Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: How Season 1 Made the Arcade Game Great! (And why the NES game sucks!)

[@Z80artist]

Where did you get the footage of the TV show? Looks better quality than the US DVD releases.

[@GTV-Japan]

Thank you! Finally someone likes it! There was a torrent i found that was upscaled for season 1 and i upscaled some of the stuff myself too. the DVD rip is only 360 isnrt it? booo

[@Z80artist]

@@GTV-Japan The German KSM DVD release is currently the highest quality version out there (non AI upscaled).

[@Mike-uh5xl]

Personaly, I rather dislike the smoothing look that AI upscaling gives. I always turn off motion interpolation on televisions too, can't stand that "Soap Opera Look". I wouldn't mind so much if the upscale didn't add any extra frames. But there's no accounting for taste :D

[@DontrelleRoosevelt]

@@GTV-Japan I just got the entire 193 episode run of the original animated series for about... $28, on the XBOX Store!

[@GTV-Japan]

@DontrelleRoosevelt woohoo!

[@MCastleberry1980]

First time I played this game was in the lobby of a movie theater. It was my friend's bday and we were all going to see the TMNT movie for it, while his mom was buying the tickets, 4 of us sprinted to the cabinet and played. I often say I think my childhood peaked when I played the TMNT arcade game for the first time, before seeing the TMNT movie. I may still be chasing that dopamine high 34 years later lol

[@GTV-Japan]

That’s awesome to hear! I missed the movie in the theater because opening weekend was also the Nintendo World Championships in our city so of course I went to that. Thanks for sharing!🐢🐢🐢🐢

[@GTV-Japan]

It's 100% true! I got the TMNT NES game in June '89! There weren't big release days back then, but it was one of three games I got on what was "day one" for the standards of the time. The other two where Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3. Mario 2 and TMNT were by pure luck. Mario 3 was gotten by calling 3 toy stores daily for about 6 months until it finally showed up.

[@NEStalgia1985]

Alright turtle power

[@dacatindahat8275]

How did you manage to get Mario 2 on day one!? That's awesome!

[@NEStalgia1985]

@@dacatindahat8275 cuz he's the man

[@dacatindahat8275]

@@NEStalgia1985 fair enough!

[@Vulpas]

Mario 3 was definitely worth that effort!

[@ZEKESPILLEDINKMUSIC]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the very first arcade game that I ever played when I was a kid. As a big fan of the first cartoon, playing the arcade game was an exciting experience because Konami was able to accurately represent the show from the character designs right down to the theme song.

[@luissopelana]

Konami did a similar thing with the X-Men arcade game. Its character designs are the same as the seldom-aired Pryde of the X-Men pilot/TV movie, which is why they have those uniforms instead of the Jim Lee-inspired ones from the later TV series.

[@IconGamesBR]

The game was actally based in the uniforms from the comics. The game was relased in Feb. 92, while the animation was only aired in Oct of the same year - so I doubt one has any relation to the other.

[@luissopelana]

@@IconGamesBR Pryde was aired in 92 but it was produced in 89. Are you telling me the developers couldn't have possibly had access to it or any other exclusive material from Marvel and they went by what was available to the public?

[@IconGamesBR]

@@luissopelana See my comment here about the 1st TMNT game. It is a strong possibility.

[@HeresWhyItsCool]

I used to come home from school every day, watch "Bravestarr" at 3:30pm, and "Ducktales" (woo-ooo!) at 4:00. One day Bravestarr wasn't on... and it was this weird show with Turtle people, with a title I couldn't quite grasp at first... The Turtles were ninjas. They fought Ninja ROBOTS!!!! There was a mysterious shadowy villain. And it was a WONDERFUL first episode. It was on again the next day too, and that second episode was even BETTER!!! By the end of the week, they'd aired the entire 5-epsisode mini series of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." When it became a regular series I was hooked!!! Had all the toys, my friends and I watched it and played with them every day! Turtle-mania was a wonderful time... but yeah, that first game on the Nintendo sucked. Still does, despite the catchy music. I do remember finally getting a crack at the Arcade game at the Pizza place my buddy was having his 10th birthday party at, and I spent the entire $5 my parents sent me with trying to beat that arcade. Couldn't have been happier when it came to the Nintendo. How great is the animation in those first 5 episodes, though!!! Truly one of the great shows of the 80's, and greatest arcades of all time!!!

[@GTV-Japan]

Thanks for sharing your story! The animation is pretty good but I laugh at some of the glitches. Mainly bandanas switching colors. Which happened often. I guess that point was a new shift for a new animator or something 🐢🐢

[@DSan-kl2yc]

I didn't know bravestarr was older. I saw it all on reruns so it was almost all at the same time.

[@fnjesusfreak]

Toei Animation! They even directed those episodes.

[@captainmartin1219]

Those first 5 episodes are some of the best TMNT ever done imo. Wish they had kept that quality and energy ford the rest of the original shows run.

[@AudyBharksuwana]

Massive nostalgic moment when I saw those VHS case/covers.

[@Leahi84]

I remember getting the TMNT 2 the arcade game in 1990 for my 6th birthday. Really loved it. I remember it came with a coupon for a free personal size pizza from Pizza Hut. I still need to get the Cowabunga collection. My favorite of the Turtles games was actually TMNT III The Manhattan Project.

[@GTV-Japan]

I did appreciate that they stuck with 8 bit for a while. It’s a good game!

[@lessthankate]

Newspaper comics used to be common for properties like this. He-man and the Rugrats also had (very well made!) strips too.

[@ShinSeikiEvan]

My paper never got those cool kind of comic strips like TMNT, Star Wars, or Star Trek.

[@GTV-Japan]

Wow! I can’t imagine 🐢

[@KasumiKenshirou]

@@GTV-Japan There was also a Simpsons comic strip that my paper didn't have, that I only found out about when an out of town relative visited and it was in the newspaper he brought with him. Speaking of The Simpsons, that Konami arcade game was also based exclusively on very early material, prior to Sideshow Bob being revealed as a villain! Bob is a helpful character in the game and gives the player a power-up. Except for his skin color, Smithers is colored like he is in that one episode where he's black. (He's also a bomb-throwing, complete psycho in the game, which is not from the show. But he probably just didn't have an established personality at all, only Burns' assistant.) When Marge Simpson is shocked, you can see a pair of rabbit ears as part of her skeleton. Marge's hair concealing a pair of rabbit ears was a (wisely) abandoned concept that never made it to air -- a reference to Matt Groening's rabbit characters from his pre-fame Life in Hell comic strip. And these rabbit characters also show up in the game, as there are very few established Springfield residents at this point in the series. Most of the enemy characters are invented for the game. (It's been a while since I played it. ALL the enemies might be made up for the game.)

[@TheSplatterhousepics]

As a kid I didn't like the original NES game, but, as an adult and playing it in The Cowabunga Collection, I appreciate that it tried something different. The beat 'em ups are definitely better, but the original isn't a BAD game. It's just unnecessarily difficult. As far as the enemies go, the game, like the 1990 movie, was based more off the original comics than the cartoon and, in the comics, there weren't a whole lot of villains yet so they had to fill the enemy roster somehow. At least there's a little variety instead of just Foot solders and mousers.

[@tiff3174]

They also put in Krang's theme from Season 1 into the arcade game!

[@GTV-Japan]

That’s what I thought! But listening to the music in the show it’s hard for me to hear it. Thanks for sharing! 🧠 🐢

[@Prodmullefc]

My only access to the arcade version of this was at a local chuck e cheese and obviously mom wasn't gonna take us there just to play an arcade. But on that rare birthday where me, my brother, and my two friends were there, you knew where to find us. Seriously man, playing the TMNT and Simpsons games with three other people is awesome.

[@GTV-Japan]

Radical!! 🐢🐢🐢🐢

[@matthewdunaway7622]

For anyone interested I highly recommend Jeremy Parish’s video of NES Works that he did for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That should explain why the first NES game is so different from the arcade

[@njp4321]

Someone has probably already said it, but just in case: The foot soldiers only appear on the "overworld map" parts of the TMNT NES game, making them very easy to miss, if you're not actively thinking about it during those parts.

[@Serprem]

Incorrect. Foot soldiers also appear in the normal sewers and building areas. Enemy placement would be different depending on the turtle selected. Foot soldiers would also appear as a "boss" encounter with a healthbar.

[@TXAngeleno]

The arcade game music is phenomenal. I still play it on my phone to this day.

[@fergalstackstreams]

I remember Children's Palace. That was like our Toys 'R Us, because we didn't have a TRU close to us. Poor Splinter. Only 30 years old and has to walk with a cane. I think we all know what happened the animals after they were used for the mutation. It's not like the Technodrome can pull through the local drive thru to feed its residents. Shredder's threat of dining on turtle soup wasn't smack talk. He was just hungry.

[@Judgment]

I got Tecmo Bowl and I wanna say Zelda II from Children's Palace back in the day. And shout outs to Babbages for anyone who remembers that establishment. I might still have my Babbages card at my mom's house somewhere.

[@CriticalEatsJapan]

I remember coming across that arcade game with some of my friends ---it was in a back hallway near a hotel exit door. I think it was the first time I saw "insert coin to continue..." whenever one of us died

[@GTV-Japan]

Hey that’s a good point. When did arcade games start offering continues? I guess it’s not the first but it eventually became standard 🐢🐢🐢🐢

[@anthonybird546]

As an 8 - 11 year old in the late 80s, I actually encountered their parody, Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters, first. It probably wasn't until late 1989 or maybe early 1990 when I got into TMNT and I think the arcade game and movie were what got me into collecting the toys.

[@ShinSeikiEvan]

You're 100% right about the arcade game being based on Season 1. It even copies the cartoons BGMs! But I get the feeling the NES game was made before the cartoon had come out. They probably only had a vague plot outline, some character designs, and random Mirage comics to go on. The Japanese title for the Famicom version is also very strange and not the "Mutant Turtles" one that was later used.

[@GTV-Japan]

I had a line in there about that but I took it out because I wasn’t sure if the incidental music from tv was in the game. My ears couldn’t pick it up. I think you’re right. 🐢

[@ArchGeek]

@@GTV-Japanthe cover art for the NES game shows the turtles wearing their traditional comic accurate red bandanas, so being based on the comics is likely an accurate guess! (The turtles wore all red initially in the comics. It was started as a riff on Daredevil, who wore all red at the time. It’s also why the foot clan are called the foot, since they’re supposed to be like the Hand).

[@GTV-Japan]

@ArchGeek I have to wonder why they even wore those. What identity are they trying to conceal?! Well it’s more to think about next time I’m drinking at the campfire!

[@KasumiKenshirou]

@@ArchGeek That artwork was from one of the early comic book covers.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

@@GTV-Japan Creators Eastman and Laird did not think the comic would last beyond a single issue so it's probably just because other comic book heroes wear masks.

[@SoldierZ3R0]

TMNT Arcade uses Crime Fighters game engine. It came earlier in the same year the TMNT Arcade game did. The first NES game likely started development before Crime Fighters was finished and someone at Konami later had the idea to apply TMNT to Crime Fighters.

[@retrorider-NYC]

I’m Surprised the 1st level is not based on Aprils’s ANTIQUE STORE caught on fire like in the comics/1990 Film.

[@ulibarriL]

Ahhh, such a gem from my childhood. Spent a small fortune shoving quarters into it to beat it for sure.

[@raziyatheseeker]

Ooh dang, it does make sense that Splinter must've been driving the Turtle Van in the arcade game! Also explains why he was randomly kidnapped in the start of the next stage. They crashed, and the Foot must've immediately snatched him from the wreck. :o Been marathoning the 80s cartoon for Ninja Turtles slowly, since the start of the year. And yeah, holy smokes, they really did lean into the elements of the five-episode pilot for the arcade game! I may be one of the few people who like it over Turtles In Time, and Konami really did stretch as much of the small source material bits as it could for both this and the first NES game. Though for the latter, they definitely had to take some... creative liberties from the Mirage comics to fill the roster and ideas. And trust me, when I first played the arcade game at a Chuck E Cheese's at my cousin's birthday party? It just wasn't the same any longer, compared to the NES port.

[@UncaJohnny]

TMNT for NES is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma... It came out a few months before the arcade game so it sort of makes sense that both of them are different. It being an American IP that was mostly unfamiliar to Japan might have also been a factor. However, the fact that the comic was very different from the animated series was probably the one thing that made Konami produce two very different games. Maybe they were testing the waters to try and see which version would sell more copies? Anyway, if you love TMNT the Arcade Game and Turtles in Time, you should buy Shredder's Revenge for Switch. Tribute games did an excellent job on it and the game feels like a long lost sequel to the Konami arcade games. Awesome episode, by the way 👍🏻

[@GTV-Japan]

Yeah it’s possible but I also think at the time there wasn’t much source material as it was. Oh well at least we got what we got! Thanks for watching as always 🐢🐢

[@rodrigomarcondes5857]

Though I'm far too young to have catched the original airing of the 80's cartoons, i do have flashes of memories of watching reruns of episodes on tv when i was a baby

[@GTV-Japan]

Awesome! I wonder how long reruns were on tv? 🐢🐢🐢🐢

[@thatdonparkerVODS]

Shredder's Revenge really scratches that itch.

[@ryanschrafel9576]

The first NES TMNT game had a different title in Japan. It was called Geki Kame Ninja Den, which translates to Radical Turtle Ninja Legend. The Famicom port of the arcade game was called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the third Famicom game was called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2.

[@Vulpas]

That's interesting!

[@GTV-Japan]

Yeah! How weird! It’s like the Rambo naming convention!

[@jayesun3420]

R you serious? That's pretty much as bad as our NES release of "Dragon Power" not ball lol

[@Megared82]

The story passed down why the original NES game was different is the developers were given pictures of the Turtles with bare bones material and were told to "just make a game". The developers of the arcade game were actually given the 5-part mini series to go on. The developers of the original game kinda got a raw deal.

[@Waifu4Life]

I actually got a Raphael figure from a friend before I even knew what TMNT was.

[@GTV-Japan]

Radical! 🐢

[@joeboo8626]

I remember 1989. My brother worked at an arcade when TMNT came out. The 4 player cabinet was $3000 or so. It was paid off in two weeks. The NES game was alright, our options were limited back then. The movie came out in 1990? The turtles ruled that era. The last days of my childhood.

[@GTV-Japan]

Thanks for sharing that info. I knew most standard games were about $2000. I’ve heard sometimes the location will pay less if they split the cash take with the distributor but $3000 in quarters means 12,000 plays! Seems impossible but I believe it! Having people jump in probably helped give it a boost🐢🐢🐢🍕🍕🍕🍕

[@MasterFhyl]

You are such an underrated channel. The combination of nostalgia and new information even I didn't know, was great.

[@GTV-Japan]

Thanks for the support! 🐢🐢🐢🐢

[@waywardpony]

I think the foot soldiers in the first NES game are the occasional overhead gorilla-looking mooks that the player runs into in various areas.

[@nicholascooney]

"Raphael... HE'S THE LEADER OF THE GROUP" (Hoping those lyrics still drive other Turtle fans up the wall too)

[@GTV-Japan]

He was though, wasn’t he? For a while anyway.

[@nicholascooney]

@@GTV-Japan I'm pretty sure Leonardo led them in the 1987 cartoon and 1990 movie (where that song T.U.R.T.L.E Power with that lyric came from). Still a fun song though not as iconic as the cartoon's incredible theme

[@GTV-Japan]

@nicholascooney I think it was that Raphael was the leader but was too wild or something so Leonardo took over. I think was just the movie. But I vaguely recall one episode where other turtles took over the leadership role and it didn’t go well.

[@nestermrcool]

@@GTV-Japan yeah it was one episode where leo doubted himself so each of the other tutrles tried a stab at being the leader

[@GTV-Japan]

@nestermrcool wow! Nester! Thanks man! 👍

[@ratone1983]

I've always thought that either the first TMNT for NES was a conversion from some other game in development, or it didn't take the cartoon as reference but the comic books, which were in black and white and had all kinds of funky characters that never made it to the cartoon. Then they released TMNT II for the NES and the world didn't see such a faithful arcade port until Street Fighter II.

[@GTV-Japan]

I do remember questioning the need for arcade anymore after playing sf2 at home. The NES TMNT 2 was good but it was a shame there was never a 16 bit budget port later on. Probably would’ve done well 🐢

[@jimmylarson7856]

Foot soldiers in the first NES game are in the over world when you walk to the next level

[@Shellanomics]

This was my most satisfying arcade vicotry of all time. Came up short so many times, and finally then defeated it late game. I saw some people at Krang and begged my mom for $2! lol

[@Morbid0007]

I never noticed it until watching this video, but I'm very amused by the fact that the transport module at the end of stage 1 of the arcade game not only burrows from the Technodrome to the surface (solid ground), but also through multiple floors of the Channel Six building (mostly air). I was fortunate to have been a kid during peak Turtlemania, and loved it in all its forms. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

[@GTV-Japan]

Thanks for watching 🐢🐢🐢🐢🍕

[@BeIlG]

You are such a diamond in the ruff! I cannot explain how much I love your specific editing style and point of view! Thank you for giving us your gift! I have no nostalgia for many of the things you cover however I am always so drawn in by your style! Ive gone through many gaming channels but all feel so hollow. Yours is about the only one I am interested in. You should be very proud in your backlog of videos! Thank you again!!!

[@GTV-Japan]

Thanks I appreciate that ❤️! My goal is to make the ultimate evergreen channel that covers truly obscure stuff like like nobody else 🐢🐢🐢🐢

[@dieinfire920]

==long post warning == In Chile (at least in my city) our first exposure to the TMNT was around 1990-91 with the arcade game, so we played it without major context. In fact I thought Baxter on stage 3 was a kid. A few months later knockoff figures of the 4 turtles started appearing (the official figures would arrived one or two years later). When the TV series was finally aired, it started from season 2, so we all thought the cartoon was actually the sequel of the game!! And never understood why the “drill vehicle” was so different between the cartoon and the game. Until years later finally the 5 part season 1 was aired and finally we got the story straight. The ost of season 1 is amazing and I’ve been looking for it since forever, and still not on KZbin. Specially looking for the first episode music during all the interaction between April and the punks, and the technodrome music on later episodes. There’s many plot points I never got from the 1st season: 1.I thought Rocksteady and Bebop got fusioned with the animals and that’s why they were that dumb. (They didn’t sound dumb on the first episode in human form). 2.If all the punks were mutated, why Shredder never used them against the turtles? What happened to them? 3.Baxter was forced to build the mousers so he should be innocent instead of being arrested and put on a madhouse. 4.We never saw the amazing weaponry the foot soldiers showed in that first episode ever again. About the first nes TMNT: it was completely different so me and probably most kids on my area, just ignored it and went straight to the 2nd and 3rd nes games.

[@GTV-Japan]

Thanks for sharing your experience! I like hearing these things. And surprisingly this comment is kind of short compared to some others! Thanks for watching and have a cowabunga weekend dude!🐢🐢🐢🐢

[@KasumiKenshirou]

The way the mutations worked in the cartoon was that a human would mutate into the last animal they touched before they'd touched the mutagen. So Bebop, Rocksteady, and the other gang members were forced to touch zoo animals and then exposed to mutagen. So they were originally humans. But in some later episodes, the writers forgot and had Bebop or Rocksteady remembering when they were regular animals back at the zoo. The other mutated punks were shown at one point, but then the writers must've forgotten about them. Baxter is probably treated as a villain because he was an outright villain in the original comics. Publicly he claimed his Mouser robots were created for exterminating rats, but he was planning to actually use them for evil. April was his lab assistant, but he fired her -- by having the Mouser robots hunt her down and kill her! This is where the TMNT meet her, saving her life. And April being a lab assistant is the reason why she's wearing a jumpsuit in the cartoon, despite her career being changed to a TV news reporter. That's simply what she was wearing in her first comic book appearance.

[@Dinosaurprince]

I got the NES game knowing full well what it was. I loved the challenge. I got so good at it, I remember being able to rip through it really fast. I picked up on the tricks and junk. I played it again on the collection and realized I was one heck of a gamer at 12. Not so much anymore. 😭

[@Spacetrucker138]

I always thought that first turtles game had to be a reskin of some kind, the worlds best kept secret

[@AnimeJason2011]

Cowabunga, indeed! The TMNT arcade game was truly a slice of nostalgia right there. All this action makes me want to get a pizza, know what I mean? Well done. 😁

[@ObiWanShinobi85]

I remember getting the original turtles on the NES as a bundle for Xmas because I was obsessed with the turtles, Even as a kid I thought what the hell is this, I must’ve been 4 or 5 and the game was impossible especially those underwater levels so I had no desire to finish it but just like you the arcade version blew me away this is what we should of had

[@GTV-Japan]

Yeah!! When you don’t even want to push thru just to finish it, you know something is wrong.

[@tehshingen]

Rewatching the first five as an adult allows me to see just how “Toei” these five episodes are.

[@Simianradio]

Hi there! Amateur TMNT/VG historian, here. So my understanding about the TMNT games and their development is thus: While Konami acquired the liscense to the TMNT in 1987, the games had vastly different reference material during their development. The makers of the NES game were mostly handed comic materials and early Playmates development materials (namely the colored bandanas) to get a feel for what the TMNT were at the time. The Arcade team actually started a little later, and were primarily given the cartoon and production materials from Fred Wolf studios to work off. The two teams were not in communication within Konami, and since they kept to themselves, not much was being shared back and forth. The cartoon was shown to the NES team at the same time, which made them go back and add elements (namely Rocksteady and Bebop) to be somewhat more aligned with the TMNT brand. While the games did release at the same time, the arcade game benefited from having the cartoon's reference material. The NES game became a weird amalgamation of the cartoon and original comics, which is why it looks and feels grittier (and even uses an old comic cover for the game's label). Further evidence of the comic being a bigger influence on the NEs version can be seen in the designs of Shredder and Splinter; both look, and have the colors of, the comic versions instead of the cartoon. If you want to know why the TMNT are fighting a cavalcade of weird aliens and robots, well, take a look at this cover: (image.keycollectorcomics.com/media/teenage_mutant_ninja_turtles_5.jpeg?height=300) Things got even weirder inside those issues, so the team likely was told "go nuts."

[@GTV-Japan]

Thanks for the info!

[@Justin-Hill-1987]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was one of my favorite cartoons ever since I first watched it at the age of five. I remember when it aired on CBS, while at the same time, reruns of the earlier seasons aired on cable on USA Network's Cartoon Express in the early 1990s. My favorite turtles are Michelangelo and Donatello. My favorite episode is "Turtle Tracks," due to the fact that it serves as the pilot episode to the series, introducing us to the Turtles, Splinter, April, Shredder, Krang and the two street gang members who eventually become Shredder's henchmutants, Bebop and Rocksteady. The quality of the animation, the style, theme song and the overall tone has changed radically (with comedy taking a backseat to action) in the final seasons (dubbed the "red sky" seasons), due to to the fact that the Ninja Turtles had to compete with Batman and the Power Rangers in the early-to-mid-1990s for the same kind of television audience from 1993 to the end of the red sky seasons in 1996. I learned later on, that due to violent connotations concerning ninjas and nunchucks in the UK and other parts of Europe, that the cartoon was re-titled Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, and any instance of the word "ninja" was edited out (including written words and dialogue), as well as all of Michelangelo's scenes involving his weapon. It wouldn't be until decades later that such censorship rules would be abolished in all parts of Europe, leading to the unedited U.S. 1987 original series airing in the UK for the first time...

[@KaptainKlassic]

Eating pizza while I watch this, how ironic! Great video as usual. Never realized just how much detail went into the arcade based off the original mini series.

[@GTV-Japan]

Cowabunga!🐢🍕🐢🍕🐢🍕

[@Longlostpuss]

Yes......YES This was one of the fondest years of my life as a kid, Turtlemania had just begun and this arcade machine popped up out of nowhere. We absolutely lost our sh** when we first saw it. I have lost count of how many hours and how many 20 pences and 50 pences got spent on this game depending on where I could find it. You were literally playing the cartoon, it was a dream come true as a Turtles fan. They don't make games with this sort of passion and attention to detail anymore.

[@jayesun3420]

I also grabbed the 🐄abunga collection on PS4 and am very happy with the whole package.from the history of the games and literally zoomable photos of Every angle of every single game box ,to multiple location for every game applicable. Just excellent. Nice episode, nostalgia mushy memories.

[@GTV-Japan]

🐮 abunga!🐢🐢

[@thebookofgaming]

To answer your question at the end about how Konami could have made two different types of games on two different platforms, I have a small theory. The most popular type of game on the NES were platformers, like Super Mario Brothers. So they probably thought that making a Ninja Turtles platformer was a good idea. At the same time, the most popular type of arcade at the time were beat 'em ups, like Double Dragon. So it was probably a no-brainer that a Ninja Turtles beat 'em up arcade would be a smart safe move. Maybe this information is a obvious and everybody already knows this, I just wanted to put my two cents. Fantastic video, made me very happy! Keep up the good work. Blessings!

[@GTV-Japan]

Thanks I appreciate the feedback! I like leaving open questions like that to see what everyone thinks. You’re probably right. I’m sure lots of kids in 89-90 were asking this. Take care and have a great weekend 🐢🐢🐢🐢🍕🍕

[@MKF30]

The turtle blimp actually does appear in turtles in times true hard ending on snes credits as well as the arcade version once you beat it.😎

[@GTV-Japan]

It’s in the nes game too!

[@MKF30]

@@GTV-Japan Yes that's true too! Man that game is evil lol

[@leonardoyramm1856]

This game...this one has been in my memory and heart since the very first time i saw it in an arcade. Just like you said, I thought, "It's like the cartoon!!!" The cabinet was unique too, 4 joysticks, great sound and the gameplay was really fun. I played it so many times and of course I spent lots of coins, but I managed one day to finish the game with a single coin. Thank you for showing the connections between the game and the first 5 episodes. Konami did a great job, with this arcade. Thanks man!

[@GTV-Japan]

I’m glad ya like it! Thanks for watching 🐢🐢🐢🍕🍕

[@enriquepinero707]

I loved this video. It mirrors exactly my experience and thoughts of ,my child engagement with the games you mentioned here, as well as my growing observations of how the first season is a direct influence of the arcade game, which was the best choice (as after season 2 the show is less straightfoward and structured). The arcade games felt like mini movie events (or OVAs) of the TV show; where the stakes were higher and more serious.

[@adamgardner28]

The Neutrinos weren't in the game, but their cars were!

[@drewirons2646]

Its definitely nostalgia speaking, but I like the NES game. It does alot of things right (the music for example), but it does many things very wrong. It is so close to being something really special like an open exploration Castlevania, but there is just enough jank to hold it back.

[@ArmandoDoval]

The NES game handles surprisingly well if you use RetroArch's runahead/preemptive frames feature to get rid of the input lag. Setting it to 4 brings the lag from 4-5 frames to 0-1. Also aren't the guys that throw shurikens supposed to be the Foot Clan?

[@GTV-Japan]

The music is very good. Bouncy NES bass! 🐢

[@myyoutubepage199]

TMNT rocked !!!!!! that game Was challenging on nes but I still enjoyed it . I liked how it was a lot longer than the arcade version ,

[@rafterscott]

There were few things more magical in the 80s than going to a place like Toys R Us pulling that ticket off the shelf that showed they had the game you were dying to get in stock.

[@SagaSagaVGM]

Konami just had a knack for doing great things with limited source material. X-Men was based off a 20 minute pilot (Pryde of the X-men), and Simpsons was based off a few episodes of the first season. And TMNT arcade blew my mind as a kid, FOUR PLAYERS! THE THEME SONG! YOU FIGHT BEBOP AND ROCKSTEADY AT. THE. SAME. TIME! It's the little things ya know?

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

I have such fun memories and nostalgia for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, but I never played the arcade game until I got the Cowabunga collection for my switch and I’ve been playing a lot lately, I hope you do the turtles in time. Sequel when you can anyway great video and great retrospective on the 1989 arcade game..

[@GTV-Japan]

Thanks! I’m sure I’ll revisit Turtles in Time and line it up with the second season which it does very closely.

[@TwesomE]

I did also found out much later about the similarities with the show on the arcade game,the same or close to it might happening with some other titles like bucky oh hare,maybe xmen or wild west cowboys of moo mesa! 🙂

[@GTV-Japan]

I remember Moo Mesa, somehow!

[@Valentine82]

One of my proudest moments was beating the original NES TMNT game.

[@GTV-Japan]

Sir, we salute you! 🫡

[@SwashBuccaneer]

Loved TMNT so when the game dropped, I HAD to get it.

[@ridensroom6957]

I played this in the 2010s on 360. Such great memories

[@BlueMageWithSoulEdge]

My 1st memory of the turtles was actually the "Turtles Adventure" comic in I think '86 or '87, then I remember the t.v. show and finally the NES game. I didn't know there was an arcade game until like '92 when I saw it at Chuckie Cheese.

[@GTV-Japan]

Really? That must have been an exciting discovery! 🐢

[@CushionSapp]

My first Turtles game was Turtles In Time on SNES. Kind of hard to regress from that

[@GTV-Japan]

So true!🐢🐢

[@JohnSmith-nj4zq]

I think I was 11 or 12 years old when I played this game in the arcades. What surprised me was sometimes there are so rich kids with lots of quarters and they'd tell me to use their quarters to join them. Maybe they wanted someone to help them beat the game. At that time, a quarter could get you a bag of small potato chips. The minimum hourly rate was $4.25.

[@GTV-Japan]

That’s cool! I never got that lucky

[@mevb]

I'm sure you're aware of it but the NES version of The Turtles arcade game have a couple of more references to the series, like in stage 4 (which is 5 in the NES version due to an added stage), instead of refighting Rocksteady and Bebop, you get to fight Baxter Stockman in his fly form. The Nes also adds a frozen New York with a weather device which caused it (destroying after beating the boss turns winter back to spring) which also happens in Episode 5 of the first season. One thing you didn't mentioned was that before you fought Shredder was that you fought Krang in his robot exoskeleton, which is also in the season finale (minus Krang became of the size of a giant but that was used in Turtles in Time).

[@Unquestionable]

Turtle Mania was a crazy time for sure, I know I can't place individual releases so much as major events. I remember the first time seeing the Hostess Pies (with slime inside!), the first commercial I saw announcing the arcade version getting ported to the NES, and of course the countless Saturday nights spent playing the arcade game at the local bowling alley. The original NES title was for sure a gigantic shock; something I enjoy less as intended and more as this bizarre fever dream version of the franchise (rumors were it was a game in development with the license applied as an afterthought, something I think was disproven with the devs basically saying they had an extremely loose understanding of the concept so was mostly guess work).

[@GTV-Japan]

Hostess pies! I remember now! Those were great!

[@TheRealKaiProton]

I always figured the NES was a reskin of something else Konami was already working on, and then the Arcade was based on the show.

[@TwesomE]

It is natural to assume that at the beginnings of the nes console they were limitations,so there's no need to think it too much why the first tmnt game was weird to the touch! The thing i know as a big fan of the series until now is that i first saw the tmnt game on nes in one of the first big mall's we had in greece,and of course the film wizard and wanted to play it like a mad man.The problem was i didn't had an nes and my gaming life started mostly with gameboy! Though i played all the turtles games on the portable,it made me even more to wanna play the nes game as well but the nes was pretty expensive close to the end of its career as a system.Then the snes was appeared and i gone directly to the 16bit era and played turtles in time there! I had an nes afterwards from a shop with vintage stuff accompanied with some games,some still closed to their boxes! I have now both tmnt from nes 1st and the second arcade version which was really groundbreaking for its time for the 8bit system! I played and beat them in original format,as well in an emulator on my pc.I also have upploaded the playthrough in my channel! 😉 The thing i don't understand however with this new cowabunga collection is why in some arcade versions the games make you choose the turtle you want before entering the title? Does anybody know anything about this setting konami made in this collection?!? Lately kevin eastman signed my freddy funko casey jones black light as well and i am really exited for this also!

[@BobbyHo2022]

I never got much further than the Van stage in TMNT for nes in my entire childhood. I got to that mechanical turtle once.

[@evgaming9390]

The older I get the less friends I have that still play retro video games from the NES...Retro gaming is a lonely path

[@ggbetz]

I was definitely a huge fan...of the toys and cartoon! Found the archie comics way later, and the mirage ones after that. My aunt got me into them, and worked on and took my brother and I to the premiere of turtles 3! This video was great, I saw the connections, but not blatantly. To this day, turtles 2,3,4, and hyperstone heist are the only beat'em ups I've ever beaten, and I really want the arcade pcbs some day (sooo expensive!). Fun fact I'm sure others have mentioned is turtles 1 was never released in Japan(lucky them), and you never fight a triceraton in turtles 3, or go thru a dimensional warp in 1(the 2 with straight up mirage comics covers on the game cartridges). Memories, i even like all 3 fighting games, not my usual genre! Who was your fav? Mine was Raph, of course. Great video, thank you for the memories! Further turtles (shows, games), are very hit or miss... Also, did you know in other parts of the world they are called teenage mutant hero turtles and Michaelangelo cant use his nunchucks? That was odd.

[@GTV-Japan]

Raphael was my favorite too. He was the rebel! The nunchucks were removed from the show entirely and replaced with a grappling hook if I recall 🐢🐢🐢

[@josevillouta4588]

This story couldn’t be better told, from you being there, it gives the right context- just as I remember. I got the NES game on Xmas.

[@GTV-Japan]

Wow! I hope you thanked Santa! 🐢

[@josevillouta4588]

@@GTV-Japan I was very happy of course! I found recently a picture of me opening that game :)

[@dodgykebaab]

Hold on. You played the NES game BEFORE you saw the arcade game. You lucky dog! I played the arcade game, then saw the magazine advert which implied that the ZX Spectrum game (the machine I had in 1989/1990) was a port of the Konami arcade game. I got the Spectrum game (which ended up being a port of the NES game), and was utterly disgusted!

[@GTV-Japan]

Oh my. I can’t imagine the game on the spectrum!! 😭

[@DontrelleRoosevelt]

Once I played the arcade game the first time, I made excuses to go anywhere I found one of those cabinets, almost daily, during the summer. TMNT stuck with me, and then came Mortal Kombat... and that's another story!

[@captainmartin1219]

Bro awesome video,but its a crime that you did not mention Krangs theme at the end is lifted straight from the tv show.

[@jorgezarco9269]

Todd W. Langen from The Wonder Years co-wrote the script for the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

The creator of Two and a Half Men, Chuck Lorre, wrote the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song, and was a writer on MASK, too. The quality of his work went downhill after that, but he made a lot more money afterwards.

[@MyRetroLife]

Great video man! I’m also working a new TMNT video

[@GTV-Japan]

Awesome I know it’ll be great!🐢🐢

[@GTV-Japan]

Hey also if you got time check out my new pac man video for some crazy detective work you’re going to like!

[@ericmalikyte885]

TMNT NES is a great game! It's more of a mixture between the comics and cartoon, but it deserves more praise than it gets by fans. I've beaten it multiple times.

[@FeralInferno]

Cowabunga! Like, this is a totally radical video dude!! Great look at the early TMNT games. I still get three of my friends together annually to play some TMNT arcade!

[@GTV-Japan]

Awesome dude 🐢

[@atomicnoexcept]

Great video! Thank you for putting it together and helping me relive so many dope memories. The AI upscaling is horrific though 05:46

[@GTV-Japan]

Well that’s just how it is on the open seas 🏴‍☠️

[@atomicnoexcept]

@@GTV-Japan Aye aye matey!

[@persona83]

People tend to praise the second arcade game as a classic but to me the first one is where it's at. As you said, it's perfect. Not only technically, but the timing couldn't have been better, everyone was into the Turtles back then. It was like playing the cartoon. Seeing it in the local mall arcade for the first time was one of the highest moments in my gamer life. About the NES games I used to think like you, but today I'd rather play the first one. I don't know there's something about it that makes me come to it from time to time. And I love its OST.

[@GTV-Japan]

As far as just the BGM itself TNMT on NES is really good!! But it’s just not very turtle-y 🐢

[@tainteddragon2438]

I loved the TMNT arcade port more on the NES because it had more length and extra bosses. I wish there was some way they combined the greatness of the graphics and mechanics of the Arcade game with the NES's port's extra stages and bosses. The arcade game was fun but it was a bit on the short side.

[@GTV-Japan]

Good point! The bonus stages were fun!

[@TheAtariNetwork]

I remember playing this at my local Major Magics (think Chucky cheese) and spending all my quarters in this. Well that is until the Simpsons arcade machine went in.

[@GTV-Japan]

Woohoo!!

[@franciscogerardohernandezr4788]

The game was made with love, and it will remain a perennial work of art. Super advanced for its time and it's difficulty level remains up to par in 2024.

[@thrillhouse_vanhouten]

1:52 ooooof, Optical flow murdered these clips

[@EricGarrett-s5s]

I really enjoyed playing the arcade game i enjoyed playing TMNT 2 and 3 on the NES system my favorite bad guy is krang metal head Leonardo are my favorite characters I wish super krang was on the show or super rocksteady and might Bebop.👍😎

[@nervaaugustus7089]

So that begs the question - have you tried TMNT: Shredder's Revenge? It's basically a love-letter to the arcade beat-em-up TMNT games, and plays fantastically well. Expect a lot of appearances from a lot of characters across the franchise; heck, there's even an appearance by the seldom-seen Mutagen Man in the Survival mode.

[@GTV-Japan]

No I didn’t. I guess I should

[@mightyfilm]

It's weird to think that the TMNT arcade game used the five episode miniseries as its basis and remains relatively timeless to the franchise, where as Konami only had a season of The Simpsons and the game comes off strangely quaint. I always wished that The Simpsons got a Turtles in Time treatment with a sequel follow up with more franchise lore at their disposal. Anyway, you can tell someone at Konami liked the Roadkill Rodney bots. They're never seen again in the 80's cartoon series after the first season, but they seem to have been staples of the video games going forwards. I also highly recommend tracking down the fan game "TMNT Rescue-palooza." It's my absolute favorite of the TMNT games, and it really blends the best parts of the NES titles into an addictive presentation.

[@GTV-Japan]

That’s a good point. I’ve always felt Barts Nightmare continues in that view with many references but I truly hated that game. It did look wonderful though.

[@mightyfilm]

@@GTV-Japan I hate how Acclaim owned the console video game rights to The Simpsons. At least TMNT was Konami across the board, even into the 2003 series.

[@GTV-Japan]

@mightyfilm I HATE ACCLAIM!! Period!! That company can burn in hell!! Almost every movie or tv show was handled by them. They were all terrible and they refused to step out of the Nintendo/Sega dichotomy yet proudly proclaimed they made games “for all systems” yeah all except the Atary Lynx, TurboGrafx and NeoGeo. That’s not ALL! They can take the pile of money they made and go choke on it!

[@KasumiKenshirou]

They didn't even have the entire first season of The Simpsons, as Sideshow Bob is a helpful character, and Smithers has that outfit he wore in that one early episode where he was black.

[@mightyfilm]

@@KasumiKenshirou I wonder how much material from anything they tend to get. Sideshow Bob's design reflects his appearance from Krusty gets Busted, rather than The Tell Tale Head, so if they didn't see the episode, they certainly got a character licensing packet. I know that their Wild West C.O.W. Boys game had a character that wouldn't show up until the second season. Their X-Men game was based on an 80's pilot, not the show that was currently starting production when it was released. I guess with these games, they wanted them out pretty fast to capitalize on their success, and there was no way they'd know The Simpsons would be around almost 40 years at the time. Shame they didn't get a second one around the fourth season. There would have been so much more to mine from.

[@Marc_Araujo]

I hated the original TMNT as a kid. Now, as an adult, I really dig it and appreciate the deep game mechanics...still hard as balls, though (especially the Technodrome). P.S. RIP James Avery.

[@GTV-Japan]

Yeah who knew all that time Uncle Phil was Shredder!!?

[@JohnSmith-zw8vp]

You know even back in the day I thought it was really strange how much harder it was to get the Turtles to swim in that first NES game than Mario! Didn't Donatello say in that one episode that water is their natural habitat?

[@GTV-Japan]

He did! Maybe there was too much undercurrent

I think the first NES game is more based in the Archie's comics, while the second (arcade) game was, obvious, based in the cartoon. But, I think Konami knew the arcade one was going to be their masterpiece, so, they delegated to Ultra (Konami B-team in disguise) the one based on the archie's comics, which konami knew, it would be more limited. It seems that for that title, they even didn't have the rights of the music, but they tried to make something similar, upbeat, for the intro. That's why the NES one looks grim, dark, more creepy than the arcade, which the cartoon gave a 180° spin from the gloomy ambience of the comic/archie's comic.

[@bahamutdragons]

Great video, but those TMNT clips look terrible, and I'm assuming they're AI up-rezzed? It doesn't look like a TV frame upscaller, it looks like every frame was blended from one to another and the result really isn't good. The game footage looks fine though.

[@fireaza]

While they DO look like they've been A.I upscaled, I don't think that's the problem you're noticing. Many of the A.I upscaling software actually handles 2D art VERY well, you can get get results that look almost like native HD content. No, the problem is they've also used A.I to increase the framerate, leading to that ugly smeary melty look.

[@mightyfilm]

Wondering if he threw that in to trip up the copyright bots.

[@GTV-Japan]

It was to trip the copyright system! And it worked!

[@GimblyGFR]

Man, I love the TMNT franchise, and I LOVE the first arcade game. I know everyone prefers Turtles in Time, but seeing the original machine in the arcades as a kid blew my mind. I used to go to the arcades even when I had no money just to watch the attract screen with the cartoon music. And the game itself was AMAZING. I never had the chance to play on a 4-player machine, but it was a blast no matter how many people were playing. I'm currently watching the 2012 TMNT CGI cartoon with my family, and I must say that it is the best animated series the Turtles ever had. Great stuff, really. Thank you very much for this excellent video. It brought back great memories (as usual with your content) and also made me think and discover things I didn't know or had forgotten (also a common feature in your videos). More TMNT, please!

[@GTV-Japan]

I’m sure you notice how I set things up for more videos in the future. So I think TNMT 2 will be in the cards someday 🐢🐢

[@GimblyGFR]

@@GTV-Japan I was hoping the references to other games were indicators of future videos. Nice to read that it was the plan all along. Maybe even a video about a certain AMAZING arcade game by the same developer that had yellow people in it. You can make a very similar video about how the first season of THAT TV show influenced the game. Konami sure was firing on all cylinders at the time.

[@GTV-Japan]

@GimblyGFR the copyright monster won’t like that. Doh!!

[@GimblyGFR]

@@GTV-Japan Damn that monster!

[@KasumiKenshirou]

The 2003 cartoon was the best, and directly adapted many stories from the original comics (but also made some drastic changes, too). Co-creator Peter Laird was heavily involved with this cartoon, which was a huge benefit.

[@JohnSmith-zw8vp]

4:00 -- That was the going rate for most blue chip NES games when they first come out...but remember $50 then is ~$120 in today's money!

[@anthonyfrench3169]

I bought the game boy TMNT and was disappointed that it wasn't like the arcade game.

[@spider6539]

Children's palace! I loved that place

[@GTV-Japan]

Toys r us bought them out in 90 or 91. That location became a TJ Maxx. The castles were there for quite a while afterwards I recall. 🐢

[@LinktheSamoyed]

The old NES one had the turtle van and blimp in it too, and foot soldiers in the first few levels. I think the NES one comes off as weird because it combined stuff from the original comics/roleplaying games (even the cover is from the comics with the all red headbands) and the tv show, where the arcade was just the TV show. indicently, because I am from Australia, my first contact was the arcade machine first, then the TV show after, and I never read the comics so the NES game was really jarring.. also the toyline too with the odd colouring.

[@GTV-Japan]

I guess we can only wonder what the legacy would be if we never had an arcade game 👾

[@daisukegori2112]

I noticed even back then, the episode april said " I'm destined to become a 28 year old hag" my brother comments " she's 27?' And yes I noticed the same age in the game.

[@GTV-Japan]

Yeah in season 2 she says that. So if the game is based on season 1, it was correct! 🐢🐢🐢

[@tgonzalez1983]

Got the 1st NES game for my birthday. Didn’t even know it existed. I liked it but the arcade game was always top tier