Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles NES Pulled from Virtual Console

Well that sucks, and where the heck is Turtles in Time?

I personally love this game. /hugs his cart

Bummer, dude...

Always had a soft spot for this game due to nostalgia. Never could get through the last level though.

After being on the VC service for years, can't say it's a big loss to have it dropped. Anyone interested in buying probably did a long time ago.

"But, as our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles review explains, it's no great loss."

Anytime a game is taken of the VC its a great loss. Especially with the fact the VC is shrinking instead of growing. And truth be told I think the game is not that bad.

The game is still listed on NIntendo's VC website. I wonder why they have not removed it.

I had this game when I was a kid. I never beat it. I actually sort of hated it.

Despite the difficulty of this game, I still enjoy it but c'mon why remove the game from VC, this is worst than UbiSoft remaking Turtles in Time. I rather enjoy this game over that remake.

It is a great loss. It's the most difficult game I ever played, and something everyone should experience.

I made it inside the Technodrome a few times, but could never beat it. Has anyone here ever made it all the way through?

Any disappearance of the Turtles is a HUGE loss!

I was completely addicted to this when I was little, and could beat Shredder on a semi-consistent basis. (I had to use Don and time the strikes perfectly, since giving Shredder ANY room would result in him one-shotting you into a regular turtle.) Loved the difficulty and the soundtrack.

I loved that game and was going to get it. Thats horrible!

RIP Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I loved that game when I was a kid! I was thinking about getting it within the next couple of weeks! Maybe from a 20-something critic's cynical 2012 point of view it's no great loss, but the Turtles need to stay! It's not like the Wii VC is in great shape anyway. Here's hoping they bring it back after the 2012 TMNT cartoon premiers later this year.

EDIT: For the record, I DID download it previously. However several years and one Wii later I was going to have to re-download it because Nintendo hasn't bothered to let people have individual accounts until, well, the near future.

If people haven't downloaded it by now, I'm sure there isn't going to be an outcry of angry gamers. If you have an NES, this game is readily available.

Yeah, the game is not good, but it would be nice to give a heads up.

Does this mean we're not getting the arcade ones, then?

@joevox: Unfortunately once a game is pulled from any service, it's gone for good and you can't redownload it.

I had a love hate relationship with this game. First 90% loved it, final 10% shouted WTF at it. But I've always loved TMNT2:TAG, TMNT3:TMP, TMNT4:TiT, and the arcade games better anyway. Too bad and oh well I say in the same breath.

I remember when I was in 2cd grade, my cousin loaned this to me, & my sibling, as his friend had either loaned it, or given it to him. I don't remember being able to beat it, but I could get to some warehouse. i was actually planning on maybe getting it, once I get points, for nostalgia. But, oh well, I suppose.

Edit: The co.s should give us heads-up, & enough of it, prior to game removal.

If you already own it, it won't be removed from your Wii, correct?

@Lordlz Not true, if you bought a game before it was removed from sale you can still redownload it.

Well-- disappointing!

The comment in the news article about 'no great loss' is missing the point. I appreciate NL's VC reviews and that they generally put the game in today's context. But surely a big draw, which every gamer will evaluate for himself, of the VC is nostalgia. This game was one of the few I had strong memories of playing when new and yes of throwing a controller in the under water level. It is/was worth six bucks to revisit some of those memories.

Moves like this and R Type have me very troubled about the possibility of transferring VC to WiiU!

I agree with J Newton. Not a huge loss.

@Mike1: @21
I was always under the impression that once you d/l it, you can always re-d/l it. It just wouldn't be available to those who never d/l'd it before, once it's removed. Ex. I can d/l the Metroid Prime 3 channel, even though it was taken from the public d/l list, since I d/l'd it before, while it was available publicly. Now, I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that the same concept applies to VC/WW as well.

I was actually thinking of buying this today. DARN IT!!!

Let me guess they are going too take our birthday next....

Hopes to see the rest of the series on the Virtual Console have died for my.

Anyone wanting to relive the NES game in particular should watch the Angry Video Game Nerd reviews. Just to see how how bad the game really is.

As much as I sometimes think the AVGN exaggerates for comedic effect, I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with every profane phrase that crosses his lips in that video. One of my favorites from his YouTube days :3

This is why I hate the digital format.

And the number of people affected by this — 4.

This was my first NES game, so when it came to VC i downloaded instantly. I´m afraid if i lost this game if i transfer this game to the Wii U

Picture caption is win.

It's always a pity when titles get removed, even if I didn't have plans to download it!

I love this game, I played the heck out of it when i was a kid and have since shared it with my wife and kids since, Compared to the arcade game or better yet the manhatten project the game isnt great but it is still a good challenge.

Jeez the VC needs MORE titles not Less

I also had a love hate relationship with this thing. It is sad to see it go. It's the first of the Turtle games and for it's time pretty varied and cool, but damn it was hard. I loved it and wanted to finish it so bad thinking "If I just time each part right then one day..." Never happened, but I learned to sling profanity from it like I just rolled off a battlefield. I can see it being a competitive game like Donkey Kong or Tetris and the world champion being someone who can just finish the damn thing. Is it possible?
My middle name is Raphael (not kidding), and oh what an embarrassment that was. Playing with him was like a T-rex trying to brush his own teeth.

And who will give my points back???

@cheluitte: You don't need to get points back if you already bought the game. No one is going to delete it from you.

This is the second title pulled from the North American Virtual Console. Lovely.

Regardless, this is considered to be the worst of the TMNT games anyway.

im glad i have this game before it got taken off then. even tho its insanely hard to play. i wish the others were included tho

I think this was better than the other Turtles games. It actually had variety in it's gameplay and wasn't just another generic scrolling beat 'em up.
Shame it's gone, but I already have it on my NES so...

Wauggh! Shell-shocked!

Now as well as not giving us any VC games, they're taking them away!!! WHY, NINTENDO, WHY?!?!?!

I wish they would give us some kind of warning. If somebody had told me it was being pulled, I probably would have bought it first.

@42: Sorry dude. It doesn't work that way. This is one of the downsides of digital formats

I am waiting for TMNT III !!!! : /

The game is terrible, but I have the NES cart here, since I'm a great TMNT fan. Sad news, indeed.

Gah! This is the problem with digital formats. There's no reason that
A) these games shouldn't stay available until at least the transition to a new console and
B) Nintendo and Konami couldn't give us a heads-up before it disappears.

The advantage to physical games is that even when they go out of print, you can still find a copy on the secondary market.

We were all surprised that the game, being licensed, was even on the VC anyway.

For all those upset about the VC service and Nintendo not releasing games anymore, just remember that VC in Japan is still fairly active, and still releases games nearly every week. So if you're going to be mad, complain to NoA (not at much NoE, since they've been getting a few recently).

I happened to love this game (despite MANY flaws) and NoA really needs to release..........SOMETHING! ><

Is it still possible to redownload it if you purchased it previously? I never bought it, but I'm just curious.

Someone said all the turtles games were pulled from Xbox Live? Have all TMNT games been pulled from ALL services? I also downloaded the Turtles in Time arcade demo (or something like that) on PSN network; it's basically the old SNES beat 'em up game with HD graphics. I wonder if that's still up? Me and my friend actually beat the first stage, which is sadly all that's there (it's the demo version anyway).

I loaded the Turtles in Time Demo on my PS3, clicked the "Unlock Full Game" icon, and the PSN shop gave me an error message "content not found". I did a search for "Turtles," and one result came up, which was not TMNT related, so all TMNT content is officially gone from PSN as well...

Ironically, the Turtles in Time demo is still available to redownload in PSN, but your mileage in the Wii shop will likely vary.

Great now I'll have to go buy a nes with tmnt or wait for the rumored wii u version

I only just got my Wii. (November 2011)
I just hooked it up to the Internet today...
I get paid this coming week... I never had this game growing up...
This makes me sad...

It's Nick Cannon's fault.

Good thing I got this game when I had the chance. Now if only I could get past level 2....

I actually had it downloaded! My roommate wanted to get it and downloaded it awhile back!

So all downloadable TMNT games across all platforms are vaporware now? I wonder if there are any existing retail games getting discontinued as well? At least retail discs and game carts don't expire (not yet). My friend and I beat the crap out of TMNT 1 on my NES toaster using a Game Genie years ago. It took like over 3 hours to finish the game, and I still had only one turtle left (Donatelo) when I defeated Shredder (yes, even with a Game Genie, it was still uber hard to beat with the infinite health code [zero damage from the enemies], because if you enabled the second health code making you also immune to seaweed/electricity, the game will get stuck in later levels if/when you touch fire and you'd be forced to RESET and start over). The ending was lame and kind of a let down, but my friend and I still regretted not using the VCR to record the entire ordeal.

It was too popular and was taking sales away from inferior games such as SMB3.

Nintendo, please consider putting Gamecube games on the Wii U console and no more taking games off the VC.

@Tasuki: It is quite definitely vaporware if a downloadable software / game was never in physical form to begin with and is impossible to obtain legally.

Okay, I just looked up the definition of "Vaporware." I believe the definition of the term I meant to use was "Abandonware."

@Tasuki Perhaps not the actual cartridge, but the "Turtles in Time" and other HD remakes on PSN and XBLA would definitely fit the category of abandonware.

if you have previously downloaded tmnt on vc and it is not stored on your wii. go to the wii shop and click on downloaded titles. It will still be there for you to download back onto the wii as you already own it. However, if you never got round to downloading it when it was available it is now gone. No doubt once the nickelodeon licence is sorted we'll see it back with hopefully 2, 3, 4 and tournament fighters to purchase. Well, fingers crossed.

@motang Yeah i agree it does suck but there are still alot of other crappy games that should be removed.

I'd love to have this for my 3DS but I guess an emulator will suffice. Their loss in $.