This is by far the most delicious entry in GameSpite Journal 10. Who doesn’t love chocolatey ninja turtles? All that nutty, gooey caramel goodness.
Also, please don’t ask where Donatello is in this photo. Let’s just say there’s a reason I can vouch for the tastiness of this article and leave it at that.
I had a lot of fun with Turtles in Time back in the day. It landed after the heyday of the arcade brawler — the “heyday” basically being before Street Fighter II showed up and made the concept of scrolling left-to-right in order to punch people’s faces seem way uncool — but it still got some play thanks to its great graphics and a lingering fondness for the brand. I was never a Turtles fan per se; never read the comics, never watched the cartoons. But I did play the games, going so far as to force myself to finish the cripplingly punishing NES original, and this was the most vibrant and energetic of them all.
After I’d owned the excellent SNES port for the better part of a year, I decided to trade it at the local record shop in for a fresh new game… actually I think I traded it for a Can album. Que sera sera. Anyway, my girlfriend at the time saw me trading in the game and derisively laughed, “Who does that belong to?” She was kind a crummy human being, as it turns out.
“Unlike the downgraded NES port of The Arcade Game, the Super Nintendo’s Turtles in Time actually went out of its way to add a second Technodrome stage and extra bosses…”
The NES port had 2 extra stages, a snowy Central Park and a Samurai-themed castle interior, each with unique bosses. I think there was also another extra boss, the part where you should have fought Rocksteady and Bebop simultaneously, you fought a mutated Baxter Stockman instead, I think because fighting 2 bosses on the NES would have been a flicker fest (maybe).
Great article. The early SNES releases from Konami sounded great on my moms Pioneer Stereo with tower speakers.
Doesn’t beat the Boston Cream Pie. Even I couldn’t mess that recipe up. Delicious!
It wasn’t until years and years later I made the connection that the Turtles are a take off of Frank Miller’s Daredevil. Also, I freaking loved this game.
I wouldn’t go so far as to call the SNES release definitive, since it could only support two players* and pulled Konami’s semi-signature dick move of requiring you to beat the game on its most player-hating difficulty setting if you wanted to see the ending, but Turtles of Time was still a lot of fun.
* Of course, it did see release before that Multi-Tap peripheral that came with Super Bomberman, so it’s understandable. Still fared way better than Final Fight did.
Such a good game. Fairly shallow, yes, but the bright colors, huge sprites, and just plain fun factor oozing out of it make up for a lot.