When it came to the early 1990s, one fighting game that will get brought up often is the ever popular Street Fighter II. And with Turtle Mania dying down in the 90s, it seemed only natural to try to get the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into the fighting genre. Tournament Fighters would be the last TMNT related video game that we would see from Konami, releasing on three different platforms, the NES, Super Nintendo, and Sega Genesis, each having a different story and cast of characters.

The Super Nintendo version

The most remembered version of the title, Tournament Fighters on the Super Nintendo is also the most visually pleasing. The Channel 6 News reporter, April O'Neil hosts a fighting tournament and Splinter encourages the turtles to join in to stay in fighting form. Unlucky for them however, is that the Shredder has chosen to appear as well. The fighters you get to play as in this version are the turtles, the new Cyber Shredder, War, a huge purple creature, Aska, a ninja girl who's exclusive to the game, Chrome Dome, a fighting android, Wingnut the alien bat, and Armaggon, a mutant shark from the future.

With several of the Super Nintendo controller buttons to work with, the characters have light and heavy attacks to work with, as well as using a super move that they can unleash after filling a "mutagen meter" and pressing two attack buttons at the same time. The stages to choose from look pretty awesome, from New York back alleys to a cafeteria, a flooded pirate ship and a lot more. The challenge is definitely competent, and reaching the boss characters like Karai will test your skill at timing hits and dodging out of the way of lightning fast attacks.

The Sega Genesis version

Releasing at the same time of the Super Nintendo version of the game, Tournament Fighters on the Genesis has the turtles going on an intergalactic adventure to fight clone versions of themselves, along with guest fighters Casey Jones, April O'Neil, Ray Fillet, a manta ray mutant, and Sisyphus, a mutant rhinoceros beetle as they go to different planets and eventually Dimension X to rescue Splinter from the clutches of Krang and Shredder's daughter, Karai.

As you would expect coming from the Super Nintendo version, characters have their own moves and super attacks to use for a winning advantage. Although the game released during 1993, there's no use for the six button controller. This version of the game received heavy criticism for its difficulty, as enemy A.I. would constantly use super attacks or grabs. Even on the lowest difficulty, it can be a challenge just making it to the last bosses, but that doesn't mean you should miss out.

The NES version

Knowing that there was a fighting game on the NES was pretty mindblowing, and even moreso seeing the game in action as it released as late as 1994 on the console. The story here is that Shredder simply sends a note to the turtles to see who is the strongest among the challengers. As for the fighters, you get the turtles, Casey Jones, Hothead, and Shredder himself. Obviously since you only have the A and B buttons to work off of, pulling off moves is a bit limited. Every once in a while a hologram of Splinter will fly around the arena to drop a red ball. The first to catch it can use a devastating super move that takes off a chunk of health to the opposing fighter. This version of the game is fun, but I think I prefer the Super Nintendo version the most for its presentation.

Wait, where's Mikey?

As Tournament Fighters released on three different consoles, three of the turtles were represented. Donatello was featured on the front of the Super Nintendo box, Raphael for Sega Genesis, and Leonardo for the NES game. But that raised the question, where's Michelangelo?

It wasn't talked about very much during the years of the title release, but noticing that a fourth version of the game without Mikey did bring about speculation to me when seeing magazine advertisements. Perhaps there was a Nintendo Game Boy/Sega Game Gear version planned, but never saw the light of day due to time constraints working on the other three versions? Whatever the case may be, I was offput in seeing my favorite turtle being absent without his own version.

Despite that detail, I still enjoyed the games for what they were, a last bit of TMNT representation before the 1990s came to an end.What are your memories of playing Tournament Fighters? Leave a comment and as always, see you next article!