I recently bought the Cowabunga Collection, and the timing couldn't be better as my retroactive reviews for my Retro Games Bucket List has finally reached the TMNT games. I plan to replay each of the 16-bit games again before turning in reviews, though I've played them so much since they released that I think I already know what I'm going to say. Tournament Fighters for the SNES is a bit of an exception, though. It was the one Turtles game I didn't play in the 90s, I didn't know anyone who owned a copy and if they rented one then I certainly wasn't invited over to play. Instead, I had to put up with the absolutely miserable Genesis Tournament Fighters, which you can read my review of here.
The key difference between these games is that the SNES version is a passable if somewhat unremarkable fighting game, whereas the Genesis version seems like it was designed by parents who wanted to get their kids to hate the Ninja Turtles and break them from the death grip of Turtlemania. SNES Tournament Fighters plays things pretty safe, effectively being a Turtles reskin of Street Fighter 2. The presentation is fine, the gameplay is fine, but it also doesn't feel like it has any identity outside of the branding. The Genesis version, on the other hand, is as grotesque to look at as it is brutal to play. There's no question in my mind which is the better game, but so too is there little doubt about which I find more interesting.
I do think it's a little lame that you can only play the story mode with one of the four turtles, especially since there is no story to speak of. Each match starts with you exchanging a small dialog with your opponent, which mostly amounts to "Hey, join the Foot clan!" "No thank you." After each match you jump back into your blimp and move on to the next fight. You're telling me they couldn't have done this with Shredder or Chrome Dome as the player character? Sure, you can just set up an AI match and play with the full roster, but I always found it hard to get invested in tertiary modes when playing fighting games solo, and it's a bummer that the story mode isn't as fleshed out as it could have been.
That's my one real complaint though. Otherwise, Tournament Fighters is just a competent fighting game for the Super Nintendo. There's nothing too special about it, but it's not like it doesn't do anything wrong either.
Honorary mention for Karai who they have wearing her more comic accurate jacket with the big shoulder pads. I love that jacket. I want her to step on me.
The key difference between these games is that the SNES version is a passable if somewhat unremarkable fighting game, whereas the Genesis version seems like it was designed by parents who wanted to get their kids to hate the Ninja Turtles and break them from the death grip of Turtlemania. SNES Tournament Fighters plays things pretty safe, effectively being a Turtles reskin of Street Fighter 2. The presentation is fine, the gameplay is fine, but it also doesn't feel like it has any identity outside of the branding. The Genesis version, on the other hand, is as grotesque to look at as it is brutal to play. There's no question in my mind which is the better game, but so too is there little doubt about which I find more interesting.
I do think it's a little lame that you can only play the story mode with one of the four turtles, especially since there is no story to speak of. Each match starts with you exchanging a small dialog with your opponent, which mostly amounts to "Hey, join the Foot clan!" "No thank you." After each match you jump back into your blimp and move on to the next fight. You're telling me they couldn't have done this with Shredder or Chrome Dome as the player character? Sure, you can just set up an AI match and play with the full roster, but I always found it hard to get invested in tertiary modes when playing fighting games solo, and it's a bummer that the story mode isn't as fleshed out as it could have been.
That's my one real complaint though. Otherwise, Tournament Fighters is just a competent fighting game for the Super Nintendo. There's nothing too special about it, but it's not like it doesn't do anything wrong either.
Honorary mention for Karai who they have wearing her more comic accurate jacket with the big shoulder pads. I love that jacket. I want her to step on me.