Updated with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants.
Remember, this is a reader-ranked list based on the user rating of each game in our database, meaning it’s subject to real-time change, even now. if you’ve played Wrath of the Mutants or any other Turtles game below, you can rate it from 1-10 and influence the order. This recently released Switch game doesn’t have many ratings at the time of writing, so it’s all playable. To enjoy!
Back in 2022, Dotemu and Tribute Games’ excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge ignited our passion for half-armored heroes in a way we hadn’t felt in a long time, and the release of Konami’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection brought more a wave of excitement and nostalgia. Add in Wrath of the Mutants and the upcoming roguelike Mutants Unleashed, and Turtles fans haven’t had it this good since the 80s.
With so many TMNT games hitting Nintendo’s consoles over the years, it’s hard to know exactly where to start, let alone which Ninja Turtle (or Hero Turtle in the UK) to choose after you decide to play. So, to sort through them all, we asked you, dear Nintendo Life readers, to rate the Turtles games you’ve played and help us rank each TMNT game on Nintendo systems — and the result is below.
Please note: the order below is updated in real-time according to each game’s corresponding user rating in the Nintendo Life games database. Even as you read this, it is entirely possible to influence the order below. If you haven’t rated your favorites yet, simply click the ‘star’ of the game you want to rate below and assign a score instantly.
We’ve included Konami’s aforementioned Cowabunga collection, which brings together many of the best games on the list below. If the compilations are to be believed it should not be be included, imagine that it is not there, and the order for everything else still applies. We hope this list helps you decide which one to play first.
So, ready to eat some delicious sewer pizza? Grab your eye mask in the color of your choice and let the Foot Clan hit the sound…
Ubisoft takes another swing at the Turtles in this 3D beat ’em up from 2009. Inspired by the 2003 animated series and the OG comics, it features monochrome cutscenes that animate comic book art in a tongue-in-cheek Flash style — which you may even find charming, depending on your mileage — between freeze frames with dialog bubbles. Critics certainly weren’t charmed by TMNT: Arcade Attack and it was the last Turtles game Ubisoft released.
This Ubisoft-made game based on the 2007 film took its cue from Prince of Persia with its acrobatic rooftop platforming, plus the usual “play as any of the Turtles” option. Released on almost every platform at the time, the PSP and DS versions were obviously scaled down significantly to meet the demands of handheld consoles.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (also known as just “Ninja Turtles”, to avoid confusion with the 2013 3DS game) is an isometric action game based on the 2014 film of the same name produced by Michael Bay. You can play as any of the four turtles, each with their own special ability — tank, healer, mage, rogue.
Fun fact: Danny Woodburn, who voiced Splinter in the 2014 reboot, reprized his role in this game.
In keeping with the classic TMNT-style gameplay and atmosphere, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a high-energy, beat ’em up game with character upgrades, secondary items, and multiple gameplay modes. It tells a Turt-tastic story through cut scenes in the style of an animated TV reboot and handles the source material with care. However, with the gameplay often being shallow and quickly repetitive, it failed to reach the heights of the retro TMNT games.
This Konami take on the 2005 TMNT series is based on the 2003 TMNT TV show, which was a bit more edgy and adult-oriented than the original 80s TV series. The “Mutant Nightmare” in the title refers to the last of the game’s four chapters, in which the Turtles fight bosses in their dreams, after defeating all their usual enemies like the Shredder and the Foot Clan.
One of the many TMNT games inspired by the 2003 TV reboot, Mutant Melee is Turtley’s version of the Smash Bros. formula, with 22 characters to unlock and pit against each other in a “Last Man Standing” game. Other modes are available to mix things up a bit, like “Knock Out”, a timed challenge; “King of the Hill”, where players can earn points for staying the longest in certain zones; and “Keep Away,” which functions as an Overwatch -esque escort mission for an important chest.
Developed by Shantae studio WayForward, with a soundtrack composed by Jake Kaufman (who would later compose for Shovel Knight), this game was designed to bridge the gap between the second and third seasons of the 2012 TV series, with story elements from both, as well as references to the NES game. It was also one of the three 2014 TMNT Games!
A companion game for the Nintendo 3DS Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this was the second TMNT game published by Activision and the first game based on the Nickelodeon show from 2012. As Turtles games go, this is a much lower price point.
This single-player action-adventure is based on the 2007 CGI film and was developed by Ubisoft after acquiring the rights from Konami. Like the DS and GameCube releases, this game focuses on a darker edgier tone for the Turtles, a little more in line with the original comics.
Battle Nexus is a stealth-focused action platformer that features stories from the second season of the 2003 animated TV series and features local co-op for solo and four players. On the Game Boy Advance, it is a very different game from its console equivalents, featuring the voice talents of Sam Riegel (Phoenix Wright in the Ace Attorney games and Donatello in many TMNT incarnations) and Michael Sinterniklaas (Leonardo and Taki Tachibana in Your name).
