Backlog Gaming: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (Game Boy)

There's been a couple more games I've played through in my backlog since my blogging about Little Nemo and The Guardian Legend. Next on my sights was a game that I'd wanted to play through for a long time now, the last Konami TMNT game for the Game Boy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue. Released in 1993, this was a pretty late title in the original TMNT's popularity, with Turtlemania dying down quite a lot since 1989. That being said, I was still a big ninja turtle fan, I mean I never really have stopped. But I remember seeing this game on shelves when it was new, in Electronics Boutique back in the day, and while I debated getting it, I just didn't want to part with my hard earned allowance, which is crazy looking back considering this probably retailed new for $30 at the time! Game Boy games were pretty inexpensive!

So it was that for a long time this was the one that got away from me. I don't even think I ever really fired this one up on an emulator, it was just out of sight, out of mind for a while. But I eventually found a used copy ten years ago or so, and gave it a try for the first time. And let me tell you, this game does not pull any punches. You have one life, and I think two continues. I remember making it to the first boss, and I'm not sure if I ever beat him or not. If I did, I still didn't go any further. It didn't help that the map, while it's nice it's included in its entirety from the get-go, only has one generic icon to tell you something is in that location. It might be a boss, or a turtle to rescue, or a key card to open a locked door. You won't know until you find your way over there. So I put it down, thinking I'd come back to it sooner or later, and never did.

That is not until the wonderful Cowbunga Collection arrived on Switch last year! For those that don't know, this collection contains 13 classic TMNT games, with a ton of great features like concept drawings and level designs, mini strategy guides designed to look like 80s Nintendo Power style layouts, and so much more. It's honestly one of the best retro collections I've ever picked up, and I only hope more companies that work on retro compilations take note, because the bar has now been set so high. So I played through TMNT 1 on NES, and messed around with all the other games included, before deciding to get serious and focus on putting an effort into TMNT 3 once again.

Radical Rescue sets itself apart by being one of the few Metroidvania style of TMNT games. I feel like after the brawl style of the first TMNT arcade game, that kind of set the template for how a ninja turtle game was supposed to work from there on out. But this game decided to start you off with just Mikey, and using his nunchunks he can glide for short periods of time. As you play through the game you'll rescue his three brothers, each with their own unique abilities. Leonardo can drill through floors by spinning his swords below him, Raphael can slide under narrow spaces and Donatello can climb up walls. The map is pretty sprawling, and it all takes place inside a secret Foot Clan base, but there are a few different areas, each with their own unique graphics and background music, so it doesn't get monotonous. There's a nice variety of foot soldiers, robots and other hazards as well, and each provides unique challenges to avoid and attack.

The Cowabunga Collection offers a few extra optional features that can be toggled on and off, and for Radical Rescue, they've added some useful map features. Or rather, they've re-implemented them, because as it turns out, the Japanese version of the game's in-game map gives you unique icons for key cards, bosses and locked doors containing your captured friends. But for the American release of the game, they changed all the icons to a simple black square. You're able to go in and toggle the more helpful icons, or keep them as squares. I choose to use the more helpful icons. There's also a mini strategy guide for the game you can access from the Cowabunga Collection menu. It's only four pages, but it's pretty well packed with useful information. Like I said, they went for a Nintendo Power look to the guide layout, and I love the little drawings they included, it gives this small section a lot of fun personality. The first two page spread is helpful tips for bosses and item pickups, while the second two pages is a complete map, which is super helpful! I'm pretty sure Nintendo Power also printed a map of the game back in the day, but having something I can bring up like this wherever I am was great and really gave me the help I needed to ensure I completed the game this time.

Besides a few enemy placement areas where I had a hard time not taking a hit, or having to do a blind jump below me, the level design felt fair and fun, with a variety of terrain and challenges. I felt like it would have been nice if the special abilities of all four turtles came in more handy, or you could use say Donatello's wall crawling to find more interesting short cuts or secrets. As it is, I stuck with Mikey as my default just because his gliding jump was so handy throughout most of the game. There's a nice change to the idea of pizza pickups, where now you can have a full pizza in reserve, so if you run of health, it instantly gives you more, which was great when exploring, but a definite godsend in boss battles!

Speaking of boss battles, there's not much here, but what is here is good, and plenty challenging. There's only I believe five bosses in the entire game, including the end boss, Cybershredder. We get some new faces, and we miss plenty of old. No Bebop or Rocksteady here, no Krang or Baxter Stockman. But all the bosses are varied and fun, with lots of various attacks. Eventually you'll be able to avoid their patterns, but at first I found them really tough and hard to read. If I would have one complaint about the bosses, and it's my biggest complaint of the whole game, is there's a boss rush at the end, where you have to fight every boss before going into a final battle with Shredder, who has two forms. It's exhausting and made me thankful for the save feature the collection added in.

Overall, this is a game that I'm really glad I finally played through, it's a TMNT game that every turtle fan should give a try. It's a lot of fun, though I probably won't be popping this one in when I'm in the mood for a quick TMNT fix, as this game demands you pay attention to where you're going and what you're doing if you want to live and not be completely lost. But this is a unique game in a series that has mostly been defined by brawlers, though of course very good brawlers. The turtles have a lot of cool skill sets, and it's fun to see them used in various ways in different games.

Thanks for reading several paragraphs about my enjoying a 30 year old Game Boy game. Where does this one stand in your list of favorite TMNT games? Let me know in the comments.