[9] It is based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, including the first animated series that began airing two years earlier.

Many objects such as traffic cones, parking meters, fire hydrants and exploding oil drums can be hit or damaged with attacks in order to help defeat nearby enemies.

In the attract mode, the game shows the first part of the cartoon opening, along with a portion of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song.

The bosses in the game include Rocksteady and Bebop (individually at first in that order, and later the two of them together), Baxter Stockman (in his human form), Granitor, General Traag, Krang, and Shredder himself.

Konami acquired the license for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise around the same time the animated series began airing in 1987.

The title was changed to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: The Coin Op in the European versions, reflecting censorship of the 1987 TV series in certain regions at the time.

[16] The reissue is nearly identical to the original, but there are a few changes: the opening theme is a new recording by a different singer, players do not need to insert quarters to play, and Konami's name on the arcade marquee is replaced by Nickelodeon's.

[20] Konami was unable to keep up with high demand, so they outsourced additional US manufacturing production to Dynamo Corp.[8] The release of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film in March 1990 gave the arcade game a further boost in earnings.

[6] By early May 1990, the game had sold 25,000 arcade cabinets in America and Europe, with more units still in production to meet continued demand at the time.

[21][22] In North America, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the highest-grossing upright cabinet on the RePlay arcade charts throughout 1990, from January[23][24] through spring,[25][26][27] summer[28][29][30] and autumn[31][32] to December.

[35] It ended the year as the highest-grossing dedicated arcade game of 1990 in the United States,[36] and it won a Diamond award from the American Amusement Machine Association (AAMA) for sales achievement in 1990.

[38] On Hong Kong's Bondeal charts, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the top-grossing dedicated arcade game from December 1989[5] to January 1990.

reported on the arcade game after it appeared at the Amusement Trades Exhibition International (ATEI), calling it a "great coin-op which is best in four player mode.