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In honor of the upcoming film, the new game and the possibility of it appearing sometime soon on XBLA, I bring you the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game flyer.
Produced by Konami in 1989, it was the first in what would be a long line of TMNT video games. The machine took advantage of Konami's two and a half sized screen and could accommodate up to four players at the same time, much like it's predecessor Gauntlet. In this side scrolling beat em up you could choose to be one of the four famous turtle brothers: Leonardo, Raphael, Michaelangelo or Donatello, each with his special signature weapon. The object of the game was to plow through the scads of enemies to save April O'Neil and Master Splinter from the clutches of the evil Krang and Shredder.
Fans of the TV show plugged countless quarters into these machines back in the day and led the way for it's eventual arrival on to the NES under the name Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game. A series of sequels followed including NES's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project in 1990 and Super NES's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time in 1992.
Boy the art on this one really takes me back. As was popular in this time period, this flyer is done with the airbrush style like we saw with Vs. The Goonies flyer, but obviously rendered by a much more talented artist. The inclusion of the terrifying live action April O'Neil (and her truly tragic hair don't) with the drawn turtles was also mirrored in the cabinet art and the machine's marquee. Nothing says 1989 quite like giant hair, a canary yellow pantsuit and a nice white belt. Put Turtle Power to work FOR YOU!
