[Turo602]

What made early TMNT games popular was the fact that TMNT was popular. The Arcade Game was a great beat 'em up for its time, but then we got stuff like Streets of Rage 2 down the line and like Andrew said, TMNT was doing the same exact sh*t with a new coat of paint, meanwhile better beat 'em ups were surfacing. It was the Call of Duty of beat 'em ups and because it helped fuel children's obsession with TMNT at the time, they're considered so much better than they really were. They're still a decent time with friends but in terms of quality, there always was and still is better beat 'em ups out there.

Why later games weren't as successful, is because the genre itself had trouble transitioning into 3D. Honestly, I don't think I can even think of any successful 3D beat 'em ups. The genre seems outdated and probably best works in 2D. We've since gotten much better action games with the modern day equivalent probably being hack n slash games.

The games based on the 2003 series pretty much stuck to the same formula as the arcade games, but now that it's in 3D, the empty space and repetitive combat is a lot more noticeable and a whole lot less forgivable. Then we saw a shift with the 2007 game which went the action platforming route which made the game a whole lot more playable but lacked the co-op aspect expected from a TMNT game. Now we have Mutants in Manhattan which has once again returned to the beat 'em up formula but because it was made by a competent developer, they found a way to make it work. However, just like every single game in the franchise's history, popular or not, it suffers from being tied to a series or film.

Like I mentioned before, TMNT games were only popular because TMNT got big at the right time. Today, games like Turtles in Time aren't going to fly when you have games like Batman: Arkham City. The only way for Ninja Turtles to be a popular video game franchise today, is if it's created to be a video game first and foremost and not a companion piece to something else Turtles related.