The first TMNT game has a great concept but proves to be more frustrating than fun.
THE GOOD
-Character switching at anytime is a cool feature
-Good sound effects
THE BAD
-Punishing difficulty
-Enemies re-spawn
-Later levels make Leo, Mike and Raph useless because of their weak attacks
OVERVIEW
The courageous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles led by Master Splinter consists of Leonardo (the leader), Raphael (the tough guy), Donatello (the scientist) and Michelangelo (the party guy). These four lovable turtles use their ninja skills to fight crime. Their nemesis, known as the Shredder, is the leader of the Foot-Clan and they are out to control the world. From the beginning of the game, the Turtles receive a feed on their TV with Shredder's face. Shredder tells them that he has captured April O'Neil and then laughs at them. Once the turtles see this message they start to look for April and their quest begins. Later you find out that you need to rescue Splinter and then even later, defeat the Shredder.
GAMEPLAY
This game plays like a 2D platformer side-scroller and a bird's eye view scroller as well. You start in the bird's eye view where you can move your character around and enter different areas. Some areas are mandatory in order to progress through the game but some are optional. When you enter a stage the game changes to the side-scroller and this is where all the fighting action takes place.
Each turtle has three basic attacks: the normal, upward and downward. Leo and Mike have very weak attacks in this game which makes them useless against bosses and enemies on higher levels. Raph has a little more power but with his short range it makes for very difficult boss fights. Don is the man in this game. He has the best range and strength, by far, so you'll want to keep him alive at all times.
As you fight enemies through a bunch of different levels the enemies have a chance to drop secondary weapons like Shurikens, Boomerangs and Scrolls. Enemies can also drop life restoration items, which are pizza slices. TMNT has some enemies from the cartoon like Foot Soldiers, Bebop and Rocksteady but also has a lot of unique enemies to this game only.
A really cool feature about this game is that you can switch between turtles at any time to help you keep your team alive. Unfortunately, this game has plenty of annoying features. Because three out of four turtles are weak, the difficulty is brutal. You'll get the feeling of being grossly underpowered throughout the entire game. Also, once you defeat an enemy and walk forward, when you back track the enemy that you just defeated will re-spawn. This makes the game very tedious and frustrating because most of the time you're losing valuable health. The controls and the level designs are decent for this game. Some levels require lots of platform jumping but for the most part fighting is the main activity.
GRAPHICS & SOUND
The visuals for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are pretty good. There is some good detail involved with the characters and backgrounds.
The music and sound from the game are really fun to listen too. From the thunderous sound of Don's bo to the music of the underwater mission, the audio is a big plus.
CONCLUSION
Being a big TMNT fan it hurts me to tell you that I can't fully recommend this game. There are some pros but the abundance of annoying cons really makes the game not as fun as it could be. That and with the punishing difficulty I would have to say that this game is not meant for everyone. As cool as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are, this game will not have you shouting "Cowabunga".