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The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have survived a myriad of opponents over
their surprisingly long existence. They survived their third movie, they
survived the increasingly crappy tangents the 90's cartoon went on, and they
are currently surviving Konami's apparent steadfast determination to throw
them into insanely repetitive beat-em-ups. So why not take them out of the
beat-em-up cookie cutter that Konami has somehow forgotten how to do right,
and put them into an RPG? Yes, I am advocating development of a Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles RPG.
To allow for the potential of dropped jaws, I'll just do a little recap of
the gaming history the TMNT have. It began with the NES and the arcades.
On the former the Turtles starred in an adventure that did not follow the
beat-em-up formula, instead revolving around more Castlevania-style action
(this is a loose analogy! Please, no death threats!). Unfortunately the
reports from the scene have this title being too difficult for players to
enjoy. In the arcade the TMNT did indeed star in a beat-em-up, about which
I can offer much firsthand commentary thanks to investing at least $50 in
quarters over the years. This is hardly a complicated game, but the
beat-em-up recipe did not go stale in the time it took to play it through.
The game was subsequently ported to the NES as TMNT II: The Arcade Game,
with additional levels - my brief playtime left me unimpressed thanks to the
NES's inability to replicate the arcade experience however. The NES was
then granted TMNT III, following the beat-em-up style. TMNT II in the
arcades was another beat-em-up, one which I never had the opportunity to
play in its arcade form. But as reports have its SNES home version being
superior anyway, I do not feel the lack. TMNT IV: Turtles in Time just
might be the best of the TMNT games from the early 90's. Konami got lazy
and essentially ported the game, with parts visibly taken from the first
arcade game and a few original bits, onto the Genesis as TMNT: The
Hyperstone Heist. The Konami made TMNT: Tournament Fighters for NES, SNES,
and Genesis in 1993 - each having a different version of the game. Tournament Fighters represents the only attempt to give Turtles a straight fighting game, and it threw quite a few characters who had not been seen in
the games into the game lexicon. The Game Boy also had three TMNT titles in
the early 90's, with varying reports of quality. The TMNT were then dormant
until the new TV series brought fresh beat-em-ups to the
soon-to-be-last-generation consoles.
Hm - that TMNT game wrap-up took longer than I anticipated. But it
establishes the lengthy legacy the Turtles have in the gaming world, without
even touching on the original comics in the mid 80's that started the whole
series, the Archie comics that lasted for around six years, the original TV
show, the movies, and the new TV show. With all of this material at hand,
piecing together a cast worthy of an RPG is no trouble whatsoever. Shredder
would probably be the major villain, as he is in the majority of the TMNT's
source material, but I would like to make a vote to include Krang here, just
because a talking brain is still not something seen very often. Plenty of
other villains are present: Bebop, Rocksteady, Triceratops, Rat King,
Armaggon, the Four Horsemen, Baxter Stockman, Metalhead, and Leatherhead
merely scratch the surface of the potential names. Plenty of potential
allies to make a more varied party are also available: April O'Neil,
Splinter and Casey Jones being just the most obvious (although we can hope
Irma and Vern from the original cartoon stay away....)
Weapons the Turtles already have, and well-enough differentiated to make
each one a somewhat different playing experience in TMNT IV. If a
beat-em-up can give the characters a different feel in battle, an RPG ought
to do a far better job. Incorporating something of a magical type would
require a bit of divergence from the source material, but the Turtles have
been displaying special attacks that drain health for awhile now - the
potential to give them something that better fits into an RPG environment is
there! This would be even easier with the myriad of allies the Turtles can
have. April may not fight much, but who is to say she doesn't possess the
makings of a mage? As for fodder in regular battles, Food Soldiers of the
robotic and living variety along with all the beings Krang can summon from
Dimension X and the peons of the many other villains suffice - and this is
without adding anything new, but adding more is always welcome.
The biggest difficulty in developing a worthy TMNT RPG lies in crafting a
reasonable story - something that no Turtles game has ever really tried to
do. And crafting an overarching tale is just one part of the scenario - to
be a worthy title there ideally should be character development that
surpasses the dialogue usually uttered by the characters in play. The
Turtles have the ability to be deeply philosophical, and their allies do
also. Giving personality to the villains is the major obstacle to surmount
here (presuming the protagonists are in fact granted meaningful interaction
- that ought not be negotiable!), but its resolution would be most
delightful. Shredder has seen hints of development before, but Krang really
needs a good background and motivation beyond being an evil warlord. Bebop
and Rocksteady have never really advanced beyond being moron mutated punks.
The opportunity to give something more to the antagonists should be taken
full advantage of.
The tone of the current TMNT TV series seems about right for a gripping RPG
- the original TV series was frivolous to the point of silliness. The
movies possessed a potentially sufficiently serious tone, but the absence of
many of the more fantastic elements from the Turtles canon makes the movies
more needful of alteration. The original comics were quite probably the
darkest of all the Turtles material, and unless a potentially exclusionary
rating is sought this grittiness might be going too far. Of course, I can
deal with the darkest the Turtles have to offer; it is merely a matter of
balancing this with the desire to make the title playable by the most
potential consumers.
Konami has proved in the past that it knows how to give the Turtles a
worthy game. They have never been tested on their ability to deliver a
worthy quest of length - because the new TMNT games all get insanely
repetitive and may induce carpal tunnel syndrome (or so I have it on good
faith from friends and the press, given that I lack the hardware to play
these titles). Perhaps a change of game type is what Konami needs to again
make a worthy TMNT title. Or perhaps Konami ought to give the job to its
Suikoden-oriented team. The chance deserves to be taken!
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