In anticipation of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) game ‘Shredder’s Revenge‘, I have been revisiting the inspiration for it, Konami’s original TMNT arcade game that was released in 1989. I’m not playing the actual arcade version itself you understand, no, I’ve been revisiting the glorious home computer port for the Amstrad CPC, released two years later in 1991 and developed by Probe Software.
It’s no secret that our beloved home micros struggled to produce accurate conversions of arcade favourites in the 1980s and early 90s, so the task of porting Konami’s TMNT scrolling beat-em-up to any 8-bit computer seemed ambitious. But somehow, Probe Software made the CPC sing with a conversion that looks, feels and plays like the arcade original.
The graphics make excellent use of the Amstrad’s colour capabilities without being garish, and many of the details from the original game’s levels are recreated faithfully. The scrolling is smooth and the number of enemies on screen at one time is most impressive. Hit detection is also pleasingly functional, and everything feels surprisingly close to the combat of the arcade game. The two-player mode works wonderfully too, with individual control options that are fully customisable. The inclusion of this mode is the proverbial icing on this green cake.
It’s not all free pizza though, the in-game sound is non-existent unless you count what sounds like the Amstrad having a bowel movement. There is some slowdown when things get busy, but it’s not prohibitive to the gameplay. Also, if you’re loading this game from a cassette as I did back in 1991, you’re in for an extreme multi-load nightmare of epic proportions.
A superb arcade conversion for the Amstrad that still impresses today, and a reminder that sometimes; our little computers could.
