Retro Game Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist

Players: 2

Co-op: Yes

Genre: Action-Adventure/Beat ‘Em Up

Release Date: 12/11/1992

ESRB Rating: E

Developer: Konami

Publisher: Konami

Platform Reviewed On: GPD XD (RetroArch Core: Genesis Plus GX )

Additional Platforms: Sega Genesis/Mega Drive

Initial Thoughts: In my youth I thought I had played every Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game growing up. But since I was on team Nintendo (and later Super Nintendo) I forgot about their real competition back then. That competition being Sega. I didn’t find out until years later that there was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive not called Tournament Fighters. That game being The Hyperstone Heist. So I was very curious about this game. For years I had heard that it was the cousin to Turtles In Time. I guess that is a fair analogy but I feel that this game is it’s own even if it uses elements from other games in the series.

Description: So the game starts out similar to Turtles In Time. The Turtles are watching April O’Neil on TV do report in front of the Statue Of Liberty. But instead of Krang coming out of nowhere and stealing the statue it mysteriously disappears along with Manhattan starting to shrink. Then you see Shredder on the TV ranting and raving like he always does then your adventure starts. He has this Hyperstone device that is bad news for the rest of New York if the Turtles don’t do anything about. So like any turtles video game you have your choice of four characters. Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Ralphael. Once you are ready it’s off to the races. The levels are broken up into scenes. The scenes have three parts and after you complete the final part of the scene you fight the scene boss. For example for scene 1 you start in the sewer, then you are on the streets/alley, then you are back in the sewer. Then after you complete that you square off against Leatherhead. So you repeat that same process going through different scenes and then facing the boss. So there are 3 scenes (or nine levels). After you complete that you go through a gauntlet of bosses you have already defeated (Leatherhead, Rocksteady, and Tatsu). Then you fight Baxter Stockman in his human which is very similar to the way you fought him in Turtles II (for those who have played that game). Then you fight Krang and then lastly Shredder. Going through each scene you encounter mostly foot soldiers. You fight them, you beat them and they explode. You also come across other enemies too such as rock soldiers, mousers, and pizza monsters. You collect pizza that can be found throughout your adventure to fill up your life. You can play up to five rest and five continues. If you get 100 points that gives you can extra rest. once you are all out of rests you use a continue. Once all of your continues are used it’s end of the line and game over. It can get a bit complicated if you are playing alone later into the game. I would suggest definitely playing with a friend.

Music: The music is nothing special in my opinion. Here’s a link to the music that is the game.

Final Thoughts: I thought that this game could’ve had more bosses in my opinion. I mean only six bosses total overall. Yeah it feels like a watered down version of Turtles In Time. I thought it was a bit weird how they had Rocksteady but no Bebop. I thought it was a bit unique how Tatsu was in the game however. But no Tokka, Rahzar, Slash, Metalhead, and Rat King? Yeah Konami I feel could’ve added a bit more bosses into the game. I also thought that it was a bit weird how you fought Rocksteady in the game. It was the same way you fought him in Turtles II. I also think that it’s a bit weird you have to go through three parts of each scene/stage before fighting a boss. I feel they could’ve been more creative with that boss fight. All in all if you had a Sega Genesis/Mega Drive back in the day and was a big fan of the Turtles this was a must own for that console. Especially if you had a friend to play you would be in for a  good time.

My Score: I give this game a 7/10. If you have someone to play with and want to play a beat ’em up for the Genesis/Mega Drive I would say definitely go for it. But if you want to play a classic Turtles beat ’em game up by yourself I wouldn’t recommend this game. You would have a much better time playing Turtles In Time for either the Arcade or SNES.

Video Gameplay Footage: I played this game on GPD XD. So I don’t have any gameplay footage to share with you at this time. I hope to add some soon so keep checking back.