TMNT Radical Rescue (Metroidvania before Metroidvania!)
50TMNT III Radical Rescue is a game that I didn't even know existed until about 6 months ago. That was pretty surprising! It's also a Metroidvania game on the original Game Boy before Metroidvania was even a thing! That's was also surprising! Seriously this is a Metroid type game made by Konami before Konami made Castlevania Symphony of the Night! We always associate games that play like Metroid but aren't Metroid as Metroidvania games but really they're Turtleroids? Something like that I guess.
The game is super ambitious for an OG Game Boy game. It seriously feels like a generational gap compared to the original two games on the system. The graphics and music are top notch as you would expect from Konami and the map is huge. It's actually confusing and I found myself getting lost and going in circles time and time again! The game has a built in map but I didn't find it to be that helpful because I don't know where I'm supposed to be going and the map doesn't tell you what anything is! The game requires a lot of time to memorize the map and it doesn't help that when you die you start back at the start of the game every time! Boss fights are harder than the previous games too. This wouldn't be a huge deal if you had more lives or unlimited continues. Granted there is a password system. I didn't actually notice any passwords but apparently there are. I just wasn't paying enough attention I suppose. The passwords are like continue points in that you will always start at the beginning of the game just whatever turtles (and Splinter, April) you've unlocked will be "saved" from that password.
The game is definitely challenging and I can only imagine playing it as a kid in 1993 without the internet and probably without even a strategy guide. It takes hours to learn the map. I've played the game for about 1.5 hours and I haven't seen it all. Hard as it might be I still like the game. Bang for buck it gives you a lot of content for the money I can't argue with that. Compared to the first game that can be beat in like 20 minutes on your first play-through this one will require many hours.
If you're a fan of Metroidvania games you absolutely need to check this one out!