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You’re Doing It Wrong: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Franchise Misuse

Posted by John Constantine

I understand. Using a familiar property to sell a game is a great way to make it popular. Just look at the myriad faux-sports games Nintendo’s made in the past decade. Would Tennis have been a hit on Gamecube? Hell no. That’s why you give Mario and everyone else living in a Mushroom Kingdom area code a racket and put them on the courts. The familiar will bring people in to play something they wouldn’t have otherwise. While the franchise-means-audience maxim holds true, I’m baffled by the way certain properties get used. Sonic Riders is a perfect example. Why in the hell would you make not one, but two separate racing games starring Sonic the Hedgehog when nobody runs? It would be like making a Transformers game where Optimus Prime spends the game renewing his trucking license.

Ubisoft’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for Wii is just as misguided. A Turtles fighting game isn’t an inherently bad idea. Actually, the long-forgotten Tournament Fighters has a decent reputation. But it’s not a genre the franchise is best suited for. TMNT: The Arcade Game's beat ‘em up model is perfect for the property because it’s about co-operation, not competition.

All that aside, the real reason this game is a terrible idea is that Ubisoft is wasting a great license, a license celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary, on a game that doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of finding an audience. Who in their right mind puts a Smash Bros. clone on the Wii? That the game is developed by Smash Bros. dev Game Arts is beside the point. That the Turtles are very popular is beside the point. The point is that Wii owners will have no incentive to buy this game. Turtles fans don’t get the action-adventure game that would appeal to them and Smash Bros. fans already own two copies of Smash Bros. Well done there, Ubisoft.

Considering that no one knows anything about the game yet, I could very well be wrong. The new Turtles game could have a deep, lengthy co-operative campaign for all we know. As of right now though, a “TMNT Smash Up” seems like a waste. Now, if Ubisoft and Nintendo were re-releasing Smash Bros. Brawl with Turtles characters and levels added in, that would be a different story…

Related links:

Sonic Unleashed is Filled With Lies
Sonic the Hedgehog: I'm Just Not that Into You
Sonic Unleased: Worse Than Syphilis
Alternate Soundtrack: Battletoads vs. The Blood Brothers
A Perfectly Cromulent Beat-Em-Up

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+ DEL.ICIO.US

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Posted Jan 27 2009, 06:30 PM

Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, ubisoft, gamecube, sonic the hedgehog, smash bros, teenage mutant ninja turtles, mario tennis, game arts, sonic riders, tmnt

Comments

Nemo Incognito said:

Now that I think about it the Smash design might be quite conductive to "take engine and insert new characters/licence(s)". But it's not as versatile as Mario Kart was so we might not have to worry about a flood of derivative 'smash fighters' over the next few years. I hope.

January 27, 2009 7:38 PM

AlexB said:

I don't know, I believe "fighting game plus characters who practice martial arts" works. I think I have to disagree with your premise in general, also. Yes, there is license abuse in video games. But I would also say that the nostalgia factor of using characters from Nintendo/Sega/the 80s does potentially add something to what would be an otherwise generic (in terms of theme) game.

Also, isn't the real test whether or not the game is fun? Take the "Mario" out of Mario Tennis, and it would actually still be a fun tennis game. Take the Nintendo theme out of Smash Bros, and it would still be a fun and deceptively deep fighting game. While the nostalgia of the characters certainly adds to a game, the game itself has to not suck. Ubisoft already made a next-gen Turtles co-op game (a couple, actually) and they were really, really dull.

People who own the Wii generally like Smash Bros. Many of those people who own and play Smash Bros are in the 18-25 demographic and grew up loving Ninja Turtles. I have to say, I think this could be a real sleeper hit.

January 27, 2009 8:43 PM

Roto13 said:

This makes no sense. People buy multiple games in the same genre all the time. It's like saying there's no reason to buy Streets of Rage if you already have Final Fight.

January 27, 2009 10:01 PM

LBD "Nytetrayn" said:

Agreed, I think this one's going to be different enough from Smash to find an audience, especially if they can manage to improve the online somehow (I think they said they were working on it/working on the flaws of Brawl).

Plus, I don't think that the core rules work quite the same, the whole "knock them out of the arena" thing; I think this one is more knock-out based, but with a more Smashing playstyle.

January 28, 2009 12:43 AM

AlexB said:

The most important issue: when Sega will give in to fan demand and make a Sonic Riders 3. Haven't they heard the public outcry?!

January 28, 2009 1:27 AM

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

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