The Nintendo NES did not have much of a presence in the UK up until 1990, for various reasons. Firstly Nintendo themselves were very aperthetic towards Europe as a whole, which did not have a strong market for consoles in 1986, leaving Mattel as a distributor for the machine.

Secondly, Sega had arrived strongly with the Master System in 1987, with this and the preference in Europe at the time for the home micro as entertainment, the NES was struggling for many sales, only after losing a case in the US against their business practices did Nintendo look seriously at other markets other than Japan and America, Mattel were relieved of their distribution deal, with Nintendo handling marketing themselves, they looked for a game that could reverse the fortunes of the machine in Europe.

The game chosen was Palcom's Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, which although not an especially good game, tapped into the craze that was the Turtles, a prime example of a great marketing decision.

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