Comments on: Mario Katharsis: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

By: Tyler Nights

Tyler Nights — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:08:48 +0000

This is hilarious! So hard. I remember one time getting to Shredder and I died (after probably years of attempting to beat it), dying, and never playing it again.

Great article.

By: Sara Clemens

Sara Clemens — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 22:52:06 +0000

Thanks for reading, everyone. I couldn’t ask for better companion pieces in the form of comments. I, too, take comfort that many others wanted to crush their NES controllers in their bare hands when playing this game.

My NES is hooked up and still playable, so I just played this for the first time in years. Still drowned in the dam level.

By: DocDoom

DocDoom — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:23:01 +0000

“Turtles in Time” isn’t really hard by any means, but it’s still an awesome game. Me and my friends have been known to see how inebriated we can be and still get through it.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 19:52:55 +0000

Original TMNT was insanely hard, but me and a friend beat TMNT Turtles in Time in under 25 minutes in college several years back…

By: DocDoom

DocDoom — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:44:46 +0000

I remember staying up to ungodly hours of the night trying to beat this game with my friend. It took us HOURS, and when we finally did it, we high fived and sat back to watch what would SURELY be a sweet ass ending. You know, to offset our hours of suffering. We were then greeted by Splinter saying “Thanks dudes.” END CREDITS.

Fuck you, Splinter. Seriously.

Great stuff as always, Sara. “Turtles in Time”, FTW!

By: hallamq

hallamq — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:11:15 +0000

Oh, I got to Shredder. I was like 13, and thought I’d give it a go after years of not playing the thing. While I still found it ridiculously hard (especially when some dudes with jetpacks and lasers start to show up) it was nowhere near as soul-crushing as it was in my childhood.

I actually remembered which sewers to avoid, where every pizza was and became an expert in turtle-switching at the right time. In doubt, just Donatello that shit, then put one of the useless guys on the line. Plus, at some point you can get almost infinite **whatevertheyare** (you know, those giant, boomerang-like things you can throw) and a shitload of boomerangs, which made things somewhat easier. That is, unless, you happened to accidentaly step on some shitty shuriken dropped by an enemy right in front of you with your infinite-weapon turtle, thus losing everything immediately, but hey, nobody said this game wasn’t annoying.

Anyway, I got to Shredder with only two low-health turtles and lost after just a few seconds. I remember almost nothing of the battle, only that Shredder was a brownish turd that looked nothing like Shredder. After succeeding under overwhelming odds level after level, I didn’t even get to figure out what was going on. Saddest part is, a few years afterwards, while fooling around in a game-faq site I looked for a walkthrough to this game and turns out Shredder himself was a pushover. You just had to stand in the right place and boomerang the shit out of him without getting harmed, a-la-Rocksteady. Had I known that, I would certainly had finished this son of a bitch game and probably be married to a supermodel or something. Well, back to the bottle

By: nur_i

nur_i — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:11:08 +0000

Beat it once. I used Game Genie, which I think I only ever used one other time to beat the train wreck of a game that was Snake’s Revenge.

While not proud of using Game Genie, I was justified in doing so—I was able to venture a couple levels past the dam, even with out the genie, but the Technodrome level was the stuff of nightmares and made the dam level look tame by comparison.

Let me know if anyone has beaten the game without the aide of cheats, because I have lived my entire life convinced that it is impossible.

By: Mr. B

Mr. B — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:41:41 +0000

I remember this game being really hard. I think I only got to a dam level and that was about it.

I dont recall ever getting anywhere near the Shredder. I just kind of gave up in the end too, after countless attempts at it.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:23:31 +0000

One of my early NES games as well. Years later, reading various articles that follow a similar pattern to this (as well an Angry Video Game nerd video), I am beyond comforted to know that I wasn’t the only kid who wanted to throw the controller through the TV screen during this level. Being young (and there being no internet on which to commiserate with fellow gamers), I had no way of knowing that others were struggling. As the years passed, I came to the realization that I’m just not all that good at video games, and chalked my experiences up to that. These days, I realize it wasn’t JUST my shortcomings, but, in fact, a horribly HORRIBLY designed game.

The really sad thing is the amount of time I spent trying to get through.

By: adam

adam — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:21:20 +0000

TMNT 2 based on teh arcade game was wayyyy better, as was even the gameboy game.