Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Arcade Game (USA)
NES / Famicom
🇬🇧
Reviewed in 1990
88
✪ Reviewed on February 10, 2023
84
The conversion of Konami's TMNT arcade on NES, European version. Co-op beat'em up with the four turtles. Less than the arcade but genuinely fun. One of the best licensed games on the console.
Your verdict
Category
Beat-'Em-Up4 players7+
Co-op
Description
Beat-'em-up featuring the four Ninja Turtles destroying the Foot Clan in the streets of New York, American version. Published by Konami, released in the USA in 1991. Four turtles in side-scrolling view with distinct techniques, two-player co-op and varied bosses. American version of Konami's TMNT II Arcade Game on NES.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Arcade Game review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
Konami transposes arcade sprites onto a far more modest machine without losing the essentials: four turtles with coloured bandanas, distinct weapons, broad attack animations. The urban scenery, sewers, burning buildings, docks, keeps animated background planes and a bold palette inherited from the cabinet.
The themes take up the cabinet's energy with strongly marked melodies and active bass, arranged to hold on three voices without sounding impoverished. Each stage gets its own piece, and the character selection theme, short and immediately recognisable, acts as the signature of the whole conversion.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
The faithful adaptation of the arcade cabinet: four playable turtles, punchy blows and hordes of Foot Soldiers to pulverise in a parade of non-stop action. With two players, the joy of pounding side by side to the sound of the cult series is instant and electrifying. Colourful, generous and true to its license, a beat-'em-up perfect for frantic sessions with friends.
The North American NTSC NES edition of the Konami arcade port, released under the Ultra label in 1990 on the console's flagship market. A much-anticipated follow-up after the first TMNT's success, it was widely distributed in the US, making it common loose and placing value on clean CIB in an intact cardboard box and graded sealed. Desirability rests on nostalgia for the Turtles license at its peak and its faithfulness to the multiplayer coin-op.
Better with friends
A port of the arcade cabinet where up to four turtles pummel waves of robots and mutants in unison, in colorful, snappy scrolling. Cooperation reigns supreme: carving a path together, freeing a surrounded teammate and downing a boss as a group brings immediate, unifying fun. Readable and bursting with energy, it calls for rematches and remains a staple of beat-'em-up nights.
Is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Arcade Game still worth playing in 2026?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Arcade Game, also Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles II in Europe, is the NES port of Konami's arcade. A cooperative beat 'em up with all four turtles, frantic action and a varied bestiary make this one of the console's best licence games. Less rich than the original arcade in VRAM terms, but truly fun and faithful in spirit. An absolute classic to bring out today.
