TMNT HyperStone Heist, The Best Beat’em Up on the Genesis

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an iconic franchise. I remember it most for the movies, the 80s/90s cartoon show, and video games. The two that stand out to me are the first NES and arcade games.

TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist was new to me. I thought the only game on the Genesis was the fighting game. When I finally played the game, I liked it a bit more than Turtles in Time. It is very close, but I like this game a bit more.

Hyperstone Heist isn’t a port of an arcade game. It is an original Beat’em Up and is similar to other Konami games for the Genesis. Contra Hard Corps and Castlevania: Bloodlines are similar as they’re unique to the system.

This game is one of my favorite games on the Genesis. It would probably be in the top 25. It is a fabulous Beat’em Up that is arguably the best on the system.

TLDR: Great Graphics and Wonderful Gameplay.

Narrative

Like other TMNT games, we start with April O’Neil doing a news report. The Turtles are watching her on the TV. Then, Shredder starts stealing things with the help of the Hyperstone. What is the Hyperstone? It doesn’t matter; you need to know that Shredder has it, and it lets him steal large objects.

You end up fighting across five levels. You eventually fight Super Shredder and save the day. It’s the same setup as the other TMNT video games.

Gameplay

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a straightforward Beat’em Up. You move left to right and beat up the enemies on the screen. You’ll fight a boss character at the midpoint and the end of each stage. Except for the boss rush stage, where you fight every boss again.

There are four playable characters. I’m not sure why I need to describe this. If you’ve played a TMNT game before, you should know that you play as one of the four turtles: Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael.

The turtles don’t have unique moves. The most important attack in the game is the jump kick. It will bail you out when fighting a boss or dealing with some of the more challenging enemies. I didn’t notice a super attack like in other Beat’em Ups, but you can pick up an item that acts like one for a brief period.

Some battles take a little strategy. You can’t just run into the enemies and bash them into submission. You’ll need to watch the bosses to find their pattern so you can exploit it. Most of the enemies don’t present much of a challenge.

The game consists of five stages. The fourth stage is a boss rush stage, where you fight the bosses from the previous level. I like the idea of these stages as it breaks things up. However, I would’ve liked the game more if they gave you some more variety, like Shoot’em Up stages.

While the enemies have different weapons, most are easy to beat. You won’t face too many enemies at once; for the most part, they don’t surround you that well. In most Beat’em Ups, the regular try to surround you and force a special move. That will happen in HyperStone Heist, but it is rare.  

Overall, the gameplay is excellent. It does get a bit repetitive, but I never found the game boring. Punching a series of colorful ninja robots and rock monsters is so satisfying.

Visuals

This game looks fantastic! The graphics look better than Turtles in Time on the SNES. The characters look great, the cutscenes are awesome, and the levels look good.

The cutscenes look amazing! The opening scene is impressive for 1992 and looks much better than the other Beat’em Ups on the Genesis. This really stands out from the rest of the library.

The character sprites look awesome. The Turtles and the enemies are well-detailed and fairly large. Some of the enemies are pallet swaps, especially regarding the Foot Clan ninjas. However, each color has a different weapon or ability.

 The stages look great. Two of them are from other TMNT games—specifically the first arcade game and Turtles in Time. I didn’t notice the similarities with the arcade games at first. I learned about it when I looked up some information on the game.

Overall, this is one of the best-looking Sega Genesis games! I think it looks better than Turtles in Time and better than the other Beat’em Ups on the system. It looks so much better than I was expecting. The characters are great, the levels look great, and the cutscenes look awesome!

9/10. The graphics are great, the music is good, and the gameplay is awesome! There isn’t much to complain about with this game. The gameplay can get repetitive, which can be said about any Beat’em Up, so I wouldn’t hold that against the game.

Pros

• Great Graphics
• Great Gameplay
• A lot of fun to play

Cons

• Lack of Variety in the Gameplay
• Short game

Conclusion

I’ve tried this game a few times before playing it for this review. I didn’t get into it all that much. I’m not sure why, but it probably had something to do with how I was feeling at the time. I’m glad I revisited it.

What I found on this playthrough was a spectacular-looking Beat’em Up with outstanding gameplay. So far, it is the best Beat’em Up I’ve played for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. I don’t remember if I included it on my “best of” list for the system. When I revise the list at some point, I’ll have to make sure this is on there.

TMNT The HyperStone Heist is a game I had a ton of fun with! It reminded me of playing the first arcade game in the arcades and on the NES. I have many memories of that game, and playing this brought some of those feelings back.