[3] In North America it was published under Konami's Ultra Games imprint in the US and the equivalent PALCOM brand in Europe and Australia.

Shredder kidnaps April and gains the Life Transformer Gun, a weapon capable of returning Splinter to his human form.

In order to save April, the turtles (Leo, Mikey, Donny and Raph) embark on the streets of New York to confront the Foot Clan.

After disabling bombs in the Hudson River dam, Shredder captures Splinter, so the turtles give chase in the Party Wagon.

Hot in pursuit, the turtles scour the city and eventually find that Splinter is held captive by the robotic Mecaturtle on a skyscraper rooftop.

The information screen shows each turtle's health, special weapons, a map grid of the current area, and messages from either Splinter or April.

While in the overhead view, a player can move in four cardinal directions and use primary weapons for a single type of attack.

In later stages, obstacles include gaps that involve well-timed jumps and inaccessible areas that require specialty items, such as ropes, to progress across building rooftops.

As the game progresses, the turtles must defeat various enemies, navigate traps, search for specific items, and complete certain tasks, such as defusing timed bombs in the underwater area of stage two.

While graphics and gameplay are virtually identical to its NES counterpart, the Japanese localization changed the plot a bit by turning April O'Neil from an acquaintance of the Turtles into Splinter's daughter.

Konami, under the Ultra Games label, released DOS, Commodore 64, and Amiga versions in North America, while the game was licensed to Mirrorsoft's Image Works label for the European market, where DOS, Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST, and MSX versions were released.

The initial release of the DOS version contains a programming error that creates a gap that is impossible to cross without cheating or a patch.

The NES version of the game was re-released as part of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection in 2022.

[12] Mark Birnbaum of IGN gave Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a 5.5 out of 10 pointing out that the game is dated and only for nostalgic and hardcore fans.

Birnbaum stated that the controls were poor, the enemies bland and the level design and characters were negatives in the game.