In the old days of the arcade, brawlers were a dime a dozen. Every company had a few under their belt, and they were all pretty much the same with a few variances between them. Among the crowded pack of games in the genre, the brawlers from Konami stood out above all the rest. Some brawlers looked nicer with more detailed sprites, and others had more complex attacks and available moves. Still, it didn't matter. Konami's games had two things on their side that nobody else bothered to include: 4-Player support, and brand recognition. Though they made several games based off the series, there is probably no brawler more beloved in Konami's library (and arguably any other) than the original arcade Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Based on the global-phenomenon of an animated series that was running in syndication, this game became 1989's highest selling cabinet. There were few arcades (or Pizza Huts) around the nation that didn't have one of these babies in their lineup, and for good reason. When you got four people together on one machine, you were bound to have a good time. And spend a lot of money.

In promotion of the new Turtles flick about to hit theatres, Ubisoft (current holders of the video game license) decided to partner with Konami (developers of the original arcade and console TMNT games) and put their egos aside in order to bring the beloved Arcade classic to the Xbox Live Arcade. It's also smart thinking because this title has been one of, if not the most requested Xbox Live Arcade Title by fans across the web. The question is: is this a faithful port, and does the game stand the test of time? The answers are "yes", and "maybe".

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been ported to home consoles twice before; once for the NES, and again as an unlockable extra in a last-gen console game from Konami TMNT: Battle Nexus. The NES port from eons ago was good for the ancient hardware, but now looks and sounds absolutely nothing like the arcade original in retrospect. The Battle Nexus port drew a lot of heat from fans thanks to licensing issues. The game's soundtrack (written by Mutsuhiko Izumi) was primarily a collection of remixes based on the classic TV series' theme song (which is also included on the title screen). Since Konami didn't see the game to have any long-term value, they only arranged for a temporary license to have access to that soundtrack owned by series' producer MWS/Fred Wolf Films. Seeing as the game was merely an unlockable in Battle Nexux, Konami decided it would be best to save cash and replace the classic licensed theme music and voice samples from the old series with generic "retro-ish" stand in fillers. This caused a dramatic backlash from the fanbase (the same treatment was later given to the game's beloved sequel Turtles in Time). Ubisoft fortunately realized that the game's late-80's style Ninja Turtle soundtrack is a big part of what gives the game that nostalgic feel, and forked up the cash to release the game intact.

Old arcade brawlers offer countless cheap deaths, but when they come home, they loose a lot of their luster. In the arcade, the difficulty stems from having to insert a quarter every time a boss cheaply kills off your character after two hits. If you choose to go it alone in this version, the game nets you an unlimited amount of continues to play the game. Every time you die, just hit continue. This takes away the sense of impending doom as you see that stack of quarters you have reserved dwindle away as you progress into the game. Fortunately, if you play on Xbox Live the sense of pressure is preserved as you are only allowed 20 continues ($5 in quarters). You can die online, and wind up leaving your fellow co-op players to fend for themselves. That helps to preserve the old feeling of wanting to play more conservatively and retains some of the difficulty value by placing you on a virtual budget, but $5 is still a hell of a lot less than you would have likely spent to beat the game by yourself in 1989.