Turtle Power!

I don't remember when exactly I first got Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game for my old Nintendo. I'd guess not long after it was released. I was a big enough Turtle fan back then I could see myself demanding that for Christmas. Or my birthday. Both of those were common times for new arrivals to the game collection.

Until earlier this week, I had never managed to beat the game. I reached the final battle once, but I couldn't make it through. Which, oddly enough for someone as competitive as myself, did not sour me on the game. I guess I like jump-kicking hundreds of ninja robots. At any rate, one of my coworkers purchased an old NES and several games, including Turtles 2, and I managed to beat it one the third try. In the same fashion as I did Genji: Dawn of the Samurai and Rygar: The Legendary Adventures, I was down to my last bit of health and out of continues when I did so.

This time it didn't diminish my upbeat feeling of victory like it did for those two games. I'd guess that's because Turtles 2 is an older game, and I expect older games to be less forgiving. There are no save points where I could stop and come back later, or restart from if I die (though there were three continues, and I needed all of them). Having three coworkers cheering me on probably didn't hurt the mood either.