Silverball guide · Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Your turtle is a strategy
The choice you make in the first three seconds shapes the whole game, and the training levels stacked on top of it are the part almost nobody works through.
UK Machine Record
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Stern · 2020 · at 8 UK venues.
8
UK venues
8
machines mapped
#26
most-located of 246
2020
released
LCD4 playersSolid state
DesignJohn Borg
ArtJeremy Packer
SoftwareDwight Sullivan
Editions in the UKLEPro
About
TMNT is one of Stern's most colourful recent machines and another game where the theme does a lot of work to make the rules accessible. The four Turtles provide the central structure, with each character and villain feeding into different objectives.
It is a surprisingly physical game, with plenty of shots that can be repeated and combined once you understand the sequence. The Premium and LE versions add extra toys and mechanisms, but the Pro still gives you the core experience.
It has proved popular with UK players partly because it bridges the gap between people who know pinball and people who simply recognise the Turtles. Pick a Turtle and learn what that character actually contributes before trying to do everything at once.
Written by Silverball
Collector · casual
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The playfield
Strategy tips · 12
Strategy tips written by players on PinTips , not by Silverball. Best-voted first.
Top tipMultiball 13 votes
If you pick Donatello at the start, one shot to the right ramp starts Turtle Power multiball. Other characters must shoot it four times.
General6 tips
- General
For newbie players, Donatello is great. Multiball can be started with a single shot, and you’ll get a swing at your skillshot on launch.
- General
Light extra balls at the Van by starting modes (default: 2), collecting a number of Pizza Slices (default: 55) or from a Pict-O-Pop award.
- General
TMNT has a great setting called “Target Time.” By changing it, you can get up to THREE MINUTES on your first ball! Good for learning table.
- General
Backhand shots are very viable in TMNT. The right ramp can be hit, and with practice the center shot can be hit as well.
- General
Completing training increases all scoring. 1st completion awards 10%, and maxes out at 30% after 3 completions. A successful completion also activates dimension x targets to start the lucrative, neutrino pizza party.
- General
Spell LAIR at left standup to lite Training. Spell again to lite 2xPF standup. Can't spell next set of LAIRs until you play a mode.
Wizard mode1 tip
- Wizard mode
Getting past four modes (either by completing them, running out of time or draining) lights Team Up multiball at the right ramp.
Multiball4 tips
- Multiball
Pizza MB: locking each ball locks in toppings (2, then 2, then 1). Pizza targets cycle unlocked toppings L to R. Pops change next toppings
- Multiball
Try to lock in octopus as a pizza topping for Ninja Pizza MB. Then when it starts, shoot the spinner all day.
- Multiball
NPMB (Ninja Pizza) Jackpots: Blue shots to light Mondo Jackpot (@Loop), then hit Mondo to light Grande@the Lair (Splinter shot).
- Multiball
TPMB (Turtle Power) add-a-ball: hit the 4 turtle shots then right ramp.
Tips belong to the players who wrote them. Read them all, vote, or add your own on PinTips, a Match Play project.
A closer look
Close-ups of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles playfield, with our note on what each one is showing you.
The sculpted turtle van at the back panel.
The magnetic pizza disc, which spins and throws balls.
Wireform ramps crossing back over the van.
The lair ramp, with the training insert below it.
Photographs via the Internet Pinball Database. The captions are ours.
The original flyer
How Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was sold to operators — Stern, 2020. The back is the feature list the manufacturer led with, which is a fair record of what the machine was meant to be famous for.
Flyer scan via the Internet Pinball Database. The artwork is Stern’s.
Nobody we follow has reviewed this one
Same short list of channels as the tutorials. A machine with no review here has not been passed over — it simply hasn’t been covered by anyone we list.
Where a machine sits is Pinball Map’s work, not ours, find Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles near you on their map. Ratings, tips and tournament results here are ours.