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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time is the fourth video game in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game series, and a port of the second Ninja Turtles arcade game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. It was released for the Super Nintendo. Like the second and third games, as well as the arcade game, the game is a beat 'em up.

The arcade version of the game is also unlockable in the GameCube, PS2 and Xbox versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare from 2005, albeit with none of the original music.[1]

A "Re-Shelled" remake of the arcade version was released to Xbox Live Arcade in August 2009.[2] However, due to the rights expiring and Nickelodeon's exclusive purchase of the Ninja Turtles franchise in October of the same year, that game has since been delisted along with the XLA re-release of the original arcade game.

Both the original arcade version and the SNES port were included in The Cowabunga Collection, released in August 2022.[3]

Plot[]

Krang steals the Statue of Liberty, prompting the Ninja Turtles to come after it. But in their attempt to save the statue, Shredder sends the Turtles back in time to the age of the dinosaurs, and now the Turtles must fight their way back to the present.

Gameplay[]

Like its predecessor, Turtles in Time was available for the arcades in two- and four-player versions. In the two-player versions, each player gets to choose which of the four turtles they wish to control, whereas in the four-player versions the characters are assigned to the control panel from left to right in the following order: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael. Each playable character has his own strengths and weaknesses. New features in this game include the ability to execute a power attack by hitting an enemy several times in a row, and the ability to slam Foot Soldiers into surrounding enemies.

The game features the same control scheme of the previous arcade release. It uses a joystick for movement, an attack button and a jump button. Certain joystick/button combinations can make a Turtle run, perform a slide or dash attack, jump higher, perform a stationary or directed air attack, or perform a special attack.

Players guide the turtles through a series of levels. The first takes place in the streets of New York City. Later levels transport the turtles to representations of various historical eras. In each level, players face enemies from both the 1987 cartoon and the feature film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, including Foot Soldier and Stone Warriors. Bosses include the fly form of Baxter Stockman, Metalhead, Tokka and Rahzar and Leatherhead.

Stages[]

# Name Location of setting Year of setting Boss
1 Big Apple, 3 AM New York City construction site 1992 AD Baxter Stockman (as fly mutant)
2 Alleycat Blues New York City alley Metalhead
3 Sewer Surfin' New York City sewers (Turtles riding surfboards) Rat King (riding Footski)
4 Technodrome - Let's Kick Shell! The Technodrome Tokka and Rahzar
Shredder (inside spacecraft)
5 Prehistoric Turtlesaurus Prehistoric times 25 000 000 BC Slash
6 Skull and Crossbones Pirate ship, presumedly at the Caribbean Sea 1530 AD Bebop and Rocksteady (dressed as sea pirates)
7 Bury My Shell at Wounded Knee Train in the Old American West 1885 AD Leatherhead
8 Neon Night Riders Futuristic highway (Turtles riding hoverboards) 2020 AD Krang (inside android body)
9 Starbase - Where No Turtle Has Gone Before Base on unidentified red planet 2100 AD Krang (inside spacecraft)
10 Technodrome - The Final Shell Shock The Technodrome 1992 AD Super Shredder

Differences from the arcade game[]

  • The arcade game had a completely different intro sequence used for its attract mode, in which pictures of the Turtles were shown off behind scrolling text of the series' title, set to the song "Pizza Power" from the Coming Out of Their Shells live show. The Super NES version's intro sequence is instead based on two shots from the cartoon's title sequence, oddly similar to the intro used in the first arcade game.
  • Throwing the Foot Soldiers on the ground or at the screen was triggered automatically at random points in the arcade version. Also, in the arcade version, throwing the Foot Soldiers didn't give the player any more points than taking them out with regular attacks; in the SNES version, throwing a Foot Soldier on the ground is worth two points, while throwing them at the screen awards three points.
  • The arcade version had a lot more voice clips.
  • If four players were playing the arcade game, the victory animation at the end of the stage would instead be all four Turtles giving each other a high-five. Since the SNES version doesn't have four-player capability, this obviously isn't done there.
  • When Baxter Stockman is beaten at the end of the "Big Apple, 3 AM" stage in the arcade version, he falls down on his back. In the SNES version, his gun instead explodes and he falls out of the building.
  • The arcade version of "Alleycat Blues" had robots with boxing gloves showing up midway through the stage. The Super NES version replaced them with Roadkill Rodneys.
  • The arcade version of "Sewer Surfin'" ended with a battle against multiple Pizza Monsters, after which Shredder immediately sends the Turtles on a time warp.
  • "Prehistoric Turtlesaurus"' boss in the arcade version was a giant blob monster (called Cement Man in the game) who originally appeared very briefly in the TV episode "Curse of the Evil Eye".
  • The "Skull and Crossbones" stage did not include another ship firing cannonballs from the background in the arcade version.
  • Tokka and Rahzar were the original opponents for the boss fight in "Skull and Crossbones". For the SNES version, Bebop and Rocksteady (who were oddly absent from the arcade version) appear instead, while Tokka and Rahzar were moved to the newly-added Technodrome stage.
  • While the "Skull and Crossbones" level mostly occurs in daylight, the boss fight in the arcade version occurs during rainfall. In the Super NES version, no rainfall occurs.
  • In the arcade version, Leatherhead is introduced standing in the corner waiting for the player at the very end of "Bury My Shell at Wounded Knee". The SNES version instead has him come in from offscreen.
  • Like with Baxter in the first stage, Leatherhead keels over when you beat him in the arcade version. In the SNES version, he instead inexplicably jumps off the train.
  • The arcade version of "Neon Night Riders" played exactly like "Sewer Surfin'", without the Mode 7 capability.
  • Shredder does not transform into Super Shredder in the arcade version.

Awards[]

  • In the Super Power Club bonus supplement in Nintendo Power V44, the game was ranked #7 in the Top 10 Super NES Games of 1992.
  • Turtles in Time was awarded "Favorite Video Game" at the 1993 Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards.

Trivia[]

  • The third Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, released to theaters in April 1993, features the Turtles traveling to feudal Japan. Due the success of this game, the film was unofficially subtitled Turtles in Time on later home video covers (the film itself had no subtitle). The subtitle would also be used for an episode of the 2012 Ninja Turtles cartoon.
  • This marks the first appearance of recurring villain the Rat King in the TMNT video games.

References[]

External links[]

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