STOCKTON, Calif. — A local man shattered all of the bones in both of his thumbs while attempting a complicated series of moves in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game, sources familiar with the accident confirm.
“I have to admit, it was hubris,” said Jared Curtis, who agreed to give an interview from his hospital bed. “I saw my nephew and his buddies playing the Tony Hawk remake while I was visiting my sister. I used to mess around on the old sticks back in the PS2 era, so I thought I could jump right back in. I used to be able to string together huge combos like it was nothing. This time, I started button mashing on my first ollie and totally wiped out.”
Curtis’s nephew, Keith Webster, provided context regarding the lead up to the incident.
“He saw me and my friends playing Tony Hawk and was clearly trying to big-time us,” said Webster, 17. “He kept talking about how he grew up with the games and could get the Sick Score on School II in his sleep. We offered him a controller a few times, but he said no. I guess what happened is kind of our fault, because eventually my friend Brian was like, ‘It makes sense that you don’t want to try it. I bet they didn’t have reverts in your day.’ That sent Jared right over the edge.”
Ben Slater, a semi-professional pro skater player who won several regional tournaments when he was younger, said that people of all ages can enjoy the game by taking the right precautions.
“I’m in my 30s as well, and I still play every day without worrying about injuries,” said Slater, who had Goldfinger’s Superman playing on a loop in the background. “You might need to stretch a little longer before you start, or take a bit longer to fill up the old special meter, but you can still hit combos. As long as you accept the fact that you’re not going to be able to keep up with the kids in a game of H-O-R-S-E, then you should be able to play the game well into your fifties — maybe even older.”
At press time, a video of Curtis’s accident had been posted to TikTok and has received over 5 million views.
This game is an absolute gem, and could really be a little breakout hit if it ever comes off of Apple Arcade and hits Steam or consoles or something. I played the hell out of this when came out earlier this year, but not because it’s anything like Turtles in Time. In fact, they’re straight-up doing Hades here. But honestly, Ninja-Turtles-as-Hades is a blast. Download this on an iPad and sync a controller up and watch the hours disappear. Then impress your friends by knowing about this weird Ninja Turtle game no one has heard of but is totally real, I swear to god.
While surprisingly deep and not a total failure, Out of the Shadows feels like the Turtles doing Arkham style combat more than the straightforward brawling their games became beloved for. Still, like Splintered Fate, it can be kind of fun when the dudes take on a different style of game once in a while. Hell, there’s dozens of them, they don’t all have to be Turtles in Time. I guess. 
This game does a whole bunch of shit, and almost none of it is like Turtles in Time. If you want to be optimistic, you could say this game is ambitious and tries a lot of stuff. If you want to be realistic, then you know that it fails at most of it. The underwater segment rightfully has a reputation for being overly difficult, but even if you beat that there’s a bunch of van shit where you drive the van around and deal with increasingly confusing and unfair enemies and levels. In short, it’s all kinda bogus, whereas Turtles in Time is majorly righteous.
This fighting game deserves credit for not just going through the motions and banging out yet another brawler, but that credit isn’t anything that can be applied to this list, pal. Mutant Melee brings to mind Power Stone, TMNT Tournament Fighters, hell, even that 
This is another one of those more modern ones that is kind of fine, but feels like a bunch of other games more than it does Turtles in Time. While the sense of humor and hack-and-slash gameplay harken back to classic Turtles games, the fact that there’s just way too much shit everywhere at all times will remind you that this game definitely came out in 2016. Also, despite so much going on, all the levels are kind of same-y, something you’d have to be a real shithead to say about Turtles in Time.
This fighting game on the Wii had you use the system’s signature motion controls to try and defeat your opponent. I’m sorry, but flailing around and pretending I’m a Ninja Turtle in the living room while my mother asks me if everything is okay down there is behavior reserved for a) before I’ve gotten to rent Turtles in Time and b) after I’ve gotten my copy of Turtles in Time confiscated and I’m all worked up about it. That stuff isn’t for when you are actually playing.
This fantastic game is a little slept on, maybe because it’s largely assumed to be a generic third entry in a brawler series. It’s actually kind of a Metroidvania, though! I find it to be a really refreshing change of pace from all of the other first wave Turtles games. I also like the way there’s a story here that has you start as Michelangelo and find your brothers. It just feels more specific than the generic stories most of these games have. You know what, though? None of these things I’m talking about happen in Turtles in Time. Sorry, Radical Rescue, but that’s going to cost you.
Did you know about the Danger of the Ooze? I didn’t! As a kid, I remember the second movie was called The Secret of the Ooze, but you know what? I watched that movie two dozen times, and I don’t know what secret about the ooze they supposedly figure out. What, that a company called TGRI made the ooze? I don’t know. Is that a huge deal? I figured someone made it. So, it was a company called TGRI. Ooh, call the President! Also, I thought the ooze made the turtles smart, right? Why did it make Tokka and Rahzar think Shredder was their mom? And then it makes Super Shredder so dumb he knocks a damn patio down onto himself? I think the secret of the ooze is that Shredder watered that last batch down. That’s what I think. Anyway, this one is actually another Ninja Turtles Metroidvania! It could be better, but it’s definitely a fun twist on the classic Turtles game. Not very much like Turtles in Time though, when you think about it. 
Considering it’s the fellas’ 1990 Game Boy debut, Fall of the Foot Clan is a bit of a surprise. The music and graphics are all pretty good for the system, and best of all, it’s straight forward enough that a Turtles in Time fan on a car ride could’ve had a pretty good time with this game. What’s kind of weird about it, however, is the way you stop to play a minigame every couple of minutes. I get that there’s not a ton of levels and they were padding out the length, but I don’t think stopping to play Splinter in three-card monte adds anything to this TMNT experience.
This is actually a nice step back towards Turtlesintimeness for the franchise after several years spent chasing down other inspirations. It’s all in the new-fangled Nickelodeon style, so be ready for that, but as far as straightforward beating up the Foot clan with great co-op goes, this particular version of a game called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ain’t bad at all. No time travel, though. It’s all just sewers and subway stations and whatnot. Boo. 
This is a great collection, and is like 15 percent Turtles in Time. Not bad!
This game literally is Turtles in Time on some technical level, but this remastered version came back different and wrong. Did you see that movie Annihilation? This game is Oscar Isaac, all dead-eyed and not the man Natalie Portman married. Man, they should’ve made an Annihilation brawler game. That would have been tight. Anyway, this remaster felt off and they left some of the best parts out of it.
You know, if you’re just emulating whatever old games you play, you’d think trying the PS2 or GameCube versions of this game would be the way to go, but you’d actually be wrong. There’s nothing wrong with those versions, but check out the GBA for some true classic SNES-looking turtle action. It actually does some things that I thought Shredder’s Revenge came up with, like giving each Turtle their own progression. I had no idea! There’s so many of these games, though. You can totally miss a few. There’s 25 damn Turtles games on this list and inevitably someone is going to leave a comment pointing out some that I missed, like some mobile game no one on earth gave a shit about. Come on, there’s no way you like TMNT: Portal Power. You just want to give me the business.
This is from the same era, so the graphics certainly remind me of Turtles in Time. It’s a completely different genre, but I don’t think I’m going to dock this fighting games as much as you might think I should. It’s like Turtles in Time in a way, except of getting along everybody’s fighting. I’ll take it!
A little more polished than the previous Game Boy entry, this one checks a lot more Turtles in Time boxes. The levels are much more detailed, the opening movie absolutely rips, and when a turtle goes into a sewer, they ask who has turned out the lights. There’s a lot to love in this Game Boy cart if you have an unhealthy obsession with a single entry in the franchise that came out several months before this one. I know I do!
The console versions of this game feel more like every 3D platform/action game that came out around this time than a classic Turtles game. It’s fun enough if you’re into that sort of thing. Oh, and the training level has you on some feudal Japanese style stuff. You’re a Turtle in Time for a second! It ain’t much, but it’s something. Also, ALSO, the big thing here is the GBA version was an entirely different game, an incredible classic Turtles experience, and even features some of the same programmers and artists that went on to make Shredder’s Revenge, a game that you’ll be reading about several ad impressions from now!
Honestly kind of an overlooked Ninja Turtles game. It doesn’t look as pretty as Turtles in Time, and you stay in the present the entire time like a bunch of assholes, but this is the best Turtles game on the NES and possibly a classic-style Turtles game you haven’t checked out before. There’s no time travel, but the level variety is nice and the Technodrome stuff is really cool. Just remember that it’s an NES game though, and sometimes it’s gonna chug and slow down like a lawn mower going over a patch of high grass.
Much like Sonic Mania and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, Shredder’s Revenge takes a classic style of game everyone loved and made it play like you remembered it playing. Shredder’s Revenge gives nods to many other Turtles games of the past, but has Turtles in Time in its mutated DNA. I personally love the depth added here, but if you really want the tried and true Turtles in Time style, you could argue that the added combos, secrets, DLC, and so forth add a layer of bloat to a perfectly simple formula. I’d get what you meant, but man, at the end of the day this game is Turtles in Time and then some. To me, it’s the best Turtles game ever made. Although to be fair, it isn’t at the top of the list, because it isn’t Turtles in Time. That’s what we’re doing here. 
This arcade classic (also ported to the NES as TMNT II) is the predecessor to Turtles in Time, and therefore a monumental addition to this list. If Turtles in Time never happened, it’s likely I’d be spending my afternoon comparing the subsequent Turtles games to this stone cold classic, but as it stands, they perfected this near-perfect game a few years later, by adding dinosaurs and lasers and shit. Still though, one of the all-time greats right here. Just maybe not enough lasers and dinosaurs. 
This game is SO MUCH like Turtles in Time! For years I thought this was some full blown other Turtles game I’d missed out on. Then years later I discovered it’s cobbled together from about 75% Turtles in Time parts. Whole levels and shit! If it wasn’t for Turtles in Time, this would be the Turtles game most like Turtles in Time. Whoa. Shellshocked! 
Well, here it is. The whole deal. I don’t really know what to say here. Hey, did you scroll all the way to the bottom to see if this was number one? That’s sort of strange. I don’t know what you expected. Anyways, this game is pretty good! 
