History VideoGame / TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTheArcadeGame

* MadeOfExplodium: The Foot Soldiers explode when you kill them, and a few bosses (the two giant Rock Soldiers and Krang) go out in very ''dramatic'' explosions.

In March 2022, both the arcade and NES games were announced to be a part of [[CompilationRerelease Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection]], which would be released for all platforms later that year.

The original arcade release, along with it's NES port, was announced in March 2022 as part of [[CompilationRerelease Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection]] for all formats, as part of a compilation of '''''[[UpToEleven every single Konami title ever released for 1987 version of the franchise]]'''''.

In 2021, a game in the style of the old arcade games, ''Shredder's Revenge'', developed by Dotemu (''Streets of Rage 4'', ''Windjammers 2'') and Tribute Games (''Panzer Paladin'', ''Mercenary Kings'') was announced.

The original arcade release, along with it's NES port, was announced in March 2022 as part of [[CompilationRerelease Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection]] for all formats, as part of a compilation of '''''[[UpToEleven every single Konami title ever released for the franchise]]'''''.

* CanonForeigner: Tora and the robotic Shogun were two intergalactic bounty hunters added to the NES version.

* SpringIsLate: In the NES version, Stage 4 is a snowy park. Upon defeating the boss, Tora, the turtles destroy a WeatherControlMachine and the setting immediatly turns to spring, with the turtles announcing that "Spring is here."

* CanonForeigner: Tora the Polar Bear and the robotic Shogun were added to the NES version.

* DummiedOut: At one point, the game was to have special power ups in the form of color-coded pizzas: "Speedy," "Whirly," "Zappy," and "Energy." "Energy" remains in the final game as a life-up, and "Whirly" and "Speedy" pretty obviously show up in [[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTurtlesInTime the sequel]] as the instant-kill invincibility attack and the Turtles' automatic dash attack, respectively. The odd one out is "Zappy," which gives the Turtles a laser gun to use. This one likely got nixed because the cartoon's licensors did not want to see depictions of the Turtles shooting people, realistic guns or not.

* HeroicFireRescue: The first stage is the Channel 6 News building set ablaze, where your mission is to save April.

Many later games, to say the least, have tried to emulate this one's style. Konami themselves would adapt and refine the game style for several later beat em ups (''VideoGame/TheSimpsons'', ''Bucky O'Hare'', ''VideoGame/SunsetRiders'', ''VideoGame/ViolentStorm'', etc.) and years later would even attempt this for the games based off [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 the 2003 series]] with varying degrees of quality. A stand alone game, ''[[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesOutOfTheShadows Out of the Shadows]]'' (no relation to [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesOutOfTheShadows the 2014 movie]]), attempted to put a 3D spin on it. Raw Thrills even did an arcade game of their own for [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 the 2012 series]] in a beat em up fashion. Heck, even Creator/PlatinumGames' own Ninja Turtle game, ''Mutants in Manhattan'', gleaned a bit from the arcade for its inspiration.

* CanonForeigner: Tora the alien beast and the robotic Shogun were added to the NES version.

* AdaptationExpansion: To compensate for the downgraded graphics and the lack of 4-Player support, the NES version adds two new stages (Snowy Central Park and the House of Shogun) and replaces the Bebop and Rocksteady dual boss battle with a fight against Baxter's fly form.

* BadassInDistress: As if having to save April wasn't enough, [[OldMaster Splinter]] is taken hostage too in one stage. (And given how the Boss appears when you find him, he was probably kidnapped to lure the Turtles into an ambush.)

* RecurringBoss: Bebop and Rocksteady are both fought twice in the arcade version, first individually, then as a team. Baxter appears as two separate boss battles in the NES version, first as a human, then in his mutated fly form.

* AdaptationExpansion: To compensate for the downgraded graphics and the lack of 4-Player support, the NES version adds two new stages (snowy Central Park and the 13th Floor) and replaces the Bebop and Rocksteady dual boss battle with a fight against Baxter's fly form.

* CanonForeigner: Tora the alien beast and the robotic Shogun Warrior were added to the NES version.

* OneHitKill: Shredder possesses an anti-mutagen beam that can revert your Turtle back into a regular turtle if hit, resulting in an instant life loss. Possibly the cutest OneHitKill ever.

* GameLobby: The UsefulNotes/XBoxLiveArcade version works this way, requiring players to get together in a group if they wish to play together. While four-player play was part of the original game's appeal, this system makes it nearly impossible to get a four-player match going.

* AdaptationExpansion: To compensate for the downgraded graphics and the lack of 4-Player support, the NES version adds two new stages (snowy Central Park and the 13th Floor) and replaces the Rocksteady and Bebop dual boss battle with a fight against Baxter's fly form.

** The arcade version, and unapologetically so, with an interesting twist: Aside from the difficulty dip-switch, this game features a sort of DynamicDifficulty involving the enemy count that kicks in depending on several factors, including how many people are playing in the game, and — chiefly in one-player mode — whether or not the player has died/continued. Beating any level without losing a life will make the subsequent level much tougher (in that you have many more enemies to contend with in each wave), and dying at all will reset the soldier count to an easier level. Also, some bosses (namely the DualBoss with Rocksteady & Bebop, and the final battle with Shredder) will have more health if you reach them without dying.

* OneHitKill: Shredder possesses an anti-mutagen beam that can revert your turtle back into a regular turtle if hit, resulting in an instant life loss. Possibly the cutest OneHitKill ever.

-->'''Turtle''': [[DeadpanSnarker They ain't getting any prettier.]]

* UniqueEnemy: The NES version has three unique enemies in a single stage. The Shogun's stage had Robot Gorilla Ninjas, Robot Scorpions, and Robot Tigers that come to life out of door paintings. There are also snowman-disguised robots in Stage 4.

Many later games, to say the least, have tried to emulate this one's style. Konami themselves would adapt and refine the game style for several later beat em ups (''VideoGame/TheSimpsons'', ''Captain Bucky O Hare'', ''VideoGame/SunsetRiders'', ''VideoGame/ViolentStorm'', etc.) and years later would even attempt this for the games based off [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 the 2003 series]] with varying degrees of quality. A stand alone game, ''[[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesOutOfTheShadows Out of the Shadows]]'' (no relation to [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesOutOfTheShadows the 2014 movie]]), attempted to put a 3D spin on it. Raw Thrills even did an arcade game of their own for [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 the 2012 series]] in a beat em up fashion. Heck, even Creator/PlatinumGames' own Ninja Turtle game, ''Mutants in Manhattan'', gleaned a bit from the arcade for its inspiration.

* CanonForeigner: Tora the Wolfman and Shogun Warrior in the NES version.

* MarketBasedTitle: The arcade game itself was simply titled ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles''. When it was ported to the NES, it was retitled ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game'' to distinguish it from the earlier unrelated NES game while in the same time making it clear to players that it was based on the arcade game. The Famicom version had no such issue, since the Famicom version of the first NES game actually had a [[CompletelyDifferentTitle different title in Japanese]].

In 1991, the game would receive a sequel, ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTurtlesInTime'' (which for the SNES port, listed it as the fourth game in the series).

The plot is fairly simple: the four eponymous turtles — Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael — must rescue their news reporter friend April O'Neil, and later their beloved Master Splinter, from the clutches of the Shredder and the Foot Clan. The action takes the turtles from New York to the city's depths, where after saving their friends, the quartet heads into the Technodrome to defeat Krang and then the Shredder himself.

The arcade version of this game was a milestone in the genre. Up to four players could play, and the turtles varied a little from each other in terms of attack range and speed. Donatello possesses excellent range with his bo staff but hits the slowest. Michelangelo and Raphael hit the fastest, but their weapons — the nunchaku and sais respectively — provide limited range. Team leader Leonardo hits with average speed and range using his katanas.

* AsideGlance: On the NES version, each of the turtles have this in their standing poses.

* CherryTapping: The safest way to defeat most any enemy in the game, be it lowly foot soldier or boss, is to jump kick him, then jump away before he can recover from the hit. The jump kick does little damage, but its high mobility generally trumps the more powerful standard attacks which nearly guarantee taking damage in return.

* ColorCodedMultiplayer: Leonardo(Player 1) is blue, Michelangelo(Player 2) is yellow, Donatello(Player 3) is purple, and Raphael(Player 4) is red.

* DummiedOut: At one point, the game was to have special power ups in the form of color-coded pizzas: "Speedy," "Whirly," "Zappy," and "Energy." "Energy" remains in the final game as a life-up, and "Whirly" and "Speedy" pretty obviously show up in [[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTurtlesInTime the sequel]] as the instant-kill invincibility attack and the turtles' automatic dash attack, respectively. The odd one out is "Zappy," which gives the turtles a laser gun to use. This one likely got nixed because the cartoon's licensors did not want to see depictions of the turtles shooting people, realistic guns or not.

* MadeOfExplodium: The Foots explode when you kill them, and a few Bosses (the two giant Rock Soldiers and Krang) go out in very ''dramatic'' explosions.

** The NES version itself is quite difficult, as it uses the standard three Lives and three Continues format (and extra lives are far and few in between -- [[LawOfOneHundred only given every 200 kills]]; which is roughly every two or three stages in a ''single'' player game; kills are ''not'' shared in a two player game, and there are two extra stages in the NES version compared to the Arcade version. And it only allows for two players. To compensate, the turtles in the NES version can take much more punishment before dying, and the DynamicDifficulty feature mentioned above has been removed.

%%* ColorCodedMultiplayer

* NintendoHard: The arcade version, and unapologetically so, with an interesting twist: Aside from the difficulty dip-switch, this game features a sort of DynamicDifficulty involving the enemy count that kicks in depending on several factors, including how many people are playing in the game, and — chiefly in one-player mode — whether or not the player has died/continued. Beating any level without losing a life will make the subsequent level much tougher (in that you have many more enemies to contend with in each wave), and dying at all will reset the soldier count to an easier level. Also, some bosses (namely the DualBoss with Rocksteady & Bebop, and the final battle with Shredder) will have more health if you reach them without dying.

* ElevatorActionSequence: The Technodrome has a descending funicular where giant marbles roll past trying to squash you.

* AdaptationExpansion: To compensate for the downgraded graphics and the lack of 4-Player support, the NES version adds two new stages and replaces the Rocksteady and Bebop dual boss battle with a fight against Baxter's fly form.

* AdaptationalBadass: One of ''the'' most badass versions of Shredder in the franchise. While the cartoons generally depicted him as something of a joke and not really all that dangerous, (especially compared to later adaptations) the final battle against Shredder in the arcade game can verge on outright ThatOneBoss.

* DualBoss: Rocksteady and Bebop in the arcade version.

** The NES version itself is quite difficult, as it uses the standard three Lives and three Continues format (and extra lives are far and few in between -- [[LawOfOneHundred only given every 200 kills; which is roughly every two or three stages in a ''single'' player game; kills are ''not'' shared in a two player game]], and there are two extra stages in the NES version compared to the Arcade version. And it only allows for two players. To compensate, the turtles in the NES version can take much more punishment before dying, and the DynamicDifficulty feature mentioned above has been removed.