It’s no secret that I like fighting games. A lot. I also like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT). A lot. Therefore, when the two got put together, one would think I’d like it. A lot.
Heh. Of course I did.
In late 1993, Konami released three different versions of TMNT: Tournament Fighters – One on the Super NES, on on Genesis, and one on the classic 8-Bit Nintendo. Well, this review isn’t about any of those games. It’s about the Japanese counterpart to the SNES version, TMNT: Mutant Warriors
Why would I bother to review the Japanese version, instead of the English one, you ask? Read on..
One day, while eating some ‘za (that’s early-90’s slang for ‘pizza,’ y’know) and watching the news, the Turtles’ see their friend April O’Neil, the famous reporter for Channel 6 who always wears a figure-complementing yellow jumpsuit, reveal that there will be a tournament for the toughest fighters in New York, with a huge cash prize. Our heroes decide to enter, to test their skills. What kinds of difficult challenges are in store for Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello?
Alright, admittedly, the storyline is pretty weak. But it IS a fighting game, made in 1993. Remember, this is when Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat were the only reason to go to the arcade – Decent storylines in games hadn’t really been invented yet (Well, except in Ninja Gaiden.. But that game broke all sorts of video game stereotypes, anyways).
You get ten tough-as-nails fighters to choose from, in your quest to get to the top. Most Turtles fans will probably only recognize the four Turtles and Shredder, and, really, the other characters all kind of suck, anyways.
The controls are pretty simple – There’s light punch, light kick, hard punch, and hard kick. Completely customizable in the options screen. Actually, the options screen has quite a bit of stuff you can fiddle with – the controls, difficulty, the amount of time you want your bouts to last – Quite a bit more than I had been expecting, for a second-rate fighter.
Anybody who’s decent at Street Fighter will be able to pick this one up and just go to town on the competition. The standard quarter-circle, half-circle, and charge-back-then-hit-forward commands are the way Konami chose to go, here. In fact, I don’t think there’s a single move in this game that’s difficult to pull off. And I think there’s only one of those annoying Dragon Punch-style motions, so it’s all cake. Hey, you can even throw your opponent, just like in Street Fighter!
Music is standard fighting game fare. Nothing really sticks out, but it all fits the mood. The voices in the game are clear and crisp. The only thing that would’ve been nice is if the Turtles had their voices from the cartoon – Or at least four different voices, rather than the same one. Otherwise, you’re just hearing whips and smacks all over the place. Nothing bad, but nothing that shines.
Graphically, the game is quite nice for a mid-life SNES title. The characters are bright and bold, highly detailed, and large on the screen. It’s also really easy to tell who is who – even between the turtles, who all use the same sprite. Occasionally you’ll wonder where somebody’s weapons got off to, or why a limb wasn’t chopped off by that sword, but that’s nit-picking, really. Nobody’s limbs warp out of place (like Ryu and Ken in SFII), and the collision detection is right on.
This was probably one of the earliest times we had multiple modes in a fighting game – Tournament mode pits you against every opponent, in an arcade-style setting. Versus mode lets two mutants bash each other’s brains in. Story Battle was really new at the time, and it gives a bit of pre-fight dialogue between each character – But you can only play as the four turtles. Watch mode is fairly useless – Pick two characters, and watch the computer control them both. And, there’s the aforementioned Options screen. Sure, they’re all standard now, but this game IS ten years old.
The biggest thing to set this game apart, in my eyes, was the Mutant Power attacks. When the little green bar under your life meter fills up and starts flashing, hitting hard punch and hard kick simultaneously will unleash a huge attack on your opponent. When done correctly, these moves are seriously damaging. But if you miss, well.. Not only did you not harm your opponent, you also left yourself WIDE open. As far as I know, at this time, the only other games around with Super attacks like this were SNK’s Art of Fighting, and King of Fighters.
Basically, if you had an SNES in the days when we had all sorts of knock-off fighting games coming out (Clay Fighter and Fighter’s History come to mind, as well as all of SNK’s classics – Art of Fighting, World Heroes, Samurai Showdown, etc.), you’ve pretty much already played this game. There’s not too much to set it apart from other fighters coming out at the time, other than the TMNT name. Does that make it a bad game?
Not at all. In fact, past anything released by Capcom or SNK, this is one of the more solid fighters to come out, ever. It’s a little dated, now.. But otherwise, it’s a really fun game. Gamers of all skill levels can sit down and enjoy a this game for at least a half-hour, without any problem. So if you’re a TMNT fan, go look for it.
Hm, with the new TMNT cartoon ripping it up on the Fox Box, I wonder if we can look forward to a re-make of this game? Hmm…
So what’s the big deal with my reviewing the Japanese version, anyways? Well, there wasn’t much difference between the two games. The next screenshot shows the biggest difference in the game:
The more conservative, American Tournament Fighters got Aska in a full leotard, while the Japanese Mutant Warriors got a thong. Also, you’ll note that Aska is in her second-player color – The other difference in the two games is that by pressing ‘start’ when selecting your character, you’ll get their alternate outfit. In Tournament Fighters, the only way to get a second outfit is to both be playing as the same character.
It’s not worth importing the Japanese version or anything (Unless you just HAVE TO play as Shredder in blue, or own every little bit of TMNT paraphernalia out there), but if you’re gonna go download the ROM, you may as well take a little bit of extra time to look for TMNT: MW, rather than TMNT: TF. It’s not like you have to read the Japanese text, anyways.
All in all, this is a pretty great game, and certainly one of the best TMNT games available. I very much believe fighting fans overlook it because of the Turtles’ name, and a lot of Turtles fans overlook it, because it’s a fighting game. If either side looked past that, they’d find a game for the ages.
Admittedly, however, if not for the Turtles’ name on this one, I wouldn’t have even looked at it. So, however you’ll take that.
written November 5th, 2003
Time for some Turtle trivia!
- The four characters you probably don’t recognize are Wingnut, Chromdome, Armaggon, and War, but only the first two got their own action figures.
- Armaggon and War are characters from the TMNT Archie Comics series. Armaggon is a mutant shark from the future, and War is one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
- Aska (the girl) isn’t from any TMNT universe – She was made up by Konami, exclusively for this game. In her Mutant Warriors win pose, her chest bounces. But not in Tournament Fighters.
- Rat King and Karai are the bosses. Many will remember Rat King from the cartoon, but not Karai! She became the leader of the Foot Clan after Shredder’s death in the original black-and-white Mirage TMNT comics.