Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fighting Game
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters - TFG Review / ArtGalleryTeenageMutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament FightersABOUT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: TournamentFighters is the title of three different fighting games made by Konami,released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, and MegaDrive/Genesis between 1993 and 1994. Each title is distinctive and different onits respective platform, featuring different characters, gameplay mechanics,graphics, and storylines. The trio of games is known asTeenage Mutant Hero Turtles: Tournament Fighters in Europe. The Japanese SNES releaseis called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Warriors. Thoseoriginal Nintendo graphics.
Humble times.Nintendo Entertainment System version: In the single -playerStory mode, players choose one of the four turtles (Leonardo, Raphael,Michaelangelo, and Donatello), as they hold a contest amongst themselves to seewho is fit to take on Shredder's challenge. After defeating the first 3 opponents, the player proceeds to fight Casey Jones and then Hothead (acharacter based on the Dragon Warrior from the Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesAdventures comics and the action figure of the same name) before the finalmatch with the Shredder. In addition to the Story mode, the game also has twoVersus modes (one against the CPU and another against a second player), as wellas a four-player tournament mode. An option mode where the player can adjust thegame's difficulty, continues, and speed is also available.Battles consist of 3-roundmatches and the first player to win 2 rounds is the victor. Each character hastheir own repertoire of basic punch and kick techniques, as well ascommand-based special moves.
During battle, a flying monitor with Splinter'sface will sometime appear that will drop a red ball power-up at the middle ofthe stage that can be retrieved by either fighter. Whoever retrieves the ballpower-up will be able to use it by inputting the appropriate command.The NES version allows theplayer to match any character against a 'clone' of himself, with the exception ofHothead.
The game doesn't allow such a match under normal circumstances, butthere's a way to bypass this restriction in the game's 'Vs. CPU' mode.The second Hothead will be colored differently, as with all same charactermatches in the game, but the graphics will flicker due to the large size ofboth character sprites.NES Version Story: The turtles have been challenged by Shredder, butbefore they fight him they decide to have a tournament between themselves to seewho is ready for the encounter.Fun Fact: The NES version of Tournament Fighters was the finalgame Konami released for the platform in North America and the PAL region in1994. Unlike the other versions of Tournament Fighters, it was notreleased in Japan.
Tournament Fighters was one of the few fighting gamesreleased for the NES during the fighting game boom. Not a badlooking SNES fighting game.
But certainly not the best.Super Nintendoversion: Thisversion is sometimes sold under the title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles V:Tournament Fighters in order to continue the numbering from the earlier Turtlesgames released on the Nintendo Entertainment System as well as the Super NES,and is often considered by fans as the last game in the original TeenageMutant Ninja Turtles series.This game's controls uses afour-button scheme (two punches and two kicks, weak and strong). A particularfeature is the possibility to use a super special attack.
In order to achievethis, the player must fill a green bar under the life bar, by hitting theiropponents. Once full, the player must press the two strong attack buttonssimultaneously. 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 andversus modes, there is a story mode in which the Turtles must rescue AprilO'Neil and Splinter from Shredder's clutches. The Turtles must travel across theUS in their Turtle Blimp, defeating other fighters and collecting information.Only the four of them can be playable whereas the other characters (as well as aturtle clone) are the opponents. There is no Mutagen Meter in story mode. Thereis also a watch mode, which features computer controlled characters.The Super NES version of TournamentFighters was released in Japan under the different title of TeenageMutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Warriors. There are also some major differencesin the Japanese version.
To list a few things: Some of character portraits aredrawn differently in the Japanese release (such as Donatello's, Karai's andWingnut's). The voice of the announcer, as well as the four Turtles, aredifferent. The voices of the Turtles in the Japanese version sound less rough,with attack names sounding more clear. Some voice clips were taken from theArcade version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time.
In storymode the Turtle Blimp actually displays the logo and the background is day time. You can select a character's 2ndplayer palette by pressing the Start button on the character select screen. Someof the character special attacks have been tweaked, such as Aska'sdouble-hitting uppercut. In Rat King's stage (Studio 6), the fighters can breakthe walls and expand the arena. Aska's sprites underwent severalmodifications in the Japanese version as well. Aska's leotard is in the form ofa thong, exposing her rear when she does a spin or a high kick. In the overseasversions, they were originally bloomers.
Moreover, her victory animation andpose is different. In the overseas version, Aska stands with arms crossed whilebutterflies surround her (an animation recycled from one of her special moves).In the Japanese version, she raises her arm in victory (while her breastsbounce).SNES version story: A tournament has been organized and fighters from allover have entered, Shredder of course being one of them.
The turtles decide toenter the tournament in order to stop Shredder and prove their strength inbattle.Oneof the unique features of the SNES version was the different turbo speeds. Atthe highest setting, this game was faster than Street Fighter II Turbo atthe highest setting. Clone Donis all business. Look at that dude.Genesis/ Mega Drive version:This version was released in North America, the PAL region, and Japan around thesame time as its SNES counterpart.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie
The Mega Drive/Genesis version uses thestandard three-button controller, with only two buttons for attacking (punch andkick). To perform stronger punches or kicks, the player must hold thedirectional pad towards the opponent while pressing either attack buttons. Thethird button is used for taunting. Some of the stages in the game featuredestroyable scenery that gives the player and their opponent access to new areasin the stage. As well as their special moves, each character has a 'killer'attack which is only accessible when they are close to death and the red part ofthe characters' life gauge at the top starts flashing.
This is done by pressingthe Taunt button in conjunction with a specific D-Pad motion. These moves nearlytake out the other characters life gauge completely.The game has 8 playablecharacters, which includes the four Turtles and Casey Jones, as well as AprilO'Neil (whose active role differs from the versions of the character featured inother games), Ray Fillet (a character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesAdventures comics), and Sisyphus (an original character, named Musha Beetlein the Japanese version). The player can adjust their power and speed afterselecting their character. The music in this version was composed by renownedvideogame composer Miki Higashino, in collaboration with Masanori Adachi.The main single player modefeatures the turtles and their allies traveling to various planets in DimensionX, fighting against clones of themselves, as they seek to rescue Splinter fromKrang. After defeating the eight clones, the player travel to the final threestages to fight against a Triceraton, Krang's Android, and Karai (in thatorder). The game has a two player mode, as well as a practice mode in which theplayer faces the computer in a 1-round match, and a 'Tournament' wherethe player must defeat 88 opponents with one life gauge.Genesis / Mega Drive version Story: Master Splinter is kidnapped byfour purple turtles. When the real turtles find out, Krang appears and tells theturtles that he has Splinter with him and that the only way to rescue him is togo to Dimension X and meet Krang.Page Updated:November15th, 2017Developer(s):KonamiPublisher(s):KonamiDesigner(s):KuniakiKinoshita (Executive Producer)Kazuhiro Aoyama (Producer)Yasuo Okuda (Lead Director)Takemasa Miyoshi (Director / Planner / Character Design)Platform(s):NES,SNES, Sega Genesis/Mega DriveRelease Date(s):Sept.
4th, 1993 (Mega Drive)Dec. 3rd, 1993 (SNES)Dec.
8th, 1993 (Mega Drive)December 1993 (SNES)December 1993 (SNES/Mega Drive)February 1994 (NES)Characters(NES):Leonardo,Raphael, Michaelangelo, Donatello, Casey Jones, Hothead, ShredderCharacters(SNES):Leonardo,Raphael, Michaelangelo, Donatello, Wingnut, Armaggon, Chrome Dome, Aska, War,Rat King, Karai, Cyber ShredderCharacters(GS/MD):Leonardo,Raphael, Michaelangelo, Donatello, CaseyJones, April O'Neil, Ray Fillet, Sisyphus, Triceraton, Krang's Android, Karai. Related Games:,Gameplay EngineStory / ThemeOverall GraphicsAnimationMusic / Sound EffectsInnovationArt DirectionCustomizationOptions / ExtrasIntro / PresentationReplayability / Fun'Ouch' FactorCharactersBOTTOM LINEFinalWords:With the likes of StreetFighter and Mortal Kombat becoming headlining smash hits in the early90's on both consoles and arcades, Konami wanted in on the fighting game action.For a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fighting game in the early 90's, TournamentFighters wasn't a terrible effort. Quality-wise, the animation and graphicswere a a bit behind the times. But one would have to be familiar with thecurrent top fighting games of '93-'94 to really notice this.Personally, I don't have any strong opinions on this game, as I didn't play anyof the 3 versions very much. I only played the SNES version a few times.Honestly, I was so into Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and otherarcade fighting games in 1993/1994. I didn't give TMNT: Tournament Fightersmuch of my time (or much of a chance).Just being honest. Perhaps I'll get around to doing a full review of one of theversions someday.Hey, I did put some effort into this TFG profile to reconcile.On that note, congrats to TMNT: Tournament Fighters for finally getting aprofile on TFG after 15+ years.(You can partly thank Injustice 2 for including the turtles as guestcharacters in 2017.) TFGWebmaster.