I always played this through the dam level and then quit.

Still to this very day if I see any seaweed at all I'll curl into the fetal position.

Gets a lot of hatred because the game is so frustrating to get through. Feels gritty compared to the cartoon of the time. But there was something about playing as a turtle, having one captured, rescuing that turtle, rescuing April, rescuing Splinter, navigating a maze of reeds to disarm bombs, finding the blimp, finding the technodrome, slagging through it and defeating Shredder. The game is SO HARD. A shame Leonardo/Donatello are the only useful turtles. By far the biggest flaw.

The underwater level has to be the most misunderstood level of all time. It's the easiest part of the game up until that point. Of course, then the game became a maze and I never figured out how to complete it, so that part sucked.

Many games were cashing in on TV and movie franchises back then, and people would buy it as merch, but most of these games just weren't good.

Honestly, outside of the difficulty--specifically THAT part--it's a good game. It's not as good as the games that came after it when the gameplay switched (for the better), but I liked the side-scrolling platforming/action here, being able to change your characters, etc.

Worst Turtles game that I have ever played. Very hard to beat or play. I remember just passing the swimming level in this to disable all the bombs in the water within a time limit. After that I just shut this game off.

prob best game i've played with this style. tmnt gives it a boost

Once you get past the absurd difficulty (and, thanks to the Cowabunga Collection's rewind feature, you can) this is actually a pretty fun game.

I'm convinced no one has ever finished this game.

Not an ideal video game representation of the heroes in their half-shells. But worry not, better TMNT games were right around the corner.