The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' voice actors are the original voice actors who portrayed them in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) cartoon marking the first time those actors portrayed their characters in a video despite numerous games based on the original cartoon.
This is the first time Master Splinter, April O'Neil and Casey Jones are playable characters in a beat em' up Ninja Turtles game.
In the level Silicon Alley (A Few Screws Loose) there's a television with Shredder talking and pointing at the camera. This is a reference to the original Gekikame Ninja Den (1989) video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System where a similar transmission is seen after the Foot Clan kidnaps Master Splinter.
The phrase "What the Shell" is used in this game. This is a phrase that was first introduced in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) series as a lighter substitute to the more inappropriate version.
As with the original arcade games Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (1991), whenever a turtle falls in a sewer entrance they will say something. For this version every character has a different phrase, only Michaelangelo's dialogue resembles the original phrase of "Who put the lights out" from the original arcade game.