Collection essentials #276: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (SNES)

If you were a kid in the ‘80s or ‘90s, the odds are much more than likely that you have at least a basic familiarity with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as they were one of the most popular media franchises among the youth during that time, starting out as a comic book and quickly branching out into TV shows, movies, toys, and of course video games. And the series wouldn’t fall into the infamous “licensed video game trap” of churning out a bunch of mediocre-to-bad video games relying on the IP to sell, because the company who got the rights to make TMNT games was none other than Konami, who was one of the greatest developers of the era, which you already know if you’ve followed these posts for any length of time. 

The Turtles dabbled in a few different action-style genres. Their first two games were an action-adventure NES game and an arcade beat ‘em up. After the success of those games, Konami made a second new-and-improved arcade beat ‘em up called Turtles in Time, which this game is a port of. But wait, you may ask, I’ve only mentioned two other games. So why the IV in the title? Well, it typically took some time for companies to make home console versions of their arcade games. During the gap in between Turtles in Time being released in arcades and its SNES port, Konami made ANOTHER arcade-style beat ‘em up specially made for the NES called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (which I very nearly put on this list, and I guess I may decide to do so someday). So by the time the home console version of Turtles in Time came out, it was technically the fourth game to hit consoles and they decided to put IV in the title even though the original Turtles in Time arcade game was developed and released before Manhattan Project. Weird!

Anyways, beat ‘em ups aren’t one of my preferred video game genres, but they can turn my head when they’re good enough, and Turtles in Time is one of the absolute best beat ‘em ups of all time. It has basically everything you need for a good one. The basic controls and moves are exactly what you’d want, making movement and actions fluent and fun. There are four different characters who play a little differently for variety. There’s great variety in level and enemy design. The music’s great. The difficulty is just the level of challenge it ought to be. And of course, you can team up with a friend for double the fun. There’s even a couple bonus modes for extra fun, a time trial and a head-to-head two-player mode. I honestly don’t have many interesting things to say about the game, it’s just really really good.

TMNT was a franchise that I was always aware of growing up, it seemed like it was almost everywhere, and yet I somehow never got into it. I don’t think I ever read a shred of the comic book or a single TV episode. Not that I couldn’t have enjoyed it, I guess it was just circumstantial, as my friends and family never seemed to be particularly into it and thus nobody tried to get me hooked. So I was never into TMNT, I never owned this game growing up, and I’m not necessarily big into beat ‘em ups. So by all accounts I’m not really the target audience for this game and I shouldn’t be a big fan of it. But I guess the one thing I AM a big fan of is Konami and their incredible knack for making great video games. It’s a true testament to this game’s quality that even I don’t think twice about considering it an essential. Cowabunga!!