TMNT III on the NES is Great

TMNT III: The Manhattan Project is one of the NES games I discovered when I started collecting games in the late 1990s and early 2000s. With how big a deal TMNT was when I was a kid, I’m surprised I didn’t know about this one. The only reason I could think of was that my friends had moved on to the Genesis, and no one rented this.

This game was released in early 1992, which definitely means my friends and I had moved on from the NES. For whatever reason, my neighborhood was a Genesis neighborhood. My friend Joey got it, and then my friend Eric got one. While we still played NES games, none of us were keeping up with new releases.

When I first played this game, I was a little surprised by the graphics. They aren’t as good as the second game, but the level design is much better. It also has better gameplay when compared to the second game.

TLDR: The Manhattan Project is one of the better beat’em ups on the NES.

Narrative

The story is perfectly fine for a game like this. It is similar to other TMNT games, and it feels like an extension of the cartoon. This game has all the same beats as one of the cartoons or a short story arc.

The turtles are vacationing in Key West, Florida, because, of course, that’s what they would be doing. Suddenly, they see on the news that the Shredder has kidnapped April O’Neil. On top of that, he’s also turned Manhattan into a floating island.

That’s really all you need. You know who the heroes are, who the villains are, and what you need to do. Games like this don’t need some grand story or anything like that.

Gameplay

The Manhattan Project is a solid beat’em up. It has many of the same strengths and weaknesses as the other games in this genre. I do think the gameplay is better in this game than in the arcade port.

There is a two player mode, and the selectable characters are the four turtles. For some reason, this game has that stupid mode where you can hurt the other player. I’ve never liked this mode, and I really don’t understand why it was in a beat’em up. This is the mode that your worst friend, or older brother, made you play, just so they could be a jerk.

The controls aren’t too different from the second game. There is a better throw mechanic in it, which is something that I appreciate. Given the button limitations on the NES controller, things were kept simple, which can’t always be said about other beat’em ups on the NES.

There are eight levels in the game. The bosses were taken from the cartoon and the second movie. For some reason, the alien Triceratops characters are on the cover, but don’t appear in the game. Maybe they were planned at one point? I’m sure someone has done a deep dive to find out, but I couldn’t find any information on it.

Overall, this is a great beat’em up! I like it a little more than the second game in the series because the gameplay is a little better. I’m glad that Konami made a beat’em up specifically for the NES. There wasn’t an arcade version of this game, which makes it a little unique.    

Visuals

The game looks good for an NES game from the early 1990s. It isn’t as impressive as the previous game in the series, but it does look good. I think the graphics are somewhere between the first and second games in the series.

The sprites look good, but aren’t as big or detailed as the second game in the series. Everything looks good; it just isn’t as good as the arcade port. I do like how the enemies, characters, and bosses look.

The stages look great, and the level design is pretty good. With the camera zoomed out a bit, it makes the stages look bigger than they are. Most of them look more complex than the previous game, and they have a little more detail.

The cutscenes in this game are very good! I didn’t mention them from the second game, but those were great, and the ones in The Manhattan Project are also quite good. The developers used comic book cutscenes, which are amazing! I wish more games had done something similar to this.

TMNT III: The Manhattan Project is a very good looking NES game. It looks much better than most of the games on the NES, and better than some of the Konami games. I didn’t notice as many instances of slowdown and sprite flickering in this game compared to the last game.

9/10. This is my favorite of the three TMNT NES games. While it doesn’t look as good as the arcade port, the gameplay is a little better.

Pros

• Good Controls
• Fun Story
• Decent Graphics

Cons

• Repetitive
• Not too different from other TMNT games

Conclusion

I wish Konami made more games like this instead of sticking closer to arcade ports. The Manhattan Project and Hyperstone Heist are two of my favorite beat’em ups, and neither was in the arcades. I know that Konami was still an arcade company, and those were still profitable at this point, but I think they could’ve ported more of their games or made originals based on those properties.

There were a lot of licensed properties that were turned into arcade games back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A lot of them never saw a console port, or they had a game that was radically different from the arcade version. TMNT didn’t really have this done, but other Konami arcade games did.

TMNT III is one of the better beat’em ups on the NES. It is a game that I would’ve really liked when I was a kid. Finding it in high school was pretty fun! There were so many games that I had no idea existed because I wasn’t paying attention to gaming news, didn’t live near an arcade, and I was also interested in different things.

This is one of those games that I would consider a hidden gem. Back when I found the game, I didn’t know what type of game it was. When I played it, I found a very good beat’em up. As I look at it now, I think it is the best beat’em up on the NES.

If you liked this post, check out some of my other posts about TMNT games. Such as TMNT II: The Arcade Game or TMNT IV: Turtles in Time