Current Events > TMNT on NES isn't even that bad to me.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I get why people hate on it, though. But back in the day I was able to get to level 4 but those spike walls always did me in. Only recently a few years ago was I finally able to beat it legit.

I'm surprised that people couldn't get past the dam level. TBH, it doesn't get really hard until stage 3.

My only exposure was that old AVGN skit.

It didn't look *that* bad even then, but the gap you have to walk over seemed kinda egregious... I don't think I'd been able to figure that out as a kid.

Recently played the underwater level with the bombs. It is Nintendo hard.

I could never beat the 3rd level. But I haven't played since probably the early 90s

I think often with many of these takes people were incredibly young. But yeah it always kind of baffles me. There is so much stuff on the NES that I thought wasn't hard at all when it came to Mega Man or Punch Out or Ghosts n' Goblins and the list goes on and on and I see comments all the time about how hard people think it was and how they haven't beat it to this day or they were the only person in their friend group who could beat it and I'm always like "What? Me and all my friends completed that and no one thought it was that hard"

I think TMNT overall is challenging but I didn't understand so many people dying on the dam level. It wasn't hard at all, even without switching turtles.

And I'm not acting like some elite gamer. I figure average, and I would get my ass beat in competitive online stuff if I played online. I just don't think a lot of this stuff was that hard but I was a bit older. I was playing most of this stuff around junior high.

The two games that were challenging to me and took up a chunk of my time that I loved were Ninja Gaiden and Blaster Master. Ninja Gaiden mostly came down to 6-2 being the problematic level.

The dam level isn't too bad once you get the hang of it.
But.. when you're playing for the first time you're given no opportunity to get used to how swimming works in that game before you're just thrown into a big water level with a time limit. So I get how it's overwhelming to players.

UnsteadyOwl posted...

The dam level isn't too bad once you get the hang of it.
But.. when you're playing for the first time you're given no opportunity to get used to how swimming works in that game before you're just thrown into a big water level with a time limit. So I get how it's overwhelming to players.

The swimming to me felt almost exactly like the swimming in SMB that I think everyone in our generation on Nintendo played.

RasterGraphic posted...

My only exposure was that old AVGN skit.

It didn't look *that* bad even then, but the gap you have to walk over seemed kinda egregious... I don't think I'd been able to figure that out as a kid.

That gap was such a pain. Then seeing on Avgn so many years later that I could have just walk over it was very disturbing honestly.

I got to the point as a young gamer where I could reliably get through level 2 without any problems. Level 3 started to get annoying mainly because you had to endlessly farm scrolls with all your turtles. Mecha-turtle was really hard and needed to be spammed with scrolls. Then level 4 was quite hard, and the boss required more scroll spam. Then level 5 just got even more ridiculous.

It was one of my first NES games and I think I got to level 6 like once and had no idea wtf to do and died pretty instantly. Every basic enemy there is pretty much boss level hard and of course I had no idea that the level was a random maze or something like that. That whole gaming generation had no internet and was badly served by propaganda advertainment outlets like Nintendo Power that "gave you the power" by giving you the maps and a few basic hints for the first two levels of any game and nothing else ever, because otherwise you might beat the game too quickly and I guess demand more value.

Meanwhile I beat Zelda 2 like once or twice, Battletoads once. Ninja Gaiden 3 a handful of times. Those games are pretty much the epitome of Nintendo Hard. They felt attainable and made you feel like you failed by being unlucky, unlike a blatantly broken game like Fester's Quest which was so unfair it was unplayable right from the beginning of the game.

Mistere_Man posted...

That gap was such a pain. Then seeing on Avgn so many years later that I could have just walk over it was very disturbing honestly.

My two hardest laughs on those videos were that and when he landed the plane on Top Gun with the power glove because I also remember getting that annoyed when I finally figured out I could just walk over the gap and also my shock at landing the plane on Top Gun initially.

archizzy posted...

The two games that were challenging to me and took up a chunk of my time that I loved were Ninja Gaiden and Blaster Master. Ninja Gaiden mostly came down to 6-2 being the problematic level.

I've beaten Blaster Master, but Ninja Gaiden is one that I still have never been able to beat. Yep 6-2...ugh.

The respawning enemies that could change every time they respawn was an awful mechanic.

The dam never gave me trouble, but those jetpack laser guys did me in. I could consistently get to the technodrome.

I remember hating the underwater level.

https://youtu.be/OGIIo1vPvGc?si=BKd8YdgakmIAnjBY

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People complain about the enemies being weirdos that aren't from the comic/show but I like the enemy selection in the game. Some of them are recognizable TMNT characters (especially the bosses) and the ones that aren't are such a bizarre collection of freaks that whatever else you might think you can't say they're boring.

I thought it was a lot of fun. You'll have a lot of game overs, but it's one of those games where you get a little farther every time until you finally beat it.

The dam level is actually really easy, if you just change turtles when your health gets low. I used to reserve Raph for this part since he sucks anyway. Even the rest of the dam level was a lot harder.

Anyway, the trick to the hallway from hell in the last level is to inch down it.

A couple of years ago, I showed my cousin this game. He never saw or even played it back in the day, playing the two Game Boy games and the Arcade games, Turtles in Time and Hyperstone Heist. He wasn't even aware of the NES port of the first arcade game or even the Manhattan Project or Tournament Fighters until I told him about the Cowabunga Collection.

Funnily enough, I have a soft spot for the NES port of the first Arcade Game, I maybe only played the arcade version once or twice (I do recall seeing the ending, though) and I remember wondering where the snow level and dojo level were. By contrast, I played the arcade versions of Turtles in Time and SNES equally, though I lean towards the arcade version more (SNES is too easy for me even on hard difficulty).

bnui_ransder posted...

https://youtu.be/OGIIo1vPvGc?si=BKd8YdgakmIAnjBY

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That song has infested my brain for like 35 years. Now that's turtle power.

I played TMNT on the Commodore 64. I beat the hell out of the Dam level, but could never get past the 3rd area because of a few poor coding efforts.

bnui_ransder posted...

https://youtu.be/OGIIo1vPvGc?si=BKd8YdgakmIAnjBY

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I heard the music before I even clicked on the video.

sfcalimari posted...

Meanwhile I beat Zelda 2 like once or twice, Battletoads once. Ninja Gaiden 3 a handful of times. Those games are pretty much the epitome of Nintendo Hard. They felt attainable and made you feel like you failed by being unlucky, unlike a blatantly broken game like Fester's Quest which was so unfair it was unplayable right from the beginning of the game.

I don't remember Fester's Quest being hard. If you knew how the top-down sections in Blaster Master worked they were pretty much the same (get hit = lose weapon power level), except you didn't have to worry about walking into a pit or anything (because you can't).

Nintendo Hard is a myth tbh.

Sure, I haven't played all of them, so I'll allow that the few I haven't might actually live up to it, but of the multiple infamously hard NES games I've played, none were actually that bad. I'm confident I died to, say, the satellite missile mission of Ace Combat 7 Expert mode or the final boss of PS2 Shinobi more times than in the entirety of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mega Man 1, Double Dragon, Super C or Zelda II. Maybe combined.

I am often humming the music to this game, mostly the overworld. Though I can shift into the sewers and the boss battles too.

bnui_ransder posted...

https://youtu.be/OGIIo1vPvGc?si=BKd8YdgakmIAnjBY

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Oh crap! Nostalgia bomb!

My favorite is part 3 for the NES.

i really like this game. gotta have a walkthrough though. really takes me back, was one of the first games i owned on NES. choices were:

Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt
Super Mario Bros 2.
Super Mario Bros 3.
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Friday the 13th
Karnov
Adventure Island 2
Hogan's Alley
Rock 'N Ball
Dragon Warrior
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Willow

and that was it. that was basically all the games I had to play in the world

It simply did not match the appeal of the tv show cartoon for its time. We were into it as kids not for the comic grit, but for the jovial action play of the tv show.

The NES games I owned (that I remember) x indicates finished

Super Mario Bros. X
Duck Hunt
Super Mario 2 x
Super Mario 3 x
Crystalis X
R.C. Pro Am
Mike Tysons Punch Out x
Top Gun
The Legend of Zelda x
Dragon Warrior 2 x
Final Fantasy x
Mega Man 2 x
Mega Man 3 x
TMNT
TMNT Arcade Game x
Blades of Steel x
Tecmo Bowl x
Double Dragon 2

ProtonJon compelled me to try this one again.

I lost at the obvious spot in the Techodrome

VeggetaX posted...

My favorite is part 3 for the NES.

3 was definitely pretty good. 2 recaptured the fun factor lost by 1 even if it was just a port of the arcade game, but it was really repetitive. 3 changed things up nicely. Turtles in Time was pretty great too.

I remember my mom helping me with the underwater bombs. I got inside the Technodome a few times but never reached Shredder.

It isnt as bad as AVGN made it out to be, but I cant lie and pretend it is great either.

1- Very little to do with the franchise. And the characters that ARE there are very hard to decipher.

2- the hit detection is very bad, lack of I-frames are bad.

3- it is a paltformer with bad platforming, sections where your sprite is too large to navigate easily, and again, the hit detection.

I do think it has a lot of cool ideas. I think if the game had more i-frames and the physics were better, it would be a very good game.

I never really did find the dam to be as difficult as people make it seem.

Stage 3 is when things start to get more difficult. And it never lets up.

Yeah but when I played this game I was like five to eight years old lol.

Level one is a tutorial.

Level 2 (dam level) is easy but you need to think a little and be on your toes.

Level 3 shit gets real!

Level 4 is like level 3 but there are more instant death spikes. The boss is easy though.

Level 5 gives you some randomness where the boss will appear, and the regular enemies hit HARD so be prepared.

Level 6 has the hallway of doom so I hope you have some ninja scrolls.

Compared to Battletoads or Ghosts and Goblins TMNT is easy. But it's still a challenge.

I could routinely get as far as the last hallway before Shredder before losing a turtle, and would quit, didn't feel like trying to go through the whole level again at the time.

sfcalimari posted...

Battletoads once.

I find this claim suspect. Maybe if you game genie'd infinite lives?

There's Nintendo Hard and then there's trying to play Battletoads without a roll of quarters after game over screens.

DnDer posted...

I find this claim suspect. Maybe if you game genie'd infinite lives?

There's Nintendo Hard and then there's trying to play Battletoads without a roll of quarters after game over screens.

I dunno how but I did it. Once. I was just in the groove that day. Tried it again a zillion times but I'd usually get fucked up in that stupid lawn mower level or the stupid sewer level. Maybe got to the last level again once.

ablegator posted...

The NES games I owned (that I remember) x indicates finished

Super Mario Bros. X
Duck Hunt
Super Mario 2 x
Super Mario 3 x
Crystalis X
R.C. Pro Am
Mike Tysons Punch Out x
Top Gun
The Legend of Zelda x
Dragon Warrior 2 x
Final Fantasy x
Mega Man 2 x
Mega Man 3 x
TMNT
TMNT Arcade Game x
Blades of Steel x
Tecmo Bowl x
Double Dragon 2

SMB1 x
SMB2 x
SMB3 x
Zelda 1 x
Zelda 2 x
TMNT
Jaws
RC Pro-Am
Magmax "x" (could beat the last boss but the game just loops back around, and there's no end to the game)
BurgerTime
Rad Racer
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! "x" (older brother was able to beat all 14 fighters, I could get as far as Piston Honda on World Circuit)
Friday the 13th x
Nightmare On Elm Street
Ghostbusters
Duck Hunt
World Class Track Meet
Star Trek 25th Anniversary
Star Trek TNG
The Mutant Virus: Crisis in a Computer World
The Simpsons: Bart vs the Space Mutants
Top Gun "x" (older brother could beat, I could get up to half-way through the fourth level, damn helicopters always got me)
and others I'm forgetting, it's been so long

I always thought Ghosts and Goblins was way overrated. Too hard, buggy, and not fun. Super Ghouls and Ghosts, however, rocked.

sfcalimari posted...

I got to the point as a young gamer where I could reliably get through level 2 without any problems. Level 3 started to get annoying mainly because you had to endlessly farm scrolls with all your turtles. Mecha-turtle was really hard and needed to be spammed with scrolls. Then level 4 was quite hard, and the boss required more scroll spam. Then level 5 just got even more ridiculous.

Honestly, 2-3 scroll packs is more than enough for the entire game. Grab them on Mike/Raph because they won't be used to avoid accidentally replacing them with a different weapon. Switch to them on a boss for the easy win. I'm guessing you are mistaken on what the level 4 boss is because it's the easiest one in the game. Stand under it with Donatello and keep attacking up. Flawless victory.

ablegator posted...

The dam never gave me trouble, but those jetpack laser guys did me in. I could consistently get to the technodrome.

The exact thing that prevented me from beating the game as a kid. Little did I know you can just duck and the jetpack guys will fly off screen.

MajorGamer posted...

Honestly, 2-3 scroll packs is more than enough for the entire game. Grab them on Mike/Raph because they won't be used to avoid accidentally replacing them with a different weapon. Switch to them on a boss for the easy win. I'm guessing you are mistaken on what the level 4 boss is because it's the easiest one in the game. Stand under it with Donatello and keep attacking up. Flawless victory.

Well that advice would've saved me some time.

The exact thing that prevented me from beating the game as a kid. Little did I know you can just duck and the jetpack guys will fly off screen.

As would that. Those guys really pissed me off.

sfcalimari posted...

I got to the point as a young gamer where I could reliably get through level 2 without any problems. Level 3 started to get annoying mainly because you had to endlessly farm scrolls with all your turtles. Mecha-turtle was really hard and needed to be spammed with scrolls. Then level 4 was quite hard, and the boss required more scroll spam. Then level 5 just got even more ridiculous.

The level 4 boss didn't need scrolls. Easiest boss in the game. You just stand under the giant Mouser's mouth with Donatello and spam the bo staff up. Hits the weak spot when he opens his mouth and kills any regular Mousers it drops.

Level 5 could be a pain if the Technodrome wasn't down the first sewer you try, where you have to fight your way back out. But one of the barns had some pizza not far from the entrance so you could fill everyone's health back up.

I generally only filled Raph up with scrolls and only used him for fights that needed them. Mecha-turtle, Technodrome and Shredder. That bipedal hedgehog thing in the caves in level 5, if I couldn't hit it from a ledge above with Don. A couple enemies in the Technodrome - the kangaroo thing and the jet pack guys. Except the final hallway leading to Shredder. Move up a little, kneel, they fly onto the screen and then back off. Rinse and repeat until you get to the end of the hallway. I'd give Mike the boomerangs. Leo and Don would get whatever.

Beat the original and TMNT II: The Arcade Game on the NES. Original again on Wii VC and Cowabunga Collection on Xbox. Only ever rented TMNT 3: The Manhattan Project a couple times and didn't get enough time with it to beat it. Will get around to it at some point in the Cowabunga Collection.

archizzy posted...

My two hardest laughs on those videos were that and when he landed the plane on Top Gun with the power glove because I also remember getting that annoyed when I finally figured out I could just walk over the gap and also my shock at landing the plane on Top Gun initially.

Sorry I missed your post somehow. Yeah seeing the shock on Avgn's face at that landing was hilarious. Congratulations to you for making that landing, I never could, but I only played it a couple times, while I think I was at a friends house.

Was making the plane landing on Top Gun NES that hard?

I find it easier as an adult than I did as a kid for sure. I replayed it a couple of years ago and knocked out the dam level on my first try

Clovershroom posted...

Was making the plane landing on Top Gun NES that hard?

Its actually not that bad once you understand to just watch your altitude and speed and how to increase/decrease speed with your nose up/down and not to over correct when the words on screen say like left left or right right. Its honestly a pretty forgiving range you need to be in. But yeah the first handful of times I crashed and didnt really grasp the controls fully.

The dam really isn't that bad when you realize the Turtles' health is completely restored afterwards. You can just switch to another one when it starts to get low. It may take a few times to work out the best route, but it's doable.

It's everything after that - especially the Technodrome - that's bullshit.

Clovershroom posted...

Was making the plane landing on Top Gun NES that hard?

It was, but practice made perfect. The bigger bullshit was the second challenge where you had to refuel a jet in the air. It was like trying to thread a needle with a very shaky hand.

Hayame_Zero posted...

It's everything after that - especially the Technodrome - that's bullshit.

Yes, yes, yes. I hated that stage and the stage afterwards. That part was totally not fair. I could deal with the earlier parts of the game, but not at that point.