I believe that Konami wasn't allowed to make a direct port, rather than they decided not to. One of Nintendo's stipulations of developing on their systems at the time was the game had to be exclusive or radically different from rival systems. and this was the time Nintendo had a stranglehold on the market.
Glad to see you on SLX’s channel. You’re quite the expert on Sega games and I really enjoy the content you provide. Maybe Mel could suggest your channel on his credits. Cheers mate!
I thought that too but someone left me a comment saying that stipulation had ended quite a bit before Hyperstone came out. I dunno, it seems like the most likely reason to me.
@@DrGamelove This game came out nearly simultaneously with the SNES Turtles in Time and most importantly, SNES Street Fighter II, so they were planned before Nintendo couldn't force exclusivity on third party anymore.
Same! I think Turtles in time in the SNES had an overall better experience as a game, but the OST of Hyper stone will always be my favorite :D The boss battle song isn't the same without the fat FM bass!
Lol I can’t see how anyone would prefer this ! Sega always looked and sounded cheaper imo. You can’t even throw the enemies into the screen in this one.
My favorite part of this game is that rather than just being another port of Turtles in Time, this functions more like a standalone expansion pack. Since they're both pretty short, I tend to play both HH and TMNT4 back to back, doubling the Turtles goodness.
Felt more of a Turtles in Time rom hack honestly. I’d rather Konami put effort for a completely original game than used from previous games. With that said, it’s still fun but I expected more after what we got with an original Castlevania and Contra on the Genesis.
@@Ryuujin1078 It took Konami a year to learn the Genesis. Hyperstone was literally their first Genesis game in 1992 (they were very late to jump on board because they had such a strong working relationship with Nintendo) followed shortly by Sunset Riders - a botched port. Hypserstone definitely fared better and is a great game on its own. They didn't learn until the following year that they should just develop original games from the ground up for the Genesis. 1993 brought Castlevania, Buster Busts Loose, Rocket Knight and a pretty good port of Zombies Ate my Nieghbors
I never owned a Genesis as a kid but my best friend did. This was the first Turtles beat 'em up I played on a home console and the first Turtles game I acquired as an adult collector.
1992 was a good period for Sega box art. They got away from the black boxes, but hadn't moved to the red ones, so a lot of boxes are almost entirely game art. One of my favorites from the time is Captain America.
Hyperstone Heist is a really good game on the Genesis. One of my favorite. The only problem for me is the Boss are always the same. It lack diversity of enemies.
As a kid, I never knew this existed. Turtles in Time was one of my favorite games growing up, and I would have LOVED to play this. Playing it as an adult... Tatsu kills every attempt to see the ending. I just don't have the reflexes anymore.
There is nothing to do with reflexes... It is just that you didn't play the game enough... Maybe you should say "I have no patience to training anymore..."
@@homejonny9326 what exactly are you suggesting I train? I could figure out all the patterns for the bosses prior to Tatsu, and all of Turtles in Time, but Tatsu's just so seemingly random! Sometimes it just comes down to reaction time, and I hate to break it to you... but age slows you down.
The biggest sin this game is guilty of is having Rocksteady in it WITHOUT Bebop. I do like that this isn't just a port of Turtles in Time. However, I wish they took more liberties than they did and added more unique assets to set it apart from the other game. As it is, it just comes across as more of a ROM hack than an original.
@@vram1974 Porting the first arcade game to NES made no sense practically. Even on Mega Drive, they would have struggled to fit the game on a 8 Megabit cart.
One of my all time favourite games, the soundtrack and gameplay beat the SNES game for me, the dash button was better than tapping the direction twice. Glad I still have my original cart.
Honestly, even if I grew up with Mega Drive (Genesis name in Europe) and I loved Hyperstone Heist, I prefer the SNES double tapping for dashing. The only reason is: I LOVE HANDSPRINGS XD. In the Mega Drive/Genesis version, you could only do a single handspring by holding the Dash button and simultaneously tapping the Jump button while holding the direction you wanted to go; when the handspring animation ended, your character stopped running and started walking instead, making it impossible to do multiple frontflips on a row. However, in SNES, you can double-tap the direction and then just repeatedly mash the Jump button: your character will start doing a gymnastics series of quick frontflips, as opposed to Genesis, where you can only do a single one at a time. In the arcade you could also do more than one handspring, but you had to hold the direction until you started running. It was so cool. Whenever I dispatched a bunch of enemies and had to move forward, I would just go acrobat-handspringing all the way until some foe stopped me XD. That being said, I absolutely LOVE all versions/variants of this game for different reasons: the arcade for... well, everything (graphics, music, sounds and voices); the SNES port for its accuracy and for actually going a step further, making the stages longer, adding a new one, and a few more bosses; and the Genesis version for its original stages and bosses, and the darker, more serious colour palette, in addition to being the one I actually played with my brother when I was a kid. To be honest, I see no reason to not playing all of them.
The soundtrack is good, but I wouldn't say it was better. Just good in a different way. Some of the tracks on Turtles in Time were legit bangers. Certainly Technodrome, as it made good use of the simulated guitar riffs that were possible on the SNES's sound chip. Ultimately it comes down to preference. I liked Hyperstone Heist because it took the good things from Turtles in Time and applied them to combat, music, etc. With that said, I do think that Turtles in Time was ultimately the better game, at least, the SNES version. 2020 AD was a really fun bonus level, and the first Shredder fight was one of the best boss fights I've ever experienced. The first person perspective from Shredder combined with throwing foots at the screen is to this day one of the most satisfying elements to a boss fight yet.
Played Turtles in Time at my cousins all the time growing up and never realized this game existed until much later. It was bittersweet playing through this game several years back, would have loved it for my Genesis as a kid.
Same here. When I was a kid, I asked for Battletoads for Genesis, but it was not available during my birthday, so my mother got me THIS gem. I loved it. I loved ANYTHING TMNT related.
@@CarlosXPhone Sweet its my 3rd favorite of the 2D ninja turtles games by Konami I like 2 the best, and 3 the 2nd best but I do love playing this game when I have friends over.
@@CarlosXPhone Just out of curious, when's your birthday? Given you say "Genesis", you are clearly American based so I suppose it must have been somewhere between December 1992 (American launch of TMNT The Hyperstone Heist) and March 1993 (American launch of the Mega Drive version of Battletoads). We in Europe had a similar delay between both but in our case it was between March 1993 (European launch of TMHT The Hyperstone Heist) and July 1993 (European launch of the Mega Drive version of Battletoads). Did you eventually get the Mega Drive version of Battletoads too afterwards?
@@WeskerSega 82, but I didn't get Battletoads until maybe 98, i discovered a local "mom and pops" game retailer. I sold my PS1 Lunar Star (i know, stupid, but that was my impatience towards Lunar's final boos, pissed me off enough to sell). But it was there i found it, but gave it to my cousin who was the last person with a Genesis. My father sold mine shortly after Street Fighter 2 was hot on Genesis, ALONG with hyperstone. I was mad, and I resent it. All my childhood.. gone.
Another great review and well said! I am proudly looking at this game right now in my collection. This game is another reason why I own a Sega Genesis. There are many games that make the jump to other platforms but usually licensed games like this from a major property like TMNT very rarely are re-released and are the reasons why it is good to have physical media and original hardware. Thanks again!
Had this game as a kid and a neighborhood kid stole just the cartridge from me, never got it back. 25+ years later I traded for a boxed copy, no manual. Cleaning up at my parents house and I found my manual from my original copy when I was a kid. You wouldn't believe my excitement! It was quite satisfying inserting that manual into the boxed copy when I got home. Excellent game!
Something it isn't usually pointed out is that, while it's true this TMNT game takes elements from the first arcade game and Turtles in Time, it also takes certain elements from the TMNT games for the NES. For example, the dojo stage is inspired by the similar and exclusive stage of the NES version of TMNT The Arcade Game, and the surf stage in the ocean actually comes from TMNT The Manhattan Project.
Hero does kind of make more sense, since ninjas where assassins, and the turtles never kill anyone. Also their choice of weapons wouldn't have been appropriate for a ninja in most of their murders.
I remember at the time there was the controversy around violence in kids entertainment so they replaced ninja with hero. Really silly.... and I think it shows in the 2nd turtles movie were they never hit anyone with their weapons.
I'd always played the SNES version, but a year ago I was curious about this genesis port, and when I played man, the soundtrack and gameplay were so perfect and it became my favorite versión
Didn't realize this was that different from Turtles in Time. Good to know. Too bad we didn't see a Turtles game on the Sega CD that had the first arcade game near perfect. :)
i just wish we'd have gotten another turtles beat em up or 2 n the 16 bit era. why only 1 on each system? turtles in time is the best beat em up of the 16 bit era imo, and it's a shame we didn't see like 3 turtles beat em ups with that engine on snes, and genny
@@Rodzilla97 I dont agree. "Streets of Rage 2" is better and also "Final Fight CD". Additionally I'd say, "Turtles in time" is on the same level as "Turtles Hyperstone Heist". "Bare Knuckle III" is also very close and "Batman Returns" on SNES is maybe even better than Turtles. If they had the guts to put a 2-player-mode in "Batman Returns", that would have been awesome. Just a color-swap from black to grey or dark-blue and there would have been 2 Batmans, no problem.
@@MrZillas that's usually the big 2, SOR2 and turtles in time, for best beat em up of the era. i kinda like bareknuckle 3(english patch) better than SOR2 myself, but the usa version isn't very good cause it's too hard
Brings back memories. Now that you mention it, I do remember this game being a tad short even though it was such a great experience for my brother and I. As always, I love your thoughtful reviews and analysis. Much better than certain retro-game reviewers on YT. I really like that you look at these without being biased towards the age and technology from which they came.
As huge Tmnt fan I love the changes That Konami made to this game. To me it was like you got to play a whole new adventure at home! I remember playing the arcade version with my cousin and having so much fun so when we were able to play it at home we had some huge smiles and awesome memories! Great review man!
having played the Snes version a whole lot it's very easy to notice how the arcade lacks punch in comparison to a heavier more satisfying feel on console- despite more frames of animation, something is missing from the arcade version that makes it's feel a fair bit disconnected when hitting your enemy. Try playing the Snes or MD versions for a good amount of time to really notice how much they improved it. This improved feel carried over to the MD version as well making both the SNES and MD versions the best place to play these games. Of all the walk along beat em ups of their time, it's Turtles in Time for Snes and Heist for MD that are the best at what the genre offers. Those that are somewhat skillfull with the moveset will know just how much more dynamic this allows for in encounters, distancing it from others in the genre but never getting mentioned this way for some reason. I liken it to an almost cut down Bayonetta if employed correctly which is why it's so endlessly fun. I don't even like Turtles
I agree about the feel of hitting the enemies. I think most of that comes down to the sound design. I think that's why hits feel so satisfying in Golden Axe as well.
@@adroharv9213 I couldn't resist and had a look at all three games. They've been on my mind since these videos and I do want to play them again soon when I finish up some other things. First, the sound design is part of it. The home versions has what I consider a better impact sound. But it's also animation. The foot soldiers in the arcade version continue to animate as they get hit, flailing around as you hit them. I think that is largely what makes it feel disconnected. In the home version, in order to save frames, they created a stun frame for the enemies, which actually works better. The first hit puts them into the stun frame, then subsequent hits cause them to shake. All that together gives it a much heavier feel to all the hits that improves the game.
@@ravagingwolverine excellent bit of investigation there. I think as you say it must have been from memory constraints that they implemented change because had they not been up against it, I can't see them changing that aspect. The two definitely seem tied which is makes you wonder what they might have thought of the difference it brings about. I mean they surely noticed something past the compromise made when going back between the two. Unless it was a design choice of course but for now I'm going to chalk it up to a happy event brought about by neccesity. Good stuff. I'd love to hear what the developers think on this
I have fond memories of this game. I bought this in late 92' at a Target in Torrance, California. Back then we were all tutlemaniacs! A friend of mine had a Super Famicom with the Japanese version of Turtles in Time, so I had the best of both worlds (not to mention the arcades, which were EVERYWHERE back then).
Hi @Sega Lord X. Great video, it was my first cartridge after the pack in that came with my MD. I wanted to mention regarding the soundtrack in this game, the reason it sounds so good is that basically the original melody was done using a YM2151 FM chip, which was the most common chip used in arcades. Converting 2151 FM (aka OPM) to YM2612 FM (aka OPN2) is mostly straight-forward, and produce very similar results, as the parameter set between OPN and OPM is very similar. So that's why this soundtrack seems to be at its element on the Genesis/MD, as the sound hardware was much more similar to the arcade than the SPC700 on the SNES which is a sampler. Thanks for the great videos and keep up the amazing work. Let me know if you need anything. (Except copies of Pier Solar, unfortunately I ran out of those ;-)
I never got a chance to play this game, thanks for the review. And thanks also for posting 60 frames per second videos. You show the games how they were meant to be seen.
@@crystalwater505 Castlevania Bloodlines, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, Ghouls n Ghost, Shadow Blasters, Romance of the Three Kingdoms III, among many others.
I suppose I am one of the rare few who fell in love with Turtles in Time and now prefers Hyperstone Heist. The gameplay changes such as pacing, speed, and fluidity , as well as the dedicated run button sold me. Thanks for the fair review.
I'm glad you covered this game so thoroughly. I saw a video on it by Top Hat gaming man a few days ago and it was good but really generalized. I guess he was being safe but, as usual, the comments were full of the usual subjective favoritism based feedback. Something I love about your channel is you are clearly a fan but you can give OBJECTIVE criticism. In doing so it drives the viewers to think more about WHY they either like or dislike the game in question. Thanks for doing what you do!
Hyperstone Heist is one of my favorite games. Having been exposed to this and both arcade and home port of Turtles in Time around the same time, I liked Hyperstone a fair bit more. On the subject of bootlegs, my copy looks authentic, but I'm now concerned my Buster's Hidden Treasure may be bootlegged. Considering the time and place I bought it, I just can't be certain, though.
Loved the run button, perfect combo for Foot Soldiers. Run, Shoulder Smash, right into the throw that also hits surrounding Foot Soldiers. Repeat and dominate!
Had so many memories playing this. I had a SNES and my buddy had a Genesis. I had Turtles in Time and he had Hyperstone Heist. One night we played through both games. I did like they added Tatsu from the movies as one of the bosses. As a TMNT fan I enjoyed both games.
Back in the days I just played Turtles in Time more frequently because most people did have the SNES and that was that. But late on I started to play the Genesis game more. First I played it on an actual console at a friend's house back in those days. But never had a chance to play it more often. Then the emulation scene grew out of nowhere, so Iplayed Hyperstone Heist with multiple emulators until I found the one who emulated all the games the best way possible. And now I play it happily via the Collection. That letsme compare gameplay and all between Hyperstone Heist, Turtles in Time SNES and arcade version. Ranking the games makes Hyperstone placing first, followed by the SNES game and on position three the arcade game of TiT. Why? Gameplay and difficulty. While the idea to throw enemies out of the screen is funny at first, it turns into a frustrating gimmick. Sometimes it doesn't even register the action, leaving me open to catch some hits or simply doing the other throws instead, which makes that one Shredder fight in the SNES game more tedious than necessary. And because of that gameplay feels off when compared to Hyperstone Heist which doesn't have that gimmick throw technique, allowing for a more precise experience overall. I know it is weird to mention it, but the hype for TiT, which is kinda justified at times, however leaves players and fans blind to the cold hard facts. Hyperstone Heist feels spot on in its gameplay department which makes me play it more often, also playing on harder difficulty settings as it seems fair and when I miss I know it was my fault, not the controls glitching out like it sometimes does in the SNEs game and even more so in the arcade title. And I'm barely the only one figuring that out. Or am I? Otherwise I think Hyperstone Heist should be played along TiT to make the experience more complete as such. But when left with the choice to only play on of the games for the rest of my life, my love goes all to Hyperstone Heist.
You're not alone. I've figured that when I had a SNES and tried both versions. Okay Bebop is missing but this version is more like the first movie than the goofy animated series like TIT. It's more difficult and brutal also. It's also faster.
I prefer the Genesis soundtrack to the SNES soundtrack. The SNES version's overuse of the orchestra hits in the music, gets a little tiresome and the music has a bit too much of a staccato effect (the choppy rat-tat-tat sound) for my tastes. Konami really knew their way around the Genesis sound hardware!
nah neither game's soundtrack can be attacked. both are among the very best on their systems if we're to be fair and impartial. i prefer the snes soundtrack, but they're both top notch, and no wrong answer
But those orchestra hits are accurate to the arcade arrangement. It was Konami's trademark. In fact, the arcade arrangement of Neon Night Riders has even MORE orchestra hits than the SNES'.
i respect ur opinion but it seems to be very subjective , i can say with all confidence that the soundtrack of the snes turtles game might be one of the best on the snes, one of them being BURRY MY SHELL ON WOUNDED KNEE , that track just blew our young minds on how cool a western sounding track can be.
I agree 100% I grew up playing the arcade in the super Nintendo version and when I found out about this one I was so excited about it I love the fact that they added Tatsu in it and I generally 100% enjoy the game even though I do not own a Sega Genesis I would buy a complete copy of this to have in my collection because it’s that cool
Nice to see such a fair review of this. I did dismiss this game in the past based on lackluster reviews, but it actually does look like a worthwhile Turtles beat 'em up!
Playing the SNES/Arcade version feels very sluggish compared to Hyperstone. The Run button on Sega's version amped up the gameplay. The fun factor goes up when you use the complete arsenal of attacks. The Run button made it more practical to pull off those attacks.
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Exactly. I like the SEGA controls far better than the SNES version.
Snes and MD was so complementary at this time ! It is great like you mention it on your test, the game are different in level design on MD than the others counterpart ! For me too, it's the force of the MD Version ! Great video !
The “Hero Turtles” thing for the PAL release was because everything related to ninjas in the media was banned by the UK government for some reason. The show’s name change was one of the results of that. Of course that then affected the rest of Europe as well. This ban lasted until the mid-90s, with one of the last examples I know of being Li Long’s censored nunchucks in the PAL version of Soul Blade.
@@mortenera2294 Neither did the French or Spanish dubs. The "Hero Turtles" UK thing we had to deal in the rest of Europe was with the videogames mostly.
Great review as always! I personally prefer the Genesis ost over the SNES one. Way more "oomph" in it! And the gameplay is better on Genesis BECAUSE of the dedicated run button! It adds so much to the gameplay and strategy
Just downloaded this today for the pandora saga console. It already had the original arcade versions of TMNT and turtles in time built into it, but I'm glad i could get this too as I've never played this before. Looks awesome, and isn't too far behind the arcade TMNT looks wise.
I have this game (PAL) complete in box and love firing up my Mega Drive for a play through from time to time. It's a pretty easy game so it can be casually played through. Earlier this year I added a good condition complete in box copy of Turtles in Time for the SNES to my collection (I paid stupid money for it I admit). I love both games so much and they really are stand out titles for both consoles.
this is one of the best games to own on the genesis...i have beat this game so many times and it never gets old. such a great game to play with a friend!
Honestly, I really don't understand why they didn't include the "Throw into the screen" move in this version. I mean it's not like the SNES is using any kind of actual scaling for the effect. It's simply a few frames of basic animation and nothing more, nothing that the Genesis couldn't handle. I really don't understand it, and it sucks cus it's one of the most fun moves to use in the SNES version. It's the one thing that I think is lacking with this version, as it's one less move you can do which adds to a bit of a feeling of repetitiveness.
@@MaxwelThuThu Really? That's quite interesting. I mean the throwing animation only consists of what, 3 frames or so anyway? But perhaps there is something more complex about doing such a thing that I am not aware of. I am no programmer after all.
@@skins4thewin Yeah, it's 3 frames of animation. The thing is, if you make that huge character out of sprites, everything is going to flicker and slowdown, so being a background is the safe choice. There's only one game on Genesis that I know that used that effect in background, El Viento. So, it would be possible, but it's more tricky on Genesis as you need to use either the foreground or background as the character.
I think the most likely reason is that Konami took the move out to make it different from Turtles in Time and likely not to upset Nintendo as that move is the defining graphical feature of that game. I'm pretty sure it can be done with sprites. I've never seen the suggestion before of it being BG tiles until now, and not sure if there's anything to that. Even if there was an issue of slowdown and flicker, the effect is very brief. Plus, the Genesis could handle, if well planned, actual scaling and rotation in software. I just don't see it as a technical limitation. Dynamite Headdy has a similar effect on the opening stage. It's a different context, but it does show the same kind of effect in action.
@@ravagingwolverine Turtles in Time uses layer 3, the same as the HUD. That's why enemies appeared cropped by the HUD if you pause at the last frame. Yes they could do with sprites, but flickering isn't something that you can program to not happen, it's a hardware limit. Slowdown maybe won't be a problem, as the character doesn't need to have collision. Oh, I don't see this on Dynamite Headdy
@Sega Lord X - Sempai, alot of us (myself included, in NYC , USA) got our hands on the Astro City Mini today. You MUST give us your veiw on this magnificent Sega machine ❤😄🙏
Gosh, I so powerfully want a Konami TMNT Anniversary Collection similar to their Contra and Castlevania Collections. Have the three NES games, Turtles in Time, of course this one, and the arcade versions.
@@WeskerSega I do not blame them one bit. I know back when Ubisoft owned the rights to Ninja Turtle games, they worked with Konami to get the NES games on Wii Virtual Console, but once the rights transfered to Activision, they were pulled... and I do not blame Konami for not wanting to work with Activision
I tried this out for the first time this year on the Cowabunga Collection. What I liked was that it didn't diverge much from Turtles in Time combat, making the transition smooth. I still like that you can throw enemies at will in the SNES version, rather than arcade/Genesis, where your throws are left to chance. Run button made dash attacks easier. Ultimately, it was more accessible than Turtles in Time. I beat it on my first try. Soundtrack is solid, the cutscenes were good, combat was smooth. The boss gauntlet was lazy, but made up for it by including the Dojo level from the NES version, which had an amazing OST. To a degree, it did feel kind of like a Turtles in Time game remixed, but they managed to make it different enough that it ended up still being satisfying to play through. The SNES era was a golden age for TMNT games. Some of the best titles were released during that time.
It’s a solid game. Bought it about 10 years ago when it was still cheap. I didn’t even know it existed until TH-cam came around. I may prefer turtles in time but still love this game as well.
Nice follow up to the last one. I agree with you that it's nice to have different versions based on the same source as you end up with, in my opinion, two versions worth playing. I've seen the common complaints about Hyperstone Heist, lack of variety among them. Most of them are fair critiques, but I enjoy beat-em-up games so much and the Konami Turtles games have such good core gameplay that it was never an issue for me. I even enjoy the boss rush. I can't deny that it can be seen as filler, but it's still engaging to me. Stages don't feel overly long to me. So Hyperstone Heist is very much worth playing in my opinion. As others have said, it can be seen as like a level pack for Turtles in Time, though with some tweaks. It's those tweaks that make it preferable to me as I tend to go back to HH more than TMNT4. First, I like the run button a lot. But I also like the music much more. It's not that TMNT4 has bad music, but I don't enjoy the staccato arrangements and some of the sample choices. HH sounds much closer to the arcade version which also primarily used FM synth, and it was well done in the first place. I find that good game music is what keeps me coming back in many cases. As for the voices, while Sega's are scratchy, they're not heavily muffled like Nintendo's, so pick your poison, I guess. The Nintendo version has a lot going for it, such as more stage variety, a better story, more enemy types, more bosses(that don't explode unless they're machines), inventive scenarios, etc, so I can totally understand it being people's preference, and it's definitely a great game.
I like to think of the SNES Turtles in Time and Genesis Hyper Stone Heist as different episodes of a series. I love both of these ports better than the arcade original, though.
And much like the 1987 cartoon version of the TMNT they were based on, the episodes are often very similar and even repetitive. So it's pretty true to the source material for Hyperstone Heist to be so similar to Turtles in Time. Or for both to be clearly sequels to the first arcade game. And that the Manhattan Project on NES, the oft overlooked TMNT beat-em-up, is clearly a sequel to the NES version of TMNT the Arcade Game, recycling many graphical elements.
I bought this game and mutant league football both at circuit city on sale back in the early 90s! I enjoyed this version and the SNES turtles in time both!
As a kid back in the 1990s’ and also a huge “Ninja Turtles” Fan (including The 2003 Anime Version, The 2012 Nickelodeon Version and whatever), this is one my all-time favorites along with The Arcade and SNES Version of “Turtles in Time” also!!!! Well the first time I played it is with a certain family member who’s a cousin and is related to one of family members that happens to be a nephew to my Uncle and he too was a huge Sega Genesis and SNES Fan too from somewhere back in well Summer and Thanksgiving Time of 1993 and 1994 when we were kids-- well he was at a certain preteen to teenager age and I was just a 7 to 8 Year Old but younger Kid actually though. We played it together while I was playing as Leonardo (Player 2) and my cousin was Donatello (Player 1) but on Hard Mode and he’s also a “Ninja Turtles” Fan too, however we never got close to defending Shredder with shared continues and technically I was the only one to make it this far on The 5th and Last Stage where I was so close to defeat Shredder but then he use is very powerful attack on me where it’s Instant Death after you change into a normal pet turtle only and with no more lives left and no continues renaming we both got: “GAME OVER” Big Time!!! (Very True Story Facts and yes he also had “Turtles in Time” on SNES same situation on that too from back in The 90s’ only!) However because we have Emulators now and days, I have both this one along with “Turtles in Time” from both The Arcade Version and SNES Version also...!!!
It would be fantastic if they would release a TMNT COLLECTION of all the games from the arcade, sega megadrive, snes, gameboy, nes and maybe the turtles in time reshelled just like konami did with contra and castlevania. Licensing would be a pain but it would be a smash hit that would be huge seller. Come on nickelodeon whatda say?
Nickelodeon is too busy killing the franchise with ridiculous looking animation, and Michael Bay is sticking the knife in from the other way with the terrible movies.
Another great video! Now I feel lousy for passing by the Genesis version, and will definitely be giving it a fair shake via emulation. Too bad the excessive TH-cam ads have made it tough to enjoy anything on this platform...
This is a great Konami game and I love it. This along with Castlevania are some of the best Genesis games they ever made. You've made some excellent points and I hope more people come around to seeing the beauty of this game.
Genesis game has good gameplay, graphics, and sound. But it was lack luster in my opinion. Boss battles lacked variety, and the stages felt repetitive. The early boss battles should have had more to them like the SNES and arcade game. Also, I would have also put elements from the 1st arcade game into the Genesis game to give it more variety and nostalgia.
I loved this version me and my brothers grew up playing it. When I played the SNES version I like that it sounded prettier and the scaling of the foot soldiers toward the screen looked really cool but I hated that it moved slower. But yeah love this freakin game.
What I love about Hyperstone Heist is that the boss AI seems to be smarter than TMNT IV's, and the play control is much tighter. You can run and dodge more deliberately in HH.
Omg I played this game to death on my mega drive. So many memories. Over here in UK they called them hero turtles because ninjas at the time ment something violent for kids if remember right
I'm brazillian and I'm surprised it had another name here. My neighbour had the "Return of The Shredder" title and we played soooooo much. The game is not that hard, it is fast paced, beautiful and sounds amazing... It is one of my favorite mega drive games of all time
A dedicated dash button is the most useful but kind of broken tool in this game. Run, Jump, and Attack in rapid succession let you do this very quick slide that is very powerful.
konami was always good at segas sound chip. and the music too! especialy in 2nd stage called "Alleycat Blues" - very good one, and if find it on youtube and slowdown - you will heard real fine blues indeed! you can even heard same notes in TNMR, tiny toon, contraHC... instruments sounds pretty clear in tiny toon btw in forest stage you can hear an orkestr almost like mp3
TBH I never missed the off screen throw in Hyperstone Heist. First time it looks cool, but then you just forget about it and stick to the body slamming one. And good thing the game plays better in this, tackling and throwing is way easier in this game, even though the overall game speed compensates that. Also it's the first time I see someone likes playing with Don more than other turtles :p
Hyperstone Heist is a very good beat'em up on the Genesis. Yeah its more or less a version of Turtles of Time but still holds its own as a solid beat'em up and one of the GOOD Turtles games back in the 90's.
Definitely a personal favorite of mine on the Genesis. From my personal viewpoint of it, it's more or less a port of Turtles in Time, but a bit switched up. I will say the music here sounds a lot more Arcadey than the Super NES one.
The first game i played was the Arcade Turtles in Time (loved it, obviously), at home I had the genesis and i made it a priority to get Hyperstone Heist sometime in 93-94. I knew it was inferior to turtles IV SNES (oh, how i coveted the SNES...) but i had a Genesis for that entire generation so Hyperstone Heist was my jaaaammmmm. I love it. Even after getting Turtles IV much later, and playing it to death, comparing the two... IV is the better game, but i *love* the experience of Hyperstone. I love that it's faster and shorter, making it much more fun for short gaming sessions, and ensures you won't get bored playing it for 30 minutes with your buddy over drinks [I've had Turtles IV runs last around an hour and at that point we couldn't wait to move on]. I love the grittier look of the game thanks to Genesis graphics palette - feels more "mature" and right at home on the Genesis. Of course the sound is great and the gameplay feels faster too. One of my absolute favorite games of the generation to this day
Maaaan, I didn't knew about the Attack +Jump combo.😳 Also, in some parts of Europe, "Ninjas" and Nunchucks were a Big NO NO for the kiddies.
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I loved the fact that Konami used to make different versions of the same game for the SNES and Genesis, like Tiny Toons, Contra, Castlevania and TMNT, that way you could have different experiences in each console. Oh, by the way, in Germany you couldn't have the word "ninja" in any media focused on children, that's way they have the "Hero" instead.
Indeed, if you own both consoles, you may as well get Konami games that were on both platforms, for both platforms as you pretty much got two different games each time.
Man this looks amazing. I wish I came across it back then. When I was a kid, I recall renting a TMNT game on Genesis and it wasnt very good. It was super hard and oddly short. And only single player. The first stage was in a cave or something like that. Ive never been able find out what game that was. Have you ever heard of something like that?
The only other Tmnt game on genesis was tournament fighters which was a one on one fighting game. Unless it was that, you’re thinking of some other game.
@@Rountree1985 It definitely wasn't tournament fighters, as I was familiar with that one. Makes me wonder if it was a bootleg of some sort? I distinctly recall it was single player, as my friend and I would often play videogames together, but were disappointed that we couldn't.
I live in the UK I had the PAL version there was another difference in the options menu there was 2 different colour palettes for the turtles themselves one closer to the comic which I don't think had really taken off in the UK at the time And the other colour palette the default which was based on the cartoon series I preferred the comic book version because the colours were more vibrant if I remember correctly
I liked Hyperstone Heist, the only issue I had with it was that many stages ended without even fighting a boss and then bosses were reused for some other stages which was odd. Had they just added a different boss per stage this game would have been phenominal
I believe that Konami wasn't allowed to make a direct port, rather than they decided not to. One of Nintendo's stipulations of developing on their systems at the time was the game had to be exclusive or radically different from rival systems. and this was the time Nintendo had a stranglehold on the market.
That makes a lot of sense, I figured it was something like that.
Glad to see you on SLX’s channel. You’re quite the expert on Sega games and I really enjoy the content you provide. Maybe Mel could suggest your channel on his credits.
Cheers mate!
I thought that too but someone left me a comment saying that stipulation had ended quite a bit before Hyperstone came out. I dunno, it seems like the most likely reason to me.
@@DrGamelove This game came out nearly simultaneously with the SNES Turtles in Time and most importantly, SNES Street Fighter II, so they were planned before Nintendo couldn't force exclusivity on third party anymore.
Yarp bundi.....
I absolutely love the sound of the synth Bass of this game they did a fantastic job with the soundtrack
Yeah, I much much prefer this to turtles in time. It is closer to the arcade, but I like how it sounds here even more
Same! I think Turtles in time in the SNES had an overall better experience as a game, but the OST of Hyper stone will always be my favorite :D
The boss battle song isn't the same without the fat FM bass!
Lol I can’t see how anyone would prefer this ! Sega always looked and sounded cheaper imo. You can’t even throw the enemies into the screen in this one.
My favorite part of this game is that rather than just being another port of Turtles in Time, this functions more like a standalone expansion pack. Since they're both pretty short, I tend to play both HH and TMNT4 back to back, doubling the Turtles goodness.
Felt more of a Turtles in Time rom hack honestly. I’d rather Konami put effort for a completely original game than used from previous games. With that said, it’s still fun but I expected more after what we got with an original Castlevania and Contra on the Genesis.
@@Ryuujin1078 It took Konami a year to learn the Genesis. Hyperstone was literally their first Genesis game in 1992 (they were very late to jump on board because they had such a strong working relationship with Nintendo) followed shortly by Sunset Riders - a botched port. Hypserstone definitely fared better and is a great game on its own. They didn't learn until the following year that they should just develop original games from the ground up for the Genesis. 1993 brought Castlevania, Buster Busts Loose, Rocket Knight and a pretty good port of Zombies Ate my Nieghbors
Turtley goodness 😮💨
I never owned a Genesis as a kid but my best friend did. This was the first Turtles beat 'em up I played on a home console and the first Turtles game I acquired as an adult collector.
If I've got 5 minutes to kill I pop in Hyperstone Heist and clear the first two levels. It's *always* fun.
TMNT The Hyperstone Hiest was the first game I owned for the Genesis. I still play it today and the box art is amazing!
1992 was a good period for Sega box art. They got away from the black boxes, but hadn't moved to the red ones, so a lot of boxes are almost entirely game art. One of my favorites from the time is Captain America.
Hyperstone Heist is a really good game on the Genesis. One of my favorite. The only problem for me is the Boss are always the same. It lack diversity of enemies.
As a kid, I never knew this existed. Turtles in Time was one of my favorite games growing up, and I would have LOVED to play this. Playing it as an adult... Tatsu kills every attempt to see the ending. I just don't have the reflexes anymore.
You should play it on easy
There is nothing to do with reflexes...
It is just that you didn't play the game enough...
Maybe you should say "I have no patience to training anymore..."
@@homejonny9326 what exactly are you suggesting I train? I could figure out all the patterns for the bosses prior to Tatsu, and all of Turtles in Time, but Tatsu's just so seemingly random! Sometimes it just comes down to reaction time, and I hate to break it to you... but age slows you down.
@@greenkoopa I fully expect this game to pull the "Play it on a REAL difficulty to see the ending!" like Turtles in Time does. Is that not true?
@@Peffse I’m probably older than you and I have no problems with tatsu. You probably just suck
The biggest sin this game is guilty of is having Rocksteady in it WITHOUT Bebop.
I do like that this isn't just a port of Turtles in Time. However, I wish they took more liberties than they did and added more unique assets to set it apart from the other game. As it is, it just comes across as more of a ROM hack than an original.
Cart needed more storage for animation details
I always wanted a port of the first arcade game for Mega Drive. I didn't understand that Konami were in Nintendo's pocket.
@@simon41978 The NES port was a joke graphically.
@@vram1974
Porting the first arcade game to NES made no sense practically. Even on Mega Drive, they would have struggled to fit the game on a 8 Megabit cart.
One of my all time favourite games, the soundtrack and gameplay beat the SNES game for me, the dash button was better than tapping the direction twice. Glad I still have my original cart.
Honestly, even if I grew up with Mega Drive (Genesis name in Europe) and I loved Hyperstone Heist, I prefer the SNES double tapping for dashing. The only reason is: I LOVE HANDSPRINGS XD. In the Mega Drive/Genesis version, you could only do a single handspring by holding the Dash button and simultaneously tapping the Jump button while holding the direction you wanted to go; when the handspring animation ended, your character stopped running and started walking instead, making it impossible to do multiple frontflips on a row. However, in SNES, you can double-tap the direction and then just repeatedly mash the Jump button: your character will start doing a gymnastics series of quick frontflips, as opposed to Genesis, where you can only do a single one at a time. In the arcade you could also do more than one handspring, but you had to hold the direction until you started running. It was so cool. Whenever I dispatched a bunch of enemies and had to move forward, I would just go acrobat-handspringing all the way until some foe stopped me XD.
That being said, I absolutely LOVE all versions/variants of this game for different reasons: the arcade for... well, everything (graphics, music, sounds and voices); the SNES port for its accuracy and for actually going a step further, making the stages longer, adding a new one, and a few more bosses; and the Genesis version for its original stages and bosses, and the darker, more serious colour palette, in addition to being the one I actually played with my brother when I was a kid. To be honest, I see no reason to not playing all of them.
The soundtrack is good, but I wouldn't say it was better. Just good in a different way. Some of the tracks on Turtles in Time were legit bangers. Certainly Technodrome, as it made good use of the simulated guitar riffs that were possible on the SNES's sound chip.
Ultimately it comes down to preference. I liked Hyperstone Heist because it took the good things from Turtles in Time and applied them to combat, music, etc.
With that said, I do think that Turtles in Time was ultimately the better game, at least, the SNES version. 2020 AD was a really fun bonus level, and the first Shredder fight was one of the best boss fights I've ever experienced. The first person perspective from Shredder combined with throwing foots at the screen is to this day one of the most satisfying elements to a boss fight yet.
Played Turtles in Time at my cousins all the time growing up and never realized this game existed until much later. It was bittersweet playing through this game several years back, would have loved it for my Genesis as a kid.
One of my favorite games on the Genesis.
Same here. When I was a kid, I asked for Battletoads for Genesis, but it was not available during my birthday, so my mother got me THIS gem. I loved it. I loved ANYTHING TMNT related.
@@CarlosXPhone Sweet its my 3rd favorite of the 2D ninja turtles games by Konami I like 2 the best, and 3 the 2nd best but I do love playing this game when I have friends over.
@@CarlosXPhone Just out of curious, when's your birthday? Given you say "Genesis", you are clearly American based so I suppose it must have been somewhere between December 1992 (American launch of TMNT The Hyperstone Heist) and March 1993 (American launch of the Mega Drive version of Battletoads). We in Europe had a similar delay between both but in our case it was between March 1993 (European launch of TMHT The Hyperstone Heist) and July 1993 (European launch of the Mega Drive version of Battletoads). Did you eventually get the Mega Drive version of Battletoads too afterwards?
@@WeskerSega 82, but I didn't get Battletoads until maybe 98, i discovered a local "mom and pops" game retailer. I sold my PS1 Lunar Star (i know, stupid, but that was my impatience towards Lunar's final boos, pissed me off enough to sell). But it was there i found it, but gave it to my cousin who was the last person with a Genesis. My father sold mine shortly after Street Fighter 2 was hot on Genesis, ALONG with hyperstone. I was mad, and I resent it. All my childhood.. gone.
I love having the run button assigned in this game.
Another great review and well said! I am proudly looking at this game right now in my collection. This game is another reason why I own a Sega Genesis. There are many games that make the jump to other platforms but usually licensed games like this from a major property like TMNT very rarely are re-released and are the reasons why it is good to have physical media and original hardware. Thanks again!
Had this game as a kid and a neighborhood kid stole just the cartridge from me, never got it back. 25+ years later I traded for a boxed copy, no manual. Cleaning up at my parents house and I found my manual from my original copy when I was a kid. You wouldn't believe my excitement! It was quite satisfying inserting that manual into the boxed copy when I got home. Excellent game!
Yeah sorry about that bro, I just really wanted the game.
@@anthonybalista7421 U dirty dog... 😢
Something it isn't usually pointed out is that, while it's true this TMNT game takes elements from the first arcade game and Turtles in Time, it also takes certain elements from the TMNT games for the NES. For example, the dojo stage is inspired by the similar and exclusive stage of the NES version of TMNT The Arcade Game, and the surf stage in the ocean actually comes from TMNT The Manhattan Project.
I love this game so much thanks for doing a video on it
Thanks for not filtering out those beautiful pixels, I cannot stand it when other channels do that.
My siblings and I had so much fun with this game. We always wished we could play four player but settled with taking turns.
I love Hyperstone Heist so much!
Good Sir. Your channel is comforting my life throughout this pandemic which has affected me greatly. Thank you for your content and keep it coming!
Turtles in Time > Shredders Revenge > Manhattan Project > Arcade game > Whale Poop > Hyperstone Shite
They're called teenage mutant hero turtles because apparently certain European countries are triggered by the word ninja.
I'm doing a video on that, but the story is far far more stupid than simply that!
Is like starfox and lylat wars
TMHT :v
Hero does kind of make more sense, since ninjas where assassins, and the turtles never kill anyone. Also their choice of weapons wouldn't have been appropriate for a ninja in most of their murders.
I remember at the time there was the controversy around violence in kids entertainment so they replaced ninja with hero. Really silly.... and I think it shows in the 2nd turtles movie were they never hit anyone with their weapons.
I'd always played the SNES version, but a year ago I was curious about this genesis port, and when I played man, the soundtrack and gameplay were so perfect and it became my favorite versión
Didn't realize this was that different from Turtles in Time. Good to know. Too bad we didn't see a Turtles game on the Sega CD that had the first arcade game near perfect. :)
i just wish we'd have gotten another turtles beat em up or 2 n the 16 bit era. why only 1 on each system? turtles in time is the best beat em up of the 16 bit era imo, and it's a shame we didn't see like 3 turtles beat em ups with that engine on snes, and genny
A Turtles game on Saturn Guardian Heroes style? That woulda been killer.
yes. too bad, we could have had many more turtles beat em ups
@@Rodzilla97 I dont agree. "Streets of Rage 2" is better and also "Final Fight CD". Additionally I'd say, "Turtles in time" is on the same level as "Turtles Hyperstone Heist". "Bare Knuckle III" is also very close and "Batman Returns" on SNES is maybe even better than Turtles. If they had the guts to put a 2-player-mode in "Batman Returns", that would have been awesome. Just a color-swap from black to grey or dark-blue and there would have been 2 Batmans, no problem.
@@MrZillas that's usually the big 2, SOR2 and turtles in time, for best beat em up of the era. i kinda like bareknuckle 3(english patch) better than SOR2 myself, but the usa version isn't very good cause it's too hard
Brings back memories. Now that you mention it, I do remember this game being a tad short even though it was such a great experience for my brother and I.
As always, I love your thoughtful reviews and analysis. Much better than certain retro-game reviewers on YT. I really like that you look at these without being biased towards the age and technology from which they came.
As huge Tmnt fan I love the changes That Konami made to this game. To me it was like you got to play a whole new adventure at home! I remember playing the arcade version with my cousin and having so much fun so when we were able to play it at home we had some huge smiles and awesome memories! Great review man!
having played the Snes version a whole lot it's very easy to notice how the arcade lacks punch in comparison to a heavier more satisfying feel on console- despite more frames of animation, something is missing from the arcade version that makes it's feel a fair bit disconnected when hitting your enemy. Try playing the Snes or MD versions for a good amount of time to really notice how much they improved it. This improved feel carried over to the MD version as well making both the SNES and MD versions the best place to play these games.
Of all the walk along beat em ups of their time, it's Turtles in Time for Snes and Heist for MD that are the best at what the genre offers. Those that are somewhat skillfull with the moveset will know just how much more dynamic this allows for in encounters, distancing it from others in the genre but never getting mentioned this way for some reason. I liken it to an almost cut down Bayonetta if employed correctly which is why it's so endlessly fun. I don't even like Turtles
I agree about the feel of hitting the enemies. I think most of that comes down to the sound design. I think that's why hits feel so satisfying in Golden Axe as well.
@@ravagingwolverine yeah interestingly it might be simply that. Perhaps it's worth turning the sound down to see, something I've never tried
@@adroharv9213 I couldn't resist and had a look at all three games. They've been on my mind since these videos and I do want to play them again soon when I finish up some other things. First, the sound design is part of it. The home versions has what I consider a better impact sound. But it's also animation. The foot soldiers in the arcade version continue to animate as they get hit, flailing around as you hit them. I think that is largely what makes it feel disconnected. In the home version, in order to save frames, they created a stun frame for the enemies, which actually works better. The first hit puts them into the stun frame, then subsequent hits cause them to shake. All that together gives it a much heavier feel to all the hits that improves the game.
@@ravagingwolverine excellent bit of investigation there. I think as you say it must have been from memory constraints that they implemented change because had they not been up against it, I can't see them changing that aspect. The two definitely seem tied which is makes you wonder what they might have thought of the difference it brings about. I mean they surely noticed something past the compromise made when going back between the two. Unless it was a design choice of course but for now I'm going to chalk it up to a happy event brought about by neccesity. Good stuff. I'd love to hear what the developers think on this
Hyperstone heist animation is perfect turtles in time animation is too stiffed
I have fond memories of this game. I bought this in late 92' at a Target in Torrance, California. Back then we were all tutlemaniacs!
A friend of mine had a Super Famicom with the Japanese version of Turtles in Time, so I had the best of both worlds (not to mention the arcades, which were EVERYWHERE back then).
Hi @Sega Lord X. Great video, it was my first cartridge after the pack in that came with my MD. I wanted to mention regarding the soundtrack in this game, the reason it sounds so good is that basically the original melody was done using a YM2151 FM chip, which was the most common chip used in arcades. Converting 2151 FM (aka OPM) to YM2612 FM (aka OPN2) is mostly straight-forward, and produce very similar results, as the parameter set between OPN and OPM is very similar. So that's why this soundtrack seems to be at its element on the Genesis/MD, as the sound hardware was much more similar to the arcade than the SPC700 on the SNES which is a sampler. Thanks for the great videos and keep up the amazing work. Let me know if you need anything. (Except copies of Pier Solar, unfortunately I ran out of those ;-)
I never got a chance to play this game, thanks for the review. And thanks also for posting 60 frames per second videos. You show the games how they were meant to be seen.
The theme songs of this game brings me so much nostalgic feelings OMG. Great memories of a long gone happy time in my life.
i still love this game, and still play it on my Nomad!
How many times would you say that you play through that game a year?
@@crystalwater505 could not put a number to it, but keep my Nomad powered up by my PC and play it pretty much still on a daily.
@@KISSFan1977 That's awesome. What other Genesis games do you replay on your Nomad often?
@@crystalwater505 Castlevania Bloodlines, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, Ghouls n Ghost, Shadow Blasters, Romance of the Three Kingdoms III, among many others.
@@KISSFan1977 How many times did you playthrough Moonwalker this year?
Congratulations for such excellent review. It gave so many great memories since it was my first game for the console. Great job once again!
I suppose I am one of the rare few who fell in love with Turtles in Time and now prefers Hyperstone Heist. The gameplay changes such as pacing, speed, and fluidity , as well as the dedicated run button sold me. Thanks for the fair review.
Well said!!
I'm glad you covered this game so thoroughly. I saw a video on it by Top Hat gaming man a few days ago and it was good but really generalized.
I guess he was being safe but, as usual, the comments were full of the usual subjective favoritism based feedback.
Something I love about your channel is you are clearly a fan but you can give OBJECTIVE criticism. In doing so it drives the viewers to think more about WHY they either like or dislike the game in question.
Thanks for doing what you do!
LOVE Hyperstone Heist!
Hyperstone Heist is one of my favorite games. Having been exposed to this and both arcade and home port of Turtles in Time around the same time, I liked Hyperstone a fair bit more.
On the subject of bootlegs, my copy looks authentic, but I'm now concerned my Buster's Hidden Treasure may be bootlegged. Considering the time and place I bought it, I just can't be certain, though.
I do love the run button feature in this one too, does make it slightly quicker to pull off than the snes
Loved the run button, perfect combo for Foot Soldiers. Run, Shoulder Smash, right into the throw that also hits surrounding Foot Soldiers. Repeat and dominate!
Had so many memories playing this. I had a SNES and my buddy had a Genesis. I had Turtles in Time and he had Hyperstone Heist. One night we played through both games. I did like they added Tatsu from the movies as one of the bosses. As a TMNT fan I enjoyed both games.
Back in the days I just played Turtles in Time more frequently because most people did have the SNES and that was that. But late on I started to play the Genesis game more. First I played it on an actual console at a friend's house back in those days. But never had a chance to play it more often. Then the emulation scene grew out of nowhere, so Iplayed Hyperstone Heist with multiple emulators until I found the one who emulated all the games the best way possible. And now I play it happily via the Collection. That letsme compare gameplay and all between Hyperstone Heist, Turtles in Time SNES and arcade version. Ranking the games makes Hyperstone placing first, followed by the SNES game and on position three the arcade game of TiT. Why? Gameplay and difficulty. While the idea to throw enemies out of the screen is funny at first, it turns into a frustrating gimmick. Sometimes it doesn't even register the action, leaving me open to catch some hits or simply doing the other throws instead, which makes that one Shredder fight in the SNES game more tedious than necessary. And because of that gameplay feels off when compared to Hyperstone Heist which doesn't have that gimmick throw technique, allowing for a more precise experience overall. I know it is weird to mention it, but the hype for TiT, which is kinda justified at times, however leaves players and fans blind to the cold hard facts. Hyperstone Heist feels spot on in its gameplay department which makes me play it more often, also playing on harder difficulty settings as it seems fair and when I miss I know it was my fault, not the controls glitching out like it sometimes does in the SNEs game and even more so in the arcade title. And I'm barely the only one figuring that out. Or am I? Otherwise I think Hyperstone Heist should be played along TiT to make the experience more complete as such. But when left with the choice to only play on of the games for the rest of my life, my love goes all to Hyperstone Heist.
You're not alone. I've figured that when I had a SNES and tried both versions. Okay Bebop is missing but this version is more like the first movie than the goofy animated series like TIT. It's more difficult and brutal also.
It's also faster.
I prefer the Genesis soundtrack to the SNES soundtrack. The SNES version's overuse of the orchestra hits in the music, gets a little tiresome and the music has a bit too much of a staccato effect (the choppy rat-tat-tat sound) for my tastes. Konami really knew their way around the Genesis sound hardware!
nah neither game's soundtrack can be attacked. both are among the very best on their systems if we're to be fair and impartial. i prefer the snes soundtrack, but they're both top notch, and no wrong answer
But those orchestra hits are accurate to the arcade arrangement. It was Konami's trademark. In fact, the arcade arrangement of Neon Night Riders has even MORE orchestra hits than the SNES'.
i respect ur opinion but it seems to be very subjective , i can say with all confidence that the soundtrack of the snes turtles game might be one of the best on the snes, one of them being BURRY MY SHELL ON WOUNDED KNEE , that track just blew our young minds on how cool a western sounding track can be.
Just a shame the Snes game only had Neon Nightriders stage, Bebop, and ability to throw the enemies towards the screen
It’s THEIR opinion.. goodness. It’s ok to like something that the majority may not agree with..if they prefer the genesis FM sound then let them.
I agree 100% I grew up playing the arcade in the super Nintendo version and when I found out about this one I was so excited about it I love the fact that they added Tatsu in it and I generally 100% enjoy the game even though I do not own a Sega Genesis I would buy a complete copy of this to have in my collection because it’s that cool
Nice to see such a fair review of this. I did dismiss this game in the past based on lackluster reviews, but it actually does look like a worthwhile Turtles beat 'em up!
Playing the SNES/Arcade version feels very sluggish compared to Hyperstone. The Run button on Sega's version amped up the gameplay. The fun factor goes up when you use the complete arsenal of attacks. The Run button made it more practical to pull off those attacks.
Exactly. I like the SEGA controls far better than the SNES version.
Snes and MD was so complementary at this time ! It is great like you mention it on your test, the game are different in level design on MD than the others counterpart ! For me too, it's the force of the MD Version ! Great video !
The is one of the best intros on TH-cam ... TMNT will be the best game ever over decades.
God I'm always excited to see a new video from your channel :) Thanks !
The “Hero Turtles” thing for the PAL release was because everything related to ninjas in the media was banned by the UK government for some reason. The show’s name change was one of the results of that. Of course that then affected the rest of Europe as well. This ban lasted until the mid-90s, with one of the last examples I know of being Li Long’s censored nunchucks in the PAL version of Soul Blade.
how about PROBOTECTOR ? ever heard of that ? it was CONTRA but with robots instead of humans...what a shit show that was.
Thank god the Italian dub of the cartoon didn't censor anything lmao
@@mortenera2294 Neither did the French or Spanish dubs. The "Hero Turtles" UK thing we had to deal in the rest of Europe was with the videogames mostly.
Great review as always!
I personally prefer the Genesis ost over the SNES one. Way more "oomph" in it!
And the gameplay is better on Genesis BECAUSE of the dedicated run button! It adds so much to the gameplay and strategy
Just downloaded this today for the pandora saga console. It already had the original arcade versions of TMNT and turtles in time built into it, but I'm glad i could get this too as I've never played this before. Looks awesome, and isn't too far behind the arcade TMNT looks wise.
I had tons and tons of fun with this one. And the soundtrack is one of the best of the 16 bit era imo.
I have this game (PAL) complete in box and love firing up my Mega Drive for a play through from time to time. It's a pretty easy game so it can be casually played through. Earlier this year I added a good condition complete in box copy of Turtles in Time for the SNES to my collection (I paid stupid money for it I admit). I love both games so much and they really are stand out titles for both consoles.
this is one of the best games to own on the genesis...i have beat this game so many times and it never gets old. such a great game to play with a friend!
Honestly, I really don't understand why they didn't include the "Throw into the screen" move in this version. I mean it's not like the SNES is using any kind of actual scaling for the effect. It's simply a few frames of basic animation and nothing more, nothing that the Genesis couldn't handle. I really don't understand it, and it sucks cus it's one of the most fun moves to use in the SNES version. It's the one thing that I think is lacking with this version, as it's one less move you can do which adds to a bit of a feeling of repetitiveness.
The SNES has a third layer that Genesis don't have, so Konami used for the last 2 frames of throwing animation.
@@MaxwelThuThu Really? That's quite interesting. I mean the throwing animation only consists of what, 3 frames or so anyway? But perhaps there is something more complex about doing such a thing that I am not aware of. I am no programmer after all.
@@skins4thewin Yeah, it's 3 frames of animation. The thing is, if you make that huge character out of sprites, everything is going to flicker and slowdown, so being a background is the safe choice.
There's only one game on Genesis that I know that used that effect in background, El Viento.
So, it would be possible, but it's more tricky on Genesis as you need to use either the foreground or background as the character.
I think the most likely reason is that Konami took the move out to make it different from Turtles in Time and likely not to upset Nintendo as that move is the defining graphical feature of that game. I'm pretty sure it can be done with sprites. I've never seen the suggestion before of it being BG tiles until now, and not sure if there's anything to that. Even if there was an issue of slowdown and flicker, the effect is very brief. Plus, the Genesis could handle, if well planned, actual scaling and rotation in software. I just don't see it as a technical limitation. Dynamite Headdy has a similar effect on the opening stage. It's a different context, but it does show the same kind of effect in action.
@@ravagingwolverine Turtles in Time uses layer 3, the same as the HUD. That's why enemies appeared cropped by the HUD if you pause at the last frame.
Yes they could do with sprites, but flickering isn't something that you can program to not happen, it's a hardware limit. Slowdown maybe won't be a problem, as the character doesn't need to have collision.
Oh, I don't see this on Dynamite Headdy
Me and the guys had tons of fun with The Hyperstone Heist as kids. I still have the PAL version.
@Sega Lord X - Sempai, alot of us (myself included, in NYC , USA) got our hands on the Astro City Mini today. You MUST give us your veiw on this magnificent Sega machine ❤😄🙏
Gosh, I so powerfully want a Konami TMNT Anniversary Collection similar to their Contra and Castlevania Collections.
Have the three NES games, Turtles in Time, of course this one, and the arcade versions.
It seems a licensing nightmare Konami doesn't seem to want to engage to, unfortunately.
@@WeskerSega I do not blame them one bit. I know back when Ubisoft owned the rights to Ninja Turtle games, they worked with Konami to get the NES games on Wii Virtual Console, but once the rights transfered to Activision, they were pulled... and I do not blame Konami for not wanting to work with Activision
I LOVE "Sewer Surfin'" in this version
I tried this out for the first time this year on the Cowabunga Collection. What I liked was that it didn't diverge much from Turtles in Time combat, making the transition smooth. I still like that you can throw enemies at will in the SNES version, rather than arcade/Genesis, where your throws are left to chance. Run button made dash attacks easier. Ultimately, it was more accessible than Turtles in Time. I beat it on my first try. Soundtrack is solid, the cutscenes were good, combat was smooth. The boss gauntlet was lazy, but made up for it by including the Dojo level from the NES version, which had an amazing OST. To a degree, it did feel kind of like a Turtles in Time game remixed, but they managed to make it different enough that it ended up still being satisfying to play through.
The SNES era was a golden age for TMNT games. Some of the best titles were released during that time.
It’s a solid game. Bought it about 10 years ago when it was still cheap. I didn’t even know it existed until TH-cam came around. I may prefer turtles in time but still love this game as well.
I'm a Turtle fan, I loved both. Although Hyperstone Heist was the one I owned, cause I was a Sega kid, I still loved Turtles in Time
Nice follow up to the last one. I agree with you that it's nice to have different versions based on the same source as you end up with, in my opinion, two versions worth playing. I've seen the common complaints about Hyperstone Heist, lack of variety among them. Most of them are fair critiques, but I enjoy beat-em-up games so much and the Konami Turtles games have such good core gameplay that it was never an issue for me. I even enjoy the boss rush. I can't deny that it can be seen as filler, but it's still engaging to me. Stages don't feel overly long to me. So Hyperstone Heist is very much worth playing in my opinion. As others have said, it can be seen as like a level pack for Turtles in Time, though with some tweaks. It's those tweaks that make it preferable to me as I tend to go back to HH more than TMNT4. First, I like the run button a lot. But I also like the music much more. It's not that TMNT4 has bad music, but I don't enjoy the staccato arrangements and some of the sample choices. HH sounds much closer to the arcade version which also primarily used FM synth, and it was well done in the first place. I find that good game music is what keeps me coming back in many cases. As for the voices, while Sega's are scratchy, they're not heavily muffled like Nintendo's, so pick your poison, I guess. The Nintendo version has a lot going for it, such as more stage variety, a better story, more enemy types, more bosses(that don't explode unless they're machines), inventive scenarios, etc, so I can totally understand it being people's preference, and it's definitely a great game.
This game plays completely different from Turtles in Time, thanks to the run button.
I like to think of the SNES Turtles in Time and Genesis Hyper Stone Heist as different episodes of a series. I love both of these ports better than the arcade original, though.
And much like the 1987 cartoon version of the TMNT they were based on, the episodes are often very similar and even repetitive. So it's pretty true to the source material for Hyperstone Heist to be so similar to Turtles in Time. Or for both to be clearly sequels to the first arcade game. And that the Manhattan Project on NES, the oft overlooked TMNT beat-em-up, is clearly a sequel to the NES version of TMNT the Arcade Game, recycling many graphical elements.
This is the Turtles game I had back in the day, although I was pleased to finally play on Turtles in Time years later
I bought this game and mutant league football both at circuit city on sale back in the early 90s! I enjoyed this version and the SNES turtles in time both!
As a kid back in the 1990s’
and also a huge “Ninja
Turtles” Fan (including The
2003 Anime Version,
The 2012 Nickelodeon Version
and whatever), this is one my
all-time favorites along with
The Arcade and SNES Version
of “Turtles in Time” also!!!!
Well the first time I played it
is with a certain family member
who’s a cousin and is related
to one of family members
that happens to be a nephew
to my Uncle and he too
was a huge Sega Genesis
and SNES Fan too from
somewhere back in well
Summer and Thanksgiving
Time of 1993 and 1994
when we were kids--
well he was at a certain preteen
to teenager age and I was
just a 7 to 8 Year Old but younger
Kid actually though.
We played it together while
I was playing as Leonardo
(Player 2) and my cousin
was Donatello (Player 1)
but on Hard Mode and
he’s also a “Ninja Turtles”
Fan too, however we
never got close to defending
Shredder with shared continues
and technically I was the only
one to make it this far on
The 5th and Last Stage where
I was so close to defeat
Shredder but then he use
is very powerful attack on
me where it’s Instant Death
after you change into a
normal pet turtle only
and with no more lives
left and no continues renaming
we both got: “GAME OVER”
Big Time!!! (Very True Story
Facts and yes he also had
“Turtles in Time” on SNES
same situation on that too
from back in The 90s’ only!)
However because we have
Emulators now and days,
I have both this one along
with “Turtles in Time” from
both The Arcade Version and
SNES Version also...!!!
Always great videos, especially when tmnt!
Always good to see a new SLX video!
It would be fantastic if they would release a TMNT COLLECTION of all the games from the arcade, sega megadrive, snes, gameboy, nes and maybe the turtles in time reshelled just like konami did with contra and castlevania. Licensing would be a pain but it would be a smash hit that would be huge seller. Come on nickelodeon whatda say?
Nickelodeon is too busy killing the franchise with ridiculous looking animation, and Michael Bay is sticking the knife in from the other way with the terrible movies.
Another great video! Now I feel lousy for passing by the Genesis version, and will definitely be giving it a fair shake via emulation.
Too bad the excessive TH-cam ads have made it tough to enjoy anything on this platform...
Absolutely the best sounding "Sewer Surfin" of them all.
Agree
Yes!!!!!
This is a very good version of Turtles in Time, I rented this a lot as a kid
This is a great Konami game and I love it. This along with Castlevania are some of the best Genesis games they ever made. You've made some excellent points and I hope more people come around to seeing the beauty of this game.
Genesis game has good gameplay, graphics, and sound. But it was lack luster in my opinion. Boss battles lacked variety, and the stages felt repetitive. The early boss battles should have had more to them like the SNES and arcade game. Also, I would have also put elements from the 1st arcade game into the Genesis game to give it more variety and nostalgia.
I loved this version me and my brothers grew up playing it. When I played the SNES version I like that it sounded prettier and the scaling of the foot soldiers toward the screen looked really cool but I hated that it moved slower. But yeah love this freakin game.
This makes me very nostalgic, being a game I got for Christmas 1993. The three button control system (variation e) raises it above the SNES imo
What I love about Hyperstone Heist is that the boss AI seems to be smarter than TMNT IV's, and the play control is much tighter. You can run and dodge more deliberately in HH.
Omg I played this game to death on my mega drive. So many memories. Over here in UK they called them hero turtles because ninjas at the time ment something violent for kids if remember right
Konami was a great company on Mega Drive. I miss that time. 🥺
I'm brazillian and I'm surprised it had another name here. My neighbour had the "Return of The Shredder" title and we played soooooo much. The game is not that hard, it is fast paced, beautiful and sounds amazing... It is one of my favorite mega drive games of all time
A dedicated dash button is the most useful but kind of broken tool in this game. Run, Jump, and Attack in rapid succession let you do this very quick slide that is very powerful.
konami was always good at segas sound chip. and the music too! especialy in 2nd stage called "Alleycat Blues" - very good one, and if find it on youtube and slowdown - you will heard real fine blues indeed! you can even heard same notes in TNMR, tiny toon, contraHC...
instruments sounds pretty clear
in tiny toon btw in forest stage you can hear an orkestr almost like mp3
The 18 Dislikes are from people named Casey Jones
Spent hours back in da day playing this game. Very well made.
I loved the Hyperstone Heist! I mean, you actually fight Tatsu! F’n TATSU - Shredder’s right-hand from the movies!
D Marc but he look like a random asian sprite they threw in from another game 🤷♂️
Snes fan here; you nailed this review.
TBH I never missed the off screen throw in Hyperstone Heist. First time it looks cool, but then you just forget about it and stick to the body slamming one.
And good thing the game plays better in this, tackling and throwing is way easier in this game, even though the overall game speed compensates that.
Also it's the first time I see someone likes playing with Don more than other turtles :p
Hyperstone Heist is a very good beat'em up on the Genesis. Yeah its more or less a version of Turtles of Time but still holds its own as a solid beat'em up and one of the GOOD Turtles games back in the 90's.
Definitely a personal favorite of mine on the Genesis. From my personal viewpoint of it, it's more or less a port of Turtles in Time, but a bit switched up. I will say the music here sounds a lot more Arcadey than the Super NES one.
The first game i played was the Arcade Turtles in Time (loved it, obviously), at home I had the genesis and i made it a priority to get Hyperstone Heist sometime in 93-94. I knew it was inferior to turtles IV SNES (oh, how i coveted the SNES...) but i had a Genesis for that entire generation so Hyperstone Heist was my jaaaammmmm. I love it. Even after getting Turtles IV much later, and playing it to death, comparing the two... IV is the better game, but i *love* the experience of Hyperstone. I love that it's faster and shorter, making it much more fun for short gaming sessions, and ensures you won't get bored playing it for 30 minutes with your buddy over drinks [I've had Turtles IV runs last around an hour and at that point we couldn't wait to move on]. I love the grittier look of the game thanks to Genesis graphics palette - feels more "mature" and right at home on the Genesis. Of course the sound is great and the gameplay feels faster too. One of my absolute favorite games of the generation to this day
Maaaan, I didn't knew about the Attack +Jump combo.😳
Also, in some parts of Europe, "Ninjas" and Nunchucks were a Big NO NO for the kiddies.
I loved the fact that Konami used to make different versions of the same game for the SNES and Genesis, like Tiny Toons, Contra, Castlevania and TMNT, that way you could have different experiences in each console.
Oh, by the way, in Germany you couldn't have the word "ninja" in any media focused on children, that's way they have the "Hero" instead.
Indeed, if you own both consoles, you may as well get Konami games that were on both platforms, for both platforms as you pretty much got two different games each time.
Man this looks amazing. I wish I came across it back then. When I was a kid, I recall renting a TMNT game on Genesis and it wasnt very good. It was super hard and oddly short. And only single player. The first stage was in a cave or something like that. Ive never been able find out what game that was. Have you ever heard of something like that?
The only other Tmnt game on genesis was tournament fighters which was a one on one fighting game. Unless it was that, you’re thinking of some other game.
@@Rountree1985 It definitely wasn't tournament fighters, as I was familiar with that one. Makes me wonder if it was a bootleg of some sort? I distinctly recall it was single player, as my friend and I would often play videogames together, but were disappointed that we couldn't.
I live in the UK I had the PAL version there was another difference in the options menu there was 2 different colour palettes for the turtles themselves one closer to the comic which I don't think had really taken off in the UK at the time
And the other colour palette the default which was based on the cartoon series
I preferred the comic book version because the colours were more vibrant if I remember correctly
I liked Hyperstone Heist, the only issue I had with it was that many stages ended without even fighting a boss and then bosses were reused for some other stages which was odd. Had they just added a different boss per stage this game would have been phenominal
I need to get my brother so we can play this one
Astro City Mini!
That’s all I can think about right now.
I missed the pre-order. Hoping they produce more in the near future