38.One last arcade title for awhile, and the last that appeals to my nostalgic childhood. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the reason I got into the arcade scene as a child because I smurfing love TMNT back in the day. The game is another Konami made arcade brawler, but one that has some interesting variety and little elements that set it apart from the other two brawlers on this list. The plot is simple and typical of most of these types of games. The Turtles discover that someone has set fire to April O'Neil's apartment and they got to rescue her, only to discover the Foot Clan is there and Shredder kidnaps her. The turtles then explore the whole city, fighting the foot and several familiar characters while tracking her down. You eventually rescue her and then head to the Technodrome to battle it out with Krang and Shredder himself.From the name dropping, it's obvious this game is based on the 80s animated series with familiar faces like Bebop and Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, Krang, Lt. Granitor and General Traag. There are also some of the cool robots and vehicles from the show as well like the party wagon, and those goddamn mousers. It's still based on the early seasons so a few really popular characters don't make appearances until the later arcade title. You can play as either of the four turtles and if you had the right machine, could play four player co-op which is super fun, especially if you get the right group of people together for it and actually start forming tactics together and mitigating resources properly. What set this game apart back in the day from other beat em' ups was the fact the four turtles play slightly different from each other. Leonardo is balanced, Michelangelo is stronger but has short range, Raphael is the fastest but does the least damage, while Donatello is the strongest but slowest. Most levels are beat em type stuff, but their is one vehicle stage where your characters skateboard down a highway, which is surprisingly one of the nastier levels due to feeling longer than the others. The rematch battle where you have to fight both Bebop and Rocksteady really stands out cause you can recreate the scene from the show where the two simultaneously charge at the turtles and you can move away to have them collide with each other and knock themselves out. In fact the game has many small touches like this, especially interactive environments like parking meters and manhole covers that can be used as additional weapons. I used to play this game every chance I could get, especially since I was a huge fan of the franchise growing up. It lead me to force my dad to look for arcades which eventually lead me to find other games like Pac-Man, X-Men arcade, and eventually Street Fighter. So in a lot of ways, this was kind of a gateway title for me. It did get ported a few times. I own the NES port which only has two player co-op, uglier graphics and replaced the Bebop and Rocksteady fight with a new battle with Baxter Stockman's fly form, and added two new stages with unique bosses made for the game. I heard X-Box Live got a port, and I just found out today that some awful TMNT party game for the PS2 has it as an unlockable, so I may take the plunge to find it, if only to relive my childhood once more.
The game also got a really cool sequel in the form of the superior Turtles in Time, but due to Street Fighter taking over the arcade scene and beat-em ups kind of falling out of favor, I never got as much exposure to that game as I would like. It didn't help that I had already begun transitioning from the kid-friendly TV show to the darker X-Men comic books and series. Still, I played enough to know it's a pretty great sequel that is better than the original, but it's hard not to remember your first.