I’ve said during many of the videos Dre and I do that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was all I was about when I growing up. Mario Bros. decorated my room, but it was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles who filled my toybox and my video cassette shelf. One of the turtles even visited my birthday party and danced with all of us, it was only later did I learn that the turtle was an hour late and my mom was furious. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles really never went away as I grew up, I was always aware of them and kept up with their numersou iterations. They had a few reboots that kept with the kids show asthetic but had a hint of an edge. They were always seemed to find their way as downloadable content into games I was playing and just when I thought they couldn’t blow me away, the story of The Last Ronin came out. It gained big press as it was to go back to a darker version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is how they originally were when created.
***SPOILER WARNING IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE LAST RONIN***
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin was a 5 part series written by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Tom Waltz and Andy Kuhn. The story deals with a distant future where all of the our heroes have passed away in battle and the only turtle left is Michaelangelo who is rescued by April O’Neil’s daughter and reunites with April at the end of the first issue. Through the issues we learn that Leonardo, Raphael, Donetello, Casey Jones and Master Splinter have all perished in battle and April was badley injured to the point where she has a few cybernetic limbs. Oroku Hiroto, is the new villain and, from what I remember, the person in charge of the city where this story takes place. He’s referred to as the bastard grandson of Shredder. There’s a lot of flashbacks and good story to be told, so if you haven’t read it go do so.
Recently Doug Rosen, senior vice president for games and emerging media at Paramount Global, had an interview with Polygon and dropped some big news concerning Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin. He said that a game based on the story was in development with gameplay leaning towards the look of God of War. This is huge and it fits perfectly.
Game Ideas
In the story Michaelangelo is carrying all of the weapons of his fallen friends, so he literally has an arsenal with him. You can head back to April’s house for upgrades and train with her daughter and her friends to improve their skills so they can help while you’re along in the city. I would love to see some quicktime events dealing wtih the death and demise of enemies in the game, and if they are going to be true to the story then that’s what we can expect. You have to have an end scene where Michaelangelo is fighting Oroku Hiroto and the final scene is him using all of the turtles weapons to land the final blow. He hits him with Donatellos bo staff to knock him down so he’s on his hands and knees, stabs his hands with Rapheal’s Sai’s and either beheads him with Leonardo’s sword or stabs him through the back. Another version is Oroku pulling his hand up with the Sai’s still in them and Michaelangelo stabbing him through the heart as they both fall and die.
I’m sure there will be some great final blows in the game, but it would also be great if my ideas made it in. In any case I’ll keep following this and hopefully get a review copy if available.