GRAPHICS SOUND CONTROL FRUSTRATION FUN FACTOR OVERALL

NES 1 Player Action/Platformer Ah, the Ninja Turtles. Every kid around the late 80s/early 90s had to love these rad dudes. They had everything: comic books, cartoons, even their own cereal. So, of course, Videogame companies fought for the license so they could make a Nintendo game out of them. In the end, Ultra won and released the turtle's first, of three games, on the Nes. I used to hate this game when I was younger, and even when I re-bought a couple of years ago I hated it. Finally I sat down and really got into the game, and found out the game really isn't as bad as I had made it out to be. Graphics: Not too bad for the release date of this game. All the characters are nicely animated, especially during the boss battles and the cut scenes, though the game does look sort of rushed. When you jump, your character's animations look blocky. Also, when there are a lot of enemies on the screen at one time there is slowdown and flickering, which only gets in the way of the already slightly above average graphics. In the overhead view, the graphics are good but you don't spend too much time in this mode. Sound: The music in this game is actually great. The game doesn't use the Turtle's theme from the show, which sucks because that theme rocks. The tunes are each fitting for the level you are in at that time. The opening theme to the game is awesome and can be listened to over and over. As for the sound effects, some of them are slightly off such as Leonardo's sword, which instead of making a slashing sound it makes a sort of thud sound. But for the most part the sound effects are pretty good. Gameplay: To me, this game comes off as an adventure game more than a platformer. It is a pretty straight forward game that doesn't require much thinking on where to go next, but you can still make choices of which routes to take and if you want to go to that place or not. The game starts out that Shredder's men have taken April and you must save her, but after you save April you return to your home and find they have captured Splinter. You start out in the overhead view and have to take the right path to find out where the boss is but, like I already mentioned, it isn't too hard to figure out where to go next. There are lots of different enemies to fight depending on which batch you get. Some batches are easier than others, but the easier batches are harder to get. What happens is when you enter a room you will see some bad guys, but these guys can change if leave they re-enter the room; it is a great idea. As for the turtles themselves, each of them has different abilities. Your two best are Donatello (strongest & best range) and Leonardo (fastest & widest range). Raphael and Michelangelo are pretty much your disposable guys. The control is all right, but the jumping is extremely awkward and takes a long time to get used to. Replay: I used to think this game was extremely hard (everybody knows the infamous dam level), but it really isn't so bad. It gives you just enough lives to make it through and once you figure out the strategies for the levels you can breeze through them. I don't know about you, but I'm one of those guys that when I beat a game, it's beat, and I usually want to start on another game right after. But this game was different. After I beat it, I found myself playing again and again, figuring out new routes and searching everyplace I could to feed my craving for this game. If you're like me, then I suggest playing the game again after you beat and see how you react to the power of the Turtles. ......BOTTOM LINE: It's not as bad as people make it out to be. To sum it up it's an underrated game that got a ton of hype and made a ton of money. It's kind of like in the commercials, "Ah, the power of TMNT". -lynx 561