I love me some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As a kid, one of the first action figures I ever really cared for was a Leonardo fig from the first wave. One of my favorite NES-era games was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3. Early Saturday mornings were all about the TMNT cartoons for me when I was a small boy. Had I known about the Eastman and Laird and comics back then, I would've asked my folks to pick those up for me. The live action movies had me geeking out like crazy, and I was 7 years old. The new Nickelodeon series kicks ass, and so does the ongoing comic book series published by IDW.
You can just imagine the horror I felt when news broke out that Michael Bay was taking the TMNT helm. Hope was restored when it turned out he was producing it instead, with Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath of the Titans) directing it and that Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird have a hand in the story. I was appeased with this news, but still feel a little unsure. Despite that being a gray cloud in the horizon, news about TMNT: Out of the Shadows started popping up and I was again filled with glee.
We've seen some gameplay footage and it has what we all want from TMNT games - lots of beat-em-up action!
Michelangelo
Mikey's got the highest attack speed out of all the turtles, but he's also got the lowest damage rating to a single opponent. So, I think we should think of him as an SMG - low damage but with a high rate of attack to compensate. For speed lovers, Mikey's your character.
Raphael
Raph is the opposite of Mikey in the sense that he's got the highest single opponent damage output. He also has the ability to put away his sai and brawl, which fits his character very well. His most glaring weakness is range and crowd control.
Donatello
Donnie has the slowest attack speed out of the four, but has the longest range. And since he's always been a methodical fighter, he also has the longest window for counter attack (which tells us that the game has a countering system, like the Batman: Arkham games).
And true to his character, he'll bring gadgets to diversify his attacks. Turns out, this isn't just a straight up brawler, which is going to be interesting to see.
Leonardo
As I feared, Leo is going to be the most generic character of the lot. He has no single glaring strength or weakness. His stats are going to be balanced and pretty much average. Even the video description says he's going to be the best choice for a novice character. That further perpetuates the Cyclops Syndrome of "vanilla" characters.
Since he's the best technical fighter, why not give him the most complicated combos? They'll be hard to execute, but satisfying to pull off because of a damage bonus or character buff, something like that. Or since he's the leader, shouldn't team-up combos with Leo do extra damage? You know, something in the gameplay that supports the character. Don't make him vanilla.
Oh well, we'll see how Leo really handles when the game comes out. No official date yet, but it should be available for download on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC soon.