Teenage Mutant Ninja / Hero Turtles (NES vs Amiga Comparison) - Octotiggy

[Gentleman Octopus]

Hi everyone!

To coincide with the US film release of Michael Bay's historical drama "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", my wife and I have been playing all the old Ninja Turtles games and uploading our reactions to our YouTube channel, Octotiggy We're calling the series TURTLEFEST, and we've started off with a 4-part comparison of several different versions of the original (and notoriously frustrating) TMNT game. We compare the popular NES version with two weird and different Amiga versions (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles).

My wife grew up in the US with Nintendos and the original NES version, while I grew up in New Zealand with a Commodore Amiga 500 computer, and owned the two weird Amiga ports. We played each other's versions of the games and tried to decide which one we liked best!

The other games (The Arcade Game, The Manhattan Project, etc.) are yet to come!

[oldmanwinters]

Interesting side-by-side!

Unlike most folks, I really like the NES game. It's hard and unforgiving, but I think the gameplay is actually pretty tight, which is what I most value in an old school game. Plus, I think Raphael is highly underrated in this one by most players. His attack power is actually quite effective against some of the strong enemies you face later in the game.

Also, why does April O'Neil briefly transform into Ronald McDonald @9:50? That can't be part of the actual Amiga game.

[Gentleman Octopus]

It's not necessarily a bad game, like a lot of people say, just bizarrely difficult. I always hear about the dam section being difficult, but I found that pretty easy compared to the side-scrolling parts!

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Also, why does April O'Neil briefly transform into Ronald McDonald @9:50? That can't be part of the actual Amiga game.

And here I thought she looked like Ronald McDonald the whole time

[Gentleman Octopus]

Just realized I forgot to post the other parts of our playthrough here! Ehh, I'm sure anyone who wanted to watch the whole thing would have found a way anyway, but here's the embeds just to make it easy

[ProactiveMan]

Awesome.

I had the Commodore 64 version which was difficult to play and looked like crap, but you could start at any level you wanted to. Needless to say, that is the only way I have ever beaten this game.

[Jester]

Well done sir (and non-present on the forum ma'am.)

[Sumac]

One of my favorite games about Turtles.
Interesting to see two different versions of the game on Amiga. Though I think both looks like crap compared to the NES version. And from the look of it they both have atrocious gameplay.

One minor complaint about those reviews - you should have trained a bit before recording. Having any kind of troubles with defeating Bebop is sort of...embarassing. At least on the NES, which is not really THAT hard.

Also, Raphael is not the most useless Turtles in the game. He is very useful in the level 4, when you need to kill flying insects. Unlike other Turtles, save for Don, he can kill them from one strike. I usually, keep Don for the bosses only. Levels are done by other Turtles.

Mike, is like the most useless Turtles in the game, since he doesn't has anything special about him. He doesn't have reach of Don or Leo and he can't kill insects from one strike like Raph. He is backup Turtle, when things going completely sour, usually in the last level.
All of this applies to the NES game of course.

[oldmanwinters]

Heh, as hard as the enemy placement in this game is, it could have always been harder as much ill-advised attempt at hacking the game demonstrates!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YqnDCJxVmM

Originally Posted by Sumac

Also, Raphael is not the most useless Turtles in the game. He is very useful in the level 4, when you need to kill flying insects. Unlike other Turtles, save for Don, he can kill them from one strike. I usually, keep Don for the bosses only. Levels are done by other Turtles.

I concur!

Most people don't get far enough into the game to see Raphael's hidden talents.

Originally Posted by Sumac

Mike, is like the most useless Turtles in the game, since he doesn't has anything special about him. He doesn't have reach of Don or Leo and he can't kill insects from one strike like Raph. He is backup Turtle, when things going completely sour, usually in the last level.

All of this applies to the NES game of course.

I think Mikey does have some added power in his crouching attack. He's pretty useful about killing some crawling enemies in those tunnels in the technodrome. Also, when his lifebar drops below a certain amount, he becomes about the equivalent of Donatello in attack power.

[Gentleman Octopus]

Thanks for checking us out, folks!

I don't like making posts that look like channel advertising, but I thought the Amiga ports might be something not many have seen before.

The NES version is definitely the best overall game. Because I grew up with the Amiga, there are certain parts of the Amiga graphics that I think have merit, but I can definitely see why people would prefer the consistent look of the NES.

Originally Posted by Sumac

One minor complaint about those reviews - you should have trained a bit before recording. Having any kind of troubles with defeating Bebop is sort of...embarassing. At least on the NES, which is not really THAT hard.

That's an understandable frustration. Our channel's theme is that my wife and I are playing each other's childhood games, so for the most part we're playing them for the first time. And when we do play games we've played before (especially in multiplayer), it's usually been a good 15-20 years since we last played them. We're really looking to record that initial reaction, rather than perfecting our skills first and then recording. On top of that, trying to be reasonably entertaining while playing a game well comes with its own challenges!

Originally Posted by Sumac

Also, Raphael is not the most useless Turtles in the game. He is very useful in the level 4, when you need to kill flying insects. Unlike other Turtles, save for Don, he can kill them from one strike. I usually, keep Don for the bosses only. Levels are done by other Turtles.

I had a feeling that might be the case, and that there would be some kind of trade-off between weapon length and damage levels. That said, I'm pretty sure the Amiga versions don't subscribe to that theory (though I could be wrong).

Again, thanks for checking us out. We still enjoyed checking out each other's versions of the game, despite our derpiness!

[Sumac]

I think Mikey does have some added power in his crouching attack. He's pretty useful about killing some crawling enemies in those tunnels in the technodrome. Also, when his lifebar drops below a certain amount, he becomes about the equivalent of Donatello in attack power.

His reach still behind that of Leo. So, powerfull he is, usefull - he is not.

The NES version is definitely the best overall game. Because I grew up with the Amiga, there are certain parts of the Amiga graphics that I think have merit, but I can definitely see why people would prefer the consistent look of the NES.

Backgrounds look more crisp and colorful on Amiga, but characters look...bad. Turtles look like Yoda with shell. And they have very awkward animations.

Our channel's theme is that my wife and I are playing each other's childhood games, so for the most part we're playing them for the first time. And when we do play games we've played before (especially in multiplayer), it's usually been a good 15-20 years since we last played them. We're really looking to record that initial reaction, rather than perfecting our skills first and then recording.

Got it.

Still it's more entertaining to watch a good gameplay. Also, it allows to see more of a game, which I think is kind of important for comparision videos.