Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: The Coin-Op! Longplay (Amiga) [QHD]

Game Info --------------------------------------------------- Developer: Probe Software Publisher: Image Works Year of Release: 1991 Game Review & Impressions --------------------------------------------------- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK (the British Board of Film Classification had a REAL downer on anything related to ninjas) was one of those defining moments of coin-op where you would be drawn to it like a moth to a flame. The massive four-player cabinet, astonishing graphics and audio, was a fantastic experience. It looked and sounded like the cartoon, and was great fun. The heroes in a half-shell had already had one video game outing thus far, and as far as the home computers of the time were concerned, it was rather awful. The title of this particular game makes it clear its associated with the Konami coin-op, and given the less-than-stellar performance of most other coin-op conversions for home formats, was there even the remotest hope this would be anything like the arcade? You might be watching this and thinking it looks rubbish, but to give Probe Software their dues, it's not as bad as you might think. The graphics are actually really good and look close to the arcade counterparts; I doubt any assets were provided to Probe, so I would guess these were all drawn from scratch. The gameplay, too, is a reasonable approximation of the arcade. Your chosen turtle must tackle the rank and file soldiers of the Foot Clan, and hitting the fire button will cycle through various attack animations, much like the arcade. The move-set is reduced, missing the tosses and throws, but it's not too bad. Where things go awry is the lack of smooth scrolling, and the complete lack of music during the game, with only dull thumps of bodies hitting the floor and the occasional explosion as spot effects. I'm also guessing that the complete absence of the iconic theme tune from the show means that Probe didn't have the necessary license to include it. So, the usual disparities for coin-op conversions exist, although having played it through, I don't think it's terrible. If you'd received this for Christmas or birthday, and were a big turtles fan, you'd probably have been rather pleased with it. It also supports two players, which would have made a big difference and upped the fun factor. Others may disagree, but I reckon this is a passable arcade conversion, one which at least looks the part; I just wish it had some in-game music. Chapters --------------------------------------------------- 00:00 Attract mode 00:55 Stage 01 05:27 Stage 02 16:55 Stage 03 21:12 Stage 04 27:04 Stage 05 33:26 Ending