In December 1990, Computer and Video Games offered readers a four-player Turtles arcade machine as a competition prize. Entry required stickers from two earlier covers. The attraction was easy to explain: four friends could play the four brothers together, each with a joystick and a pair of buttons.
Konami’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had arrived in 1989. In Britain it was Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. It took the cartoon’s characters and theme tune into a scrolling fight through New York, with Foot soldiers filling the streets and familiar villains waiting along the route.
Fighting as a group
Leonardo carries katana blades, Michelangelo nunchakus, Donatello a bo staff and Raphael sai. Attack and jump buttons provide the basic moves. Players can join a game already in progress, helping the others rescue April O’Neil and Splinter and confront Krang and Shredder. Two-player arcade versions also exist, so the number of controls depends on the cabinet.
The four-player game was the version Retro Gamer’s reviewer remembered most fondly in 2007. He described arguing over who would play Donatello, then concentrating on the Foot soldiers. He also acknowledged the combat’s simplicity: playing with friends had made that matter less to him.
Two different NES games
The first NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a separate game. The arcade conversion reached that console as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, under the Ultra label. It allowed two players together and added two stages.
Nintendo Power’s February 1991 feature introduced one addition through a city buried in snow. Tora, a polar bear, guarded the weather satellite responsible. These new encounters gave the conversion something of its own, even with half the arcade cabinet’s player count.
C&VG’s November 1991 preview praised how much of the arcade action had survived, including the animation of a turtle sliding down a wall after being thrown against it. Its release table expected the British NES edition early in 1992.
On home computers
Mirrorsoft’s Image Works label brought out Turtles: The Coin-Op for home computers, with Probe Software handling the conversions. The formats included Amiga, Atari ST, C64, Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and PC.
C&VG reported that Probe redrew the graphics from photographs and video of the machine, reducing animation frames to fit. It had played the two-player C64 version; the other versions were still preview material. By December 1991, Your Sinclair had reviewed the Spectrum release and praised its pace, clear monochrome graphics and approachable difficulty.
Returning to the arcade version
Digital Eclipse converted the arcade game for Xbox Live Arcade in 2007. Retro Gamer praised its resemblance to the original but criticised the online lag experienced by its reviewer. Faithful graphics did not guarantee that the multiplayer felt the same.
In August 2022, Konami released The Cowabunga Collection, including both the arcade game and its NES conversion. The collection added save and rewind features, strategy guides and a museum of manuals, artwork and development material. The arcade game also supported online play, giving another route to assembling four turtles without the original cabinet.
Sources
- Konami, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, four-player upright instruction manual, 1989, cover, part 963400.
- Computer and Video Games 109, December 1990, pp. 17 and 19: competition and British name. Issue 120, November 1991, pp. 71–72: NES and computer previews, Probe’s graphics work and expected British release.
- Nintendo Power 21, February 1991, TMNT II feature: Ultra, two players, two additional stages and Tora.
- Your Sinclair 72, December 1991, p. 39: Spectrum review.
- Retro Gamer 37, 2007, p. 28, “Retrorevival”: recollection of four-player arcade play and review of Digital Eclipse’s Xbox Live Arcade conversion.
- Museum of the Game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (web, secondary): year, controls, characters and two-player variant.
- Konami, The Cowabunga Collection launch announcement, 30 August 2022: included games, features and online support.