Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game is the reason a generation of children queued four-deep at a cabinet. Konami took the cartoon, built a side-scrolling beat 'em up around it, and shipped it with four simultaneous player slots at a time when most arcade games still topped out at two.

Four players on one screen is the whole design. Each turtle has a slightly different reach and speed, the four of you share one screen of pizza pickups, and the friendly fire is real - your teammate's attacks hurt you as much as the Foot Soldiers do. Stages move from the burning street outside April's apartment through the sewers to the Technodrome, with Bebop, Rocksteady and Krang's android body as the memorable stops along the way. Konami paced it around quarters rather than skill, so the difficulty is steep and continues are expected, which is exactly why the cabinet was so profitable. It was converted for the NES two years later as TMNT II: The Arcade Game, cutting the player count to two and adding two original stages. Those are two different games, and this page covers the arcade original.

• ▸Four-player simultaneous co-op on one screen
• ▸Friendly fire - your teammates' attacks damage you too
• ▸Stages following the cartoon, from the street to the Technodrome
• ▸Each turtle has slightly different reach and walking speed