One thing I know for sure – those turtles are worlds apart from these renditions I have just seen. And while kids back then thought that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of their day kicked butt, I am pretty sure that no one will contest that Dave Rapoza’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will trump the good old turtles.

Dave Rapoza showcases his work at DeviantArt, and it blows my mind. I do have this propensity for dark things – although my tolerance for things of the dark is way below other people’s – and Dave’s depiction of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is dark as dark can be. Oh, and not only are they dark, they are so realistic as well! Check them out below, although you may not immediately recognize them except for the colors of their bandannas.

Donatello

Dark Donatello

Raphael

Dark Raphael

I think that this is my pick. Sure, I have always like the fact that Raphael was the one who kept the red bandanna, but this drawing is just fierce. I can’t think of any other word to describe it, can you?

Michelangelo

Dark Michelangelo

Leonardo

Dark Leonardo

Splinter

Dark Splinter

Dave did not limit himself to the turtles. Of course, Splinter had to be included in the mix. And I have to say this: his eyes are just disconcertingly captivating.

Dave does have a whole lot of drawings of other characters, which you can see on his DeviantArt page.

Now it’s not too hard to imagine a movie with the characters being depicted as such, is it?

The Bionic Man #1

Quite the delicacy of first issues this week, and I am beginning to wonder if Dark Horse will retain its mastery of the licensed titles. Both Dynamite and IDW continue to challenge them with impressive offerings, as we see this week with the release of The Bionic Man #1 from Dynamite, and the return of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Kevin Eastman from IDW.

It makes a nice change to not be talking about the DCnU, but on that note – Aaaaaand another thing! I’ve been re-reading Countdown, which at the time was panned and seen as a poor successor to Fifty Two, but compared to the Flashpoint? It’s a thoroughly enjoyable read and considering the reception it received, if this is a good example of the nostalgic ‘good old days’……

Well, I can leave the rest unsaid.

Dynamite in comparison, continues to thrill. Now I never really saw the Six-Million Dollar Man the first time around, I was just a little too young. In fact, I probably know more about the Bionic Woman than the man, and I never really caught the bug.

Scripted by Kevin Smith with Phil Hester, the dialogue in The Bionic Man #1 is what struck me the most. It is fun, realistic and quite witty. I may not know the characters well yet, but I already like test pilot Steve Austin and his lover, the beautiful Jamie. As a teacher, I imagine she is quite the force to be reckoned with.

By the end of the issue, we are not quite at the crash that will turn Austin to such an expensive action figure, but we are only seconds away. Yet after such a well-paced and written issue, I can say that I will feel his pain. This is an excellent relaunch, with interior art to match. Everything that the cover promises is delivered.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles however returns to the hands of their creator, and considering they began as a comic strip, I’m not sure you can call them a licence in the same manner. This I also missed the very beginnings of, so I am not sure if this is a relaunch, or continuing the story from Mirage Comics. However, I found myself soon drawn into the plot as a rival gang attacks Splinter and his boys, while one turtle is AWOL. The issue has the feel of what I believe the very original Turtle work was supposed to be like, (no more Hero Turtles, thank goodness), and even if there was a little too much fight in the story, there was ample exposition, and I shall return for a second dose.

Not really much of an “obscure” game, not by a long-shot, but still one of the perennial favorites among SNES-owners and lovers of all 2D fighters. Obviously, since this feature is called “Nintendo Archive”, I will be reviewing the Super Nintendo version of the game. However, let it be known that there were two other versions of this game; one for the original NES and one for the Sega Genesis. Each game had different playable characters, which is sort of a shame, as two of my favorites, Karai and Casey Jones, are not featured in the SNES version.

TMNT Tournament Fighters was inspired by the “sparring match” feature from the TMNT: Turtles in Time brawler. Basically, you could practice your moves in a 2-player sparring match with limited fighting options. That proved to be a very popular feature and so it spawned the Tournament Fighter series. The SNES version has 3 modes you can play the game in; Story Mode, Tournament Mode or 2-Player. The Story Mode is fun, though it only allows you to play as one of the 4 Ninja Turtles. Still, adding a story gives the game a bit more depth and I almost wish more fighters would do it the way Tournament Fighters did. In Tournament Mode you can play as any of the characters, including the villains, to win lots of cash. So you sacrifice the story but you still get to play as any character you want (and there are cheat codes available so you can play as the final bosses, too).

The game had an interesting feature added to give the fights a little more “oomph”. The more blows you threw at your opponent, whether they blocked them or not, your Mutagen Meter would gradually increase. Once it was full you could unleash a super-powerful attack to devastate your enemy. This was appreciated, as I had a buddy who preferred to play “defensively” (as in, he’d cower in a corner, blocking, and just waiting everything out). It got annoying. This feature rewarded the more hyper-active fighter with a killer special attack if you could go crazy and not die before your meter filled up.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, reliving old video game memories, and I remember him telling me that the one thing he hated about Tournament Fighters was all the “made-up” characters Konami put into the roster. Well, I corrected him, of course. While characters like Armagon and War never featured in the cartoon series, they were very popular in the Archie TMNT comic. Meanwhile, characters like Chrome-Dome and Wingnut did appear in the cartoon, though sparingly (and, again, they were more popular in the Archie comic). I believe Aska is the only “made-up” character in the whole game. She was probably tossed in there just for the sake of having an obligatory female character (with April O’Neil and Karai having already been secured for the game on another system). It’s a shame not enough people read the Archie comic back in the 90’s, as it took the characters and origins as they were presented in the TMNT cartoon, but made them royally hardcore.

As far as the characters go, you’ve got a good selection. My favorite was always the Cyber Shredder (The Shredder but with cyber-armor), mostly because I thought the Shredder just looked damn cool. He had a good selection of moves, like the Forearm Crusher, the Lightning Crusher (his Mutagen Meter attack), a forearm shield and a nasty throw-move. Leo and Aska were probably the most annoying to play against. Leo was cheap as Hell, constantly using his energy attack on you. Thankfully, Cyber Shredder’s forearm shield could deflect it right back at him. All the turtles also carried-over their special moves from TMNT 3: the Manhattan Project, the classic NES brawler. So Leo also had his spinning sword move and what-not. Raph had his drill-attack from the Manhattan Project intact, and for a projectile move he could hurl red bursts of energy at you, similar to Krillen’s “Destructo Disk” from Dragonball Z. All the turtles also had throw-moves. Mike could spit fireballs at you from out of his mouth
which was very strange. His most annoying move would be his ability to propel himself upward like a helicopter with his nunchakus. So trying to get him with a jumping move was rather difficult. Then there’s Don. He has a great reach with his bo-staff and can smack you around pretty bad with that thing. His projectile attack was his ability to send a bolt of energy at you through the ground. Not a very good move, as it was easy-enough to avoid by jumping.

As for the “extra” characters, some were better than others. Aska was a very defensive player; she could block ANYTHING. So it required a bit of patience to beat her (I hate patience!), as you had to wait for her to make the attack so you could get an opening. She had some stupid tornado move and really nothing very impressive; she’s probably the lamest character in the game. Wingnut, due to his wings, was always hovering above the ground and could dodge attacks real easy. He could also jump really freakin’ high, thanks to those wings. His attacks sorta mimicked break-dancing moves, which looked rather cool. Chrome-Dome was the games “Dhalsim”, if you will. His legs could extend great distances to hit you in the face. He also had rapid-hitting attacks where he could pull-off a half dozen hits on you in the span of a second. Armagon, the shark-guy, could spit big balls of energy at you and smack you up with his tail. And War, well, I never had any trouble beating that guy. His hits were real strong, but he was so big and slow that moving around him was easy. Not designed very well. And the boss characters were both a strange and expected selection. The “mini-boss” of the game is
the Rat King? Don’t get me wrong, the guy’s hardcore in the comics and cartoons, but the second-to-last boss? He also looks like he’s either a pro-wrestler or on steroids, as he’s friggin’ HUGE. His moves are, again, wrestling-inspired and involve no actual rats. Then, the final boss is Krang. Who didn’t see that coming?

The graphics are excellent, on par with any fighter Capcom released for the 16-bit era. This was actually the first Konami 2D fighter I ever played (hell, have I ever played any others from them?) and they did a magnificent job. The overall quality of the graphics, controls, moves, stages and character selection is just as good as anything Capcom has ever released, and they’re generally revered as the premiere company when it comes to 2D fighters (well, the SNK fans would argue that to their graves). The overall quality and entertainment value of the whole game leaves me to wonder why it never expanded. Unless you count that fact that there were three versions released on 3 different systems at the same time, Tournament Fighters never got a sequel. I suppose this had to do with the TMNT’s dwindling popularity toward the mid-90’s. Still, a “Tournament Fighters Collection”, featuring all 3 versions of the game, would be ideal. Especially considering the TMNT’s recent resurgence.