Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES review)

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Ultra
Released: 1990

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game is a beat-em-up that's based on the 1987 TMNT animated series.

There's ten levels and your mission is to rescue April O'Neil and defeat Shredder. All four turtles have a decent move set that includes a weapon slash, a jump kick and a jump slash that can be performed by pressing the A and B buttons together; the latter kills most enemies with one hit but for some reason it's a little hard to consistently pull off. Comparing it to the Arcade original it's seriously impressive how much was ported over and there's lots of cool touches including one level where April screams for help on a background TV! It's arguable that some areas had an influence on Streets of Rage 2 (1992, Mega Drive) as some sections suddenly scroll downwards and there's even a short elevator ride. Scene 4 sees you jumping on a skateboard and fighting heavily armed helicopters on the highway which adds some nice variety. This NES port has two exclusive levels; Snowy Central Park is gorgeous with its parallax scrolling, slow ploughs and robotic snowmen armed with homing missiles! House of Shogun takes place in a Japanese Dojo and once again it looks beautiful with bad guys jumping out from behind the doors. The game has many enemy types to stop things getting monotonous and some carry weapons such as dynamite, boomerangs and sledgehammers. Each boss is fun to fight and many familiar faces are featured including Bebop and Rocksteady. Despite the lengthy adventure the main downside is that it's incredibly tough as you're always massively outnumbered; even the manual states that there's over 700 total enemies to defeat so seeing later levels is a real challenge!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game is an incredible port with tons of content and some solid beat-em-up action. It is a bit too challenging but it plays well and each level adds something new to keep the combat feeling fresh and exciting.

Random trivia: Another beat-em-up in the series was released on the NES in 1992 called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project.

Double Dragon (NES review)

Developer: Technōs Japan
Publisher: Tradewest
Released: 1988

Double Dragon is a side-scrolling beat-em-up that was first released in the Arcades in 1987.

It consists of four levels that take place in a City Slum, an Industrial Area, a Forest and a Hideout. To start with you only have punches, kicks and jumps at your disposal but as you beat up enemies your heart metre on the bottom-left increases. Once you reach certain amounts you'll gain access to additional moves such as jump kicks and throws that make the brawling action more interesting. To do the most damage you'll want to pick up one of the many weapons including baseball bats, knives, oil drums and dynamite. Each one is satisfying but unfortunately they disappear once you leave the current screen. Stages 1 and 2 are short but packed full of good beat-em-up action and it's even possible to interact with the environment and climb ladders to scale buildings. Stages 3 and 4 are longer and more of a grind as larger groups of enemies come your way. The combat suddenly becomes very clunky and it seems like complete luck whether you hit an enemy or take damage yourself when engaged in a scuffle. It's also annoyingly difficult to repeat successful attack patterns with any consistency unless you have a turbo controller. There's some minor platforming involved in these two stages and while it's not overly difficult it's possible to fall off before you've even reached the edge! The graphics are good but there's a fair bit of flicker and weird screen shifting. The music is some of the best the NES has to offer with many memorable tracks. There's also a one-on-one fighting mode with beefier sprites but each match takes forever and it's pretty boring.

Double Dragon is literally a game of two halves; the first two levels are fun with solid controls and a fair level of difficulty. The last two stages are extremely cheap though with frustrating gameplay and imprecise brawling that ends things on a sour note.

Random trivia: The second level boss has a rather amusing glitch whereby you can simply walk back down the ladders you've just climbed up until you hear a sound confirming that he's been defeated!