Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project Review - Nintendo NES

I’ve certainly realized why Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III was voted the best video game of 1992 on the Nintendo NES. This release of the turtles game was similar to Turtles II: The Arcade Game. It featured side-scrolling action.

What certainly made this game stand out in the series were additional fighting moves. Each character is equipped with a special move, which they can inflict at any time during game play.

The Story:

It’s been a long time that I’ve seen the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, but many elements of this game reminded me exactly of that. Most of the characters from the cartoon are included in this game, which is cool and certainly gives character recognition during game play. My understanding of the story is to destroy the foot clan’s presence in New York City. The game starts with the turtles being on a beach in Florida as they are on vacation, until shredder tells the turtles he has captured April. Now the Battle Begins.

This game is certainly like most side-scrolling beat’em up games in the Nintendo NES genre. Enemies come at you from all sides, and you must kill all theenemies on the game screen in order to proceed to the next part of the level. The game consists of eight non-stop action levels. I’d probably have to say the surfboard level was certainly my favorite.

Each level consists of two sublevels, with a boss fight at the end of each sublevel. Once you have beaten both sublevels, you proceed and go to the next level. You start out fighting on a beach, then move to docks; this is kind of where I didn’t get the Manhattan as part of the name.

The game seems much like a story

The end goal is to reach the floating city in Manhattan. You travel through underwater sewer mazes, and on top of bridges, fighting your way to shredder. The first time you do encounter shredder, he is pretty easy to beat. Then he gets up and runs away, now the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles go up in space and have the final battle on the enemies' spaceship.

Once you are up in space, the foot clan definitely throws every thing but the kitchen sink at you. You must defeat a whole slew of past enemy bosses on your quest to defeat the evil shredder. As soon as you make it to shredder this time, he is not so easy, and skilled NES tactics come into play in order to defeat him.

The Game-Play:

In this game you have the option to play with one (1) player, or you have the option to play with two (2) players

Or a new feature that you can play with two (2) players, but with this mode you can suffer damage from your other turtle comrade. This certainly be tricky while using turtle special moves and making sure to get out of the way.

You start the game with only three (3) lives, and I believe you get two (2) continuations. This feature is much like other Nintendo NES games, with no codes or passwords. You'll need to adjust to the difficulty of this game and certainly need to hone your NES skills in order to beat this game.

You have the option to play as anyone one of the four turtles. The Names of the four turtles are: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael.

So if you choose to play with Leonardo, and you die during the course of the level, you can choose a different turtle. This comes in very handy depending on the level and the foot clan enemies you're currently battling. What I mean by this is each turtle has their own special move, which certain moves come in hand in certain situations.

One thing that I find annoying with other beat’em up games in the NES library

Is the lack of different characters or enemies. Turtles III, has lots and lots of different enemies depending on the level in which you are on. Just about every boss battle is a different boss. This certainly keeps the gameplay fresh and exciting with a different wave of enemies.

Boss Battles can be very easy or very hard

Some bosses are very hard, and you’ll probably die a few times while trying. I found the evil clone turtle of Leo to be verydifficult and the Alligator boss. When you battle bosses when they are about to die they start to flash, this is a signal that you're about to win.

Conclusion:

As a young boy, I was a huge fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I believe, I religiously watch the cartoon every Saturday morning. So getting a chance to battle through this game, with more attacks from the turtles, is a plus.

I played most of the game as either Leo or Ralph, I thought Michelangelo’s character wasn’t very good, and never really played much with Donatello. Leo and Ralph definitely had the best special moves of the bunch.

So if you're an old school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan, this game has all the characters from years past in one non-stop beat’em up action game. Any old Nintendo NES fan should certainly have a turtle game in their library. A copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III The Manhattan Project, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II The Arcade Game won't break the bank for a used copy. I would give Turtles II The Arcade Game, the nod, as the best of the bunch. Many others might argue Turtles III is the better game; really, you can’t go wrong with either. Have fun and Chowabunga Dude!

Cheats:

Just like any other Nintendo NES game, there are a wide variety of cheats you can use. From infinite lives, infinite energy and so on. Even though the game isn’t too long, with limited amount of lives and continues, choosing a game genie cheat maybe the way to go.