On the day of the release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Schlader's Revenge, relive the story of how four little turtles made their way onto the world cultural stage.
For most of the post-80s and post-90s in China, even if they can't point out the four humanoid turtles in the above picture one by one, who is called Michelangelo and who is Leonardo, or explain who uses the double stick and who makes the double fork, most of them can also shout out their common name - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Where the feelings of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" lie in China, different people may also give different answers.
In the memory of many people, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was an animated film they watched after school when they were children, and the hip-hop style of the whole film was also quite special and impressive on the TV screen at that time; And for those who have a "Little Bully Learning Machine" at home, the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" series represents the most joyful and fun fight game on the red and white machine, and is the best choice for neighbors and classmates to come to the house to play the machine together; At the same time, the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is also an opportunity for some people to first contact the "street culture" of Europe and the United States...
Whether it is birth or follow-up, the development process of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is like the encounter of the four small turtles in the play, which can be called "alternative", and has experienced a series of ups and downs; For most people, these four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are also becoming fading childhood memories.
But none of this prevents them from still having a firm place in popular culture.
1
In today's terms, the birth of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a literal "stitching monster." Two unknown cartoonists formed a comic book company, Phantom Studios, which did not even have an office, and created several mutant turtles.
Early manga images of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, whose English title was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, bluntly expresses the work's main selling point — it clearly borrows from the X-Men series, which also tells the growth of mutants to become superheroes, and also incorporates the origin story of Night's Magic; Despite the addition of the "Oriental Ninja" element that was popular at the time, what really underpinned the overall atmosphere of the work was the American underground street culture.
The characteristic of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is probably that most of the mutant hero protagonists are mutated from humans to animals, and they are mutated from animals to humans, and as teenagers, they are not bound by general human norms.
At that time, there were so many such eighteen-line parodies that could be found in publishing houses to earn a fee to support their families. But Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was catching up with the "franchise" model at the time, with big players buying specific commodity production rights for various small works like blind boxes, even if the characters themselves are not yet known.
At the end of the 2009 commemorative film "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Forever", the scene when the two authors first created the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was restored - only hoping that the images of these little turtles could be sold
After the manga magazine basically established the style image of the four Teenage Mutants, Mirage Studios sold the "franchises" of these characters to different manufacturers, and the images of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were gradually printed on various T-shirts and hats, and toys were placed on the shelves of the mall.
Although originally featured in manga form, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is more similar to Sanrio's "Hello Kitty" or "Big-Eared Dog" than the typical "Super British Manga" characters, who usually take precedence over "story" and can appear on any occasion where appropriate, without emphasizing the so-called "original" content.
The "franchise" model, which combined "profitability" with "promotion", was hot at the time. The manufacturer that obtains the "franchise" not only purchases the character image authorization in a specific field, but also jointly develops this IP as a "franchisee", so it has a high degree of autonomy and can add many of its own ideas to the creation, making the work more suitable for the market.
This business model of "borrowing chickens and eggs" looks beautiful, but in fact, the business value of franchisees competing to "kill chickens and eggs" to squeeze the commercial value of the role is the norm - in a few years, large and small manufacturers will tighten the authorization scale for their brand image.
Only a few lucky people have really benefited from this trend and become household names with the help of many parties, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are one of them.
In 1987, after several years of tepid serialization of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, Playmates Toys acquired the right to produce the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series of FIGMA toys, but at first they weren't sure how many potential audiences the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had at this point and whether it was really worth opening up a production line.
To this end, the color star asked for the right to adapt the TV production of the series, and found an animation studio to produce a five-episode mini-animation series to test the market prospects of the four little turtles.
The five-episode anime follows the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' first encounter with Schrader and the Bigfoot Gang
At first, the mini-anime did not get much of a warm response, but the toy company still started production, began to bring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dolls to the market, and also continued to provide the broadcast rights of these episodes of the animation to the broadcasters, so that they were repeatedly brainwashed on TV, as if advertising the toys.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, produced by The Color star according to the anime setting, can move the doll
At that time, "Transformers" through the long-form TV animation to promote the sales of original toys to make a lot of money, many investors in the market are looking for the next "Transformers", some of them eventually found the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", joined with CBS, began to produce more animation content.
As a result, the follow-up works were a hit, and this version of the animation was nearly 200 episodes, broadcast from 1987 to 1996, once the most broadcast animated film in the history of American television.
Accompanied by an exciting rap-style theme song, this version of the anime actually became the cornerstone of the overall atmosphere of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, propelling these little turtles, who were initially unknown, to the world stage.
2
In the early 1990s, the 87th edition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles also entered the Chinese mainland.
At that time, China also experienced a period of "Transformers" craze set off by animation, and a number of local television stations invariably hit "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and competed to introduce this work that is expected to succeed. As a result, the 87th edition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has had different translations produced by many television stations in Guangdong, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Beijing in China, and the Chinese translations of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are also different. At present, the resources circulating on the Internet are generally DVD versions later released by Guangdong Donghexing and dubbed by Liaoyi.
In some versions, Donatello, who used a long stick and was in charge of item development, was once called "Einstein"
Most of the 87 versions of the animation broadcast by the early TELEVISION stations were incomplete, and even the original five episodes of the origin story were missing, and the unit drama form also lacked a complete story line, teaching people to watch without a beginning and an end.
But this does not affect the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles among the young audience of the year, on the one hand, the few shots in the opening song of the anime are enough to understand the basics of the story, and it is also inseparable from the help of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" series of games produced by Konami.
When the 87 version of the animation became popular, Konami also won the game adaptation rights of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and began to make the corresponding home console game based on animation. Since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was not yet famous in Japan at the time, Konami also gave the Japanese version of the game a special name for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Legend".
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a reel-based platform action game known for its hardcore difficulty, but it's still a hot seller for its rich content — players can not only control four turtles with different weapons and different action characteristics, but also have a variety of secondary weapons to expand. The game can even drive the Turtle Chariot across the city from a top-down perspective.
Players can even drive turtle chariots through the streets and alleys to engage enemies
This FC game is popular in Europe, america and Japan, and has also boosted the turtle boom to a new height, accompanied by new animations, new movies, special dramas, and TV commercials, and the figures of the turtles are active on the screen in various forms.
The 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature film also grossed well at the box office and was a landmark in the series
However, most domestic players will not be exposed to the game of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" until the mid-to-late 90s after the "Little Bully" is popular, at this time Konami has launched a number of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" series of works on the red and white machine, in addition to the two sequels of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Legend", there is also the fighting game "Teenage Mutant Ninja Kombat" (often translated as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4" in China).
The "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3IN1", which gathered these games, can be said to be one of the hottest cartridges at the time, and most of the small players went to the second and third generations of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
These two sequels have changed the gameplay style of the original generation, becoming a horizontal clearance game and supporting two-player play, the difficulty is also greatly reduced, and more emphasis is placed on fun and fast pace. At the time, there were few more suitable options for "party games", where skilled players could unite and score points with each other, while novice players could also pick up handy weapons and follow their friends through most of the process of the level, without always being on the sidelines or reduced to dragging oil bottles.
The look of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles looking at the screen from time to time is also very funny and impressive
This is the popular fun that other side-scrolling or PVP games are difficult to provide, more memorable than the game itself, it is often the atmosphere of live joy, and after playing the game, watching the animation broadcast on TV will also have a different feeling, as if you have once incarnated in it.
There are many things that can be called the common memories of the post-80s and post-90s in China, and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is an indispensable part of them.
3
Just as the so-called flowers are not red, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" naturally cannot flourish for a long time. By the beginning of the 21st century, although there were still Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles related works, the trend had reached the end of the crossbow.
This is also in line with the general law of the development of things, but there are still many fans who attribute this series to the franchise model that decentralizes the management of the content of the work, so that the development direction of the story is gradually out of control. And when the female Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles finally appeared in the feature TV series, even the founder of Mirage Studios, who has always adhered to the principle of openness, had to admit that the work was completely out of control.
There is also a female Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the TV series
But at this very moment, the four little turtles were lucky again. At this time, the tv animation adaptation rights of the series came to Fox Broadcasting Company, and a completely rebooted new set of episodes came into being, known as the 03 version.
The first few seasons of this version of the animation were also introduced to China and broadcast through CCTV Channel 6. As the central six sets of movie channels, few anime series continue to be broadcast, but "Channel 6" happens to be the favorite news channel of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the original game, so this introduction and broadcast is considered to be a tribute to the craze of the Turtles of that year, and also let some young new viewers know these characters specifically.
Compared with the 87 version, the personality differences of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the new version of the series have become more stark, some popular supporting characters such as host April, city vigilante Kathy Jones have more scenes and fuller personalities, and even the villain Schrader has shifted from a facial villain to a complex image of "going astray in pursuit of violence but still having a samurai spirit in his heart".
The 87th edition and the 03rd edition of April's styling and human design have no small difference
In addition, the development of the story also has a clearer main line, and the world view setting has become more unified and more "cyber-flavored"; There are also ways of changing the format of the lens from time to time in the film, which is refreshing.
These improvements have helped the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cater to the characteristics of the new era, and the 03 version of the anime is not called bringing the Teenage Mutant Turtles back to life, but it is undoubtedly a shot in the arm. After many years, Konami has once again developed a new game based on the 03 version of the anime series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the 3D top-down view version on the console platform and the horizontal version of the GBA with a variety of moves are the products of this period.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 on the GBA also has a more diverse set of characteristics, such as Michelangelo's use of a double-knuckle stick like a bamboo dragonfly to slow down, and Donatello's use of a long stick to jump
The turtle craze, though not as great as before, proved that the brand had stood the test of time, and by 2007, there were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles CG movies released worldwide, and Ubisoft had made matching games for it.
After the end of the 03 version of the anime, the TV animation of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was transferred to nickelodeon cable channel, and in 2012, it was produced into a new CG anime series for children, and the long series began again... And that's pretty far away for most Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans in the country.
April's image has also changed again
In 2014, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" produced by "Transformers" live-action director Michael Bay was released, and due to the good response of the "Transformers" series in China and the potential audience of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", the film was also highly anticipated at the Chinese box office. However, compared to "Transformers 4", which won the box office championship in Chinese film history in the same year, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" can only be said to be barely strong at a box office of less than 400 million.
The immersive style of teenage mutant ninja turtles is not acceptable to everyone
After all, the domestic audience's feelings for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are ultimately condensed on the 87 version of the anime and FC games of that year, which is why after many years, when the new game "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Schrader's Revenge" was released, it received a high degree of attention among domestic gamers, far exceeding any new work in the same series.
Because it just looks like the spiritual continuation of the second and third generations of Konami's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".
Screenshot of early exposure of Schrader's Revenge
The work wasn't produced by Konami, but the developers didn't hide their homage — retro HD pixel style, familiar character styling and gestures, and even many of the game scenes were familiar.
The developers' original announcement that they would dedicate this work to all the loyal audiences of the 87th edition of the anime and the ardent fans of the Konami series of games were full of fan expectations; As a result, everyone waited for several ticket jumps and long waits, until now they can finally play this game.
4
Although the game adaptation rights for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series are now in the hands of Nick Cable, and Schlader's Revenge was produced with his permission, the characters and settings in the game are almost entirely based on the 87 version of the anime, including the familiar theme song.
If anything had to be added, it would probably be that in the original drama, the female reporter April, who was always in danger for various reasons and waited for rescue, was transformed from a vase to a scarf who could fight alongside the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
For the audience of the 87 version of the animation, watching April holding a microphone and punching and kicking the Bigfoot Gang is indeed a very outrageous thing, it can be said that if she wants to have this fighting ability, half of the story in the 87 version of the animation does not exist
This setting may be a reference to Nick's version of the animation in part, in which April also learns from the mouse master Sprinter and becomes a female ninja. But it's more obviously for gameplay reasons.
The number of players who can play with the same screen in Schrader's Revenge has increased from two to six in one go, and naturally more actionable characters will be needed, not only April, but also Master Sprint and Casey Jones (unlocked after the first time they complete the story mode).
These characters have their own characteristics, with different attack ranges, attack speeds, and energy accumulation efficiency, as well as their own must-kills and taunts. In addition to these intuitive differences on the surface, the stroke articulation and blow feel of these characters also have subtle but not difficult to perceive differences, and it is easy to find the role that they prefer more during the play.
The main content of the game is not long, a total of 16 levels, about two hours to complete the story mode. The first half of the game is full of homages to Konami II and III "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", and many scenes and enemy configurations are almost HD reproductions, of which there is naturally a memorable "skateboard level".
In the second half of the game, whether it is the square supporting role or the villain boss, the animated characters who have not had the opportunity to appear in the old game are all unveiled, and the scenes of the game are no longer limited to the familiar New York City and the bigfoot gang's old lair, and the turtle chariot carries the player to more places.
The game's production team had said that making a retro Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game was their dream, and in the game they could really feel that it was their dream journey - on the one hand, they showed the past levels in a modern way, and at the same time filled in the content that they regretted not being able to see in the game.
So as a player, what childhood dreams can be fulfilled in this game? That's probably "a fun party that can accommodate more people" and no longer have to queue up to take turns when there are many people.
Schlader's Revenge not only includes more player-to-screen characters, but more importantly, it adds modern and convenient online methods. In addition to multiplayer locally via keyboard and gamepad, players can also invite friends online through online mode or match up with unfamiliar players. The Steam version also supports the "Remote Fun" feature, and a player who has purchased the game can invite other friends to join the game for free.
The game also adds more player mutual help content in the gameplay, such as "blood uniformity" and "saving people", which can make the cooperation process more satisfactory.
The game's simplicity and normal difficulty are quite easy to play, and the story mode also contains a mild cultivation element, and the player character can increase the maximum accumulation of the trick bar; The "arcade" mode of Hardmode and limited-life clearance is closer to the difficulty of the FC game of that year, requiring a certain degree of backplane and coping strategy to pass the level safely.
Just like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game of the year, Schlader's Revenge is not necessarily the best retro side-scrolling game of the moment, and there are many places that will make players feel "deserved but not", such as more variations of moves between different characters, and the traps on the map are more monotonous... But if you can find a good guy to play a few levels together, it is enough to make people feel a unique joy.
epilogue
Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello – the names of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are all derived from Artists of the Renaissance, whose creators say that they did not have any special meaning when they were named, but that he had just finished his art history course by borrowing a few well-known names.
No one could have imagined that many years later, these little turtles would become one of the representatives of a new round of "retro style" in the game world, really with a little "Renaissance" meaning.
Side-scrolling clearance games like Schlader's Revenge are often considered obsolete and have few audiences, but in recent years have ushered in small explosions, and the new works of "Blood Series" and "Iron Fist of Fury" have been widely acclaimed, acclaimed and acclaimed; And many people think that the fading fighting game is still one of the hottest game types at the moment, and the same new works are frequent and well received...
The fashion industry always says that "aesthetics is a circle", and for the game industry, perhaps the same is true.