Pure and utter nostalgia and still fun to play for hours.
Now the game is on Xbox Live and I get that same feeling like when I first played it. There is nothing more thrilling than to get online and find some random person on the internet and beat up on some foot soldiers--just like in the arcades, except you can't see their faces.
While the game is not the NES version, which is pretty disappointing, it is the original arcade version and it has not been altered in any way. The sound has not been touched. It uses the original voice acting from back when the game was first created, it uses the same explosive sounds and April's familiar scream remains. While a lot of the sound is reused, you will be most likely spending so much time beating up on the baddies that you'll only notice a few minor things.
The whole basis of the game is very straightforward--beat Shredder. In order to do this, you will have to go through a lot of, by today's standards, sloppy storyline progression in order to do so. You will have to rescue April, free splinter and defeat familiar bosses, such as Bebop and Rocksteady, in order to do so. There are also plenty of foot soldiers to beat up and many variations of them also. There are weaponless foot soldiers to foot soldiers carrying giant bombs; some even drive vehicles. Even though the game plays the same scenario, it's unlikely that you will be able to tackle it the same way twice which keeps the game interesting and with so many variations of baddies, you can't tackle them all the same.
One of the best things about this game when it was in the arcades was that anyone could "pick up and play" and join in the brawl. The controls are very simple. There are only two buttons: one being jump and the other being attack and there are three different air attacks which depend on the height of your jump. The ease of the controls make it easy for anyone, of any age, to play. The only thing you will have to get passed is the programmed difficulty.
The entire difficulty of the game was based off of the concept of arcades and making money in them. Initially, the difficulty is far more difficult than it should be based on a number of technical reasons but it still translates well into today's gaming world since offline, you have unlimited continues. However, be forewarned, the game can seem very unfair at times. You can get hit by one enemy and you can get up and they hit you again. If you're trapped in a corner, this could happen and it can be worth throwing a controller but this is how arcade worked back in the day.
Along with people being able to "pick up and play" back in the days of the arcade, you could enjoy the game with random strangers. That feeling is back with Xbox Live's online play. The game does not feel any different online. Lag is interesting and if anyone knows about older games, when too many enemies can get on a screen, the game can slow down. While this doesn't happen in the game, the lag can feel that way. While it's hard to say if I'd rather have someone skipping across the screen versus a slower game and everyone is sitll on poit with each other is a tough call. After an entire level of slow down though, it can get pretty obnoxious. It'd be best to play with people that have a decent connection, to say the least. Voice chat is also available during gameplay and most times, it does not affect lag.
TMNT 1989 Arcade provides a great deal of nostalgia for old-school players. It may not be as well received by a younger audience but the challenge it provides, especially amongst several people online, almost never gets old.