Different people may give different answers to the question of where the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” sentiment lies in the country.
In many people’s memories, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” was the cartoon they watched after school as children, and the hip-hop style of the whole film was quite special and impressive on the TV screen at that time; and for those who had “Little King learning machines” at home, the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series represented the most joyful and fun co-fighting game on red and white machines. For those who have “Little Fighter” at home, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series represents the most joyful and fun co-fighting game on the red and white machines, and is the perfect choice when the neighbors and classmates come home to play the game together; at the same time, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” is also the opportunity for some people to get in touch with the “street culture” in Europe and America at first ……
Whether it is the birth or the follow-up, the development of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” is just like what happened to the four turtles in the show, which is called “alternative” and has experienced a series of ups and downs; for most people, these four ninja turtles are also becoming a fading childhood memories.
But that doesn’t stop them from taking a firm place in pop culture.
1
In today’s terms, the creation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a “stitch-up”. Two unknown comic book artists formed a comic book company called Phantom Studio, which didn’t even have an office, to create the images of the mutant turtles.
The original title of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) is a straightforward expression of the main selling point of this work – it clearly borrows from the X-Men series, which is also The story of the growth of mutant teenagers into superheroes, but also into the “Nightmare” origin story; although the newly added “Oriental Ninja” elements popular at the time, the real support for the overall atmosphere of the work is the American underground street culture.
In those days, there were so many parody comics that it was a good idea to find a publisher to support your family by serializing them. But the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were at the height of the “franchise” model, where big manufacturers were acquiring the rights to produce specific merchandise for small works like a blind box, even if the characters themselves were not yet known.
Originally appearing as comics, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are more akin to Sanrio’s Hello Kitty or Dalek than the typical “Super Brit Comics” characters. “The “character images” usually take precedence over the “story” and can appear in any appropriate context, with no emphasis on the so-called “original” content.
This “chicken and egg” business model looks good, but in fact it is the norm for franchises to compete to “kill the chicken and egg” to squeeze the commercial value out of the characters – within a few years, the big and small players will turn to the “original” content. In a few years, manufacturers of all sizes will turn to tighten up the scale of licensing for their brand images.
Only a few lucky people really benefited from this trend and became household names with the help of many, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were one of them.
In 1987, after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic had been running uneventfully for a few years, Playmates Toys acquired the rights to produce the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures (FIGMA) toys, but at first they weren’t sure how much of a potential audience the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had at this point, and whether it was really worth starting a line for. It was initially uncertain how much of a potential audience the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had at this time and whether it was really worth opening a production line for.
For this reason, Color Star asked for the rights to adapt the series for television, and got an animation studio to produce a five-episode mini-series to test the market for the four turtles.
At a time when “Transformers” was making a lot of money with its long-running animated TV series driving sales of the original toys, many investors in the market were looking for the next “Transformers”, and some of them ended up looking for “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and joined forces with CBS joined them and started producing more animated content.
As a result, the ratings of the subsequent works were a hit, and this version of the animation was nearly 200 episodes, broadcast from 1987 to 1996, and was once the most broadcast episodes of animated films in the history of American television.
Along with the rousing rap theme song, this version of the animation actually became the cornerstone of the overall atmosphere of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, pushing these initially unknown turtles to the world stage.
2
Most of the early 87 versions of the anime aired on TV were incomplete, even missing the initial five episodes of the origin story, and the unit drama format lacked a complete story line, making it hard to see the end of the story.
But this does not affect the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the year between the young audience deep hearts, which on the one hand is the animation title song in a few shots is good enough to understand the basic story, but also can not be separated from the Konami production “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series of games to help.
In the 87 version of the animation became popular, Konami also took the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” game adaptation rights, began to anime as a model for the production of corresponding home console games. Since the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was not very famous in Japan at that time, Konami also gave the Japanese version of the game a special name of “Turtle Ninja Legend”.
The first generation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a scrolling platform action game, known for its hardcore difficulty, but still a hit with its rich content – not only can players control four turtles with different weapons and different action characteristics, they also have a variety of secondary weapons to expand. The game can even drive the turtle chariot across the city from a top view angle.
The FC game was a hit in Europe, America and Japan, and helped the Turtles craze reach new heights, with new anime, new movies, special features and TV commercials, and the Turtles were active on the screen in various forms.
However, most of the domestic players to the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” game until the mid to late 90s after the popularity of “Zeppelin”, at this time Konami has been in the red and white machine launched a number of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series of works, in addition to the “Ninja Ninja Legend of the Turtles” two sequels, and fighting games “Turtle Express” (in the domestic often (often translated as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4” in China).
The “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3IN1”, which combines these games, was one of the most popular cassettes at the time, and most of the young players went for the second and third generations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
These two sequels have changed the style of play of the first generation, into a horizontal clearance game also supports two-player, the difficulty is also greatly reduced, more emphasis on the fun and fast pace. At that time, there are few better than them as a “party game” choice, skilled players can work together in the game, each other’s scores, and new players can also pick a handy weapon, follow the majority of the level process, not always on the sidelines or become a drag.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from time to time to look at the screen of the dumb kind is also unbearable, impressive!
This is the popular other horizontal breakout or PVP game is difficult to provide the fun, than the game itself, more memorable is often the scene of the happy atmosphere, and after playing the game and then watch the animation broadcast on TV will also be a different feeling, as if they had been in it.
3
As the saying goes, flowers don’t last forever, and naturally, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will not last forever. At the beginning of the 21st century, although there are still Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-related works launched one after another, but the trend has reached the end of its popularity.
This is in line with the general rule of things, but there are still many fans who attribute the gradual demise of the series to the franchise model distracting from the management of the content, making the direction of the story gradually out of control. And when a female Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles finally made an appearance in the special TV series, even the founder of Mirage Studios, who has always adhered to the principle of openness, had to admit that the work had gotten completely out of control.
But at this juncture, the four turtles got lucky again. At this point the rights to the series’ animated television adaptation came to Fox Broadcasting, and a completely rebooted set of brand new episodes was created, dubbed Version 03.
The first few seasons of this version of the animation were also introduced into the country, through the CCTV channel six broadcast. As a movie channel, CCTV 6 rarely shows anime and continues to show anime episodes, but “Channel 6” happens to be the news channel that the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles loved to watch, so this introduction and broadcast was considered a tribute to the Turtles craze back then, and also allowed some new young viewers to get to know these characters specifically.
Compared to the 87 version, the new version of the series four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character differences become more distinct, some popular supporting characters such as host April, city vigilante Casey Jones have more roles and more fleshed out character, even the villain Schrader also from the face of the villain to the “pursuit of violence on the wrong path but deep down there is still a samurai spirit “complex image.
In addition, the development of the story also has a clearer main line, the world view has become more unified, more “Cyber flavor”; the film also occasionally change the camera frame of the presentation, a refreshing way.
These improvements have helped the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to cater to the new era, the 03 version of the animation does not bring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back from the dead, but it has certainly given it a shot in the arm. Konami also used the 03 anime as the basis for developing new games for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series again after many years, and the 3D top-down version on console platforms and the GBA’s crossover titles with many moves are the products of this period.
The GBA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 also featured a wider variety of characteristics, such as Michelangelo’s ability to use nunchucks to descend slowly like a bamboo dragonfly, and Donatello’s ability to pole vault with the help of a long stick.
This wave of Turtles fever, although not as big as before, is proof that the brand has stood the test of time, and by 2007, there was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles CG movie in theaters around the world, for which Ubisoft produced a companion game.
After the end of the 03 version of the animation, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV animation was taken over by Nick Cable Channel, and in 2012 it was made into a new CG animated series for children, which once again started a long serialization …… and these are quite distant things for most of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans in China.
When 2014, by the “Transformers” live-action film director Michael Bay as a producer of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” released, due to the previous “Transformers” series in China’s good response and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” potential audience, the film’s box office in China is also highly anticipated. However, compared to Transformers 4, which took the top spot at the Chinese box office in the same year, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ less than $400 million box office is barely enough.
In the end, the domestic audience for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sentiment is ultimately cohesive in the year 87 version of the animation and FC games, which is why after many years, when the new game “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Schrader’s Revenge” once the public, in the domestic game players have gained a high degree of attention, far beyond any new work in the same series.
This work is not produced by Konami, but the developers do not hide their tribute – retro HD pixel style, familiar character shape and posture, even many game scenes are also familiar.
The developers initially claimed to dedicate this work to all the loyal viewers of the 87 prints and the eager fans of the Konami series of games, pulling the full expectation of the fans; the result is that we have waited for several bounces and a long wait until now to finally play the game.
4
Although the game adaptation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series is now in the hands of Nick Cable, and “Schrader’s Revenge” was made with its authorization, the game’s character images and settings are almost entirely based on the 87th version of the anime, including, of course, the familiar theme song.
If you have to say what has been added, it is probably the original show is always in danger for various reasons waiting to rescue the female reporter April transformed from a vase to a woman who can fight alongside the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The number of players who can play on the same screen in “Schrader’s Revenge” has been increased from two to six, which naturally requires more actionable characters, not only April, but also Master Sprint and Casey Jones (unlocked after the first time through the episode mode).
These characters have their own characteristics, attack range, attack speed and energy accumulation efficiency varies, as well as their own sure kill techniques and taunt action. In addition to these intuitive differences, these characters also have subtle but not hard to detect differences in the feel of the moves and strikes, and it is easy to find the character that you like better during the game.
The game’s main content is not long, a total of 16 levels, about two hours to pass through the plot mode. The first half of the game is full of tributes to Konami’s second and third generation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with many scenes and enemy configurations almost replicated in HD, including the memorable “Skateboard Pass”.
The game’s production team has said that making a retro “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” game is their dream, and in the game can really feel that this is their dream journey – on the one hand, the past levels in a modern way to show, but also to fill in the content that regretted not being able to see in the game.
Schrader’s Revenge” includes not only more actionable characters on the same screen, but more importantly, modern and convenient online methods. The Steam version supports the “Remote Play” feature, which allows a player who has purchased the game to invite other friends to join the game for free.
The game’s easy and normal difficulty are quite easy to play, the plot mode also contains a light element of development, the player character can increase the accumulation limit of the stance bar; while the hard mode and limited life pass “arcade” mode is closer to the difficulty of the FC games, requiring a certain degree of backboard and coping strategies to pass safely.
Conclusion
Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello – the names of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are all taken from “Renaissance” artists, and their creator said that there was no special meaning when he first named them, just that he had just finished his art history course. He borrowed a few familiar names in passing.
Who would have thought that years later, these little turtles would become one of the representatives of the new round of “retro style” in the gaming world, really with a little “renaissance” meaning.
Like “Schrader’s Revenge” such horizontal clearance game is usually considered long out of date, the audience is very little, but in these years ushered in a small explosion, “blood series”Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles》and “Fist of Fury” of the new work are widely acclaimed, well received and well received; and many people feel that the waning fighting game is still one of the most popular game genres. The same new works are frequently released, the response is not bad ……
The fashion industry always says “aesthetics is a circle”, and this may also be true for the game industry.
