remember how fall of the foot clan was very basic and bland with no variety
back from the sewers fixes that problem, and honestly it almost seems ambitious. at its core, its still a sidescroller where an enemy jumps at you from the border of the screen and then he dies in one hit, but now, every few minutes the levels will be... not 3d, but you can move in all directions like in most beat-em-ups (but enemies still die in one hit and theres no combos or throws or anything so i wouldnt classify it as a beatemup), and there are even skateboard sections and more enemy variety

problem is
the level design is ass, the enemies will SWARM you, especially mausers, and bosses cant be stunlocked anymore and just take forever to kill
by all accounts everything added should make the game better, but it just ends up making the game worse
its not good

The first TMNT game that was released for the Game Boy, Fall of the Foot Clan, was quite possibly the most basic and bare-bones Ninja Turtles game that has ever been made. It was nothing more than just a regular action platformer where you walked from left to right, slashed up enemies, and jumped sometimes. For what it was, it was nothing awful, and I had a decent time with it, but it is definitely not gonna be the TMNT game I choose to revisit multiple times in the future. Of course though, because it was the Ninja Turtles, it was extremely successful, leading to yet another series of games that would be released right alongside the NES and arcade games. So, just one year after that game came out, we would then get the sequel known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers.

When going into this, I had very low expectations. Given how the first game went down, I was assuming that this was gonna be just a generic sequel, with not much more going on compared to the original game, and was primarily meant to be another piece of merchandise for the brand. For the most part, I was right in my assumptions, but I will give it credit, as there does seem to be a lot more “effort and care” placed in this one compared to the previous, making it more likable. So as a whole, I would consider this to be a good game, definitely an improvement over the original, and while it still isn’t anything all that special, I’m sure it’ll satisfy the cravings of any rabid Turtles fans out there.

The story is, what else, Shredder’s being a dick, and the Ninja Turtles gotta stop him, with there being no story elements presented to the player whatsoever, so I am glad to see that the game cares about the plot as much as I do, the graphics are Game Boy graphics, but the sprites and levels this time around do look a lot better, especially with character portraits and animations, the music is pretty good, having a lot of tunes you would expect, with some others that sound good for a Game Boy game, while accompanied by a bunch of compressed voice lines that are just so painfully enjoyable to hear, the control is exactly what you would expect, so moving on, and the gameplay is almost identical to the original game, but there were some change implemented that, while not being original for a TMNT game, do make it feel like a more complete package.

The game is primarily a 2D action platformer, where you take control of one of the four Ninja Turtles, or in my case, Leonardo only, go through a set of six different levels, slash through many different typical baddies that one can find from this universe, gather plenty slices of pizza to make sure you are completely prepared for whatever lies ahead, complete several bonus stages to get even more pizzas, and take on plenty of familiar faces in plenty of boss fights, which range from extremely easy, to only slightly more difficult. It fills out all of the checkboxes for what you would expect from a typical TMNT game, while also managing to expand the gameplay… or at least, as much as you would expect from a Game Boy TMNT game.

First off, there are now levels in the game where you will be riding on hoverboards while taking out enemies, and these levels actually have a Z-axis rather than being limited to a 2D plane. It doesn’t change up the gameplay too much, and this isn’t a completely original segment never before seen in a TMNT game, but… hey, at least it is something. In addition to that, instead of having a typical set of lives, the turtles themselves act as the lives. Whenever you die, the current turtle you play as gets captured, and you are then forced to play as one of the other turtles. Thankfully, at the end of the level though, you are then given the chance to save the captured turtle to use once again, which is a pretty neat feature, making you experiment with the turtles if you are too bad. Obviously, I never had to go through this, because I am just too awesome (really loves that rewind button), but it sounds like a neat feature regardless.

If that isn’t enough to fulfill your picky TMNT desires though, then what you end up with is yet another generic Ninja Turtles platformer. Sure, it does manage to look, sound, and play better then the original game in every regard, but if you weren’t really a fan of that original game, then you probably won’t like this one either. That’s really the only big issue that I ended up having with the game though. If I had to get extremely nitpicky, I could complain about how you don’t get fully healed in between levels, but that is what the bonus stages are for, so there's really no point in complaining about that. Much like there isn’t much point in playing this game.

Overall, despite the improved presentation and gameplay, this game just barely manages to be better than the previous game, being more of what you got from the first Game Boy title, which could be good for some, and bad for others. I would recommend it for those who loved that original Game Boy game, as well as those who are big fans of the Ninja Turtles, but for everyone else, you are better off playing other TMNT games that came out around this era. Although, with all that being said, if you haven’t heard any of the voice samples that came from this game, then you should go give them a good listen. They are just as crusty as you think they are.

Game #439