Since I’ve been revisiting classic TMNT games, I decided to take a look at the first TMNT game that I owned: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan. Even back then, I only thought that this was a decent game at best.

 

Title screen for Double Dragon on the Nintendo Game Boy.

 

Will nostalgia goggles make me see this game in a more positive light? Let’s talk about it!

 

Game Basics

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan is an action platformer game that was developed and published by Konami for the Nintendo Game Boy under their Ultra Games shell corporation. It is a single player game where you can play any of the four Ninja Turtles as they attempt to save April O’Neil from Shredder and the Foot Clan.

 

Pizza time!

 

The game has a health system and your health bar consists of eight boxes. You can replenish health by picking up Pizza power ups that are dropped by enemies or can be found in floating pizza boxes. Pizza slices replenish two boxes of health, and whole pizzas replenish four boxes. Each Ninja Turtle represents one life. Any time a Ninja Turtle’s health bar is depleted, they are considered captured and can no longer be used for the current playthrough.

A captured turtle.

The game has no continues, so if all four Turtles are captured, it’s Game Over. However, the game is quite short and easy that continues are not really needed.

Moves and Abilities

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan is quite a basic game. Pressing Left and Right on the D-pad moves your chosen Turtle. Pressing Down will make them crouch. You can assign jumping and attacking to either the A or B button when you start a game. Holding the Jump button can really make you jump high – high enough to touch the top of the screen.

 

You can kick multiple times in a single jump.

 

The attack button does different moves depending on what you’re doing. In the air, you’ll do a jump kick. Surprisingly, you can do multiple jump kicks in a single jump. So you can actually kick on the way up, then another kick on the way down.

 

A reguar attack.

 

While walking or standing, the attack button makes you attack with your Turtle’s signature weapon. The differences are purely aesthetic, as far as I can tell. Range and damage are the same regardless of the Turtle you’re playing as.

You’ve got unlimited shuriken in this game.

Enemies and Boss Battles

What I really liked about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan are the bosses. The most popular ones from the 90s cartoon are here, and in the order you’d expect them to appear. So yeah, you’ll fight Rocksteady, Bebop, and Baxter Stockman.

The battle with Rocksteady.

While they have different moves and attack patterns, each boss only has one or two ways to attack you. And each of the bosses are really easy to beat. You’ll probably figure out their attack pattern the first time you face them. And if you have a full health bar at the start of battle, you’ll beat any of the bosses easily.

Baxter flies through the air with the greatest of ease.

You probably already know that Shredder and Krang are the final bosses of the game. Shredder was actually quite underwhelming, but Krang was a decent final boss for a game based on its overall difficulty.

Visuals, Sounds and Presentation

In terms of graphics, I thought Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan was good except for a few things. Character sprites are large and backgrounds are quite detailed. Despite being limited to the color palette of the Game Boy, Konami used the different shades of green well in this game. I just didn’t like the sprites used for the Turtles and Shredder. The Turtles all looked the same, and they held their weapons awkwardly. Shredder also wasn’t as detailed as the other enemies and he’s poorly animated in my opinion. I also have to mention the pixel flicker that occasionally happens.

Look at how they hold their weapons.

In terms of sound design, this game was decent. The classic Ninja Turtle theme is here and not over-used. Sound effects are alright. I just expected better from Konami, given how good they are at composing video game music.

You have to admit that this static cutscene looks great.

This game’s presentation is a mixed bag. Menus are quite bland due to the limitations of the Game Boy. The HUD is basic but it does its job. And yet, this game has a static cutscene after every level. Some of these actually have really good art, including a shot of all four Turtles. There’s a text only ending that I wouldn’t have liked but it was written in such a funny way that I couldn’t help but appreciate it.

Final Thoughts

The biggest problem that I have with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan is how easy it is to beat. I haven’t played it in years but I was able to beat it in just one attempt, with only two Turtles getting captured. Because it’s so easy, I really didn’t enjoy it that much.

It’s hard to recommend this game even though there’s really nothing else wrong with it. If you want some Game Boy Ninja Turtle action, the sequels are much better. I’d probably recommend this to a young kid as his/her first video game, but that’s about it.

If you want to check out the other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video games that I played and wrote about, click here! And click here to check out every Game Boy video game that I’ve played!