Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (GB, 1993)
Graphics-8 Sound-8 Control-7.5 Challenge-7.5 Story-5
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7.5 Fun-7.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-7.5
+ Rescue other chars with abilities that let you explore further (default char is Michaelangelo - hover jump, Leonardo can drill in certain spots, Raphaelo can move into tight spaces, Donatello can climb walls), decent map system (shows the full basic layout and most important items+unrescued turtles+bosses as dots on the map from the get go, doesn't show the two health upgrades (which can lead you to miss them thinking they would've been marked), can't see where you've been and haven't been, doesn't distinguish between points of interest, doesn't show room exits nor room architecture), decent intro cutscene (stills and text, slow text though and you can skip the whole scene but not speed it up), pretty satisfying sfx, good bosses, upgradeable lifebar,
+/- Play as the four turtles (you'll also rescue Splinter but it has no effect on gameplay), kinda stupid premise (the other turtles leave to save April without telling Mike and then they all get captured after a few minutes, can only throw shuriken while climbing ladders, no dodge or block moves (raphael's shell can block certain projectiles but not melee attacks or geysers, a couple of projectiles can be destroyed with regular attacks) - some bosses are more agile than the player, all the turtles have the same angry expression, can store one life refill pizza (like the potions in Wonder Boy), can't move while crouching, you'll fall slower for a bit if you touch the ceiling when jumping, enemies respawn pretty quickly after moving away from their spawning point (but so do life refill pizzas), later era villains are used as bosses (so no Bebop, rocksteady, slash, baxter, leatherhead, tokka, rahzar, wingnut, rat king, etc.), no limited invincibility power up (TMNT NES), health drops are a bit rare but give 4 HP each and the full pizzas are somewhat common (these respawn when re-entering the rooms they're in), password save (pretty short though), shared health between the turtles, mostly linear structure until you've rescued Raphael, jump attacks (kicks) are a bit shorter than standing attacks, no turtle differences in terms of damage dealth and taken?, boss gauntlet at the end (your life is refilled after each one but not the life refill pizza if you used it and they all have max health), you won't have to use the other turtles' special abilities against the bosses (Mike is preferable against pretty much all of them due to his hover jump) - would've been cool to have to combine their abilities vs. shredder and in the last segment of the map,
- Backtracking (no teleporters), some control issues (if you attack right after jumping and let go of the jump button but hold down the attack button then you'll jump higher, clunky movement near ladder edges, some delay before you can do a hover jump after jumping off of a ladder, can't jump down through platforms that you can jump up through), some trial & error (some leaps of faith - can't look up/down, boss patterns - they seem to be kind of erratic as well, can't backtrack upwards in the first room with mines), no other alternate weapons (the first game for NES had a few - rope, kiai/scroll, boomerang, triple shuriken, ) or special attacks (see TMNT 3-4 on other systems), lame ending besides the sampled "cowabunga!", repeats certain enemies too much (makes some areas feel less distinct from one another), some slowdown in certain rooms
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7.5 Fun-7.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-7.5
+ Rescue other chars with abilities that let you explore further (default char is Michaelangelo - hover jump, Leonardo can drill in certain spots, Raphaelo can move into tight spaces, Donatello can climb walls), decent map system (shows the full basic layout and most important items+unrescued turtles+bosses as dots on the map from the get go, doesn't show the two health upgrades (which can lead you to miss them thinking they would've been marked), can't see where you've been and haven't been, doesn't distinguish between points of interest, doesn't show room exits nor room architecture), decent intro cutscene (stills and text, slow text though and you can skip the whole scene but not speed it up), pretty satisfying sfx, good bosses, upgradeable lifebar,
+/- Play as the four turtles (you'll also rescue Splinter but it has no effect on gameplay), kinda stupid premise (the other turtles leave to save April without telling Mike and then they all get captured after a few minutes, can only throw shuriken while climbing ladders, no dodge or block moves (raphael's shell can block certain projectiles but not melee attacks or geysers, a couple of projectiles can be destroyed with regular attacks) - some bosses are more agile than the player, all the turtles have the same angry expression, can store one life refill pizza (like the potions in Wonder Boy), can't move while crouching, you'll fall slower for a bit if you touch the ceiling when jumping, enemies respawn pretty quickly after moving away from their spawning point (but so do life refill pizzas), later era villains are used as bosses (so no Bebop, rocksteady, slash, baxter, leatherhead, tokka, rahzar, wingnut, rat king, etc.), no limited invincibility power up (TMNT NES), health drops are a bit rare but give 4 HP each and the full pizzas are somewhat common (these respawn when re-entering the rooms they're in), password save (pretty short though), shared health between the turtles, mostly linear structure until you've rescued Raphael, jump attacks (kicks) are a bit shorter than standing attacks, no turtle differences in terms of damage dealth and taken?, boss gauntlet at the end (your life is refilled after each one but not the life refill pizza if you used it and they all have max health), you won't have to use the other turtles' special abilities against the bosses (Mike is preferable against pretty much all of them due to his hover jump) - would've been cool to have to combine their abilities vs. shredder and in the last segment of the map,
- Backtracking (no teleporters), some control issues (if you attack right after jumping and let go of the jump button but hold down the attack button then you'll jump higher, clunky movement near ladder edges, some delay before you can do a hover jump after jumping off of a ladder, can't jump down through platforms that you can jump up through), some trial & error (some leaps of faith - can't look up/down, boss patterns - they seem to be kind of erratic as well, can't backtrack upwards in the first room with mines), no other alternate weapons (the first game for NES had a few - rope, kiai/scroll, boomerang, triple shuriken, ) or special attacks (see TMNT 3-4 on other systems), lame ending besides the sampled "cowabunga!", repeats certain enemies too much (makes some areas feel less distinct from one another), some slowdown in certain rooms
