The Turtles' third outing in the NES is an Instant Classic and worthy of a play through all over again !!!
While PC gaming started becoming dominant towards the late 90s, the early and middle 90s saw some wonderfully complex and lengthy games come out for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TNMT) III: The Manhattan Project was one of them. The sheer level of detail in the level design and the vastness of the game are enough to claim this as simply put, the best Ninja Turtles game out there for the NES. And just in case any more explanation is required, read on.
TMNT III rests on a pretty simple plot. Manhattan has been suspended in the air courtesy the Turtles' arch-nemesis The Shredder while the Turtles themselves holiday on a beach. A news report informs them of the incident and April, the reporter is taken hostage by Shredder as well. The Turtles set out on a rescue mission with the first level taking place on the beach itself. The level design, while having huge and vast levels for the turtles to fight on, is largely interconnected which makes it a novel experience. For instance, from the beach, you'll take to the waterways surfing and then sail towards the Manhattan bridge. From the bridge you jump over on the island itself only to land up in the sewers considering that this is where Shredder has his base located (as most Turtles fans would know). Saying anything more would be a wee-bit spoilerish but this feeling of interconnectivity between the levels, wherein it feels as though one level logically leads to the next instead of them being just disjointed and interchangeable set pieces is appealing to say the least.
While the levels themselves are pretty straight-forward and the whole game is centered around the beat-em-up game mechanic, there's a lot of variety to be found in the enemies you encounter. There are over 10 bosses in the game, each with their own distinct styles (which may seem to overlap at times), and believe it or not, each being possible to defeat in a unique way which you can discover while playing the game. Foot soldiers abound in the game with over a dozen variations which are mixed and matched pretty well to provide for a balanced gameplay. These differ in the weapons they hold; some throw spears, some boomerangs, other knives. Yet others carry large barrels which will leave you struggling for a moment or two if caught withing, not to mention reduce your life by a unit or two. And some levels host more than one bosses with the second boss being either another full-fledged boss or a mini-boss. All of this means that while gameplay is balanced, the game can be excruciatingly difficult at times and a painful experience for those who have set insane challenges as completing the game without using a single "Continue" are going to have a hard time. For first-timers, completing the game itself might prove to be challenging despite using all the available "Continues".
The game allows you to switch between turtles should you lose a life so you're not stuck with the same turtle for the entire game. This allows you to tweak your gameplay accordingly since you're anyways going to end up losing quite a lot of lives. Also, every turtle, in addition to their basic moves, has a unique special attack which, combined with this turtle change mechanic, can provide for some light strategy elements. For some stages and their corresponding bosses, Raphael's screwdriver based distant attack may come in handy while for others, Leonardo's spin may be more damaging. Playing co-op with a friend allows for even more combinations.
The game is pretty good looking, with all neat and crisp visuals by the NES standards. It, in fact, is easily amongst the best looking Turtles for the system. There are various animations for kicking, getting kicked, special attacks, normal attacks and even for instances wherein you don't press any button for a prolonged period of time. Enemies have their unique sets of animations as well. The sound is generally pleasing and the boss fight tunes race up the atmosphere and set the mood for a hardcore boss fight. In fact, this is one of the rare games I can recollect on the NES that actually has the main characters speak out a word towards the end of the game; most NES games I've played have sound but no voice. Play through the end to find out what that word is.
TNMT III is without a doubt, one of the most well-made and well polished games out there for the NES. It feels complete in almost every aspect, from design, to visuals, to sound, to presentation. The conclusion is highly satisfying and mentally rewarding given the beat ups you go through during the course of the game. If anyone has the NES or can play this game in some other form through some sort of emulator of backwards compatibility, it is truly worth going for it. Highly recommended !!!