Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Sega Genesis)
Ever wonder what Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro and other popular magazines thought of your favorite 8-, 16- and 32-bit games? Now you can find out, thanks to Review Crew! This is the only show on the internet that is willing to go back in time to find out what old school critics thought of retro games at the time. Did they pan your favorite game? Did they love something terrible? Find out every week as Defunct Games presents Review Crew!
With a brand new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in theaters, we thought it would be fun to take a trip back in time and see what critics thought of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist. Did everybody love Konami's first Genesis game, or did they feel it was just another retread? We dig through old issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, Mega Play, Mean Machines and Sega Force for the answers.
(NOTE: Although we occasionally cut for length, no other edits are made to the review. Defunct Games does not change any of the wording, grammar or punctuation use. Also keep in mind that our score is the average of all critics at the time, not just the sample that is reprinted on this page. If you still have more questions, I recommend you check out the
Review Crew FAQ, where we address the review guidelines, converting scores, magazine covers and more.)
GAMEPRO (January 1993)
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist brings excellent arcade-quality graphics, sound, and game play to your home unit. The variety of options guarantees fun and challenge for gamers of all ages and abilities. Although the story line and objectives are simple, there re plenty of moves and challenges to make you spin in your shell. The Turtles make a big splash for Konami in their Genesis debut!" -N. Somniac
(4.5 out of 5)
MEGA PLAY (April 1993)
"The Turtles have always been in good games and this one is no exception! There is plenty of action for two players but the difficulty was a little easy. A fun game nonetheless." -Dave
(88% out of 100%)
MEAN MACHINES (The Essential Sega Guide)
"The Hyperstone Heist is the first venture into the world of Sega gaming for the teenage turtles. Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo are called on to halt the plans of The Shredder, a dreadful being who has just arrived from Dimension X, with his Hyperstone machine. There are too many continues and too much life-restoring pizza scattered about. A shame, as Turtles could have been a classic." -Jaz
(83% out of 100%)
SEGA FORCE #17
"A lot of companies might be worried about their first MD release but Konami can rest easy! TMNT is a brilliant game based on a cool arcade classic. You can't have all four shell-heads onscreen at the same time but the action's still red hot. If the rest of Konami's releases are this good, they're gonna be producing MD game for a long time to come!" -Mat
(81% out of 100%)
ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY #42
"This game plays like a Genesis version of the Turtles game we reviewed a few issues ago on the Super NES. Although the game play is good and the levels are long, the two conspire to make this effort repetitive even on the easier settings. I have nothing against the execution - it's a great game - I just wanted diversity." -Steve Harris
(8 out of 10)
MEGA PLAY (April 1993)
"This is good for all-out fighting, but the game ends much too quickly. The raspy voice should have been left out. The graphics shine on the Genesis, and overall it's a good game." -G.O.G.
(80% out of 100%)
SEGA FORCE #17
"The pizza-eating reptiles are back, with the same moves, same costumes and same enemies -- even the same locations (apart from a few cosmetic changes!). This is their first time on the MD but their second adventure, and if you compare it to the arcade game (their first outing), it's almost exactly the same. The MD version of Turtles is like Golden Axe 2 -- ie, totally unoriginal but good fun all the same." -Paul
(79% out of 100%)
ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY #42
"Bad call, Enix. Actraiser 2 is a real letdown, and you'd be better off reading a Michael Moorcock novel whilst listening to Tristan Und Isolde. Am I alone in perceiving a marked down-turn in the quality of recent SNES games? Is it because the marketing people, not the innovators and designers, are now calling the shots?" -Zy Nicholson
(7 out of 10)
REVIEW CREW AVERAGE: 81% -
It's rare that every critic has the same complaint, but that appears to be the case with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist. No matter who they were or where they were from, every critic was miffed by this Genesis game's easy difficulty. "There are too many continues and too much life-restoring pizza scattered about," laments Mean Machines. "A shame, as Turtles could have been a classic."
When not bitching about the easy difficulty, these critics complained that many of the levels feel like they were ripped out of other Turtles outings. Sega Force summed it up perfectly: "The same moves, same costumes and same enemies -- even the same locations (apart from a few cosmetic changes!)." This was one of my biggest complaints
when I reviewed the game back in 2012.
Despite the critics having so many complaints, the scores suggest they ultimately liked The Hyperstone Heist. Only one magazine dipped as low as 70%, and GamePro went as high as 4.5 out of 5. The game's average is 81%, which is much higher than expected. This is slightly higher than the
78% average of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, but lower than
Turtles In Time's 86% average. It's right in the middle.
ON MONDAY'S EPISODE:
Get ready for a bad case of whiplash, because we're about to switch gears and look at Sonic the Hedgehog. But not just any old Sonic the Hedgehog games, because next week is all about Sonic spin-offs. Tune in on Monday to see what the critics thought of Knuckles Chaotix on the Sega 32X. Trust me; you won't want to miss it.
Make sure and check out the
Review Crew archive for more old school reviews, and don't forget to tweet me
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