The TMNT:TF face-off of my dreams.
Sorry it’s been awhile, but I was thinking today, as a fan of the Archie Comics, and going through the rosters from all 3 TMNT:TF games, gosh the roster is Archie heavy.
Of course you have the Turtles and Shredder in all 3 versions. Casey is in the NES and Genesis versions. Karai is also in 2 versions. April shows up on the Genesis, but look at the other playable characters:
NES:
The only other playable character is Hot Head, a character from the Playmates toy line, but also based more on the Warrior Dragon from Archie.
SNES:
War is one from an arc in the Archie comics, that also involved the Mutanimals. Wonder where Death, Famine, and Pestilence are? That makes 2 Archie characters.
Aska was created just for the game…lets skip her.
Chrome Dome was a character from the series and the toy line. So heck the toy-line ties with Archie so far. 1 for the series.
Wingnut was in the Archie series, an episode of the show, and the toy-line. Maybe my original premise was off…3-3-2.
Armaggon was only in Archie! Oh how I wanted a figure…curse you Playmates!! 4-3-2
Rat King is playable only with Game Genie…I think. He was in the Mirage Books, the OT, the toy-line, and Archie. Wow, the first aside from the main cast to hit all 4 Turtle mediums of the time. 5-4-3-1.
Genesis:
Ray Fillet is an Archie and Toy character. 6-5-3-2 (NO, I don’t count Ray from that one episode…)
Sisyphus was also a game exclusive…
Triceraton was in Mirage, the show in one episode, and even a toy! 6-6-4-3
Krang is in all but Mirage…well at least in canon.
Ok…so maybe I was wrong…it’s not so Archie heavy. But then again the toy-line had 3 universes to pull from.
Any thoughts as to why there were so many Archie characters?
I can only speak for the NES and SNES versions.
The Super version is definitely Archie-centric. Frankly it’s the TMNT Adventures game. In addition to the mostly Archie cast, the very concept of an “ultimate fighter in the universe” concept seems to be borrowing from the intergalactic wrestling issues. The art and sprites is mostly Archie as well (which makes sense since for some characters that’s all they could go on). The turtles are Michael Dooney but with bright colouring to suit the rest of the game.
What’s interesting is that the NES version even has a different story. Instead of the fighting being a big, public spectacle, Shredder has simply kidnapped Splinter (and the turtles fight each other to decide who will rescue him?… doesn’t make sense, but whatevs). But what’s really odd is that everything is based off of the first movie’s designs! While plot-wise it has little to do with the movie other than Splinter being kidnapped by Shredder (which happens all over the place in other comics and cartoons), everything is movie-influenced. It’s the closest thing to a video game based on the original movie. Hothead/Warrior Dragon is the only real Archie influence, but I see your point that Adventures seemed to make it into these games across the board.
–>> Interesting all the little background cameos to take in, a fun little extra about the SNES version : Channel 6, the Mousers and the Neutrinos while heavy from the TOS also – very early on technically were in the Archie books. Fly Baxter has a cameo in SNES – and technically too the human version of this Baxter appears early in the Archie series and briefly later when Armaggon confronts Shredder poppin out from the Time slip. Bebop and Rocksteady too had great Archie story arcs.
The NES version design of Shredder seems to lead a bit from the first movie.