Flashback Friday: TMNT 2 - The Arcade Game.

I have been in a severe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mood as of late. I usually am anyway, probably because it was the greatest thing about my childhood. (Well, except for for the 3rd movie where they go back to ancient samurai times.....that was crap).

But recently I have had my Turtle Power cranked all the way to 11....I don't know why...

Oh wait, yes I do...because this happened...

Seriously, click the link and watch it, then come back. I'll wait.

Yeah, I watched it again too.

So the Turtles look awesome, and you get to see all 4 of them throughout the trailer, Shredder looks like an absolute badass, Will Arnett's in it so that 's always good, Megan Fox is...well not a great actress...but she could play the part of April O'Neil just fine, I hear there will be an appearance by Baxter Stockman, you get to hear the Turtles talk and they sound like they should and....(breathes into paper bag)

Let's just say I am excited for this. So with that, I bring you this week's Flashback Friday! My favorite Ninja Turtles game. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game.

The memories are already coming back. :)

Of course that is the NES name for it, which is the one I played the most. I played it in the arcade a LOT back in the day, (and to this day thanks to the local barcade "Up-Down") but being 5 years old when the NES version came out (1990), I didn't want to spend EVERY quarter I ever had on this game, so I acquired the home version.

The premise is simple: Shredder captures April and Splinter and it's the Turtles' job to rescue them. Begin game! That's all we needed back then to make an enjoyable game. Simpler times, indeed.

The controls were simple: jump, attack, and that weird thing where hitting both buttons did a special move where you also lost some life. I get that they wanted your money, but it still bothered me that a move you did actually hurt you. This was prevalent in many arcade games, so it's just an observation of mine.

Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines.

Simple beat 'em up, sure, but for me, the joy came in the fact that the game hit all the right Turtles beats for me. The majority of the time you are fighting the Foot Clan in different forms and colors, basically fodder. There are appearances by BeBop, Rocksteady, Krang, Baxter Stockman, etc. The levels are taken straight out of the show, it feels like an episode of TMNT and it's an enjoyable ride from beginning to end.

Donatello also does ass kicking!

You eat pizza to regain health, you hear the theme music at various points in the game, the jump-kick was your ultimate weapon against EVERYTHING, it was just a lot of fun to jump in and kick some shell. You could even use the environment against your enemies. Foot Soldier throws a manhole cover at you? Just smack it right back in their face. Traffic cone on the ground? Smack it into an enemy and watch him DIE! I don't know how fast a cone has to go to kill someone but apparently Splinter made sure to teach it to his sons just in case.

There are even a few skateboard sequences where you are fighting enemies also riding skateboards. At some point in our lives, didn't we all try skateboarding? Until we couldn't figure out how to make the board come up with us when we jumped. (I'm sure I was very entertaining for my neighbors).

Donatello does breaking the 4th wall.

There have been many Ninja Turtles games, and not all of them are bad, the sequels The Manhattan Project and Turtles in Time were games I enjoyed, though a lot of the mechanics stayed the same. I still, however, keep coming back to the first game in the "beat 'em up" era of Turtles games. This game is a classic and you can still find a cabinet in the few arcades that exist today.

Anyone feel like going to Up-Down and spending any quarter they can find? :)

See? Ladies love smart men.

Yeah, Donatello is my favorite. What of it?