Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters



"Turtle Combat!"

A fighting game series based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's a series, not a Multi Platform release, because even though there are three games with the same name on the NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis, each one is a different game. All were released in 1993.

The SNES version would be most familiar with Street Fighter fans, as it has the most Follow the Leader elements, although it was noted to copy those elements well. The other versions had different mechanics, due to fewer buttons.

Compare Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash Up.

Tropes of the games in general:

 * Reformulated Game: All three games were promoted as different versions of the same game.
 * Snub By Omission: Each game features a different Ninja Turtle as its cover character. Since no fourth version of the game was ever made, Michelangelo was left out. Curiously, Konami never thought of promoting Radical Rescue (the third Game Boy game) alongside the Tournament Fighters games, despite being releasing at the same time and having Michelangelo as the default character.
 * Something Completely Different: Unlike the previous Turtles games based on the '87 cartoon, which were mostly Beat'Em Up games, these ones were competitive fighting games.

Tropes of the Genesis Version:

 * Action Girl: April O'Neil is based more on her Took a Level In Badass self from the comics than the cartoon version. She wears a sports bra and miniskirt (an outfit very similar to her "Ninja Newscaster" action figure) and hands out flying german suplexes.
 * AI Breaker: Play as Ray Fillet. Crouch. Use his strong kick. Win game. (He slides forward and the AI doesn't recognize the sliding part, so it never blocks)
 * Canon Foreigner: Sisyphus the mutant beetle.
 * Dub Name Change: Sisyphus is known as Musha Beetle in Japan.
 * Evil Twin: The four turtles each have a doppelganger who serve as mini-bosses.
 * Guide Dang It: The desperation moves. There's only a vague hint in the manual stating they even exist, and to perform them, you need to use the taunt button, which serves no purpose otherwise and if you screw up the often-complicated motion, your character is now a sitting duck.
 * Scenery Porn: The stage backgrounds are very detailed.
 * SNK Boss: Triceraton. His throw does around 60%-75% damage.

Tropes of the Super NES Version:

 * Ass Kicks You: Aska
 * Attack Reflector: Cyber Shredder's Aura Shield.
 * Bare Your Midriff: Aska
 * Breath Weapon: Michelangelo, Armaggon
 * Bowdlerize: Aska wears a thong in the Japanese version and bloomers in the other releases. Her victory animation in the Japanese version also has her breasts jiggling while she raises her arm in victory, whereas in the overseas versions she uses the same animation pattern as Kunai Spin Attack.
 * Canon Foreigner: Aska is the game's only original character, although she was based on Mitsu from the third live-action movie.
 * Everything's Even Worse With Sharks: Armaggon
 * Expy: In the pre-release builds of the game, Aska was originally named Mitsu, who was a supporting character in the third Turtles film, although the final version of the game treats her as an original character.
 * Final Boss: Karai
 * Hurricane Kick: Donatello does a headstanding hurricane kick.
 * Kamehame Hadoken: Raphael, and Wingnut have the most proper forms of the attack, but many of the other characters have something close.
 * Limit Break: Arcade and versus modes only.
 * Market-Based Title: The Super Famicom version was titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Warriors.
 * Marth Debuted in Smash Bros: Kids who were adherents of the cartoon and had no exposure to the original comic would likely be seeing Karai, War and Armaggon for the first time here.
 * Mirror Match
 * Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Leonardo's super move is sending out waves of blue energy fists in a cone that fills up the screen at the far end.
 * Karai's rapid-fire fists.
 * Razor Wind: Leonardo's "Shining Cutter"
 * Roundhouse Kick: All the turtles have this as a move.
 * Ryu and Ken: While all four Turtles look about 90% identical, Leonardo and Michelangelo are the ones that fit this trope the closest; Leo is the classic Ryu-type fighter, while Mikey is more Ken-like with faster, multi-hitting attacks (albeit with charge motions rather than quarter-circles).
 * Shock and Awe: Chrome Dome's "Chrome Spark"
 * Shoryuken: Michelangelo and Aska have the purest forms. Others have moves that come close.
 * Spam Attack: Donatello's rapid bo attack, Michelangelo's super move is a series of rapid kicks and punches up close.
 * Spin Attack: Many of the moves.
 * Took a Level In Badass:
 * Traintop Battle: The fight against Karai takes place atop a moving elevated car.
 * Unwilling Suspension: April and Splinter, although, April is more distinctly Bound and Gagged.
 * Whole Costume Reference: In the concert stage, the singer is wearing Madonna's pointy bra.
 * Wrestler in All of Us: The Rat King's "Rat Bomber" and "Rodent Suplex" moves.

Tropes of the NES Version:

 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: Hothead, who is based on the Warrior Dragon in the Archie TMNT comics.
 * Kamehame Hadoken: Relegated to a powerup that can be acquired during a match from an item dropped by Splinter, although Shredder has constant access to a ground variant.
 * Mirror Match: Averted with Hothead... when the game is played normally; its justification is that the dragon spirit inhabiting the character wouldn't permit such a battle to take place. If the player uses a Game Mod to accomplish it, though, he will see that the real reason is because it causes a helluva lot of flicker in the sprites.
 * No Export for You: Unlike the other two, this one didn't get a Japanese release.