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Games

TMNT Electronic Pinball!

by Chris M. P. January 14, 2020

written by Chris M. P.

If you grew up during the height of Turtle-Mania, that means you grew up in an era where arcades were a popular and prevalent business. And if you found yourself in your local arcade, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were probably present as well. In that aspect our Heroes in a Halfshell are fondly remembered for their fantastic side scrolling multiplayer beat-em up classics: TMNT and Turtles in Time. But the black sheep in the TMNT arcade lineup was definitely a classic for us pinball wizards: Data East’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine.

Sadly, the arcade business has practically dried up…yet nowadays we can just purchase our own arcade cabinets such as the TMNT/Turtles in Time classics at your local Walmart. And as someone who dumped countless quarters into those machines as a kid, that modern reality is mind bending. But it was in my aimless internet journeys that I came across a more affordable (and insanely smaller) arcade classic: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pinball.

Nostalgia is a money maker and “retro gaming” is a huge part of that. Enter “Boardwalk Arcade”. A line of fully functional miniatures of “your favorite arcade games, from the summer boardwalk to the after-school mall video arcade.” So far this series consists of 3 handheld games: Whack-a-mole, Skeeball, and TMNT Pinball. One of these things is not like the other, right? It’s like having the Superbowl, World Series, and Wrestlemania in the same package. And for $20…why not take the dive? So I did. Lucky you! And here are my thoughts…

First…THE SOURCE

Credit: Pinside.com

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball was developed by Data East and released in June 1991. It was a bodacious looking machine with radical artwork that mixed elements of the 1990 film and ‘87 Fred Wolf cartoon. You had to save April and Splinter, there were sewer bonuses, real digitized sounds of voices and the classic cartoon theme, and the playfield was just scattered with classic TMNT action figures. This game was a huge reason I got into pinball as a kid. Nowadays it’s mostly referenced for April O’Neil given’ it up in that top glass art, but I suppose the Turtles needed to keep the attention of teenagers somehow. (Sex sells, dudes).

**Now…*THE HANDHELD***

I ordered this from Amazon for $20. Now I see it popping up on various websites for around the same price. It came in a nice window box packaging and, even though I knew the measurements, in person I realized just how dang small it was 1.75(L) x 4.25(H) x 3.5(W).

It looks great. Going back and studying images of that original Data East TMNT machine online, sure, there are differences. The sticker artwork isn’t the original Data East art. It’s recycled images of the ‘87 cartoon Turtles mimicking the original machine the best they could. And with this thing being so tiny, it’s pretty impressive. It even has little plastic “coin slots”. The pinball playfield and topscreen are little LCD screens. You power it on (there’s a switch on the back powered by 3 included AAA batteries) and the screens are bright and alluring. The top glass features the original epic TMNT artwork (complete with infamous “April cleavage”,kids) and even has that classic “backlit” effect which adds to the retro authenticity.

Now, the playfield is a different story. Anyone who’s played some classic pinball know there’s a lot going on design wise. And you really can’t cram that down and present it on a 2 inch LCD screen without confusion. So this aspect of the game is completely simplified and redesigned. Is that a bad thing? Well from a presentation aspect…yes…it doesn’t look like that same game now…but the point of this is to play it. And with this simplified redesign…it’s a benefit for the gameplay. The “scorecard” on the top LCD screen mimics the original the best it can with the space provided. There’s sound and music. Unfortunately, the original TMNT theme is a licensing nightmare, so instead we get a looping song that vaguely reminds you of it. Dang. There’s also a fair share of generic “Radical!”s, “Pizza time!”s, and of course “Cowabunga!”s as well as classic pinball machine sounds. But you have no volume options. So try not to get too annoyed.

What’s important though is gameplay, right? And that’s where I was most impressed with this little doo-dad. It’s actually really fun to play. You have a button in front to launch your ball, and a flipper button on both sides of the machine like any pinball machine in existence. But playing pinball how you’re supposed to can get awkward due to its small size (hand cramps!). So included on the back of the handheld are additional flipper buttons. Which makes for much more comfortable gameplay.

You still “light” up the Turtle’s individual colors for bonuses. Sewer lids unlock. A pizza spins creating a bonus. There’s a multiball. The LCD playfield is very responsive to the button mashing and which leads to a potential strategy too. Which could make or break a game like this. Fortunately, it sticks the landing for a pretty satisfying baby pinball experience (you can’t tilt, cheaters). It doesn’t keep high scores though. So you might have to remember yours in order to best yourself from game to game.

THE RADICAL:

Fun, responsive controls and gameplay
A good recreation of a nearly 30 year old pinball machine at 1/100000th scale
Bright, sharp LCD screens
Additional flipper buttons added for comfortable gameplay
Affordable. Just the right price really.

THE LAME:

Sounds can get a bit redundant and annoying (RADICUUUUUL)
No TMNT theme song 🙁
Playfield art a bit plain and lacking in creativity
Doesn’t keep high scores

In conclusion, Boardwalk Arcade’s TMNT pinball machine is an inexpensive and fun handheld that pays tribute to it’s big brother rather than shrinking it identically. It’s a great collectible for any TMNT and pinball fans alike. And, psssst, it also makes a great photo/ display op for those awesome NECA TMNT figures!

Coin-a-bunga, dudes and dudettes!

January 14, 2020 0 comment

Games Reviews Video Games

Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade Cabinet from Arcade 1Up

by Kyle Tobey January 10, 2020

written by Kyle Tobey

I grew up feeding quarters to arcade machines.

Wearing out your fingers while throwing your quarters to the free-life Gods is an experience that is gone in an age of the digital e-shop and Gamestop. And while I could have paid for college with the amount of quarters I put in the X-Men and the Simpsons machines, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade games were the ones my brothers and I gravitated towards. While remasters and emulators have been a nice placeholder, nothing has replaced the feeling of gathering close a foot from the screen and button mashing your way past countless Foot Soldiers.

Until now.

Arcade1Up has recreated the feel of the old school arcade and shrunk it down just enough to fit in almost any home. With the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles installment of their hit cabinets, they bring the co-op button mashing action to your home with as many lives as you need to take on the Shredder.

The Look

Pulling this out of the box, the side panel artwork is identical to the original cabinets. Everything from April’s giant coveralls, to Michelangelo’s yellow color scheme, it is perfect. The marquee is still as iconic as ever. Shredder stands alone in the streets surrounded by the Turtles. Each brother stands ready to protect April. The only difference is the lack of the classic Konami logo, which has been replaced by the Nickelodeon logo on the cabinet. And since no quarters are needed to play, the front simply shows the logos for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and TMNT: Turtles in Time.

The joysticks match the turtles color schemes perfectly. The instruction box lies exactly where it used to. The neon green trim on the pressed wood is a bit much at first, especially if you don’t have a designated arcade/game/nerd room, but once the machine is assembled, it only makes the rest of the art pop. There was a real risk of having to trade off style for awesomeness, but, shockingly, you can have both.

The Size

The cabinet is 75% of the original machine size. Although it is smaller, it’s still totally comfortable to play! You can play up to 4 players, just like the original, and despite the small size, not feel cramped with the other players. It includes a riser, to bring it up to a more playable height. Even with the smaller size, I could play side by side with my wife and neither of us would bump elbows during the game.

Even though it’s smaller than the original machines, it’s still has some heft to it. It will more than likely be a focal point of most rooms. I live in a small apartment in the boroughs of New York City. I’m able to fit the arcade in a weird nook of my apartment that formerly housed my Christmas Tree. I wish I could use the space inside the cabinet as storage. It’s still an option, if you want it to be. But it would have been awesome if there was a door latch in the front to use. The cabinet shape also made it so you can’t use the top over the marquee as a shelf. There’s a good chance that these are problems only found in small studio apartments, but it’s something to think about.

The Games

Both games are absolute classics. Some of the games almost feel like remastered classics, but they play exactly like you remember. Nothing tops playing an arcade game on an actual arcade. It’s a feeling I realize I missed for so long now that it’s back.

The original classic “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” is a perfect recreation. I’m not sure if some of the graphics and sounds may have been updated, because it actually looks and sounds better than I remember.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time” threw me a little. Growing up, I never played Turtles in Time at the arcade, only on Super Nintendo. Some of the sounds are less muffled than I remember and some of the graphics seem more animated than I remember. The biggest difference is the final boss of “Prehistoric Turtlesaurus.” I’m used to fighting a hyperactive Slash rolling across the screen, where the game here has you fighting Cement Man. There are other differences I miss with the SNES version, but I understand the choice to use the arcade version. Because it’s an arcade machine.

The Assembly

Assembly was very easy and, although daunting to look at all the boxes and wood panels, took minimal effort to set up. All you need is a phillips head screwdriver. It says you don’t need a drill, but it definitely helped me. The process took about 2 hours, but I never felt frustrated or lost. I never felt like I was building Ikea furniture, and I was never worried I was doing something wrong.

The Price

$399. It’s not cheap. They have been on sale in certain markets for $350, so at it’s best, that’s still $175 per game. But, as I said, this is more than just picking up a game for console. This is an experience that is hard to find now. Arcades are no longer in malls, because malls are no longer malls. Playing with your friends, with a joystick, might just be worth the price. This is more than a game, it’s a new piece of furniture.

Overall

Arcade1Up has successfully recreated 2 of the best arcade games of all time. This is a full on experience that’s truly unique in a digital world.

The games are true to the originals, it looks amazing, and most important, it’s fun! Playing an arcade game side by side with my wife in 2020 is a crazy thought that’s my reality.

The downfalls are few, and may not even apply to you. If Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aren’t your favorite games (in that case, how did you get here?) the company has several other machines to offer. Any of their cabinets are great additions, or beginnings to your personal home arcade. This is the next best thing to owning an original, full-sized arcade cabinet. But considering it doesn’t need quarters, maybe it’s better.

You can buy yours here.

January 10, 2020 0 comment

Games Reviews

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan Review

by Justin W May 25, 2016

written by Justin W

With all of the excitement surrounding this title, you’d think that it was going to be the next great TMNT game. Unfortunately, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan fails to live up to the hype, with several smaller issues compounding into an experience that is far from perfect. This is not to say that the game isn’t fun to play, but there are a few notable concerns that keep Mutants in Manhattan from achieving the same level of excellence as its predecessors. With that said, let’s get into the nitty gritty of this Mutants in Manhattan review.

Plot and Characterization

The plot is far from bad, but there are certain elements that just don’t work very well. Mutants in Manhattan is based upon the IDW universe, so you should expect the art style and the story to fall in line with that iteration of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like the game actually failed to recreate the universe from the new IDW comics; Mikey stands out as literally the only comic relief, and every other turtle feels bland in comparison. One could even say that Michelangelo is a bit too goofy, while his brothers fail to really fit into their shells.

Image of Michelangelo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan. Source: Activision, Platinum Games

Anyone who has experience with the new IDW TMNT comics might even feel a bit confused when they pick up a controller to play Mutants in Manhattan. It’s not that they did a terrible job of recreating the characters and giving the fans a plot that made some kind of sense within the context of this universe, but there are a few elements that simply don’t come across as they should. I’m not sure if this is due to the voice acting or the writing, but somewhere along the way they screwed up.

To be honest, it feels like some head honcho stepped in and said “Mikey needs to be funnier,” forcing the developer to change certain aspects of the game so that they would be more familiar to a crowd of Ninja Turtles fans that are nostalgic for the original animated series. I’m not saying that this is definitely what happened, but Mutants in Manhattan feels like something that was interrupted and altered in some way. Even if I’m wrong about that, the fact is that the characterization of the turtles is a tad off kilter. To be fair, I felt like the characterization of the enemies was quite impressive, and I really enjoyed their appearances in the game.

Gameplay

This is an area of the Mutants in Manhattan review where I expect a lot of fans will cry foul if I don’t immediately mention one of the biggest gripes about the game: the lack of local or couch multiplayer. A lot of TMNT fans long for the days of Konami’s classic TMNT Arcade games, titles that they could enjoy with their friends either at an arcade or in the comfort of their home. Unfortunately, this title only has online multiplayer options, which means that you’ll have to be satisfied with a much more separated and segmented multiplayer experience. This has proven to be something of a mood killer for quite a few fans, and it’s not difficult to see why when you play the game alone.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles take on Slash in Mutants in Manhattan. Source: Activision, Platinum Games

As you may have suspected, the single player campaign puts you in control of just one turtle, and you can switch out to other turtles whenever you see fit. Although the ability to switch out is nice, it isn’t quite as easy as it should probably be. Another problem with this approach to the game is that the AI turtles aren’t very smart, even if they do tend to get the job done eventually. You’ll notice this from the moment you start the game up, as your three brothers all run in unison toward one enemy, even when there are several enemies around that need to be defeated.

Get used to hearing “(your chosen turtle) is on the scene alone!” a lot from April, because your brothers will be attracted to any and all enemies as you essentially drag them toward your intended target. There are four different approaches to fighting that you can instruct the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to take, but none of them are very effective. If you tell them to go all out, they will attack anything in sight; if you tell them to follow you, they will do so – but they will also attack anything in sight, with the same “let’s all gang up on this one enemy” approach as before. Are you beginning to see the problem here?

These different approaches to fighting don’t really make enough of a difference for the player to have any incentive to actually use the feature. Ultimately, you’re likely to be the one turtle who takes out all of the baddies that the other turtles aren’t paying attention to. I suppose this is for the best when you consider that you’re trying to earn battle points for various reasons, but we’ll get into that later.

The last thing I want to touch on with gameplay is the fact that there aren’t really any combos or moves that aren’t also special attacks, and you really want to save those for your boss battles. When you aren’t using those special moves, battle comes down to the pressing of just a few buttons, and it really feels like you’re mashing those buttons on the arcade game. When it comes to this particular aspect of Mutants in Manhattan, I’m sure a lot of people will be disappointed about the functionality of the game, but I think it actually works to rekindle some of the memories we have of playing those TMNT arcade titles back in the day.

Special Moves, Special Items and Upgrades

Believe it or not, these are actually very important for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan. If you don’t upgrade your special attacks and use your battle points to unlock even more attacks, the game can prove almost impossibly difficult. You really need to utilize this special attack system in order to be effective in the game. It’s a lot like playing an RPG – you will want to learn the right spells and know when to use them in order to effectively beat each boss.

Bebop slashes his way through this Mutants in Manhattan review. Source: Activision, Platinum Games

Heck, some moves are better used outside of boss battles, but that uses up a space that could have had a powerful attack, so you have to be careful about how you approach this system. To be honest, this is the main area where strategy plays a significant role in the game. I’ll give you an example:

There is a special move that allows you to ward off bombs from enemies, and there are foot soldiers who will do nothing but throw bombs at you. This becomes especially troublesome when you are trying to collect information from a data point or diffuse an even bigger bomb, because any interruption from bombs will cause the timer to reset. Using this move will give you a better chance of getting the task done easily, but that move is also fairly ineffective in boss fights, so you probably won’t use it for that. The wise decision would be to have a designated turtle who uses this move and to make sure that you switch out to a turtle with more powerful moves when you enter into a boss fight.

In addition to the special attack system in the game, there are also a lot of items you can use to help you in your fight. There is a bit of strategy involved with this as well, as you only have four slots for items. You can expect to find health items such as energy drinks and pizza slices, but there are also weapons such as heat seaking missiles and mines that you can use to deal a little extra damage to your enemies. If you have these weapons, they might be better used outside of boss battles, but they can still be effective during boss battles as well. Although you can purchase them from Master Splinter, the cost is slightly prohibitive and you’d be better off simply finding them in the wild.

Finally, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will pick up charms as they make their way through the game. These charms provide certain boosts, and you can equip one to each turtle in order to improve their stats. As you can tell, this is no ordinary fighting game and the strategies involved with playing it are far from average. That being said, I did have fun with this aspect of Mutants in Manhattan, and I believe it makes the title a much more enjoyable experience overall. Some may say that the RPG flavor doesn’t belong in a beat ’em up action game, but I think it works fairly well.

Final Verdict

When it comes right down to it, although I have to admit that Mutants in Manhattan wasn’t as good as I had hoped it would be, it was still a very enjoyable experience. If I had to compare it to other titles, I’d say it’s probably the best game we’ve seen in the TMNT universe since Konami stopped producing titles for the franchise. Unfortunately, a few issues kept it from becoming as great as it could have been, so it wouldn’t be fair to say that it’s absolutely flawless.

All four turtles are ready to face the harsh reality of this Mutants in Manhattan review. Source: Activision, Platinum Games

If you love the IDW turtles and you don’t mind seeing a slightly different take on them, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan could be a lot of fun. Just keep in mind that the game is fairly difficult and the strategy comes not from the combinations you will learn, but from the special movies you will unlock and how you will use them. Some fans will get a kick out of this approach to the Ninja Turtles, while others will be very unhappy. Keep that in mind before making an immediate purchase and you should be fine. With all of that said, I will finish off this Mutants in Manhattan review by giving it a score of…

7/10

Have you played the game yet? If so, what did you think? If not, did this Mutants in Manhattan review convince you to pick up the game? Feel free to share your opinions in the comments or on facebook/twitter.

May 25, 2016 3 comments

Games News Reviews Toy/Action Figures

TMNT: Dice Masters Hits Stores Today

by Ian Gaudreau May 25, 2016

written by Ian Gaudreau

Summer 2016 is shaping up to be one of the biggest TMNT summers of all time. Between video games, comics, and a new movie, what niche was left unexplored? For board game lovers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Dice Masters is there to fulfill your tabletop needs:

May 25, 2016 2 comments

First…THE SOURCE