Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time — stories left

Following its release, Turtles in Time became Konami's best-selling arcade title.

The Super NES version was praised for its additional stages and gameplay modes.

The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it unanimous scores of 9 out of 10 each, applauding the fun gameplay, the new moves, the accurate recreation of the arcade version's graphics, and the two-player versus mode, though they criticized that the game is too easy.

Game Zero magazine's four reviewers gave the game a combined review score of 84.5 out of 100, they praised the graphics and the option to switch between the animation and comic book style graphics and gave praise to the game's music, improved moveset and voice acting.

GamesRadar ranked the game #24 in their "Best SNES Games of All Time", they praised the game music and commenting that Turtles in Time improved everything the original Turtles game did and made it better and felt the game was "one of the best action games on the SNES" In 2013, Arcade Sushi ranked Turtles in Time 10th on their "10 Best Retro Beat 'Em Ups.

They praised the game's aesthetics staying true to the franchise's cartoon series.

During development, the game's working title was "something like TMNT Time Travelers", according to Konami USA's Steve Kaufman in early 1991.

Nintendo Power ranked the game 7th in their "Top 10 in 1992" praising the characters being well animated concluding: "the popularity of Konami's TMNT series with players and the new theme of time travel put this one into our year end top 10.

IGN ranked the game 39th in their "Top 100 SNES Games of All Time", praising the bright graphics that captures the look and personality of the classic cartoon and praising the utilization of mode 7 when throwing enemies into the screen.

GamesRadar ranked the game #24 in their "Best SNES Games of All Time", they praised the game music and commenting that Turtles in Time improved everything the original Turtles game did and made it better and felt the game was "one of the best action games on the SNES" In 2013, Arcade Sushi ranked Turtles in Time 10th on their "10 Best Retro Beat 'Em Ups.

In 2023, Time Extension included the Super NES version on their top 25 "Best Beat 'Em Ups of All Time" list.

The 4 reviewers of the magazine Game Zero gave the game an overall review score of 84.5 out of 100, praised the graphics and animation and the option to switch to comic-style graphics, and praised the game's music, improved action and voices.

Super Gamer called the game "a very impressive anime platform beat-'em-up" and gave it an overall review score of 90%.

Nintendo Power ranked the game 7th in its "Top 10 of 1992", saying, "With the popularity of Konami's TMNT series among players and the new theme of time travel, this ranked in the top 10 at the end of the year.

In 2018, Complex (magazine) placed this game 9th in its "best SNES games of all time".

The port of the original arcade version can be unlocked after clearing the first stage of the mission in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare.

The Super NES version was retitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time in North America and Australia and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles IV: Turtles in Time in Europe in order to continue the numbering from the first three Turtles games on the NES (despite the fact that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project was never released in the PAL region).

The Super NES version was retitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time in North America and Australia and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles IV: Turtles in Time in Europe in order to continue the numbering from the first three Turtles games on the NES (despite the fact that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project was never released in the PAL region).