Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters

Developer: Konami   Publisher: Konami   Release:09/04/93   Genre: Fighting

When Street Fighter 2 hit the SNES it opened the floodgates for not only arcade ports but also many an original home fighting game. Some of these were based off popular manga like Ranma while others were original properties. Developers even turned to licenses, anything to get a slice of that pie. So it should come as no surprise that Konami threw their hat in the ring with TMNT: Tournament Fighters. While the Genesis game was a disappointment its SNES counterpart is fantastic and one of the better fighting games for the system.

Tournament Fighters comes with a variety of modes right out of the gate. The arcade mode sets up a tournament with its ultimate prize being a large cash payout. This motivates a number of characters to come out of the woodwork with their own plans for that money. In the story mode Karai kidnaps Splinter and April O’Neil, leading the Turtles on a country wide chase to save them. It should be noted that this game loosely follows the comics’ continuity at the time where Karai has replaced Shredder as the leader of the Foot Clan as he is dead. The Shredder is part of the cast but is technically a robot, but they are not fooling anyone.

The roster pulls characters from all Turtles media for a varied but unconventional cast. All four turtles are present and accounted for. It would have been easy to make all four clones of each other with minor differences but Konami have done an excellent job making each brother distinct. There are only slight similarities in their basic move sets and their special moves are all unique. Technically the Shredder is in the game but it is disappointing that fan favorites like Bebop and Rocksteady did not make the cut.

The rest of the cast will be unfamiliar to all but the most diehard Turtles fans. Chrome Dome only appeared in an episode of the cartoon. Wingnut, Armaggon, and War all come from the Archie comic which ran concurrently with the Mirage series. The sole original character is Aska. Aska resembles a ninja version of April O’Neil which would not have been surprising as April began to practice ninjutsu in the TMNT Adventures series. However her character is based on Mitsu from the third Turtles film. But after the movie flopped Konami wisely chose to distance themselves from that bomb. Karai and the Rat King serve as the game’s bosses.

In terms of mechanics Tournament Fighters closely follows Street Fighter Turbo while being more accessible. The game only uses four buttons for light and heavy punches and kicks. Special moves are performed using the same motions as Capcom’s title with inputs being just as forgiving. Game speed has multiple options to cater to those that like a slower, more measured pace or breakneck matches. At the highest setting the game is nearly unplayable. It is worth it just to see it in motion although I cannot imagine anyone preferring it.

Konami chose wisely in mimicking Street Fighter. Because the basic gameplay is so similar most will be able to jump in with no problems. Multi hit combos are possible and the overall game feels incredibly fluid. Character balance is done pretty well although it does skew in favor of the turtle brothers. They have the most special moves, three compared to most everyone else’s two. While they are different each plays very close to Ken and Ryu. But while they copy Capcom Konami one upped them. Tournament Fighters was one of the first fighting games to feature a super meter, with every character possessing an easily executed super move. The effectiveness of each super move and the rate the Mutagen Meter fills is different per character. Cyber Shredder fills his meter very fast but his super is easily dodgeable. Meanwhile Michelangelo has average gain but devastating power.

Where the Sega version has aggressive AI the computer in this game can be rather stupid. Characters like Chrome Dome and War are easily susceptible to the same attack. You can bait Leonardo into repeating the same pattern you can exploit for a cheap victory. Some are not as dumb; Armaggon can be a nightmare and Shredder is very aggressive. Luckily the variety of multiplayer modes makes up for it.

As an original title for the SNES Tournament Fighters looks fantastic. This version opts for a more vibrant, cartoony look compared to its Sega counterpart. It does not suffer in the slightest for it as the backgrounds are incredibly detailed and brimming with life. Because this was tailored to the SNES it does not have to suffer animation cuts and matches and exceeds the later SNK arcade ports. And it has an exceptional soundtrack to boot. To be fair none of this should come as a surprise; Konami rarely missed back then.

In Closing

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters is an excellent fighting game and one of the best of the 16-bit era. Konami knocked it out of the park with this one and it holds up even today.