There are two kinds of people in this world...those who grew up watching TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and those who didn't. Those who grew up watching the cartoon probably played the games too, and while most TMNT fans have fond memories of TMNT II: The Arcade game on the NES, a new generation of games came around and “boom” we have Turtles IV. Turtles IV adds some gameplay options and updated graphics. Also, since it doesn’t really fit in any category, I thought I would note the game’s humor here. I won’t mention any specifics, but the game can actually make the players laugh out loud.
Graphics
The graphics in this game are, in a word, great. Very lush and colorful, this was about as close as it got to looking like a cartoon back in those days; the only time the graphics are blocky is when the Foot soldiers are thrown at the screen. Another small feature, but interesting to note, is that all the turtles have a different shade of green to help players to distinguish their alter ego. Also, the turtle's animation is really well done. The walking, running, flipping, etc, all look very believable. With all the great graphics in the characters, good backgrounds are needed to ice the cake. Well, Konami iced the cake. The backgrounds in the walking stages are gorgeous and varied enough to keep any gamer entertained. But on those token board riding stages, the background is a just a scrolling wall or something to that extent. (The scrolling background doesn't really bother me, but it does bother some picky gamers.) But all the beautiful graphics mean nothing if it weren't for good...
Gameplay
I was torn up on how to rate the gameplay numerically. While it is fun to beat up the Foot Clan for a while, with only four or so varieties of enemies (with three of those four hardly showing up in the game) it gets repetitive quick. Anyone who has played any other TMNT game knows what I am talking about. Past that though, there are a lot of features new to the TMNT series. First off is turtle variety. Each turtle has different (in game) ability ratings. Each of the four turtles move at different speeds, and take and give more or less damage than each other. Secondly, a feature taken a step further from TMNT III, is the multiple ways of disposing the Foot Clan. Beyond the usual mashing of the B button, the turtles can now bash a stunned Foot soldier on the ground simultaneously taking out any other enemy foolish enough to walk in the path of the beaten soldier. Though my favorite move has got to be the throw. The turtles can throw a stunned Foot soldier at the screen, killing it instantly. Another new feature is the multiple game modes. There is also the token special attack, but I never used it. It takes away way too much power to be effective.
In addition to the normal game, there is a two-player versus match and a time attack mode. While not the greatest game modes, I think more games should have stuff like this... makes the game last longer. It must be noted though, that any experienced TMNT player can beat this in just a couple of sittings, add another experienced TMNT player and it can be beaten in one sitting. There are multiple difficulty settings though, but even on hard, two-players are not going to have much trouble saving the world.
Control
I have a few issues with the control. My first gripe is that running is not very responsive. Running can be set to either auto (hold down d-pad) or manual (tap d-pad twice), but even with two options, the auto running makes my turtle run when I don't want him to and the manual running just isn't responsive. One good thing about the control is that there are a lot of different setups (which makes me wonder why Konami didn't just add a customizable control interface), but with all these setups, the game still only uses two or three buttons depending on which control setup is used. I don't usually have a problem with using fewer buttons, but when using less buttons makes the control more complicated, I draw the line. More buttons could have been used for stuff like the Foot soldier bashing and throw, because a lot of the times I did one when I meant to do the other… very frustrating indeed.
Sound
Voices are used to introduce each level, which is very cool. Also, the turtles all have little blurbs of excitement or pain. The big thing though is that all the voices are understandable, which is an accomplishment for the time.
The sound effects aren't bad, but they're not good either. There are just your usual explosions, clanks, and bashes. I'd have to say that Konami settled for good enough on sound effects.
The music is crisp and varied, with some different tunes on each stage. It's hard to rate the tunes though because a lot of the music is just nostalgic for me. Somebody let us know what you think in the comments section.
Overall
I decided that I would have been pissed if I would have paid full price for this game back when it was first released, but with the "slightly" used price of SNES games these days it was worth it. The game is repetitive, but fun and it's probably the best TMNT game out there right now. Let's just hope that the new TMNT game that Konami is making is incredible.
