Minor Introduction
Well this review took a lot longer to drop, but here we are! Welcome to the fifth installment of this marathon, courtesy of the cowabunga collection! And finally, we are here, the final mainline NES TMNT game! Let’s see what this has to offer.
First Impressions
It’s the best NES game hands down, no questions asked. Taking the good elements of the previous NES installments, ironing out the kinks and making it a more faithful formula to the arcade beat’em’ups, The Manhattan Project ends up achieving the NES TMNT game I would gladly recommend. There are still issues present, but it’s one of the better tmmt games…it just doesn’t compare to hyperstone heist and turtles in time (reviews coming soon wink wink)
Gameplay
The combat is about what you would expect from an NES TMNT game…pretty basic lol. While it remains basic, it does a good job at keeping itself as a consistent fun loop, thanks to good enemy design that is more fair than previous NES TMNT games, varied locations for the levels (they even experiment a bit with some of the designs, there is a surfing level, a level with holes that you can hang on to and then surprise ambush, a sewer level with high and low ground, with each level also having different environmental obstacles to contend with, and it makes for a nice change of pace and good level design, despite remaining the same battle grounds at their core) and the special attacks for the turtles. They’re particularly a great introduction here, offering a “high risk, high reward” aspect to the gameplay, where you can choose to deal high damage to enemies at the cost of your hp, with each one also being distinct for each turtle and having their own specific attribute outside of just high damage. It can break bosses if used right, but due to the risk element, the tension and difficulty of the bosses is never removed. Speaking of, the bosses are designed well…for the most part, with understandable patterns and more tolerable with their counterattacks.
Story
Yet again there isn’t much to say in this section, but I do respect how the developers tried to make the story a little more exciting. Once again, Shredder interrupts an April broadcast and kidnaps her, except now he decides to…and I kid you not…turn the entirety of Manhattan into a floating island for himself! Now it’s up to the turtles to save April and Manhattan by beating Shredder to kingdom come again. It’s a fun concept that progresses as you would expect from a TMNT plot, but the road to get there is rather fun. There are also intermission cutscenes and “text cards” between levels to progress the story and they’re appreciated.
Presentation
It is the best looking NES TMNT game, simple as that. It looks as you would expect from a late NES game (hardware that the devs understand to its full capabilities). The game delivers some good spritework for characters and animation, but the highlight has gotta be the background and scrolling work, they look great! The scrolling effect looks particularly great during the surfing level. The artstyle is also a lot more colorful, detailed and popping, with a smooth framerate on top of it, and it’s all backed by the usual great music that you would expect from a TMNT game.
Negatives
The game is obviously without its flaws. The difficulty still remains rather inconsistent at times, in large part to a noticeable lack of pizzas across levels and also the presence of the usual cheap hit traps scattered around. Two bosses were rather mediocre and two levels overstayed their welcome in terms of length, especially since they weren’t even at the end of the game, where the length is more justified.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I still enjoyed my time with this game. It is the best NES TMNT game and I can totally see why it’s praised a lot. The game is still flawed at this point, but with each game slowly becoming better and better, i’m glad that the franchise ended its stint in the NES with a game I can definitely recommend wholeheartedly. This was quite a rollercoaster ride through the NES trilogy, for better and for worse. Final rating: 8/10
Well this review took a lot longer to drop, but here we are! Welcome to the fifth installment of this marathon, courtesy of the cowabunga collection! And finally, we are here, the final mainline NES TMNT game! Let’s see what this has to offer.
First Impressions
It’s the best NES game hands down, no questions asked. Taking the good elements of the previous NES installments, ironing out the kinks and making it a more faithful formula to the arcade beat’em’ups, The Manhattan Project ends up achieving the NES TMNT game I would gladly recommend. There are still issues present, but it’s one of the better tmmt games…it just doesn’t compare to hyperstone heist and turtles in time (reviews coming soon wink wink)
Gameplay
The combat is about what you would expect from an NES TMNT game…pretty basic lol. While it remains basic, it does a good job at keeping itself as a consistent fun loop, thanks to good enemy design that is more fair than previous NES TMNT games, varied locations for the levels (they even experiment a bit with some of the designs, there is a surfing level, a level with holes that you can hang on to and then surprise ambush, a sewer level with high and low ground, with each level also having different environmental obstacles to contend with, and it makes for a nice change of pace and good level design, despite remaining the same battle grounds at their core) and the special attacks for the turtles. They’re particularly a great introduction here, offering a “high risk, high reward” aspect to the gameplay, where you can choose to deal high damage to enemies at the cost of your hp, with each one also being distinct for each turtle and having their own specific attribute outside of just high damage. It can break bosses if used right, but due to the risk element, the tension and difficulty of the bosses is never removed. Speaking of, the bosses are designed well…for the most part, with understandable patterns and more tolerable with their counterattacks.
Story
Yet again there isn’t much to say in this section, but I do respect how the developers tried to make the story a little more exciting. Once again, Shredder interrupts an April broadcast and kidnaps her, except now he decides to…and I kid you not…turn the entirety of Manhattan into a floating island for himself! Now it’s up to the turtles to save April and Manhattan by beating Shredder to kingdom come again. It’s a fun concept that progresses as you would expect from a TMNT plot, but the road to get there is rather fun. There are also intermission cutscenes and “text cards” between levels to progress the story and they’re appreciated.
Presentation
It is the best looking NES TMNT game, simple as that. It looks as you would expect from a late NES game (hardware that the devs understand to its full capabilities). The game delivers some good spritework for characters and animation, but the highlight has gotta be the background and scrolling work, they look great! The scrolling effect looks particularly great during the surfing level. The artstyle is also a lot more colorful, detailed and popping, with a smooth framerate on top of it, and it’s all backed by the usual great music that you would expect from a TMNT game.
Negatives
The game is obviously without its flaws. The difficulty still remains rather inconsistent at times, in large part to a noticeable lack of pizzas across levels and also the presence of the usual cheap hit traps scattered around. Two bosses were rather mediocre and two levels overstayed their welcome in terms of length, especially since they weren’t even at the end of the game, where the length is more justified.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I still enjoyed my time with this game. It is the best NES TMNT game and I can totally see why it’s praised a lot. The game is still flawed at this point, but with each game slowly becoming better and better, i’m glad that the franchise ended its stint in the NES with a game I can definitely recommend wholeheartedly. This was quite a rollercoaster ride through the NES trilogy, for better and for worse. Final rating: 8/10