An Enjoyable Waste of an Hour
When you think of the Nintendo Game Boy, you think of Super Mario Land, Tetris, Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, etc. The funny thing is, the same characters and franchises that made the Nintendo Entertainment System popular makes its smaller cousin popular... so why is this game largely forgotten? Seems like when people do compilations of the games they played on the Game Boy, this one is strangely absent, which is weird, because I know quite a lot of people who played it when they were younger.
The reason is simple: The game is forgettable. It's not bad, it's just entirely forgettable. The game lasts closer to a half hour than an hour, the graphics are so-so and the game closely resembles the games on the Genesis and Super Nintendo, only worse. Which is understandable, there's only so much developers could do with the Game Boy as opposed to the 16-bit hardware, but the biggest problem with this game doesn't stem from its graphical, or even sonical areas, it comes from the game play itself. The turtles just seem too slow for the game and whilst they are walking at a snails pace, the enemies continue coming, but there's no variation, it is just the same enemies with the same AI over and over again.
And weirdest thing about it, is that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the Game Boy is a better turtles game than its NES counterpart. It is at least playable all the way through, in fact quite easily and for the length of the game it doesn't get frustrating. I think that if you are a hardcore turtles fan, this would have made your day if you purchased it for your Game Boy. But it kind of goes down in history as a game that has surely been forgotten... and for probably good reason. The game is OK.