Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Genesis game)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Warriors in Japan, or Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: Tournament Fighters in Europe) is a fighting game for the Sega MegaDrive and Sega Genesis. This version of the game was released around the same time as its Super NES counterpart.

When four purple doppelgangers of the turtles appear and kidnap on 's behalf, the Turtles team up with some of their allies and trek across the galaxy searching for their master. During their sojourn, they come across the clones of themselves and their friends, and eventually a, Krang himself, and the real mastermind behind the plot,. The control scheme of this version greatly differed from the other incarnations, as it included a Punch button, a Kick button, and a Taunt button. The Taunt button could also be used in conjunction with a specific D-Pad motion when the character's health was low to unleash a mighty Desperation Attack. The cover featured and a Triceraton.

Characters
Characters in this version included:
 * Sisyphus
 * Clones of the playable characters
 * (unplayable boss character)
 * (unplayable boss character)
 * (unplayable boss character)
 * Sisyphus
 * Clones of the playable characters
 * (unplayable boss character)
 * (unplayable boss character)
 * (unplayable boss character)
 * (unplayable boss character)
 * (unplayable boss character)

Gameplay
The MegaDrive/Genesis version uses the standard three-button controller, with only two buttons for attacking (punch and kick). To perform stronger punches or kicks, the player must hold the directional pad towards the opponent while pressing either attack buttons. The third button is used for taunting. Some of the stages in the game feature destroyable scenery that gives the player and their opponent access to new areas in the stage. As well as their special moves, each character has a 'killer' attack which is only accessible when they are close to death and the red part of the characters' life gauge at the top starts flashing. This is done by pressing the Taunt button in conjunction with a specific D-Pad motion. These moves nearly take out the other characters life gauge completely.

The game has eight playable characters, which includes the four Turtles and Casey Jones, as well as April O'Neil (whose active role differs from the versions of the character featured in other games), Ray Fillet (a character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comics), and Sisyphus (an original character, named Musha Beetle in the Japanese version). The player can adjust their power and speed after selecting their character.

The main single player mode features the turtles and their allies traveling to various planets in Dimension X, fighting against clones of themselves, as they seek to rescue Splinter from Krang. After defeating the eight clones, the player travel to the final three stages to fight against a Triceraton, Krang's Android, and Karai (in that order). The game has a two player mode, as well as a practice mode in which the player faces the computer in a 1-round match, and a "Tournament" where the player must defeat 88 opponents with one life gauge.

Music
The music in this version was tailored for each character's personality and is considered the best soundtrack of the three ports. It was composed by renowned videogame composer Miki Higashino, in collaboration with Masanori Adachi.

Trivia

 * In 2010, a YouTube user by the name of Junanagou discovered a way to alter the game's data to allow the three bosses to be playable. Only accessible via a "Trainer" program directly from Junanagou himself, Triceraton, Krang's Android, and Karai are more or less full characters with second character palettes, complete move sets (including a Desperation move for Triceraton), and complete stability during gameplay. This, coupled with screenshots showing player 1 and 2 as bosses on the game's back cover and in the manual, offer evidence that the bosses were initially intended to be playable, and the method to do so was removed.