Once again it's up to the Turtles to kick some shell on Shredder and his goons!
Story: In the arcade version of Turtles In Time, we're treated to an opening scene of that banana raincoat wearing reporter, April O. Neil giving a report of some kind when out of nowhere Krang in his body suit snatches up the Statue Of Liberty and runs off with it. Then we get a scene of Shredder laugh at the misfortune of everyone and the turtles who were watching the whole report from the lair, get mad at Shredder calling him a bloated beanbag and tell him to bring back the statue. That's pretty much where the intro ends and as always, its up to our four reptilian heroes to kick some shell and bring back the Statue Of Liberty from the clutches of Shredder. For a game that was made in 1992, it wasn't big on the story, but for its credit, it was pretty good back then. The Super Nintendo version pretty much adopts too the arcade version's storyline, but it adds in a little bit more of a story that makes better sense that the arcade version. Pretty much the arcade version had you finish stage three of the game and then Shredder appears and sends you into a time warp from which you'll never return. The Super Nintendo version on the other hand adds in an extra stage, the Technodrome which makes better sense of how Shredder sends you back in time. This is where the Super Nintendo version of the game is much better with the story and it helps out considerately, that's if you bother to pay attention to the story. Overall the story is pretty thin, but then again we're talking about a beat em up game, not an epic RPG with fifty hour cutscenes.
Graphics: The arcade version of Turtles In Time was released back in 1991 and the Super Nintendo version was released in 1992, a year afterwords. Now for the arcade version of the game was very colorful and had a lot of smooth animations and the backgrounds were definitely well detailed and each stage had a sense of uniqueness to it, from the stone age all the way up to the future. You'll never see the same background used twice in the game and it helps to make the game seem much different from other beat em ups. Now the Super Nintendo version was limited since it wasn't as powerful as an arcade machine, but for all of the sacrifices the Super Nintendo version had to make, I'd say it looks very close to its arcade counterpart. Every stage that was in the arcade version of the game is present in the Super Nintendo version albeit the SNES version of Sewer Surfin and Neon Night Riders did something a little bit different, it doesn't take anyway from the game. The only thing I noticed about the Super Nintendo version of the game is the fact that with all early games, if there's too many enemies on screen or you're playing co-op expect the game to slow down in parts. Overall the graphics are clean and some of the best on the SNES at the time.
Sound: Now this is where the game definitely scores some high points, the arcade version of the game had some great background music to it and some of the songs were quite catchy (Neon Night Riders for example), you would think porting the game over to the Super Nintendo would make the music lose some of its quality and yes it does, but for some reason the music in the SNES version is somewhat better than it's arcade counterpart, like the boss theme for example. The Sony chip that was used for the SNES's sound chip makes good on making sure the music is close to the arcade as possible, (I wish I could the same for Turtles in Time Re-shelled, they screwed up big time on the music.) In the arcade version there were various voice samples in the game that would play during combat or when you faced off against the boss, sadly the SNES version had to axe these sounds because of it's limited hardware at the time, but thankfully they were able to keep a few of the voice samples and hearing the turtles say, "My toe! My toe!" after hitting a spiked ball never gets old. Overall despite the sacrifices made to the SNES version of the sound, it's still quite good for its time.
Gameplay: Probably the best part of Turtles In Time is the fact that it's a beat em up and like most beat em ups, there's something quite enduring about kicking some shell on the Foot Clan and laying the smack down on their robotic behinds. It's as basic as it gets in gaming, you seen an enemy, you smash enemy until they're no more. A lot of people will complain that it gets old after a while just beating up enemies, but back in the 90s there was nothing more exciting that teaming up with a friend and beating the ever living crap out of your opponents. Overall I can't complain as I spend hours on this game beating up on enemies, trying to get better myself.
Controls: You can't get much simpler than this, if you complain about how the controls in the game are, then you my friend aren't a true gamer! Anyway the controls pretty much boil down to one button that attacks while another button makes you jump. You can press both buttons at the same time to perform a special attack that's unique to each turtle, but be warned as it will take up some of your energy to use the special attack. You can also do a few different running attacks which add in some uniqueness to the game, but overall the controls are simple and it's easy to pick up and play.
Overall: TMNT IV: Turtles In Time is probably the best example of how to do a port right, the extra features they added within the game which included some new bosses, an extra stage, and a two player battle mode help to length out an already solid game. I really can't complain about the game as it's nearly flawless, but what holds it back from getting a perfect score from me is based on the fact that it's very short, you can probably beat the game in thirty minutes and sometimes the difficulty can be harsh on newer players and to get the true ending you have to beat the game on hard difficulty, but if you can get pass these small little problems, you're looking at one of the best TMNT games around and a solid beat em up as well. TMNT IV: Turtles in Time gets a nine from me for being an excellent old school beat em up.