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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

aka: "Les Tortues Ninja", Gekikame Ninja Den, TMHT, TMNT, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Tortugas Ninja

Description official descriptions

With April O'Neil held hostage by The Shredder's thugs, Bebop and Rocksteady, once again, it's up to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to come to her rescue! Play as all four of the turtle heroes, rescue April, and then rescue your sensei Splinter from Mecha-Turtles clutches, and then go after The Shredder deep in the bowels of The Technodrome itself.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an action game based on the late eighties/early nineties cartoon series of the same name. Play as Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Raphael (one turtle only, but the ability to swap between turtles at any time) as you save your friends and battle The Shredder and his cronies. There are no 'lives', as such - when you lose a turtle, he becomes 'captured', and you cannot use him again until you rescue him from a place hidden in the overworld.

Gameplay takes place in two perspectives: a top-down view, which lets you run around and explore buildings, sewers and other places. When entering places from the top-down view, the perspective shifts to a side-scrolling view, where most of the battling takes place. In addition to each turtle's main weapon, sub-weapons (such as shuriken) can be acquired, to use at foes - these have a limited use.

Spellings

  • げきかめにんじゃでん - Alternate Japanese spelling (Hiragana)
  • 激亀忍者伝 - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (NES version)

Music Composer (uncredited)
Music Programmer (uncredited)

Reviews

Discussion

Subject User Date
Why is it so hated? Simoneer (36) 2009-03-14 13:24:39

Trivia

Copy protection

TMNT was one of a few games from the period that featured copy-protection via a code sheet printed on so-called "copy proof" paper. This is dark maroon paper with black ink which most black and white copiers would not be able to copy in a readable form. The code sheet which was stapled into the game manual, featured hundreds of four digit numbers in a grid which you needed to look up to get into the game.

Buggy DOS version

The DOS version of the game released in the USA is infamous on its own right. Apart from being usually derided as a poor game (nothing unusual when it comes to games covering comic book, film or TV licenses), a glitch made it impossible to reach the end of an intermediate stage. The only way to reach the further stages was by using passwords. Apparently the UK version of the game (labeled as "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles", as opposed to "Ninja Turtles") corrected this bug and can be finished without cheating.

Cover art

The reason why the Turtles all wear red masks on the cover is because that's how it was in the comics.

References

In the movie The Wizard, Jimmy is seen playing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the arcade at the Casino in Reno.

Title

The translated Japanese title is "Ultra Turtle Ninja Legend".

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • December 1989 (Issue 5) - Most Eagerly Anticipated Game (that was released) (NES version)
    Information also contributed by Dan K, gamewarrior, and Robbb

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan
Released 2016 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360...
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Related Sites +

  • Howard & Nester do Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    A regular feature in Nintendo Power magazine, Howard & Nester was a comic strip about two game whizzes who would one-up each other, while disclosing hints and tips, in the settings of various recently-released games for the NES platform. In the July/August 1989 two-page installment, Nester helps the Ninja Turtles get through level three of their own game... and much pizza is eaten.
  • NinjaTurtles.com
    All sorts of info on the movies, comics and video games
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Wikipedia
    article in the open encyclopedia about the game
  • Under Manhattan
    A shrine site for the TMNT series

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 6932

Contribute

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Jony Shahar.

Commodore 64 added by Quapil. Arcade added by Michael Cassidy. Wii added by Sciere. Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Amiga added by Martin Smith. MSX added by koffiepad. NES added by Jeanne.

Additional contributors: Rascal, Jeanne, Shoddyan, Tibes80, chirinea, Foxhack, Alaka, Martin Smith, Pseudo_Intellectual, Игги Друге, François-Patrick Arteau, Neville.

Last modified February 22nd, 2023.