Classic of the Month - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Manufacturer:	Konami
Developer:	Konami
Genre:	Beat 'em up
Board:	Konami 68000-based
Year:	1989

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of those franchises that refuses to die, even if most people forget it ever existed after it's initial rise to fame in the 80s (when it was known as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles here in the UK). However, following the comic that started in 1984, the original animated TV series ran from 1987 to 1996, a live action series ran for two years after that, a second animated series ran from 2003 to 2009 and just last month, Nickelodeon began its new CG-animated series. And let's not forget that among all that there's been four films, with a fifth due out next year. So amazingly, Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo and (my favourite) Raphael have been around for 28 years.

I was 12 when the Hero— err, Ninja Turtles first appeared and at the time I was a fan of all things martial arts. Add 80s' attitude and references to exotic fast food like pizzas and I was hooked. However, like so many super hero cartoons back then, there was very little actual fighting. Invariably the gang would defeat Krang, Shredder and their lackies Bebop, Rocksteady, Dr Baxter Stockman and the foot soldiers by tripping them into a rubbish bin or splatting them with food. It wasn't the clash of steel or the flash of gymnastic ninjitsu skill I craved. And so it is with a cry of cowabunga that Konami's 1989 arcade game offered precisely that. What's more, unlike like other treasured beat 'em ups, such as Golden Axe and Fight Fight, TMNT let four players go into battle, each with their own dedicated joystick.

The game played like pretty much any other beat 'em from that era, only more frantic, due to four players flitting around the screen. The game consisted of two buttons, one for jump and the other for attack. Pressing them both triggered a special move, but unlike Fight Fight and its ilk, you did not use up any of your life meter to do so. The game also had more emphasis on vertical and diagonal scrolling sections, although the actual characters stayed on the same plane.

To say an arcade game was difficult is a little like saying a heavy metal band's concerts are loud, but Turtles was actually a little cheap. These days people would bitch like hell about bashing away at a boss for as long as the level leading up to him took, only to have him fill the screen with bullets and minions, but it was common enough at the time.

It's probably worth mentioning that TMNT shared more than a little DNA with another four player Konami beat 'em up, The Simpsons. At the time, I'd never seen that TV show, but the similarity between the two games meant I did not need to know it's origins to play it whilst waiting for a space on the neighbouring TMNT cabinet.

MTW