Stop the project, I want to get off!
PLAYERS: 1-2 simultaneous
PUBLISHER: Konami
DEVELOPER: Konami
GENRE: Beat-em-up
RELEASE DATE: February 1992
Here’s Manhattan: home of the brash, outrageous, and green. The Turtles are back to curb-stomp Foot Soldiers, grow large with pizza, and prevent themselves from becoming soup for Shredder’s army of nightmares. In that regard, Turtles III is the best of the trilogy. The Turtles’ are lighter on their feet, their nerves sharper. You’ll still get thunked in the head (usually by girder-wielding Stone Warriors) but it will occur less often than the cheap back-and-forth pugilism found in Turtles II. The Turtles have a new valuable throw move which eliminates Foot Soldiers in one swipe. Since the move doesn’t take many frames of animation to perform, it’s easy to spam frequently. The environments are more varied and colorful than the previous two games. Turtles III begins on a beach in Florida, moves to the ocean where you’ll surf and fight atop a battleship (Baron Von Spleen’s Battle Barge!), then to Manhattan Bridge, the sewers, and back to the Technodrome. The levels don’t drag on needlessly either. Right when you’re beginning to grow wary of an stage, you’ll fight a boss or move on to the next area. Downside to the Turtles lovefest: every Turtle plays exactly the same. One would think Don would have a longer reach with his bo staff, Mike would be faster, Raph stronger – anything to distinguish the four. Not a game-breaker, but no excuse for lack of distinction. Turtles III is short, quick, and mean, and all the better for it. Giddy Manhattan.
B+
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5 replies on “#650 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project”
I always loved brawlers and the Turtles always seemed to do them justice. The quality only got better and better and the NES had Turtles in Time too. It is a shame this format of game is somewhat unheard of these days. I miss these old games.
Great game, I still play it. Love that box illustration!
And 3 enemies on screen at a time, wow. It seems little, but is 50% more than Double Dragon games offer, for instance. 😛
Leonardo's special attack was awesome; I wish they would carry it forward to Tournament Fighters as well, instead of the weak Spin kick they alloted him there.
I agree that this is a great game, and I really enjoy reading your now-classic reviews. To possibly increase your and other players enjoyment of this game, I wanted to mention that there are gameplay differences for each player character! GameFAQs has the breakdown of character differences at https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/563469-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-iii-the-manhattan-project/faqs/79064. Thank you this awesome website which has been a treasure trove of information for many years.
Thank you for the kind words, friend. And for the GameFAQs link!