History YMMV / TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles

* ''YMMV/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMutantMayhem''

!!Tropes that pertain to the 1989 Nintendo Entertainment System video game:
* AnticlimaxBoss: After all the crap it takes to reach him, Shredder is a relative pushover due to the fact that he's the only boss in the game that can be knocked back. Players who get him in the right rhythm can just keep smacking him without giving him a chance to counter.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Even critics of the original NES game have to admit that the music is pretty catchy, especially the title theme, the sewer theme, the warehouse theme, and the main boss theme. The fact that none of it is based on music from the '87 series and still leaves an impression is even more impressive.
* BadassDecay: As mentioned above, Shredder is a pathetically easy final boss, while various other sources showed him [[CurbStompBattle dominating all 4 turtles singlehandedly]].
* BreatherBoss: The Big Mouser at the end of level 4. It's completely stationary, and its only attacks are occasionally firing an eye laser and dropping regular mousers. If you stand under it with Donatello and spam your upwards attack at its weak point, neither of these will ever hit you.
* CommonKnowledge: The Dam stage is not the hardest part of the game; much like the infamous Turbo Tunnel from ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}'', it's merely where the game ''starts'' getting much more difficult.
* DemonicSpiders: It's bad enough that there are respawning enemies but there are some enemies that really make this game unfair and annoying to play.
** The worst enemy that you will encounter in the game are the Rocket Men armed with laser guns in the later sections of the Technodrome. They appear and move so quickly that you almost can't react to them without getting hit. What's even worse is that there are sections of narrow halls that make getting shot or running into them an inevitability. It also takes two shots from the Scroll, ''the best sub-weapon in the game'', to kill them. Or if you have single shurikens, it can kill them just as quickly.
** The Climb Busters, large spider-like robots in Area 5, are notorious for making climbing sections a total pain since they move fast towards you and you're completely defenseless while climbing the wall.
** Needle Beasts are large porcupine in the underground sections of Area 5. They're cheap and unpredictable as they jump and attack in completely random patterns, making it hard to not get hit by them.
* DifficultySpike: Area 3, and it only gets [[SerialEscalation worse from there]].
* GameBreaker: The scroll weapon makes quick work on most bosses. However, it's extremely rare and can be replaced by other subweapons.
** Also Donatello, considering that his bo staff had absolutely absurd offensive power and range, which made most boss fights pretty trivial.
* GoodBadBugs:
** By pausing the game at the right time, you can make the Giant Mouser boss fight even easier. Normally, you have to wait for it to open its mouth to attack, but pausing the game makes it vulnerable at all times.
** The North American MS-DOS version has a required jump that is literally impossible to accomplish. However, you can still beat the game without cheats, if you do a sequence of extremely strange actions (although you still skip the rest of that level). If you have rope, there's a place on the overworld that you can walk, which triggers the use of the rope. Suddenly, you're using the climbing animation on the overworld. If you now enter a specific building, you will fall through the floor into a glitched level. You might end up dead, or the game asking you to insert another disk, or just trapped in a broken level, but there is a chance that the game will instead teleport you to the beginning of the next level. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDurUuIUiWo]]
* MemeticMutation:
** "Don't let the Foot Clan destroy the dam. You have my support."[[labelnote:Explanation]]April tells the Turtles this when they rescue her. Then the dam level begins.[[/labelnote]]
** "[[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd Okay, what the hell did she ever do for you]]? Stupid [[IconicOutfit banana raincoat]]-[[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd wearing bitch."]] [[labelnote:Explanation]]The Turtles rescued April moments ago, making AVGN wonder what support she'd give them.[[/labelnote]] Area 2 isn't all ''that'' difficult, though it does feature an UnexpectedGameplayChange and very precise movements. The Internet believes it is utterly impossible.
** [[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd Cowabunga...COWA-FUCKIN' PIECE OF DOG SHIT!]] [[labelnote:Explanation]]AVGN's concluding rant of the NES game begins with this phrase. He also used it for his full theme song and the review of the third live-action movie.[[/labelnote]]
* {{Misblamed}}: Franchise co-creator Kevin Eastman [[https://www.ign.com/articles/not-even-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-co-creator-could-beat-that-dam-level recalls]] people getting mad at him for the Dam level, apparently thinking he and Peter Laird made the game themselves and designed it. In reality, while they were involved in aspects of the games, they weren't the level designers, and Kevin Eastman himself admits to never having beaten that level.
* NightmareFuel: In the underwater area, if you get pulled by the [[OneHitKill glowing orange seaweed]], you witness your turtle getting strangled and pulled into the seaweed as he's [[NeverSayDie getting captured]].
* OvershadowedByControversy: You cannot bring up the PC port without someone bringing up the UnintentionallyUnwinnable GameBreakingBug in the third stage. It's physically impossible. The port is already quite bad in general, but this bug is responsible for at least 90% of the discussion surrounding it.
* PortingDisaster: The North American PC version to say the least. The third stage cannot be completed without cheating or [[GoodBadBugs a very strange glitch]] because of a design flaw in one of the sections in the sewers. The jump is impossible to make because of the ceiling being shorter and the platform on the other side being too far away. The UK ''Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles'' corrected this by extending the platform, but retained the other design decisions that made many aspects unintentionally more difficult.
** As shown by Creator/JamesRolfe, the Commodore 64 version is definitely inferior to the NES version, with two of the biggest problems being the slower gameplay and that jump and attack share the same button.
* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: The original NES game is infamous for its [[NintendoHard extreme difficulty]], including unbalanced characters, a sudden gameplay shift in the form of a timed swimming section, a steep difficulty curve halfway through, and nonstop hordes of strong enemies. (And to top if off, the MS-DOS port is [[PortingDisaster even worse]].)
* SurpriseDifficulty: Sure, the game's reputation precedes it nowadays, but back in '89 when the game dropped, at the height of Turtlemania... let's just say there were a ''lot'' of pissed-off youngsters.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSong:
** The first few seconds of the intro music sounds ''incredibly'' similar to "Stone Cold Crazy" by Music/{{Queen}}.
** The Area 5 overworld theme resembles the opening riff of Music/TheBeatles' "Come Together".
* ThatOneBoss: The Technodrome boss in level 5. First of all, level 5 is ThatOneLevel in itself due to the fact that the boss is randomly placed at the end of one of three caves. As for the Technodrome itself, the prong in its front fires a powerful lightning beam that covers a third of the play area, making it nigh impossible to approach without using secondary weapons to destroy said prong[[note]]or [[GoodBadBugs exploiting a glitch]] with the pause menu that makes the bottom half of the beam disappear[[/note]]. On top of that, it also has two turrets on the body firing a constant stream of bullets at you, as well as the open compartment at the top which [[MookMaker spawns infinite Foot Soldiers]] to further hinder you. All of these have to be taken out if you want any chance of safely attacking the eye at the top, which is the boss's true weak point. Hope you packed a lunch!
* ThatOneLevel:
** The notorious dam level, [[FanNickname dubbed]] "That Damn Dam" [[FanNickname by some]], and some fan theories persist that this level was what turned famed movie critic Creator/RogerEbert off of video games (he played to this level, which allowed him to spot an inaccuracy in ''Film/TheWizard''.) The dam level owes its infamy to the following factors...
** It's an [[UnderTheSea underwater level]].
** It's a TimedMission. You are charged with defusing eight bombs under a time limit, with annoying sea life everywhere trying to inhibit your progress. Failing to defuse them all before time runs out will result in a...
** NonStandardGameOver. It doesn't matter how many turtles you have left; you fail once, and it's all over. Luckily it's the ''only'' game over of its kind in this game, since according to gamers who managed to pass this level, the game gets even ''harder''.
*** Then when you get to the later levels, it doesn't get any easier from here in. The third level is a maze where you have to find the correct solution to it. The fourth level, the Foot Air Base, will have you pulling your hair out. It's not only another maze, but it's also full of dangerous hazards, including liquid flame pits in some of the underground tunnels that will kill any turtle instantly on contact. Thankfully, the boss of the level itself isn't too difficult.
*** The Abandoned Warehouse is the fifth level and it's quite difficult due to many factors: The enemies in the caves are DemonicSpiders, and one of the three caves contains the boss, the Technodrome Defense System. If it doesn't, it brings you to an empty room, and you're forced to backtrack to the beginning of the cave. The game generates it before you enter the level, and there's no clear indication on which cave is correct until you either find an empty room or the boss. To make things worse, the enemies respawn when you exit the empty room, so you'll inevitably have at least one turtle with low health.
*** The final level, inside the Technodrome, definitely takes the cake. No checkpoints, an array of DemonicSpiders unique to this level, and some rooms are full of spikes. Fortunately, Shredder is an AntiClimaxBoss, and even then, he may sneak in a OneHitKill if you don't know the trick to defeating him, forcing you to resume from the beginning of the level.
* UnderusedGameMechanic: Using ropes to cross gaps. There's only one rope item in the entire game, and you use it on a couple of gaps immediately afterward, amounting to a couple of cutscenes of your turtle throwing a rope, and that's it. The devs seem to have implemented the rope item and felt obligated to use it somehow.
%%* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: The instruction manual.

* CommonKnowledge: Though popularly thought of as Caucasian, April was originally more accurately AmbiguouslyBrown. While Laird claims she is Caucasian, according to Eastman she is supposed to be mixed-raced, with no mention of what her ethnic background is supposed to be.

* TierInducedScrappy: Really, everybody except for Donatello is low tier, and Donatello is high tier.
** Donatello's attacks are slow, but have a lot of reach and do 200% damage. The only reason to play as anyone who isn't Donatello is if Don is low on health and you're trying to keep him alive, or you're playing a part of the game that doesn't involve attacking (e.g. disarming the bombs in Level 2). That being said, he's also the only character that can't normally hit low-to-the-ground enemies; he has to use a downthrust to hit them and his downthrust's horizontal range is terrible.
** Leonardo is arguably the second best, but far, FAR worse than Donatello. His weapon is tied for weakest in the game, but at least it has a decent mix of range and speed.
** Raphael's attack does 150% damage, and that is the only thing he has going for him. Going against him, his attack has terrible range - instead of thrusting his sai daggers forward like he should, he just sticks out his arm and spins them in place. This means it's a good chance you'll take damage while trying to damage the enemies. One could even argue that his inability to stay out of his enemies' attack range in the later levels makes him more useless than Michaelangelo, but... see below.
** Michaelangelo is the worst character at all - there are not any situations in which he has utility aside from soaking up damage for the other turtles. He shares the lowest attack power in the game with Leonardo, and his nunchukus are slower ''and'' have less range than Leonardo's katanas. At least if Raphael's getting swarmed by enemies his attack speed and extra damage means he can clear his way out a little more effectively. Even if you know [[DifficultButAwesome the quirk]] to Mike (His attack strength doubles when his health is low), the fact that he has to be [[CriticalStatusBuff at half-health or lower]] to abuse this quirk puts players in an awkward spot of avoiding healing Mike to keep him usable makes him very impractical, unless one is extremely desperate.
** This is lampshaded along with the difficulty of the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oNuGxz_ykc in this video here]].

* EvilIsCool: Many villains in the franchise like The Shredder, especially the 4Kids incarnation. Krang,the Foot clan,Karai,bishop,hun,rat king,and many more.

%%* EvilIsCool: The Shredder, especially the 4Kids incarnation.

* PanderingToTheBase: After Nickelodeon acquired the franchise, its various entries tend to steer much closer to the 1987 cartoon adaptation, due to a large amount of the series' fans having grown up on it. While the strategy has been largely successful, this has resulted in some people who were introduced to the broader franchise through material such as the movies or the 2003 series taking umbrage with the apparent favoritism.

* AudienceAlienatingEra: Many longtime fans will cite the time between 1993 and 2003 as one for the franchise as a whole; ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIII'' proved to be such a disappointment to fans that it actually hurt the original cartoon's popularity, and it doesn't help that the Red Sky seasons of the show were divisive at best, and were prone to being [[ScrewedByTheNetwork preempted by other programs like sports]], meaning even fans who stuck with the franchise despite the third film weren't always able to catch up, and by 1996, the franchise was generally seen as having lost its "cool" factor to most audiences, a perception not helped by the ''Adventures'' comic coming to an end. While the Image run (later known as Urban Legends) had some fans, it was prone to ScheduleSlip, and Gary Carlson himself admitted that the book didn't have as much of an audience as they wanted, with many not even being aware of the book's existence. Then ''Series/NinjaTurtlesTheNextMutation'' happened, but unfortunately, that didn't help, either. In 2001, Volume 4 of the Mirage comics started, but it wasn't until [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 the 2003 cartoon aired]] that the franchise finally started getting out of this rut. Some parts of this era have been VindicatedByHistory since their release, but some older fans still hold resentment towards the third film for starting the chain reaction.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The first film is a nice little snapshot of very, very late 80s culture: New Jack Swing soundtrack? Check. Skateboard ramps inside Shredder's warehouse? Check. Bulky Macintosh computer in April's shop? Check. Spiked hair and Casey mistaking Raphael for a punk? Check. April's gigantic, Kenny G-style perm? Check. And then there's Michaelangelo's Creator/JamesCagney impression, which dates the movie with what was nostalgic at the time.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Above errors aside, the animatronic suits and puppets still look unbelievably good even today; they should, since they were created by the Creator/JimHensonsCreatureShop and were the predecessors of all the current systems used for their full-bodied animatronics.

** [[Series/NinjaTurtlesTheNextMutation Venus de Milo.]] Most fans see her as a ReplacementScrappy for April O'Neil, but some fans think that she is an interesting concept and would like to see her return in one of the current Nickelodeon-helmed adaptations. It's particularly telling that even the franchise's creators have differing opinions on her: While Peter Laird is well-known for outright despising the character, Kevin Eastman has gone on record to say that he likes the character and hopes for her to someday make a comeback.

** April herself is the most divisive character of the mainstay cast. One side doesn't mind most of her incarnations, liking for her more motherly nature towards the turtles and sometimes helping them out. The other side tends to get really annoyed with her, with the complaints usually depending on the incarnation of her being constantly [[DamselScrappy kidnapped]] (1987 series), stealing the spotlight from the turtles (2012 series and 2014 film), or blindly rushing into the action (''Rise''). The 2003 version however seems to have very little complaints and is praised for striking the right balance for her role.

** Wise men say: forgiveness is advised, but never pay full price for late pizza.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Mikey shortchanges the pizza delivery guy for being late and gives this line when he protests.[[/labelnote]]

* WhatAnIdiot: The two footsoldiers that tried to drown Donatello in a fishtank. The look on his face while underwater screamed "How stupid are these guys."

* SpecialEffectFailure: Any live-action Ninja Turtles production that wasn't a movie, save for the third one (due to being done by an inexperienced company), will inevitably wind up in the UnintentionalUncannyValley for whatever reason. "Turtle Tunes" and "We Wish You a Turtles Christmas" are the worst offenders in this regard; with the turtles sporting rictus grins and barely blinking eyes, and the costumes don't even bother with the obligatory foot pieces to complete the look, settling on black socks instead.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: This was one of the first live-action adaptations of an animated property ever to become a major unqualified success, paving the way for future adaptations like the 1994 film adaptation of ''Film/TheFlintstones'', the 2002 live action adaptation of ''Film/ScoobyDoo'', and Creator/{{Disney}}'s whole slate of live-action remakes. If you're used to those sorts of films being semi-regular fixtures at the box office, it can be difficult to imagine what a big deal ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' was in 1990 (indeed, many people at the time were ''flabbergasted'' when news broke that it would be live-action).

-->'''Roger Ebert:''' I was surprised to discover it's a live-action film. I expected animation - a spinoff of the Saturday morning Turtle cartoon show. But no. These are actual human beings for the most part, including stunt men inside the life-size turtle suits (certain other characters have been created artifically by the Jim Henson folks).
* SpecialEffectFailure: A clearly human hand swings in front of the camera as Donatello does a spin on his skateboard, there's a moment where you can clearly see a microphone cord dangling from Raphael's shell, a few instances where the head and neck seams aren't bended in properly, and a moment during Raphael's recovery where you can see the teeth of Donatello's actor Leif Tilden [[NightmareFuel peeking though his mouth.]]

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Many major studios such as Creator/WaltDisneyPictures, Creator/ColumbiaPictures, Creator/{{MGM}}[=/=][[Creator/UnitedArtists UA]], Creator/OrionPictures, Creator/{{Paramount}} (whose parent company Viacom would ironically enough acquire the ''TMNT'' property in 2009) and Creator/WarnerBros turned down the first film for distribution as they were worried that despite the popularity of the 1987 series and the toy line, the film would potentially be a box office disappointment like ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse'' was just a couple years prior. The film finally found distribution roughly halfway through the initial production via the then small and independent production company New Line Cinema which at that point had been known more for distributing low budget B movies and arthouse fare. New line at the time was mainly making its profits at that point from the Nightmare On Elm Street movies. film would end up becoming a box office hit, having the second largest opening at the US box office at the time (behind 1989's ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}'') and going on to make $200 million worldwide.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Many major studios such as Creator/WaltDisneyPictures, Creator/ColumbiaPictures, Creator/{{MGM}}[=/=][[Creator/UnitedArtists UA]], Creator/OrionPictures, Creator/{{Paramount}} (whose parent company Viacom would ironically enough acquire the ''TMNT'' property in 2009) and Creator/WarnerBros turned down the first film for distribution as they were worried that despite the popularity of the 1987 series and the toy line, the film would potentially be a box office disappointment like ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse'' was just a couple years prior. The film finally found distribution roughly halfway through the initial production via the then small and independent production company New Line Cinema which at that point had been known more for distributing low budget B movies and arthouse fare. The film would end up becoming a box office hit, having the second largest opening at the US box office at the time (behind 1989's ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}'') and going on to make $200 million worldwide.

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames:
** The original NES game is infamous for being NintendoHard ([[PortingDisaster its PC port is even worse]]), and the ones based on the 2012 cartoon are underwhelming. The beat-em-ups by Konami, however, are generally considered classics of the genre, making them [[SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames an aversion]].
** The [[Pinball/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesDataEast pinball machine game]] from Creator/DataEast is often held to be a generic, boring pinball game.
** Despite hopes due to being developed by Creator/PlatinumGames, ''[[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMutantsInManhattan Mutants in Manhatan]]'' ended up being another case due to repetitiveness and lackluster level design.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: '''1987 series:''' This theory seems to have arisen for some... is Irma chasing after guys ''really'' her desperation in nabbing herself a man, or, is it an act of desperation to cover up her being a closeted lesbian?

** The Rat King. He's easily become one of the turtles greatest enemies.

** The official theme song, ''Turtle Power'' by Partners in Kryme, mistakenly credited Raphael for being the leader of the team. [[WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheTeenageMutantNinjaTurtles 28 years later that lyric is finally accurate.]]

* PopCulturalOsmosis: Nowadays, mention the Turtles' names and there's a fair chance people will think of them first instead of the Renaissance artists they're named for. Especially Donatello, who is less well-known than the "trinity" of [[Creator/LeonardoDaVinci Leonardo]], [[Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti Michelangelo]] and [[Creator/RaphaelSanzio Raphael]]. The webcomic ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' and the webseries ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory'' have [[http://www.xkcd.com/197/ both]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HZ5V9rT96M joked]] about him this way. And because Michelangelo the turtle's name was misspelled with an extra A for many years until it was quietly fixed, and thus pronounced "Michael Angelo" to this day (hence his nickname is Mike/Mikey, not Mick), odds are that people who grew up with the franchise will also apply this to Michelangelo the Italian artist until they're corrected.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The opening notes of the theme song to the 2003 series sound a lot like the opening notes to the WesternAnimation/PepperAnn theme song.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The first film is a nice little snapshot of very, very late 80s culture: New Jack Swing soundtrack? Check. Skateboard ramps inside Shredder's warehouse? Check. Bulky Macintosh computer in April's shop? Check. Spiked hair and Casey mistaking Raphael for a punk? Check. April's gigantic, Music/KennyG-style perm? Check. And then there's Michaelangelo's Creator/JamesCagney impression, which dates the movie with what was nostalgic at the time.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The first film is a nice little snapshot of very, very late 80s culture: New Jack Swing soundtrack? Check. Skateboard ramps inside Shredder's warehouse? Check. Bulky Macintosh computer in April's shop? Check. Spiked hair and Casey mistaking Raphael for a punk? Check. And then there's Michaelangelo's Creator/JamesCagney impression, which dates the movie with what was nostalgic at the time.

* MagnificentBastard: [[YMMV/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage Karai]]; [[YMMV/LegendsSouksWinter Oroku Saki]]; [[YMMV/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Agent John Bishop]]; [[YMMV/{{TMNT}} Max Winters]]; [[YMMV/RiseOfTheTeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Yokai Masseur]]. See those pages for details.

* MagnificentBastard: [[YMMV/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage Karai]];
[[YMMV/LegendsSouksWinter Oroku Saki]]; [[YMMV/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Agent John Bishop]]; [[YMMV/{{TMNT}} Max Winters]]; [[YMMV/RiseOfTheTeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Yokai Masseur]]. See those pages for details.

** "NINJA-KICK THE DAMN RABBIT!"[[labelnote:Explanation]]Mikey's reaction as he and Donnie watch a cartoon based on "The Tortoise and the Hare".[[/labelnote]]

** Michaelangelo is the worst character at all - there are not any situations in which he has utility aside from soaking up damage for the other turtles. He shares the lowest attack power in the game with Leonardo, and his nunchukus are slower ''and'' have less range than Leonardo's katanas. At least if Raphael's getting swarmed by enemies his attack speed and extra damage means he can clear his way out a little more effectively.