Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)

Play it on: Arcade, Xbox 360, Cowabunga Collection

The original arcade game that made the Turtles bonafide video game superstars. Leo, Raph and the rest practically felt predestined for this. Four characters, each with their own signature weapon? Hell yeah, just make a video game for up to four players where you get to play as each of them and crack some Foot Clan skulls.

It was a recipe for success, one that you could even argue would be hard to screw up, but Konami took that concept and made it sing. The action was approachable—anyone could feed the game a few quarters and have some fun mashing buttons, though it rewarded skill as well, and teaming up with friends to take down familiar foes like Bebop and Rocksteady felt great.

But perhaps most remarkable was how the game looked, as vibrant as the cartoon itself. This was an era in which arcade games were visually improving at an astounding rate, but even among the other offerings of 1989, TMNT was a knockout. “It looks like the cartoon!” I remember classmates exclaiming during recess.

And yet for many, the impact of this game was most keenly felt outside of the arcade. In 1990, the game got an NES port. Sure, it didn’t look nearly as good, and yeah, you could only play with up to two players, but it was still a total blast. Certainly my fondest memories of the game are of being crowded around a TV set with a friend and some ‘za. (Hey, it came with a coupon for a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut!) Whether played at home or in its natural arcade habitat, the original TMNT arcade brawler was a masterpiece of adaptation, perfectly capturing the intrinsic appeal of the property on which it was based. — Carolyn Petit