Mutants Unleashed makes fun of the infamous 80s NES game.

Key Takeaways

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is currently known for delivering good video games, but that wasn't always the case.
NES TMNT games are notorious for difficulty spikes, strange level design, and imbalance between turtles.
One of the side quests in Mutants Unleashed has an entire scene dedicated to making the game fun through stand-ins called Sushi Sharks.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed has an entire scene dedicated to making loving fun of the infamous NES TMNT game from 1989.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had their fair share of iconic video games over the years, like Turtles in Time, Tournament Fighters, and more recently Shredder's Revenge, but they've had a few stints as well. Out of the Shadows and Re-Shelled immediately come to mind as notable disappointments, but the worst of them all is the NE games from the 80s.

Mikey from the game TMNT Mutants Unleashed.

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I didn't know what to expect from Mutants Unleashed, but I certainly didn't expect it to be a mix of the PS2 games of TMNT and Persona.

Annoyingly called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the game has been known over the years for frustrating difficulty spikes, odd level design, and a complete lack of balance between the four turtles. TMNT's infamous introduction to console gaming is such a punching bag for the series that even the latest Turtles game, Mutants Unleashed, can't help but make a few endearing jokes at its expense.

Mutants Unleashed is a fun take on '80s NES games.

Master Spinter makes fun of the 80s TMNT games in Mutants Unleashed.

One of the most interesting things about Mutants Unleashed is that you can gain incredible influence from your Personas, and improve your Turtles' abilities by hanging out with certain people between missions. Each Turtle has other friends that you can visit to progress the quest line, and Mikey's revolves around a young podcaster named Volvy.

At some point in Mikey and Volvy's Link Quest, the two decide to start a gaming channel and invite Master Splinter on the show so he can show how he “mastered” the old-school Sushi Sharks tie-in. Of course, this is a replacement for TMNT on the NES, and Mutants Unleashed makes fun of everything that was wrong with that infamous game.

Mutants Unleashed also suggests that the Turtles call Splinter “Master” because of how good he is at playing the game of Sushi Sharks, which is interesting knowledge that I hope is carried over to the second film as well.

While Splinter is speedrunning Sushi Sharks, he mentions the terrifying electric seaweed in the Dam level and says the only way to get through it is to sacrifice Doug, the worst shark with a useless weapon, making Raph the worst turtle on the NES. I definitely nod my head to that point. game. Volvy also teases how weird the level design is, pointing out that it doesn't make sense for the “spinning spikes” to be in the tank.

The entire scene is full of similar jabs and nods to the Ninja Turtles' incredibly gritty first game, and aside from certainly being a lot of affection aside from jokes, it shows just how far the Turtles have come in the gaming world. At least Doug isn't as bad in modern Sushi Sharks games as he was in the first game.