Review: TMNT II for the NES and Arcade!

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Game and System - Arcade and NES

Year released in the United States - 1989 (arcade) 1990 (NES)

Manufacturer/Publisher - Konami/Ultra

  One thing I love about the Nintendo Entertainment System is that when I play certain games using the NES Advantage joystick I actually feel like I’m playing in the arcade. It’s the combination of using the joystick with the large buttons along with playing a title that was originally an arcade game to begin with that totally brings me back to the days of pumping quarters into arcade machines. Today I wanted to bring into the spotlight a game that means something special to me and had a big part in making my childhood as fun as it was. A game that has supplied me with so many fond memories that I can’t even begin to bring into light because there are just so many. And lastly, a game that I consider to be the greatest 2-player experience in the history of the medium, as well as the best 4 player arcade experience you could ever have. Today I give you my written review of TMNT II: The Arcade Game (or TMNT: The Arcade Game if you're not playing on the NES).

  My first experience with TMNT: The Arcade Game was actually in an arcade called “Great Times” where I pumped coin after coin into the unit to play alongside 3 other strangers as we tried to battle our way to The Shredder, but because the game was so damn difficult (even with all 4 players) that never came to fruition. I played the game quite a bit back in those days and when I found out that it was going to be ported over to the NES I knew I just had to have it. Sadly I wouldn’t own a copy of this game until well after the life-cycle of Nintendo’s famed console was over. However, I did rent the game quite a few times circa 1991-1992 and thanks to the help of Game Genie I was able to complete the home version a number of times, including a few times over the past several years just for kicks. I can’t really pinpoint exactly what it is about this game that has drawn me to it so often throughout the years but it does have a charm to it that brings me back to a time growing up where I’d be watching the original TMNT cartoon on Saturday mornings, and I'll be honest when I say that I do have a soft spot for “beat ‘em up” games so that could be a big reason why. But one thing that stands out about TMNT II is I’ve played this game alongside some of the best friends I’ve ever had and I’ve experienced a lot of fun doing so. It's odd how sometimes the memories you have with a game can draw you back into a game time and time again, especially if a game is as stellar as this one is. In TMNT II the gameplay itself is quite simple. You clear stage after stage of enemies as you rack up points and pizzas until you fight the boss and hack n’ slash your way on to the next level. It’s really no different from games like Double Dragon or Final Fight except that it’s got a TMNT theme to it. The game is extremely fun as a single player experience but where this game really shines is in co-op mode with a second player (or 4 in the arcade) and that's where the core of the experience begins to shine through.

   The NES port was given an additional few stages and some new bosses to expand upon the original arcade game, which in itself didn’t have too much content. Sure, the game had to take a dip in graphics to be successfully ported to the NES, but graphically speaking it still shines on the console hardware and holds up against pretty much every game in its genre around the time of its release. The arcade version featured graphics similar (but better) to the SNES TMNT game and had some amazing audio to it that made the game feel almost like a live action comic book and very similar to the cartoon. It was truly an amazing experience to play this in the arcade as a kid, I’ll never forget the fun I had with this game and I always look for it whenever I visit an arcade to this day. Sadly, I’m almost always disappointed when I see that the game is nowhere to be seen in modern day arcades, though I have discovered an arcade not to far from me that has it out to play on occasion. The audio in the arcade version was one of those little things that made going to an arcade special back in those days and I've never felt like home versions of arcade games nailed the audio anywhere near the way cabinets did. The same could be said about the visuals. Some have come close but it's usually always apples and oranges. Back around 2010 I stumbled upon an arcade faithful port on the XboX 360 store and downloaded it because I saw that you could co-op with 3 other people and I had an absolute blast and the game felt as close to the original arcade game as it possibly could. I was instantly paired up with 3 other people and we chatted and shared memories of the game while we played on XboX Live and ended up breezing through and making it to the end with almost no problem at all. One guy I played with was an absolute pro and was kicking ass like you wouldn't believe and it was a pleasure watching him do his thing and you could tell he was a pro at the TMNT games. Sadly I've been told that the game is no longer available to download on the Xbox 360. Luckily not to long after that I found the X-Men game that brought me almost as much joy in the arcades and ended up downloading it and playing with the same people thanks to having them on my friends list. More arcade faithful ports should come to console via download like this one did, it’s such a nostalgic experience and done so well on modern hardware. Again though, I'm told it's Xbox 360 release was limited and it's since been removed from the market. I fucking hate that companies do that, just let the fans enjoy the content and stop pulling games off the market for download you greedy corporate dicks!

  Now, getting back to the production portion of the game and its pros and cons. Wait.....what cons? The only con I can think of is the music and audio in the game and only when it comes to the NES port. The music in TMNT II is reminiscent of the cartoon from the 80’s and the audio in the game is fantastic in the arcade and merely good on the NES, but all in all I’d rate the game high as it’s surely a pleasurable experience to listen to and is faithful to what we grew up with from the cartoon. The controls in this game are tight and responsive and I’ve never had an issue with hit detection or the characters performing the commands from the controller and I’d rank the control among some of the best I’ve ever experience in a side scrolling beat ‘em up style game. But as good as the graphics are, as fun as the music is, and as tight as the controls are, the strength of this game settles in just how fun it is to play and if you aren’t playing video games to have fun than you may as well drop your controller and walk away. TMNT II ranks among one of my personal favorite video games of all-time and is a game I revisit every year or so and there have been very few 2-player games on the NES (or any console for that matter) that stack up to it and absolutely none that can touch it in the arcade. It’s a true classic that has risen above the test of time and a game that I’ll always remember how much fun I had playing it with friends at home and with strangers at the arcade and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s never had the pleasure of firing this bad boy up and giving it a go. Go ahead....I dare you....

Graphics/Visuals - 8.5 (NES) 9.0 (Arcade)

Sound/Music - 9.25 (NES) 9.75 (Arcade)

Control/Handling - 9.25 (NES) 9.0 (Arcade)

Fun/Enjoyment - 9.25 (NES) 9.25 (Arcade)

OVERALL SCORE - 9.25 (NES & Arcade)

"Keep creating" ~ Retro-X™

You can now follow the author of this entry on Twitter @WorldofRetroX

This article is © & ™ 2015 by RTXproductions LLC.

Nintendo Amiibo Hunting update #1!

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Amiibo Hunting Update

    Well, it was only a matter of time until I got struck by Amiibo fever and it happened on Tuesday afternoon of this week. Over the past two weeks I've been watching YouTube videos of people seeking out Amiibo figures and having a blast as they found the ones they wanted and it reminded me of when I was a Star Wars action figure collector and I'd raid a dozen or so stores over the course of a day trying to find the figures I didn't have yet. One video had a kid waiting in line at a Wal-Mart for 12 hours just to get one Amiibo that was being released and another video had a guy spending all day inside of a TRU waiting for them to get a shipment. This isn't something I've not done in ages and I thought to myself that the people in these videos were enjoying the "thrill of the hunt", which is a natural high I'd get back when I'd find a rare Star Wars figure I'd been hunting. Man, those were the days. I loved gassing up the car and hitting up multiple stores on a hunt and finding the characters I needed, sometimes I'd do this with my friend Ken and it was a blast. I've already started a small collection of "World of Nintendo" figures somewhat recently and I suppose that moving onto Amiibo would be the next step, but at $12.99-$13-99 per figure that would be extremely expensive and I figured I'd wait until Christmas before taking the leap. But anyone who knows me knows that I'll spend whatever it takes to complete a collection, no matter what it is I'm trying to find. So, I was at Wal-Mart browsing the Wii U games with my wife and as we were about to make a purchase I decided to check out the Amiibo section, but it was pretty well picked over with just the same Mario and Luigi I've always seen at stores as I browse. As we hit the car I decided to drive over at Gamestop since it was in the same plaza and I came across the 30th Anniversary Mario Amiibo, as well as Pac-Man and Yoshi so I decided to bite the bullet and pick them up, thus officially becoming an Amiibo collector. We also got the Amiibo Super Mario Brothers end level star and flag setup to display them on. What a trip!

    So, this morning (3 days later) I decided that I would take a trip to Gamestop and try to get my hands on the blue yarn Yoshi Amiibo that launched alongside the game today and while I was there I decided to pick up the Bowser from the Super Mario series since he was so cool looking. I walked a few stores down to Toys R' Us since I know they've been stocking up on Amiibo's and I've always liked their large dedicated selection and while I was there I found Little Mac, Zero Suit Samus, and Fox from Star Fox so naturally I scooped them up for my very own. They had some other harder to come by Amiibo's at TRU such as Gannondorf, Shulk, Lucario, and one of the other Pokemon characters but I left them behind since my funds were running low, though I will pick up the Gannondorf next week if they still have them (they had 5). They also had a few others I wanted such as Fire Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Sonic, but they're all common enough and I see them everywhere I go so I'll grab them as I come across them at a later date. So yeah, that's pretty much it for this Amiibo collecting update, more will come as I continue to pick these little wonders of joy up or get them for Christmas. I was so torn about opening my Amiibo's up as the collector in me wanted to keep them in their packaging, but they just look so damn cool on the display set I bought that I had to open them up. I'm keeping my World of Nintendo figures sealed in their packaging though because they look so damn good that way, but since I'm not collecting for value and I'm collecting for fun I suppose opening the figures up and displaying them isn't a bad decision after all. Happy hunting Amiibo fans!

"Keep creating" ~ Retro-X

Follow the author on Twitter @RealRetroX

This article is © & ™ 2015 by RTX Productions LLC.

Review: Air Fortress for the NES!

   

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Game and system: Air Fortress for the NES

Year released in the United States: 1989

Manufacturer/Publisher: Hai America

  Today I had the urge to sit down and write something special about a video game that means something to me. Why is it special? Well, mainly because it’s something that is very near and dear to me and it’s a game that I feel doesn’t get the true respect it deserves among the retrogaming community. What game could I be talking about, you wonder? I’m talking about a title that many of the "casual" gamers of the 80's and early 90's may have not known about. And to me it's not just any video game, but a videogame that happens to be near and dear to my heart, and a game that has flown underneath the radar among fans and collectors for far too long. The game I’m talking about is Air Fortress for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and it’s about damn time this classic title gets a little love.

For those unfamiliar with the game allow me to elaborate on just how unique of a title Air Fortress really was. See, back in the days of the NES you had multiple kinds of games to choose from whether it be side scrolling, racing, flying, fighting, arcade-style, sports, or whatever else you could think of, but there wasn’t much in the way of games that combined all of the genres. There were a few at the time on the NES,  and a few that came after, but what Air Fortress did was take two very popular styles of gameplay and mixed them together into a very fun and exciting package that was actually fun to play. Air Fortress was released in Japan sometime in 1987 and then in the U.S sometime in 1989, but there is a rumor that the publisher released a small amount of the game in the U.S in 1987 to see what the reaction would be for it and that there are copies floating around out there that may be slightly different than the version the masses saw in ‘89. The game starts out with you on an aircraft and you spend some time flying through space shooting enemies and collecting power-ups much like in games like Defender. After a while you find yourself docking your ship and the game morphs from a traditional side-scrolling space shooter into a side-scrolling action adventure game where your character floats around inside of some kind of space station shooting enemies and destroying glowing meteors. It’s interesting that the developers decided to take this approach and it’s really exciting that they did because the game excels at both portions and makes for a great gaming experience. Don’t get me wrong here, it isn’t like the side-scrolling adventure portion is as robust as Mega-Man or other similar games within the genre but it is fun to play and the amount of power-ups you get while on your ship can determine how long you survive in the adventure mode.
Upon being unique in its gameplay Air Fortress features some of the most amazing and memorable music in a video game that I can remember. This is a key category when discussing NES games as many of them are known for their amazing (nor not so amazing) score and Air Fortress excels with tunes that are heroic, groovy, and downright legendary in my book. I remember playing this game as a kid and thinking to myself that this could possibly be the best in-game music in a video game I’ve ever heard and for years I walked around whistling tracks from this game throughout my normal everyday life. Even long after I owned an NES I would often think about the music from many of its games, Air Fortress being one of them, that’s how big of an impact this category had on me. It's just so memorable and iconic. On top of having a tremendous score the game features decent graphics, nothing mind-blowing, but graphics similar to what was going on back in the late 80’s. Nothing really to note in the visual department, I mean, the game looked fine and was on par with other games in the same genre though there were some that did looked better from a side-scrolling perspective. In my opinion it’s worth noting that Air Fortress was released 2 years prior to when we got it in the U.S so it may have looked better had it been produced later on, but note that I can’t 100% verify that it mirrors the Japanese version or has been upgraded in graphics for the United States release. On top of the wonderful music and the adequate graphics the game sports very smooth controls that add to the fun and enjoyment of playing it. The ship steers nicely and moving around the main character around feels great, especially when floating through the bases and shooting the baddies while away from your spacecraft. It's one of those games that just felt so good to play thanks to the controls being crafted so nicely.
  All in all Air Fortress ranks among some of my favorite games of all-time and is high on the list of my favorite NES games ever. Sometimes it’s all about the memories you have with a game and I’ve had countless memories with Air Fortress, including bringing it to a beach house in Cape Cod way back in 1991 when on vacation with my mother, aunt, and close friend. We hooked up the ol’ NES one night after digging for clams and catching some rays at the beach and had a blast making it through the levels and trading off the controller. Memories such as that really feel good to touch upon when writing up a review of a video game, sometimes they’re as important as the game itself. If you grew up in the days of the NES than you know what I’m talking about, and if you played this game than you probably understand why my love for it shines as bright as it does. For those who may just be discovering the NES and its extensive library I challenge you to give this game a shot and get back to me here on the blog in the comments section and let me know what you think. Until we meet again retro-fans, take care of yourselves!

Graphics/Visuals - 8.0

Sound/Music - 9.25

Control/Handling - 9.25

Fun/Enjoyment - 8.75

OVERALL SCORE - 8.75

"Keep creating" ~ Retro-X

Follow the author on Twitter @RealRetroX

This article is © & ™ 2015 by RTX Productions LLC.