Cowabunga!... or not?

AB, AB, AB, jump, kick, jump, kick, AB, AB… First review here, and we starting with a Classic! Few weeks ago I found Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles 2 – The Arcade Game for the NES. So much fun for just an Euro!

I played through the game with a mate and recorded our session, so *tada*, there’s a gameplay-vid down there for you guys!

Gameplay

Turtles 2 is a street brawler in the classic way from Konami, released in 1991 for the NES. You beat your way though hordes of enemies and defeat the end boss of every stage, that’s it, next level. Every Player has it’s own energy and 2 lives, if both get game over you have also 3 continues. Each defeated enemy gives you one point, every 200 there’s an extra life.

Pretty simple, but entertaining and with everything needed for a Turtles-game. The Footclan, rescue April, rescue Splinter, from time to time a slice of pizza. The end bosses even have their own sound sample (“Aaaarh…”) when they die, only Cowabunga! is never heard in this game. Sad thing, even the Game Boy - Games had that.

The controls are also classic: A for jump, B for punch. If you press B while in air you’ll make a kick, simple, but effective. Since there was no manual it took us some time to find out there’s another attack: if you press B right after A, you’ll perform a super attack. Normaly most enemies needed two hits to be defeated, with this attack it’s only one hit, which makes the whole thing very easy.

Technique

For an NES – Game everything looks really pretty. The stages some nice, varied scenes, the enemies are just what you imagine: Footclans in all variations. There are also two – three more types, ok for a game at that time.

Sadly the characters are flickering from time to time, but it looks worse in the video than it actually plays. Sometimes you get lost, some more color to the players would have been better to find your character on the screen.

The sound fits the game, but it’s far from Mario-quality. But anyway, when the title starts, the Turtles-feeling is there, that’s all you need.

Likes und Dislikes

The game has enough variations and everything you expect from a good Turtles-game. The characters are likeable, the story is ok to bring you through the stages.

Two – three unfair spots are a bit crappy, when I walk around and fall into a suddenly appearing hole it can be annoying, especially when it costs me energy.

With the super attack things almost get too easy, other games from the time are mostly way harder. Mostly you keep pressing AB, AB, only few enemies need more than that.

The end bosses are overall the same, jump, kick, jump, kick is the way it works.

“Just” 3 slices of pizza in the complete game seems to be ok then, but on the other side it’s almost a bit sad because that’s an element you pretty much expect in an Turtles-game. A bit more this time would be really more.

General Impression

Turtles 2 – The Arcade Games is one of those games which you can play over and over again. Especially the Multiplayer is pretty fun an the game has the right length to keep you entertaining for more than one play through.

At the start it seemed pretty hard, but since we discovered the super attack it almost got too easy.

If you look out for a serious street brawler, you better get another game. But if you are a fan of the mutated turtles (and still have a NES), you can definitely give it a try.

So, that’s all I can say, bye for now. AB, AB, AB…