Is Turtles in Time overrated?
 

Before you bring out the pitchforks, remember that "overrated" does not mean something is "bad", OK?!

I think the SNES version of Turtles in Time is the best TMNT game from the 80s and 90s overall, but I think a lot of people overrate it a bit. I remember even Screwattack calling it the best beat 'em up ever, which is a bit eyebrow raising. No way Turtles in Time is better than Streets of Rage 2 or the SNES Final Fight games.

It's a fun game and all but calling it a 10/10 game is a gross exaggeration, imo.

Thoughts?

My thoughts on this are the same as my thoughts have always been in this regard. Turtles in Time was just the latest in a slew of brainless, two button mashing Final Fight clones under a TMNT skinsuit with rainbow Foot Soldiers, of all things.

Overrated? Absolutely.

I like all of the classic beat 'em TMNT games plus Shredder's Revenge, but at the same time I've always been disappointed in how Konami and other companies almost always stuck to beat 'em up style games for the license. A little more variety would have been cool. I guess beat «em ups are cheap to develop...

I just hated that they gave up trying to do a real, original TMNT game after the first NES game. And then even AFTER they fiiiiinally were done doing beat 'em ups with TMNT, what do they try and clone next? Fu**ing Street Fighter with Tournament Fighters!

Unbelievable.

Obviously with it having been over 30 years since the last TMNT beat 'em up enough time has passed that, OK, sure, we can have a big over the top celebration of those games. It's fun. It even added little touches like an overworld map, somewhat like TMNT 1 on NES.

SNES Tournament Fighters was solid, imo. It's probably one of the best Street Fighter clones out there and it's not like they overdone it since we haven't gotten a TMNT fighting game ever since.

There's a fanmade TMNT game called Rescue Palooza with lots of characters to play as. I keep getting it recommended to me but am yet to try it.

As for 2k3 games... the GBA games are fine, especially the 2nd one. That one is not a Final Fight clone at all. I don't think any of the original Game Boy Turtle games were beat 'em ups though?

It was one of the greatest beat 'em ups of the 90's and stood the test of time over 30 years, so yeah. It's good for exactly what it is.

Over 30 years? Most of the TMNT games in the last 30 years have been beat 'em ups.
What about Mutant Melee or Smash-Up?

I just refer to the Final Fight clone model.

Well, TMNT (2003), TMNT (2007) (GBA), Re-Shelled, Arcade Attack, TMNT (2013), and TMNT (2017) would all fall in that model.

You sure? Just walking left to right (primarily) down a horizontal flat playground smacking bad guys with 2 buttons? Maybe so. I'm not familiar with most of those. I wouldn't count Re-Shelled as that's just a... smoothing over of an existing beat'em up, though I'd completely forgot about it. I remember the anger when it was de-listed and you couldn't get it if you didn't already have it downloaded.

I forgot about those tbh, but then again, I was thinking of traditional fighters, something those clearly don't seem to me. Smash-up is obviously a Smash Bros. clone.

That's funny because I thought most people were disappointed by Re-Shelled.

The only reason I was disappointed in Re-Shelled was that it was based on the Arcade version instead of the superior SNES version of Turtles in Time I had grown up with.

The Arcade version of the game is rather forgotten.

It does seem like Turtles in Time is a rare case where the console port is superior to the arcade version. The only console that almost always seemed to do arcade ports justice was the Sega Saturn.

It’s a fun beat-em-up, but that’s about it.

It’s not even a top TMNT game. I prefer The Manhattan Project.

Yeah dude, **** Cement Man lol

It sitll baffles me that Re-Shelled was exclusively based off the arcade version. I mean it was already a remake redoing everything from scratch including the music, there was no way to 'toggle' classic sprite mode or anything of the like, they literally could've made a best of with everything from both SNES/Arcade..


As far as Arcade vs SNES, here is the unpopular opinion but the Arcade version is better than the SNES one. The added sewer level? While a nice extra it's just reusing the original arcade's sewer level basically. The added villains? sure they're cool that's the only plus and the only reason people say the SNES version. But that's about it.

Arcade on the other hand has better graphics, animation and frames, it's 4 players, the soundtrack/sound is so much better, better physics, more challenging,Neon Night Riders is inferior, same with sewer surfin even if there is no boss, bosses aren't as easy, and have an actual 'defeated' animation.

Are we really going to say the SNES version is better because the end boss is Super Shredder instead of Shredder? That's basically it, changing cement man for Slash, adding Rat King makes it a better game?

I already said SNES Turtles in Time was superior, yeah.

I'd say TMNT Tournament Fighters was the best SNES from-the-ground-up fighting game. It wasn't adapting a pre-existing fighting game from the arcades.

It has a small but a dedicated competitive scene in Japan even. I've seen some of those matches on youtube many years ago.

I'm not sure if the Cowabunga Collection increased the size of its competitive scene with its online play or not.

There are two fan mods for Tournament Fighters, one just updates it and modernizes it adding a bunch of features and the other is similar but it's also a crossover game with Justice League characters. Technodromer OldManWinters worked on that one. Both are fun.

I love Turtles in Time and I agree with Cybercubed that it has stood the test of time. Just for fun I am going to list most if not all of the non beat em up games. Some may have beat em up elements without it being the main focus.

* TMNT for the Nes
* All 3 Tournament Fighter games
* Radical Rescue for gameboy
* Battle Nexus for the gameboy advance
* TMNT 2007 for home consoles
* TMNT 2007 for the DS
* Mutant Melee for home consoles
* Smash Up for home consoles
* Danger of the Ooze for 3ds and I forget
* Ninja Turtles based off the Michael Bay version for 3ds. It's a dungeon crawler.
* Tactical Takedown for all modern consoles (I think)

I can't beat the bridge stage in Manhattan Project. I always get my game over there. I guess it's a skill issue.

Perhaps best SIDE-SCROLLING beat 'em up. I put the likes of Streets of Rage in the fighter game category.

Turtles In Time Arcade version has the Cement Monster from the one scene that Baxter had the Eye of Sarnath, why??? Slash and dressed like pre-historic humanoid? YES! Overall, the SNES set of bosses is almost as good as it could get during Turtlemania, I mean I might have included Chome Dome instead of Metalhead(since I consider Metalhead overall an ally even if it varies),but its just a fantastic set of foes. It also has great backgrounds outside the given sewer level and Technodrome final level. The special abilities also helps. Not to mention it is beatable with effort without a teenager having to carry me.

Turtles in Time SNES is my favorite Ninja Turtles video game edging out Manhattan Project that also had the three look-fors. Those of course are boss roster, scenes, beat ability not too hard but not easy. Both have repeat play ability too.

For the 1st generation of TMNT fans its easily the best video game and my favorite, overall TMNT game unbias? I don't know,like I said I love Manhattan Project too and while I played all the TMNT 2003 cartoon games they did not have the same charm for me,but I prefer side-scrollers to open world. I like games that have a definitive beginning and ending not continuous updates and 100%ing. Best overall game? Not hardly. It does deserve to at least be highlighted in both TMNT history and SNES coverage.

I just saw Cement Man as Clayface from Batman, pretended he was the same character.

How the heck do you consider Streets of Rage a fighting game instead of a beat 'em up?

I own Hyperstone Heist for the Genesis. In all honesty, even Turtles In Time looks like more fun than Hyperstone Heist was. An emulator would be the way to go.

Throwing Foot Soldiers at the TV screen? Sign me up for that!

Hyperstone Heist is fine but it clearly gives you vibes of "Oh your parents bought you a Mega Drive instead of a SNES? Well here's a poor man's version of Turtles in Time, then!"

Also, it's harder. Especially the gauntlet level where you face 4 previous bosses in a row with only one pizza to refill your health. I always get a game over there.

It is also included in the 2022 Cowabunga Collection.

There is that very distinctive, cheap audio chip in the Sega Genesis. Very synth-y MIDI-like.

The Mega Drive when it comes to music... it's GREAT when it's Sonic or Streets of Rage since they had composers that knew what they were doing. But, for the most part, the MD couldn't compete with SNES soundchip made by Sony.

It's funny back in the SNES/Genesis days ports of third party games didn't exist, they just made completely different games per each console. Hyperstone Heist just feels like a modern day rom hack of Turtles in Time with some altered levels and a new boss with Tatsu.

I think the classic Mortal Kombat trilogy was the earliest example of third party ports that were mostly the same game on each console, just with slight differences in graphic/audio and some censoring on Nintendo consoles.

It still happens sometimes. Look at the Ghostbusters game on Wii compared to the other systems, totally different engine and design. And there's a completely different version of Dragon Quest XI on 3DS vs. on Playstation.

It did happen in the Wii PS3 era since the power of both consoles was so different, but I wouldn't call that "still happens" that was two decades ago and those games are literally closer to the SNES era than they are to the current era.
DQXI is more of an exception and even then that was nearly 10 years ago.

We won't see that happen ever again, even the Switch 1 was powerful enough to get downgraded ports of the big console counterparts. People made fun of Mortal Kombat 1 for example but it was essentially the same game with crappier graphics.

DQXI isn't on the 3DS. You mean the Switch? Or perhaps you mean a different DQ game?

My mistake, I read it as Street Fighter. :D

Its funny that you type that. Hyperstone Heist was the very first TMNT game I ever beat on my own (if you don't count Fall of The Foot Clan because you can skip around levels)! Maybe its because I was 2-7 when all the games game out.

Hyperstone Heist does have two things that always stood out to me, it has Tatsu as a level boss and Rocksteady with no Bebop in sight. I would have preferred Bebop. Haha.

Rocksteady and no Bebop is indeed odd. But arcade Turtles in Time didn't have either guy!

It's funny because when TMNT "died" in the mid-90's, it why the N64 and Playstation 1 is the only console generation with no new TMNT game.

TMNT didn't come back till 2003 with the 4kids games on Gamecube/PS2/XBox and the GBA versions (which are better 2D games). But it's funny to me there was no TMNT game on N64 or Playstation 1 which reflects the TMNT brand being dead in the mid/late 90's.

Don't forget the Sega Saturn!

But I do shudder to think of how a TMNT game for a system of that generation would turn out. In 1995-2000 no one was going to break their bank to make a TMNT game since the property was practically dead and off the public eye. Perhaps the Next Mutation would have gotten a tie-in game if the show got a 2nd or 3rd season? :lol:

I remember as a kid The Next Mutation did have a decent marketing and licensing push. I was hyped as heck for TNM despite never actually getting to watch it, I still had some figures, a coloring book and whatnot.

While it did get a handheld Tiger LCD game, I'm surprised it didn't get a cheaply made PS1 or even Game Boy game. I'd love to have had one even if it had been bad.

https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6056/...6af65ea162.jpg

A Tiger LCD game sounds fitting for a Next Mutation game. Sh*tty game adaptation of a sh*tty show for a sh*tty system.

Also, Fox Kids? I guess that's when TMNT's history with Fox began? Not with the 2k3 series...

Anyway I'd have been 7-8 when TNM aired here but don't remember it ever airing even though some people around my age did tell me it aired and they remember watching it back in the day. I know kids have lower standards since they don't know any better but even the few people I spoke to who watched TNM when they were kids said "Man, that was lousy!"

The Adventure Continues
 

Actually, Next Mutation aired in Italy over Italia 1 as Tartarughe Ninja: l'avventura continua (Ninja Turtles: The Adventure Continues).

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartar...ntura_continua