Tap to unmute
Is this game IMPOSSIBLE?? | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [NES]
Embed
- Published on Mar 8, 2026
- Immaculate/Rancid Vibes
Click to SUBSCRIBE ► bit.ly/GrumpSub...
Support us on Patreon! ► / gamegrumps
*********************************************
MERCH!! ► gamegrumps.com/...
*********************************************
FACEBOOK ► / gamegrumps
INSTAGRAM ► / gamegrumps
TIKTOK ► / gamegrumps
TWITTER ► / gamegrumps
WEBSITE ► gamegrumps.com
Our email list! ► eepurl.com/cN7syX
*********************************************
Game Grumps is a comedy gaming show hosted by Arin Hanson and Dan Avidan. We publish daily episodes on Game Grumps, and weekly episodes on our live channel @TheGrumps!
Game Grumps is a game publisher. It's a touring act. But most importantly, it's a group of people excited about creating literally anything. We're always working on something new and exciting, and we can't wait for you to see what's next.
Arin ► / egoraptor
Danny ► / ninjasexparty
#tmnt #nes #impossiblegames 
Gaming
![How COULD you? | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/lpBXbkixbpc/mqdefault.jpg)
![How COULD you? | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [2]](/img/tr.png)
![Dan takes on JAWS for the NES [FULL PLAYTHROUGH]](/img/1.gif)
I love that Arin was infinitely more prepared for a spur of the moment TMNT NES playthrough than a much-teased Pokémon Nuzlocke run.
Procrastinators dilemma
I was going to comment similarly, I feel I can now forgive his sloppy Poke management since he's clearly been training for this instead lmao!
He kinda nailed it.
It’s crazy how good Arin is at hard games and how bad he is at easy games
@DashVandle Arin's aptitude for a game is inversely proportional to his confidence in his aptitude for that game
"It's torture, it's hell on Earth but it rules."
Yeah that's a lot of NES games lol.
Iron Tank: The Invasion of Normandy and Air Fortress destroyed little kid me.
Never could beat those games, but they were always fun to play.
Pivoting to a Nuzlocke with 4 Turtwigs? I'm down.
Being trained by master Knurttt
They can also add ratata and gardevoir
Turt-wigs*
@SheerSonic
Donatello is definitely tur-twig.
My father would always have to help me get past the sewer level, He passed last year.
Shout out to all the gaming dads/uncles/family members
I’m so sorry to hear that. I wish you and your family all my best.
I wrote the sewer but meant the Dam part, half awake from being sick. Love to you and yours!
How are you going to get past the sewer level now???
My pop didn't do jack. I was on my own. But he (Santa) did buy me the game for christmas. So that was cool. lol
Sad to hear, man. Hope you're doing okay.
My dad never did anything with us kids, but we had a gaming grandma. She was really badass and always helped us with unbeatable levels. Her favourite game was Sunset Riders
As the classic tweet goes, “Girl, are you the underwater level from TMNT NES because jfc are you f’n kidding me right now?!?”
What does jfc means,
sorry I'm internet illiterate,
@Husain5XG jfc is an acronym for “Jesus f?!%ing Christ”
@Husain5XG "jesus fuckin christ" lmao
About 3 people in the world would get this reference and I love it
Hey konami! Name two structures that hold water!
Well, dam.
I love your pfp btw.
Also, funny joke. I was just completely blindsided by finding another Hamtaro fan xD
@jooniperlynnhamtaro was one of my first tastes of anime. It was so cool when it was on cartoon Network!
Hamtaro, when we work together it’s much better, my best friend. lol that’s all I remember. Never really watched the anime but I did have a cute plushie as a kid. Honestly it’s probably still lying around somewhere.
@TheSaiderRiscam i remember the theme song, but not much else. I might have to see if the episodes are anywhere online.
Hamtaro hype let's goooooooo!
I have aged with this youtube channel at 40 l I really enjoy these nes long plays on a sunday afternoon when theres nothing going on
Same man. I'm cleaning the house, doing meal prep, and vibing with GGs, RLM, and MST3K.
Same
Here 💯👾
Absolute. My fandom with this channel coincides with the birth of my kids. It became a daily watch while I was on leave and it stuck.
Right behind ya! Got into this right around the time Dan was coming in, and I think it coincided with me wrapping up a trade degree program
I plan on reaching this milestone as long as my precious boys are still kickin'
"Snaaarff. Oh wait, Snarf was He-Man"
Another swing and and miss
true, he man had Orko
It's just like the famous GI Joe character, Scrappy Doo.
Thundercat noOooooo lol
I immediately shouted DAN YOURE SO STUPID HES FROM THUNDERCATA
He thought Dante Basco (Rufio and Zuko) was the same guy who was the pizza boy in Turtles 2
17:20 the moment i saw that gap i was reminded of AVGN. "you can just walk over it 🤬"
I was waiting for that moment too. I am replying before I see how Arin solves it, and I look forward to either rage, confusion, or "haha I knew all along, this is an AVGN reference."
Can you even jump over it? I feel like the ceiling cuts off the higher arc.
@Barracius if you haven't seen the newest AVGN (The Contra Force one) there's a callback to this about halfway through
I am glad they're sticking with the Nuzlocke, and that we get a short break! It's a win-win!
Arin is preparing by taking time to train under Waterfall and study the Leaf Blade.
Same. For how long it might take him, it makes sense to take breaks between inevitable losses
Hahaha I don't know how to explain it, but your comment feels like the GG pays you to say that hahaha it feels so... Corporate know what I mean? 😂
@vicentegeonixWhile it is convenient for someone to have their opinion AND for them to articulate it without emojis or typos, they aren't necessarily GG plants. It would be really funny if they WERE astroturfing the nuzlocke hiatus because then it would imply that we believe they actually read the comments on RUclips instead of, like, Patreon supporters or their Discord server.
I would need a break after a loss like that too
Bury my shell at wounded knee. 👍
Turtles in time was goated.
Is that a "we were all wounded at wounded knee," reference?
No in TMNT turtles in time there's a level called bury my shell at wounded knee
@stoodmuffinpersonal3144 I believe it is in reference to the original quote but made all turtle-y
@SuperEagle112 😁 There's nothing better than someone picking up on your niche/obscure reference.
I gave so many quarters to THAT game AND the Simpsons game from the same era. Classics.
This one, i played on the NES, but...eh...hm. yeah.
One of my crowning achievements in life was that I finally beat this game on original nes hardware a couple years ago.
Oh, hush. We all know you used a Game Genie.
@OneOfInfiniteMonkeys nope no game genie. Once you know how to cheese the game it's actually not that hard
Hell yeah man
Hahaha hell yeah !
Dang it, Dan! You had one job!
Snarf was from Thundercats! Orko was from He-Man!
You brought the wrath of the 80's cartoon nerds upon yourself!
Oh no, am I supposed to be worried about..
*hears a noise behind me and checks*
OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!
Wait isn't Dan from the 80s ? How tf did he get that wrong? Boys form an angry mob we're hunting Dan!
Danny should be afraid... OF THE WRATH OF KRAAAAANG! *Krang starts to grow...*
☝️🤓 Erm achkutally *snort* Snarf’s real name is, Osbert.
it was mentioned in episode 29 “Feliner Part 1”.
I rehquest you get that name right please or I shalth sendeth divine doxxing punishment for that post.
I literally just screamed this at the screen
I remember playing this game as a kid and also never finishing it
I spent so much time trying to beat it, 30+ years later....I still haven't done it.
Looks like they're using a team of Squirtle, Turtwig, Torkoal, and Tirtouga for this Nuzlocke. 😆
the confluence of retro games, long plays, and save states are really great for the good grumping vibes :D
It's so funny Danny mentions april's chest when that was also a thing that people noticed in one of the later NES games.
Me just now with a mouth full of food: "Snarf is from Thundercats, not He-Man, Dan!"
So did Shredder leave a VHS tape in the Turtles' VCR and rig it to play when they walked in? Coulda just wrote a note
I haven't watched grumps for years, but I was so happy when I heard Danny do that little bit about "m'dad"
everything blinking when too much is going on really takes me back to my childhood
I remember when i was first introduced to Homestar Runner.
I miss coming home after school and just going through Strongbad's emails
I'm crying
Events of our Existence has to be my favorite ad series on this channel
It might even usurp False Obama in my books…. Unlikely, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I love that your first instinct when Shredder spoke was to do the James Avery version of his voice.
Well this game is based on that TMNT
Tonight we dine on _turtle soup._
Uncle Phil is the best Shredder
I have never clicked on a Game Grumps video so fast, love this game
34:42 MADE ME SPIN AROUND AND GO "WHATDIDHESAYYYYYYYY!?" LOOOOL
LOL i had to run it back
I had this game as a child, but never beat it until late last year, off the Cowabunga Collection. And I had to use the in-game guide to do it. But with the guide I actually had a lot of playing it.
Same for me. That rewind function is the best lol
I’m glad they’re playing these hard games now with an emulator because if they played it on the NES it would’ve been like the Batman series where Arin turned off the game in a rage and they never beat it.
Yeah but Arin did Ninja Gaiden without one plus zelda cdi's. It's kind of a shame.
@OneArmedRetroGamer The difference is that games like the first Sunsoft Batman and the NES Ninja Gaiden trilogy (except for some of 3) are hard basically because of skill issues and/or level design, while the NES TMNT is hard because of janky programming and enemy spawn.
@apollolux I would contend that the 1st NG was worse with the spawn. But either way, this isn't 2014 Arin anymore and he's not in practice with crazy hard 8-bit/16-bit games, so save states are the right call. He's using them less, at least so far, than in dkc.
@OneArmedRetroGamer No argument there, Ninja Gaiden absolutely had terrible enemy spawning, but for the most part fundamentals like collision detection programming and platforming gameplay were still handled reasonably fine compared to TMNT. The parts of the games that someone could legitimately point to and say were the game being BS vs personal skill issue were more obvious and less insidious and the reason for it being BS was more obvious as well rather than simply bad/jank programming.
@apollolux Yeah, I think we're on the same page. Speaking of NG, though, I still maintain 3 is the "easiest." 2, with all the stage hazards, is a nightmare and I don't do well with respawns. I know 3 has limited continues and mind you, I haven't beat any of them but I get the farthest on 3.
Gonna try the trio sometime on my channel.
2:39 Snarf was from Thundercats, not He-Man.
Tbf everyone remembers them as practically the same show anyways with how similar they looked.
@XOLiD420 I differentiate them purely because I associate He-Man with his OG design but the Thundercats I associate with that 2012 reboot that lasted a season. That was my first exposure to TC.
To be fair, both cartoons (along with most '80s toy lines in general) had a goofy sidekick character that contrasted greatly from the rest of the cast.
@XOLiD420 No, nobody remembers them as anything close to the same show.
@OneOfInfiniteMonkeys us who grew up in the 90's and didn't really watch either show but saw clips literally thought they were
8:50 Arin, you're telling me you restrict pizza to dinner only?!
This is the first video game I ever saw as a kid. Not played, but saw. I was three and my uncle had it on his NES on top of his dresser. I remember it so vividly. This game was my introduction to gaming and I love to see it here.
Man, I remember playing this as a wee lad and getting so frustrated I couldn't get far at all despite loving the game.
This, both Zelda's, Mega Man 1 (possibly 2), Mario Duck Hunt, US Mario 2 and the best, Pro Wrestling, were my NES collection.
Hyperstone Heist for Genesis doesn't get enough love. I hope the fellas will play that one sometime.
Unpopular Opinion: I prefer Hyperstone Heist over SNES Turtles in Time.
It often gets overshadowed by the SNES Port for Turtles in Time.
41:12
Holy shit that yell was beautiful
You get a turtle rescue on at least two levels in the game.
There are continues, and you get all the turtles back when you use one.
Raph has the second highest attack, so despite the short range, he can be useful in the levels with right corridors.
You don't need the scrolls to beat the game (they do make it easier though). The part where you "need" them is the Technodrome fight, which is difficult but doable without them.
The most difficult part of the game is the level where you have to find the Technodrome and defeat it because the entrance is randomized.
You can share boomerangs between turtles by switching turtles after tossing them - they're a decent weapon and the stock doesn't go down unless you miss one on the return.
Sbassbear with new material after this episode 😁.
In 20 minutes Arin got further than I ever had
There was a Behind the Code video a few years ago that went through the water level and why it sucks. It's a combination of bad hit boxes and bugs with the current / movement controls that make it a lot worse than it would be by design alone.
YESSSSS. A legendary video on the topic and IMO one of the more significant and necessary ones on the Displaced Gamers channel. Somebody even afterwards recreated the dam stage as an indie game tech demo but if it were fixed. XD
Though I love the Manhattan Project game the most, this is the turtle game that really takes me back to pure childhood.
For the love of everything, PLEASE continue the cozy retro playthroughs. Also, you never played Super Punchout on SNES despite Danny loving the OG
"Katana blades"
"Michaelangelo"
Shit dude
Kim Carnes sings Bette Davis Eyes. I’m sorry, this is driving me insane
They're the world's most wholesome gaming team
Our boy Arin leads, playin' games on his machines
Dan's a cool and clever lad
And they both just wanna be kissin' dads
This game blows me away with how much they managed to do with so little space. The art and animations are so good.
TMNT foreshadowing arin picking the turtwig next time
44:11 the way dan is so hesitant makes it 10000x funnier
2:39 nope, you’re thinking Thundercats… also… Cheetara
dan knew that. hes just tryin to throw us off his tail. classic closet furry
Could a kind lovely explain the "Cheetara" joke to me please? I know Thundercats and I've heard them make the joke a bunch of times but idk how them saying it like that got started.
@darkeimp555 I don’t remember the exact episode but, in brief, at one point Arin and Dan were talking about Thundercats. Topics changed, as they do, and something like ten minutes later, during a lull, Arin remembered what he was thinking of and just says: “Cheetarah” in a way that caught Dan, and listeners, way off guard.
You talking about Homestar Runner makes me wish for a Guest Grumps with the Brothers Chap! Or you give Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People a shot. It's a very funny episodic point and click adventure.
What's your fav ep, Jimmy?
I like the one where Danny talks and sings about an obscure band while Arin is trying to focus for a loooooong time.
This is the Dark Souls of TMNT games.
Snake: “OK!”
I thought this was going to be a trick question since the question was too easy. Glad it's NES turtles. Did no one watch the entire video yesterday? They said the Nuzlocke is coming back.
"It's torture. It's hell on earth. But it RULES!" would be something you would see in a Nintendo Power ad in the 80s or 90s.
Donatello on one of the end boss fights is a must.
Yeah, and I also hate the spending so much time on scrolls and not getting at least one set on everybody.
This game was so depressing for Raphael fans like myself
"This game immediately gives you Stockholm syndrome"
42:55 Arin realizes he can go the shorter route and also get the pizza. Proud of you video game boy
"gonna have to do what I do best. Fail upwards"
Omg this was one of my first games I ever had. I learned how to play the entire soundtrack on my guitar and it's still one of my favorite NES games and soundtracks!
I remember playing this game and always dying horribly in the seaweed section. I definitely used the game genie a lot on this one 🤣
can't wait for the next sbassbears musical compilation....
I'm predicting it right now... Arin will farm ninja scrolls and at some point will lose them by accidentally picking up another item.
And immediately panic save state trying to revert
@RoseGarza-c8r therefore locking him in a "you're fucked" predicament
My two favourite things, game grumps and Tmnt
I am so excited for more turtle time! It’s so perfect for Dan and Arin
Odd they made Donatello the strongest. That's usually Raphael.
Even the game show Gamemaster had a 'hints' section that admitted the only way to beat the platform section in this game is NOT to jump but just to break gravity and walk across a gap.
In The Cowabunga Collection, they give you an option to turn off the glitchy graphics. It's kind of neat, but I prefer the glitches for nostalgia's sake.
Now I gotta wonder how they did that.
Cause if it's a true emulation of the original NES game, and not a port to another engine, the flicker is caused when there's more than 8 sprites on screen. Did they mess with the emulator itself to remove the limitation? What other stuff would that mess with?
I had TMNT II Arcade for NES, friend of mine had THIS one and it was always so weird to me how different they are, not knowing that II technically wasn't a sequel at all, it was based on the arcade game and so a whole different genre of game.
5:19 Mike Matei would beg to differ. I think he's beat it with only Raph
Ryukahr also just put up a video in the past week or so beating the game with just Raph, but he’s also spotlighted the game in his own “Debunking the Difficulty” series previously to try to show peeps how to beat it casually to begin with.
Only Raph? Dang he truly is a gamer god
Dan imitating Homestar Runner was unexpected but delightfully welcomed. Lol
So happy that Arin used the Donatello Rocksteady glitch
Agreed
“Time flies when you’re not paying attention.” I want that on a t-shirt!
"Why can't a turtle swim? Why don't the weapons do anything?"
Seems like good questions
You forgot “Why can’t I land the plane?,” “The characters’ names are wrong,” and “Why is the password so long?” 😄
@msorge13 I know :) but those 2 were applicable
@OneArmedRetroGamerYeah, that’s fair, haha.
4:08 The way I always remembered was Rocksteady was grey like a rock... except for in this game where he's purple.
You know there are other colors of rocks than grey, right?
U poor fools why put yourself through this torture test 1:37 whoever thought ofvthis must've been out of their mind when they made this mess
I am loving these retro game uploads so much
So... no one gonna talk about the um "Ninja Stars?"
Yeah, they're more like Nazi stars.
man I love the classic Grumps mood lately. Just cut into the boys laughing at some random thing with an NES game fired up. Love it
39:30 HOMESTAR RUNNER MENTIONED!!!
@burnin8able GREAT JAORARORORB DER! 👍
Job job job job job job
Woo man, this was one of a few games my little brother and I had way back in the day. Nostalgia overload.
I'm really hoping we get a third debate over who was the leader of the group in the 1990 TMNT movie 😁
This has been one heck of a month. Taking on one of the hardest pokemon games to nuzlocke to playing one of the hardest nes games
HE DID THE DAM IN ONE SHOT?!?!??
He do be the videogames boy afterall
I love how Arin has moments of sheer gaming prowess, and then a billion other times when he fails miserably! xD
It’s because he never said “check this out.”
Holy shit there's a game after the dam
This is what he's capable of when he suppresses his Aringance.
Finding out that Dan knows both Viva La Dirt League AND Homestar Runner peeps absolutely makes my day!
Yesss!! Game Grumps and NES games just go great together!!
omg the memories of the anger sharks. this game was migraine levels frustrating.
This game was right up there with Fester's quest for me in terms of like. "WHERE DO I GO? What is my GOAL here?" Looking at it now, i was just a dumb kid, but...
Dan, when pizza's on a bagel, you can have pizza anytime! Bagel Bites taught us this in the 90s and I have no intention of letting anyone forget.
They were so good
Was hoping for more nuzlock, but I won't say no to some turtle action. Let's go.
“It’s dam safe” absolute fire lmao
Absolutely classic game, so many arcade memories from this nineties kid!
EDIT: ok this isn’t the arcade game as Arin *immediately* corrected me lol - but I do remember renting this precisely *one time* from Blockbuster only to find it crushingly hard
The games being played have been fantastic. I love the old games.
“We’re like your NES game
‘cause we can’t be beat!”
- Renaissance painters to the ninja turtles, Epic Rap Battles of History
One of my favorite lines ever!
Oh shit we're going there.
“You could just walk over it?!” Iykyk
"Iykyk" If you hear Arin say "This is a famous AVGN bit. See this gap here? How do you jump over it? You jist walk over it", you know
33:00 😂 the singing to the music cracks me up here, especially the way he says screwed
lmaooo thank you I was looking for this part
I hope you guys go back to Nuzlocke. It was a really fun mini-watch, and the charm was far from dead.
the last video ended saying they will go back to it on March 28th (edit February 28th seems to be the consensus)
@WishMakerDX
They actually said the 28th of this month so less than two weeks.
Did no one watch the entire video? They literally say it's coming back.
@JesCek95 Its a bit conflicting, it says a 2 week mourning period then says it will return 03-28-2026
@WishMakerDX
I was referring to the comment they posted which claims it'll only be two weeks away and the description says the same so I assume the "3" in the video was just a typo.
@5:57 In Itaglia, we don't have a toilet; we all just doody on Carvaggio.
1:10 - No, Arin, the original TMNT arcade game was TMNT 2 on NES. Turtles in Time was 4 on SNES (and Hyperstone Heist on Genesis).
"No, wait, Snarf was He-Man."
Snarf was Thundercats.
loved this as a kid and remember completing the game only once lol
Wow, I am glad to see GG going back to NES games