Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (arcade game)

The player chooses from one of the four Ninja Turtles: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael. Depending on the version of the game, the characters are either chosen via an in-game select screen or based on which coin slot the player placed their credit into. After Shredder kidnaps the Turtles' friend April O'Neil and their mentor Splinter, they must give chase, save their comrades, and defeat the evil Shredder. Up to four players (two in some versions) can take control of any of the Turtles. Donatello has slower attacks but a longer range, Michelangelo and Raphael have faster attacks but a shorter range, and Leonardo is a well-rounded Turtle with average range and speed. The eight-way joystick controls the movements of the Turtle, the jump button makes them jump and the attack button makes them hit in front of them using their weapon. The Turtles can also perform special moves, including throwing Foot soldiers overhead and performing a special attack by pressing the jump and attack buttons; Raphael rolls along the ground and finishes with a kick, while the other Turtles do a sweeping jump attack with their weapons. The Turtles can also spring off the wall in certain areas. Enemies can be defeated more quickly by slamming them into walls or solid objects. Many objects such as traffic cones, parking meters, fire hydrants and exploding oil drums can be hit or damaged with attacks in order to help defeat nearby enemies. In the attract mode, the game shows the first part of the cartoon opening, along with a portion of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song. Most of the enemies the Turtles face are the Foot Soldiers, all color-coded to indicate their attack patterns and weapons of choice. Some enemies, such as the standard purple-clad Foot Soldiers and Roadkill Rodney robots, have the ability to restrain the Turtles' mobility and drain their health, leaving only the player open to attack for other enemies. The bosses in the game include Rocksteady and Bebop (individually at first in that order, and later the two of them together), Baxter Stockman (in his human form), Granitor, General Traag, Krang, and Shredder himself. In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, the Arcade version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has six enhancements. • Level Select – Allows the player to start at any level of their choosing. • God Mode – Allows the player to become immune to most damage and defeat most enemies with a single hit. • Remove Penalty Bombs – This enhancement disables the "Penalty Bombs" that the game drops on players in certain circumstances. • Nightmare Mode − Enables a mode in the game that dramatically increases the number of enemies. • Starting Lives − Adjusts the number of lives at the start of the game from 1 to 5. • Difficulty − Adjusts the difficulty of the game from easy to very difficult. ==Development and release==

(PCB) of the arcade game Konami acquired the license for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise around the same time the animated series began airing in 1987. Konami began development on both an arcade game and console game shortly after. The arcade game was distributed as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Super Kame Ninja in Japan, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in North America, Oceania and continental Europe, and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the United Kingdom. The game was released primarily as a dedicated four-player arcade cabinet in all regions except Japan, where it was sold as a 2-player conversion kit. 2-player conversion kits of the game were released in other regions, serving as less expensive alternatives to 4-player cabinets. ==Home versions==

Ports to home systems , a shell corporation and subsidiary of Konami of America. The game was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. This conversion was titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game in order to avoid confusion with the previous NES game based on the franchise. The Japanese Famicom version was titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, without a number nor a subtitle, due to the fact that the first NES game was localized in Japan under a different title. where players fight an alien bounty hunter named "Tora". This version includes two new levels (the first part of Scene 3 and all of Scene 6), which feature new enemy characters, including two new bosses created specifically for the NES port: Tora (a Polar Bear-like "blizzard beast") and Shogun (a robotic samurai). Most of the original stages from the arcade version were extended as well, and the second half of Scene 3, the parking garage stage, replaces the arcade version's end battle with both Bebop and Rocksteady with a battle against the mutated fly form of Baxter Stockman. The NES port appeared in Nintendo's PlayChoice-10 arcade system. The NES version featured notable product placement advertising: Pizza Hut logos. The rear cover of the instruction manual provided a coupon for the restaurant, with an expiration date of December 31, 1991. Computer ports of the arcade game were released by Image Works and ported by Probe Software in 1991 for the ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, DOS PC and Commodore 64. The title was changed to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: The Coin Op in the European versions, reflecting censorship of the 1987 TV series in certain regions at the time. Emulated releases An emulated version of the arcade game is included as a hidden bonus game in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube, but with altered music and most of the voice clips edited out. The game is unlocked by finding an antique in Stage 9–1; the antique turns out to be the original arcade machine. An Xbox 360 version of the game was released via Xbox Live Arcade under the name TMNT 1989 Classic Arcade on March 14, 2007, published by Ubisoft under license from Konami and ported by Digital Eclipse. The game was priced at 400 Microsoft Points. The reissue is nearly identical to the original, but there are a few changes: the opening theme is a new recording by a different singer, players do not need to insert quarters to play, and Konami's name on the arcade marquee is replaced by Nickelodeon's. ==Reception==

Commercial The arcade game was a blockbuster hit, especially in North America. Konami was unable to keep up with high demand and outsourced additional US manufacturing production to Dynamo Corp. By early April 1990, Konami had sold over 20,000 arcade cabinets internationally outside of Japan, including over 14,000 cabinets sold in the United States, where it became the biggest arcade hit since Double Dragon (1987). In North America, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the highest-grossing upright cabinet on the RePlay arcade charts from January through spring, summer and autumn to December 1990. During November and December, weekly coin drop earnings averaged $163 per cabinet. It ended the year as the highest-grossing dedicated arcade game of 1990 in the United States, and it won a Diamond award from the American Amusement Machine Association (AAMA) for sales achievement in 1990. The game was also a major hit in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, where it was one of the top four highest-grossing arcade games during early 1990 (along with ''Tecmo World Cup '90, Super Masters, and Line of Fire''). On Hong Kong's Bondeal charts, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the top-grossing dedicated arcade game from December 1989 to January 1990. In Australia, the game was a record-breaking arcade hit in 1990 with high earnings during its first six months on the market, which was unusual for licensed arcade games which typically disappeared after several months. In Japan, Game Machine listed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as the fourth most popular arcade game of August 1990. The NES port Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II sold over 1 million units, . The Xbox Live Arcade digital version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sold 984,271 units on the Xbox 360 console, . Critical Zzap! reported on the arcade game after it appeared at the Amusement Trades Exhibition International (ATEI), calling it a "great coin-op which is best in four player mode." In the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu found the home console version was highly appealing in terms of graphics such how enemies leap out of hidden spots. While one reviewer found the turtles unappealing, another found them drawn especially cute in this game. One of the reviewers called it the best of the recent Famicom games, while one said the gameplay was monotonous and another said the game would appeal to fans of this style of action game. Time's Jared Newman named to his list of "14 Important Arcade Games Not Available for iPhone or iPad", citing the game's pioneering 4-player simultaneous play. GamesRadar ranked it the 25th best NES game made. The staff attributed the Ninja Turtles' continued success to the game and praised its visuals, audio, and combat system. ==Notes==