the left and beat the shit out of everyone. Face off with the boss at the end and then advance to the next level scoring points and grabbing the occasional power up along the way and generally try not to die. Repeat until the end.

Being an arcade title form the 90’s means that the action can get repetitive but I find that the difficulty and length of the game is just right so that if you’re playing with a buddy you’ll beat the game before it gets boring and that while you’re not going to want 2nds right away you might find it fun again later on down the pipe.

Controls:

D-pad to move around, 1 button for attacking & 1 button form jumping. The move set is both varied and limited in that you have several different jump attacks, rush moves,  & 2 different grab attacks but they’re performed by attacking a foe when stunned and at different angels like the throws or by hitting the jump and attack buttons at different times with one another to high kick, drop kick ett., while pressing both buttons simultaneously unleashes a maximum damage inducing special attack that eats some of your life bar. 

Graphics:

Bright and colorful with a strong comic book or cartoon vibe that when paired with the animations of the characters fills the game with the same spirit that the cartoon or lighter Archie Turtle comics had.

Sound:

Well suited sound effects coupled with a high energy soundtrack and sound bites; (“My toe, my toe ~weeooweeooweeo”) makes the audio of the game feel ‘Turtley” even when the components used were never implemented in the original cartoon.

Story:

The Evil Shredder attacks and the turtle boys don’t cut him no slack. There also might be time travel.

Buyer’s Guide:

I believe there just so happens to be 4 different versions of this game.

• The original is actually a 4 player arcade cabinet game.
• The version we’re looking at today is the Super Nintendo port which added a new technodrome level as well as some more enemies and a VS. & Time Trial modes. While all the other versions have 4 player co-op the SNES only has 2 but I think it’s probably the best one.
• In the game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare a slightly tweaked version of the arcade game was a bonus you could unlock.
• And in 2009 Ubisoft released an updated remake entitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles In Time Re-Shelled with new graphics more akin to the 2007 TMNT movie. It’s based off  the arcade version so sadly all the extras form the SNES aren’t present. It’s available for X-Box 360 & PS3 as a downloadable game and supports 4 players both in real life and online.

4 xenomorhs incubated inside Chucky Cheese pizzas out of 5