Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters is a fighting game, for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES and Mega Drive/Genesis by Konami. While the title is the same, the game is different for each console. Like many competitive fighting games of the era, Tournament Fighters borrowed heavily from elements contained in the Street Fighter II video game. The Japanese Super Famicom version of the game was retitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Warriors, whereas the Japanese Mega Drive version retained its North American title. The NES version was the only one not released in Japan.
The game was released in 1994, when the TMNT's popularity was declining. As such, the game was largely ignored and didn't sell very well, though some players enjoyed the games, particularly the Super NES version, which is considered the best of the three.
A respective turtle was selected to be the "poster turtle" of each of the games; as there were 3 games and they are 4 ninja turtles, Michelangelo was the one left out for such role. Some fans considered he was going to be the poster turtle of a portable version either for Nintendo's Game Boy or Sega's Game Gear; but there was never any official information on the subject.
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[edit] NES version
The turtles (Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo) have been challenged by Shredder, but in order to confront him, they decided to have a tournament between themselves in order to see who is fit for the encounter. There are seven characters. Aside from the turtles, Casey Jones, Hothead (a samurai dragon from the original toy line, based on the Warrior Dragon character from the Archie comics. Nintendo Power magazine once cited his Archie origin, where he was a fireman who later mutated into a dragon like creature) and Shredder. It is the final game made by Konami for this console and the last game made by a third party developer as well. It is also one of the very few versus fighters made for the NES.
The "poster turtle" for the NES version was Leonardo; who can be seen fighting Hothead in the game's box art.
[edit] Super NES version
A tournament has been organized and many fighters have entered, Shredder being one of them. The turtles decide to participate in order to stop their nemesis as well as proving their strength in the tournament.
This game, instead of following a 6-button attack control like most of Capcom's fighters, it uses a 4-button scheme (weak and strong attacks). A particular feature is the possibility to use a super special attack. In order to achieve this, the player must fill a green bar under the life bar, by hitting their opponents. Once full, the player must press the two strong attack buttons simultaneously. There is also the option of enhancing the speed of the game, making the fights more intense but also harder to follow.
In addition to the main and versus modes, there is a story mode in which to turtles must rescue April O'Neil and Splinter. Only the four of them can be playable whereas the other characters (as well as a turtle clone) are the bosses. There is also a watch mode, which basically makes the computer control the characters.
There are ten characters available, and two bosses. Aside from the turtles and Shredder (who goes under the name of CyberShredder in this game), these characters are also available:
- War, a monstrous purple creature with big claws, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as seen in the TMNT comics published by Archie comics.
- Aska, a female ninja who enters the tournament to win money to open her own dojo.
- Wingnut, a humanoid, alien bat who appeared in several Archie comics and once in the cartoon. Absent from the game was his ubiquitous partner Screwloose.
- Chrome Dome, an android from the cartoon series, he was initially created by Shredder to destroy the turtles.
- Armaggon, a mutant shark from the future. Also from the Archie comics version like War.
The bosses are:
- Rat King, a deranged man who cast away his humanity and considers himself a rat even though he has not been mutated. In the original Mirage comics it was unclear exactly what he was, possibly a spirit along the lines of Death.
- Karai, ex-leader of the Foot Clan Elite. Because she remained unknown to fans of the animated series and due to her facial design, some considered Karai to be a male character.
The "poster turtle" for the SNES version was Donatello; who can be seen fighting Armaggon in the game's box art.
[edit] Mega Drive/Genesis version
Splinter has been kidnapped by four purple turtles. When the real turtles realized this, Krang appeared and says that he keeps Splinter with him and that the only way to get him back is that the turtles must go to Dimension X and meet Krang. The player must fight the clones of all the playable characters (see below) as well as the bosses - Triceraton, Krang and Karai.
Besides the turtles, the player can also choose between April O'Neil, Casey Jones, Ray Fillet, and Sisyphus.
This game uses a 3-three button scheme. Two of these are used for standard attacks (in order to do a stronger attack, they have to be pressed along with the d-pad). It doesn't take advantage of the 6-button controller. Because of this, it is considered that this version pales in comparison of the Super NES version.
The "poster turtle" for this version was Raphael; who can be seen fighting a Triceraton on the game's box art.
The game also features (somewhat) destructible environments on a couple of stages where you can fall through the floor.
[edit] External links
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video games | |
|---|---|
| Arcade series | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Turtles in Time |
| NES/SNES series | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | The Arcade Game The Manhattan Project | Turtles in Time | Tournament Fighters |
| Game Boy series | Fall of the Foot Clan | Back from the Sewers | Radical Rescue |
| Mega Drive/Genesis series | The Hyperstone Heist | Tournament Fighters |
| DOS game | The Manhattan Missions |
| Game Boy Advance game | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles |
| 2003 series | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Battle Nexus Mutant Nightmare | Mutant Melee |
