Throwback Thursday Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade Game

Throwback Thursday Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade Game

Robert Knuckles

One of my favorite days of the week.. Thursday! So you know what that means time for another Throwback Thursday game. Today I’m going to talk about an arcade classic and that's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Arcade Game. This classic game was released for the arcades in 1989. It’s a side scrolling beat’em up game that features the classic 80’s series of the Ninja Turtles. The most common place I found this arcade classic were at a couple of Chuck E Cheese's.

This was one of the first of many arcade games where up to four people could play and work as a team. The arcade featured an eight-way joystick with an attack and jump button. Players could play as any of the four turtles. To play as the leader Leonardo players would have to insert their coin in the first slot, to play as the party animal Michelangelo players would have to insert their coin in the second slot, to play as the smart scientist Donatello players would have to insert their coin in the third slot and if players want to play as the cool and rude Raphael players have to insert the coin in the fourth slot. Each turtle does play a bit different. Leo is the average with balanced speed and attacks, Don has slow attacks but has the greatest reach and Mikey and Raph have fast attacks but low reach. Players can perform the turtles special attack by pressing the attack and jump button simultaneously.

The story is pretty basic. The story starts off with a fire in April’s apartment and the turtles must save her they must also stop the evil Shredder. The turtles battle the robot foot ninjas in every level and at the end of each level they’ll fight familiar bosses like Bebop, Rocksteady, Krang and of course Shredder.

They did manage to import the arcade version of this game to the NES titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II The Arcade game that only goes up to 2 players. It’s a lot more difficult than the arcade machine. It does add two new levels and new bosses.

You can also download this game through Xbox Live Arcade but I’m not sure if it's still available to download. You can also play this game through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus as a hidden bonus game but it only has altered music and has most of the voice clips edited out.

In the end this arcade game is a classic. What I really love about this game is that four people can work as a team just like in a show. The Turtles are always working together and that’s what makes their brotherhood so strong. In my opinion anytime you make a Ninja Turtles game you need to make it co-op. Playing it by yourself is fun but playing it with four people is even better.