Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Super Kame Ninja [Model GX963]

The subtitle of this game translates from Japanese as 'Super Turtle Ninja'.

Export releases:
This game is known outside Japan as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [Model GX963]" and in UK as "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles [Model GX963]".

This game was based on the first season of the original 1989 cartoon show.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1984 and published by Mirage Studios. The whole idea for the comic book (which was originally published in Black and White) came from the nickname 'Ninja Turtle' that one of the creators had when they were young.
In 1987, Playmates Toys bought the rights of the characters to produce a line of Action Figures. That same year Playmates made a TV adaptation of the story for a 5-episode mini series which became a huge success. Two years later, the series went on full production and was aired on CBS stations from 1989 to 1996 (with brief hiatus in 1993-1994).
The success of this 'Humanoid Action Animal' concept spawned (or shed some light on) many other comics, toys and TV shows such as Bucky O'Hare, Swat Kats, C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa, Street Sharks, Biker Mice from Mars among others; most of them became complete blunders.

After the first series was cancelled other shows based on these characters appeared, such as, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (Saban Productions, Live Action), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and TMNT Fast-Forward. However, the 1980's craze never took off again.

Konami hit the jackpot with this game. It was so successful that Konami went on a license-acquiring craze. They got the rights to many American (and some European) TV shows and Comic Books for home and arcade videogames with a quality so good that sometimes shadowed the original work.

This game is mainly based in the first 5 episode mini-series. However, it contains some references to the original comic book. The opening scene is a mix between a scene in the TV show in which a building is raided by the TMNT to find for the first time the Technodrome and a scene of the comic book in which Shredder sets fire to April's building when he finds she's harboring the turtles (that scene was also taken for the movie). At the Parking Lot scene, there is a van that has the logo of TCRI. TCRI (or TGRI in the movie) was the company responsible for the mutagen; in the TV show, it was Shredder's invention.

The first names of turtles; Michaelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and Donatello, are the names of Italian Renaissance artists who lived between 1386 and 1564. Three of those artists had full names which were respectively Michaelangelo Buonariti, Raphael Sanzio and Leonardo Da Vinci; but as for Donatello, that was his only name.

In the ending epilogue, Konami spell Dimension X : 'Dimention X'.

Soundtrack Releases :
Konami Special Music Senryo-Bako Heisei 3 Nen-Ban (KICA-9005~8) (December 21, 1990)