 Last month, I took a look at Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, the arcade game, one of the very best co-op games, and one of my personal favorites for the NES. And as I mentioned at the end of that video, there was a sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3, The Manhattan Project, a game that was more or less completely ignored when it came out very late in the NES lifespan in 1992. Because not only was the Super Nintendo already going full bore, but that system had its own Ninja Turtles game, Turtles in Time, which just happens to be one of the best home console beat-em-ups ever made. So yeah, Ninja Turtles 3, The Manhattan Project, practically reached obscure status. I mean, even I ignored this game back then, and today, considering I first chose to do a video on the second game. This is an excellent sequel though, and once again a fantastic co-op game, and a very good beat-em-up in general. There are some significant differences in the gameplay, however, and in lineage as well as The Manhattan Project is not an arcade port, it was made as an original title for the NES. Of course this game is co-op, but it features the A and B multiplayer mode, with B being normal mode, and A allowing the wonderful feature of being able to hit each other. Seriously, do people like this? I never get why this is included in these games, other than for comedic purposes I guess, or anger purposes. Anyway, the gameplay nuts and bolts remain largely unchanged, with Attack and Jump the same, but in addition, when you press down and attack, it flips the enemy over, and that kills him in one hit. That's convenient, right? The thing is, you get a lot less points doing this, so don't do it too often, or you'll be waiting forever to get that extra life. You can also switch between all four turtles when you die, and that's important not just for aesthetic reasons, but because each turtle has their own special move, and some lend themselves much better to certain parts of the game than others. For example, Michelangelo's weird backward jump kick here works great on these helicopter things. Bear in mind these moves cost you health, though. So yeah, Turtles 3 adds a bit of a different flavor to the NES beat-em-up genre, even though, I mean, why wouldn't you just do the flip attack and jump kick through the whole game? That's really my main criticism here, is that the flip move is almost too powerful. Yeah, I get the idea that you don't get as many points doing that, but well, you're not going to need them if you're not taking as much damage thanks to that move. Also, this game is very flickery, even for an NES game. It's almost always noticeable, so that can get very annoying very quickly. Anyway, yeah, despite its gameplay differences, Turtles 3, the Manhattan Project, is right up there with its predecessor Turtles 2, the arcade game. You really can't miss with either game, but I personally prefer the second game. I can't fault you if you liked the third game better, though.