Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Playthrough with Casey Jones. This is the SEGA Genesis version of Tournament Fighters, which is included on the TMNT Cowabunga Collection. It’s also one of the worst fighting games I’ve ever played, whilst I wasn’t a huge fan of the SNES version, it is a far better game than this pile of crap. There’s so much wrong with it! This comes across as being made by a bunch of people who wanted to make a fighting game, but had no idea on how to go about doing it. The hitboxes are a complete mess, and there’s so much broken stuff and mechanics it is borderline unplayable, especially in single player.
Casey is one of the best characters because of his special moves. He has a bomb he can plant just by pressing down and taunt, and its explosion covers a large portion of the screen. It’s actually preferable if the opponent blocks it because it does so much chip damage. The only drawback is that the explosion can hurt Casey himself if he’s too close to it. His best move however is his QCF+A/B attack, because it’s almost completely invincible! It goes right through projectiles and most other moves, and just spamming that is the key to beating this game most of the time. He’s also got a projectile reflector move which isn’t too useful, at least compared to his other moves.
The CPU in this game is horrendous. If you want the best ending, you have to play on the highest difficulty level, which is what I’ve done. But if you do this the CPU can kill you in as little as three moves, the damage they do is extremely high. But far worse is that they can stun you in one hit, sometimes they can re-dizzy you from a single hit as well! But then even worse than that is the fact that some opponents abuse the throw loops this game has -you can get thrown in this game over and over without being able to do a thing about it.
The plan with Casey is to try and trap the opponent in the corner and then keep using his bombs on them. Some opponents you just want to use his QCF+A/B move over and over, especially on the bosses. I chose April as my first opponent because she is one of the few characters (possibly only?) who can counter Casey’s swinging move -she has this Vega-style jump high and grab you attack. The other two most difficult opponents I found were Casey himself, as his AI is programmed to abuse his bomb and swing moves, and Donatello, who just is the most difficult of the Turtles to beat for some reason.
This game has three bosses. They were not playable in the original Genesis/Mega Drive version of the game, which was seemingly a last-minute decision. Look at the back of the USA version’s box:
segaretro.org/File:TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles-TournamentFighters_MD_US_Box.jpg
Notice how the screenshots show Triceraton and Krang being used in 2 player matches. Well this version rectifies this, as you can now use the bosses. They’re all extremely cheap as well, but no match for Casey’s tactics. I found Triceraton to be one of the most difficult purely because he can and will get you in a throw loop. Karai is bad for this too, not helped that she has a gigantic grab range. Krang is the easiest boss to beat with Casey, but is he saying what I think he’s saying when he fires missiles at you?
The SNES version had individual endings for everyone and you could play on the default difficulty to see them. The Genesis version only has one, generic ending for everyone, which is another reason the SNES version is better. I guess if there’s one positive thing I could say about this game is that it has Casey and April as playable characters, neither of whom could be played as in the SNES version. But other than that, everything else about this game is terrible. And how can you have a TMNT fighting game without Shredder in it?
Playthrough with Casey Jones. This is the SEGA Genesis version of Tournament Fighters, which is included on the TMNT Cowabunga Collection. It’s also one of the worst fighting games I’ve ever played, whilst I wasn’t a huge fan of the SNES version, it is a far better game than this pile of crap. There’s so much wrong with it! This comes across as being made by a bunch of people who wanted to make a fighting game, but had no idea on how to go about doing it. The hitboxes are a complete mess, and there’s so much broken stuff and mechanics it is borderline unplayable, especially in single player.
Casey is one of the best characters because of his special moves. He has a bomb he can plant just by pressing down and taunt, and its explosion covers a large portion of the screen. It’s actually preferable if the opponent blocks it because it does so much chip damage. The only drawback is that the explosion can hurt Casey himself if he’s too close to it. His best move however is his QCF+A/B attack, because it’s almost completely invincible! It goes right through projectiles and most other moves, and just spamming that is the key to beating this game most of the time. He’s also got a projectile reflector move which isn’t too useful, at least compared to his other moves.
The CPU in this game is horrendous. If you want the best ending, you have to play on the highest difficulty level, which is what I’ve done. But if you do this the CPU can kill you in as little as three moves, the damage they do is extremely high. But far worse is that they can stun you in one hit, sometimes they can re-dizzy you from a single hit as well! But then even worse than that is the fact that some opponents abuse the throw loops this game has -you can get thrown in this game over and over without being able to do a thing about it.
The plan with Casey is to try and trap the opponent in the corner and then keep using his bombs on them. Some opponents you just want to use his QCF+A/B move over and over, especially on the bosses. I chose April as my first opponent because she is one of the few characters (possibly only?) who can counter Casey’s swinging move -she has this Vega-style jump high and grab you attack. The other two most difficult opponents I found were Casey himself, as his AI is programmed to abuse his bomb and swing moves, and Donatello, who just is the most difficult of the Turtles to beat for some reason.
This game has three bosses. They were not playable in the original Genesis/Mega Drive version of the game, which was seemingly a last-minute decision. Look at the back of the USA version’s box:
segaretro.org/File:TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles-TournamentFighters_MD_US_Box.jpg
Notice how the screenshots show Triceraton and Krang being used in 2 player matches. Well this version rectifies this, as you can now use the bosses. They’re all extremely cheap as well, but no match for Casey’s tactics. I found Triceraton to be one of the most difficult purely because he can and will get you in a throw loop. Karai is bad for this too, not helped that she has a gigantic grab range. Krang is the easiest boss to beat with Casey, but is he saying what I think he’s saying when he fires missiles at you?
The SNES version had individual endings for everyone and you could play on the default difficulty to see them. The Genesis version only has one, generic ending for everyone, which is another reason the SNES version is better. I guess if there’s one positive thing I could say about this game is that it has Casey and April as playable characters, neither of whom could be played as in the SNES version. But other than that, everything else about this game is terrible. And how can you have a TMNT fighting game without Shredder in it?
