Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (Arcade) Review
~by tankMage (August 2025)
Score: 8.1/10 (Good)
Uhhh Shell Shock!
I remember playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (TMNT4 from now on) in an arcade many years ago. It was a great looking game. Like every boy from the late 80s and early 90s, I was a huge fan of the Ninja Turtles, so I was really taken with it. At the time there were some aspects of the game that kind of bothered me, like the mud man boss, but I was so impressed by the voice effects and the fast paced action I didn’t notice them. Playing it years later, I realized TMNT4 is maybe 80% finished. For some reason, likely budgeting, Konami must of have rushed what was basically a beta into production. Compare it to the SNES port and you’ll see what I mean.
Despite the fact that it feels like an unfinished product, TMNT4 is still a good game. Fast paced action, great video game interpretations of the Turtles, creative stages, and good boss fights make it worthy of a spot among the better TMNT games. It also supports 4 players, which is something the SNES version does not feature. All in all, TMNT4 Arcade is perfect if you enjoyed the SNES game (I’ll also recommend Hyperstone Heist for the Sega Genesis) and want to experience a different incarnation of the game.
Warning: I’m going to compare this to the SNES port a lot and there will be spoilers.
Story
Krang and Shredder are at it again! This time they’ve stolen the Statue of Liberty. Luckily, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo are here to save the day. There really isn’t much to the plot, it’s a video game based on a children’s cartoon interpretation of a rather dark comic book, but it’s enough to set the stage for the action.
A few plot elements do not make sense and were certainly improved on in later iterations of TMNT4. For example, Shredder appears in the sewer out of nowhere and sends the heroes in a half-shell back in time in the Arcade release. On SNES, players have to fight through the Technodrome for this to happen, which makes a lot more sense. There’s also a mud monster boss that feels out of place in a game that uses villains from the cartoon. None of these issues are deal breakers, but it does make TMNT4 seem at odds with the other arcade titles not to mention the cartoon.
Gameplay
In terms of action, TMNT4 is great and gives the SNES version a run for its money. It runs fast, with the Turtles and Foot Clan zipping around the screen. Plus, the action feels very fluid, so pummeling the bad guys is really satisfying. Players will also have to be on their toes to deal with bosses and enemies. Konami were brilliant for picking the beat ’em genre for this title and the rest of the series as it translates perfectly from the source material. The bosses are pretty well designed, though I felt like Metal Head with his constant chain attacks and instant combo breaker was cheap.
The Ninja Turtles all have their signature weapons and robust movesets to go with them. They also handle differently from one another, with some Turtles being geared towards speed and other towards damage. Players can perform a variety of dashing and aerial attacks in addition to regular combos. They can also use power attacks which consume some health. My favorite moves are the throws, which include a humorous slam maneuver that can damage other enemies and one where they throw the Foot Clan Soldier at the screen.
TMNT4 doesn’t have a lot of stages and feels kind of short compared to the home version. However, the play time is fine for an arcade game, where players were standing at the machine dropping quarters like a bad habit and possibly had people waiting behind them.
Challenge
Just about anyone with thirty minutes of free time and a roll of quarters can beat this game. I remember finishing it when I was ten or so, though I had a few other players helping me. I would describe the difficulty as easy to medium, but there were a few spots that felt like they were designed to empty the player’s pockets. The first is Metal Head and his overpowered moves, who I mentioned earlier. The second is the sewer stage that comes right after him. While the stage itself isn’t too bad, the swarm of monsters at the end is very difficult for first time players. Aside from that, the difficulty level scales reasonably as the player progresses.
Graphics
TMNT4 looks great, but it also looks a bit unfinished. The Turtles and some of the bosses/stages are really nicely detailed. Many of the animations are also beautiful, I love the way Foot Clan guys explode, for example. At the same time, there are a lot of sprites and assets that look like they were not fully finished. Many of the enemies don’t have shading. Some of the backgrounds seem to be something you might see in a beta or even alpha.
Some of the bosses, particularly Leatherhead, look like they could have been early concept sprites. There’s also a weird mud monster boss that has nothing to do with TMNT in the prehistoric stage. I’m not sure why they put the mud monster in the game, but it looks like some kind spare asset Konami had laying around. I hardly noticed these issues years ago, because all of the flashy explosions and the fact that the graphics were far better than what one would see on a home console were enough to distract me, but this game has its flaws if you look closely. This is why I believe TMNT4 got rushed to production for some reason. Maybe they blew their budget on the attract mode movie, which had some really flashy graphics and full voice overs.
Sound
The music and voice effects are just about perfect for TMNT. The voices of the Turtles sound a bit off, but this could be an artifact of the technology used to produce them back in 1991. At the time, the fully voiced theme song and intro were mind blowing. They still hold up today, though they’re not going to impress anyone.
User Interface
I did not play this title on an actual arcade cabinet for this review; luckily I can rely on my memory. The controls worked perfectly on the actual machine and you chose your Turtle by using one of the sets of controls which were specifically assigned to Leo, Raph, Don, and Mike. Four player support is a huge advantage this game has on the SNES port. It was a lot of fun being able to jump into the action with friends or even strangers at the arcade back then. I’m not sure if that really counts as a User Interface feature since it’s more of a social thing, but it was part of the cabinet design and an aspect of arcades in general.
Final Thoughts
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time is a good arcade game, but it relies really heavily on the TMNT branding and impressive intro movie. Take those away and it’s weaker than the SNES and the previous arcade games in the series, which were all designed far more solidly. It’s still worth playing for a few good stages and boss fights. It’s also a must for TMNT addicts like myself, even with all its little quirks.
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