Game Review: TMNT (1987!)

Hi folks,

A couple of weeks ago my wife discovered this gem in her parents garage, in fantastic condition. It is her copy of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Pizza Power board game and our collective hearts did flip-flops when we found it. Both of us were big TMNT fans "back in the day" and have even imparted some of this half-shell love onto our children. After finally tucking them away for the night we cracked open the box for a gaming hit of nostalgia.

The point of the game is to collect four different "good guy" cards and beat four different "bad guys", then make your way to the Technodrome for a final showdown. You spend good guy cards to get a chance to fight bad guys, and use a "flipper" to determine the outcome of the battle. This final gaming mechanic is a supposed to "inject an element of skill" for "fast paced action." In reality, it is as frustrating as balls. Honestly, we had to laugh because otherwise we would cry.

Wifey takes a krak at the "Battle Flipper". It is a gaming torture device.

Early on we found it almost impossible to beat any bad guys, until we started to get the hang of the flipper. You need to catapult the dice into the correct section of the flipper, which corresponds with the level of the enemy, in order to beat them. Getting a three was easy, one was hard and two was utterly beyond me until later in the game. Then all I could get was twos and I sat in the middle of the board for half an hour unable to close out the match.

My nemesis, Krang, required a two to beat. Looks like it's punks for breakfast again...

Eventually, though, my bodacity won out. In the final battle I had to flip one of each number on the flipper consecutively, which took me ages to do. It gave wifey plenty of time to catch up and we were both in terrible pain from laughing at my ineptitude. By shear luck I managed to flip what I needed to win, and we packed the game away for another 20 years. Let's hope the kids never find it...

Raphael is victorious... eventually, due to no skill of his own and with many tears of frustration/hilarity.

Next post I'll do a short review of a cool little game we have been playing called Xia, which I think has a lot of potential. It is dorky in a very charming way, with a dash of resource management, character progression and space combat.

See you across the table,

M4cr0