TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: TOURNAMENT FIGHTERS - GRANDMASTERS EDITION Super Nintendo Entertainment System written by Allo on 3rd March 2025 REASONING AND JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGES ======================================= BALANCE CHANGES The main goal of changes made in this "Grandmasters Edition" was to balance the Grandmasters Rat King and Karai (who are boss characters and therefore overpowered) by "nerfing" them sufficiently, so they may be used in fair competition. This also serves to expand the competitive roster by 2, increasing the playable characters from 10 up to 12. This adds more variety to the gameplay and can change up the existing meta, keeping this game fresh and exciting. These changes were chosen by first assessing what tools made Rat King and Karai too strong, and then figuring out the best way to reduce the effectiveness of these tools. (It is important to note that these changes only apply when played by a human player, so as to make the final bosses in Tournament and Story Mode still very formidable to create a good end game challenge!) These changes were then playtested for some time, which yielded promising results. However, it will be worthwhile getting very high level, competitive players in the TMNT: TF community to truly explore these balances as it will likely take some time for the meta to evolve, and strategies to be found. Hopefully people see this as a good start! RAT KING -------- RAT BOMBER - USEABLE DURING BLOCK STUN Rat King is too strong for a number of reasons. The first is his Rat Bomber, which 1) has a greater throw range than even Chrome Dome's Electric Pile Driver; and 2) because the throw system allows a character to be thrown during block stun, when combined with the fact that Rat King is positive on block with most jump-ins and grounded attacks, he can essentially react to his opponent's block by performing an inescapable Rat Bomber; 3) his rebound after the move is small enough to make it so that he is easily in range to perform another Rat Bomber. Being thrown out of block stun is an essentially a broken mechanic in the game, so this issue was resolved my making a global change to make characters unable to be thrown while in block stun. TMNT: TF is a Street Fighter clone, and no Street Fighter game (outside of World Warrior) permits throws in block stun. It stands to reason that TMNT: TF also should not allow being thrown out of block stun. RAT BOMBER - RANGE AND RECOIL Rat King's Rat Bomber range has therefore been reduced from 88 pixels, to 80 pixels (which is the same as Chrome Dome's Electric Pile Driver). This only applies to human players. Rat King's Rat Bomber also normally leaves him close enough to very easily get into range again to do another one! As a result, his post-move rebound has been increased, and the opponent is also able to recover faster, making Rat King have to put a lot more work to get into Rat Bomber throw range again. GENERAL DAMAGE Rat King's attacks also do too much damage. His Rat Bomber does a whopping 38 damage, which beats out the strongest throw move in the game (Chrome Dome's Electric Pile Driver) by 14 points. All his normal attacks also do very high damage, so his overall damage output was reduced by 25%. This still leaves his Rat Bomber at the most damaging throw in the game, but brings it down to 28. This damage reduction only applies to human players. RAT ARROW Rat King's mobility is also extremely good, due to the ease of executing his Rat Arrow special move (his jumping HK, which propels him forward). When done sequentially low to the ground, this can have him cross the entire screen in less than 1 second. Given it is a special move which even does block damage, the tool needs to be made harder to use. The Rat Arrow now requires a directional input (i.e. pressing down+HK). Down was chosen as it is diametrically opposite to up, and so now doing multiple Rat Arrows close to the ground requires executional skill and therefore be prone to mistakes (which can cause loss of good spacing/positioning, or even leave Rat King flying vulnerable in the air with a normal kick). The concept of a directional motion was entertained (e.g. U,UF,F+HK) given that the Rat Arrow is a special move, but the time it takes to execute said motion would be too long and this would render the move almost useless by comparison! Additionally, Wingnut's Power Dive is also a Special Move that does block damage, and is executed with the same simple single direction motion requirement (down+K). HOPPING AXE KICK Rat King's Hopping Axe Kick is also extremely powerful. It's just a single button normal move (HK), but it can hit THREE times (each being a heavy hit); leaves him positive on block so he can combo with another (i.e. 4th) attack afterwards (which can result in re-dizzy even from an already dizzied state). Additionally, it allows him to cross approximately 75% of the screen with just a single button. (He was also previously able to react to an opponent blocking by performing Rat Bomber while they are in block stun, but as stated earlier, this mechanic has already been fixed.) To weaken his Hopping Axe kick, the move has now been changed to a "Command Normal", requiring pressing LK+HK at the same time. Errors in execution leads to his normal standing kick, which due to its slow animation, can be a very costly mistake. Additionally, the very first phase of the move where he lifts his leg up now no longer can hit the opponent. The move is only able to hit after he hops forward and brings his heel down. This effectively makes the move have a long startup/telegraph, and removes the ability to easily re-dizzy. Finally, the horizontal movement speed during the move has been slowed down, so he needs to be much closer for all the hits to connect, and it is also harder for him to be close enough to perform follow-up attacks afterwards. KARAI ----- Karai is much more difficult to balance while keeping her core abilities intact, as almost every tool of hers is overpowered. It would have been easy just to strip her of all her tools, but this would result in her losing a lot of what makes Karai "Karai". All attempts were made to try and keep her core abilities wherever possible. SLIDING The first and most obvious overpowered tool is her ability to perform infinite combos. One of these involves the ability for Karai to enhance her grounded normal attacks with a forward slide, by holding the back direction while pressing an attack button. Her standing light punches can combo in each other, and when used in combination with the slide enhancement, the slide brings her close enough to negate the hit recoil, so she stays close enough to follow up with a never ending string of light punches. As a result, the slide version of light punch has been removed for human players. Her slide is too strong in combination with many other attacks. Her standing heavy punch has fast enough recovery that if she is in point blank range after the slide, she is able to throw the opponent immediately after by using the same back+HP input used to perform the sliding standing heavy punch! The opponent cannot retaliate with an attack or throw, and if they try to jump, the missed throw will come out as another sliding heavy punch which will clip the opponent before they can escape. The idea of slowing down the punch animation was toyed with, but given how large a range it would have, and the high height that it hits, this move is still too strong. As a result, the sliding version of her standing heavy punch has also been removed. Karai's standing kick already has incredible range and has such a quick animation. Using this in combination with the slide enhancement would make the reach of this normal attack far too large for other characters trying to play footsies to deal with, so this was also removed. Finally, Karai's sliding crouching kicks have the ability to cause a knockdown. Knockdowns create huge advantage due to the wakeup game, and even allows for meaty attacks. A slowed version of the sliding crouching kick was toyed with, but when combined with Karai's incredibly large aerial options which are also faster than any other character in the game, the mixup of high overhead diving attacks and low knockdown attacks is just too much for other characters to deal with. As a result, the crouching sliding kicks have also been removed. Currently, the only ways for Karai to create a knockdown is to throw, or use a Special Move attack. With regards to slides, Karai still retains her sliding crouching heavy punch. However, the speed of the slide has been decreased. This sliding crouching heavy punch (referred to as the sliding low backhand) can be used to slide under jump-in attacks, and can still be used to close space on the ground. It can also still be used to move in to point blank range to facilitate a throw afterwards, but this needs to be performed as a meaty attack after wakeup, requiring very good timing and positioning. This is a justified reward for the complex execution required. The computer controlled version of Karai still retains the ability to slide for all of her grounded normals. JUMPING HEAVY PUNCH Karai's jumping heavy punch is a multi-hit air move which has a fast downward trajectory, and creates quite a long hit stun period. As a result, it can be easily chained into another jumping heavy punch by holding up and pressing heavy punch again just as Karai leaves the ground. This creates a never ending loop, resulting in an infinite combo. It also does an extremely high amount of damage. A lot of different ideas were toyed with, including limiting the number of punches, needing a directional input to execute the move, but given she already has two other dive attack options in the air (D+LP and regular K), any alterations to the move would end up with the same effect as her existing attacks. As a result, for humans players, her jumping heavy punch was removed and replaced with her jumping LP, both of which can be turned into the Diving Torpedo Punch by holding down. JUMPING KICK Karai's jumping kick (both LK and also HK actually share the same attack) when performed immediately changes the jump trajectory to a downward and forward direction (travels more horizontal compared to the Diving Torpedo Punch), making it like a Diving Stomp. No directional input is required, so it's very easy to perform low to the ground consecutive Diving Stomp kicks. The speed of these dives rivals that of games in Capcom's Vs. games, much faster than any other Street Fighter game. The closest we see is Dhalsim's drills, which is still significantly slower. This incredible speed and ease of execution makes Karai's high/low mixup game very difficult to react to. As a result, there is now an input requirement (holding down) for all diving attacks, including Karai's jumping kicks. If down is not held, Karai will continue her default jumping trajectory (this is technically a new move that isn't normally in the game, so Karai actually gains something rather than losing things in the balancing process!). This also means that low to the ground dives requires good execution and mistakes can leave Karai flying vulnerable in the air with a normal kick. Additionally, given both dives don't create a lot of hit stun, poorly positioned/timed dive attacks can be punished appropriately, creating a risk/reward mechanic. DIVING ATTACKS MOVEMENT SPEED Karai's Diving Torpedo Punch and Diving Stomp Kick has significantly reduced horizontal movement speed, and also take a bit longer before they start their downward trajectory, giving the opponent more time to react. THROW INPUT Karai's wall throw is performed with a light punch - this is the only character in the game (aside from Chrome Dome) that can throw with a light attack button. For all other characters, a heavy button is used. In a game where there is no whiffed throw animation, a whiffed throw comes out as a heavy attack which has a longer startup and attack duration compared to a light attack. This seems like a small detail, but it gives Karai an unnecessary advantage. Karai's wall throw is now executed with HK, so there is a bigger risk for attempting to use her wall throw. THROW RANGE Karai's normal throws have greater range than other characters in the game. Since she is already so strong, her throw range has been reduced to be equivalent to other characters. This only applies to human players. FLYING FIST FRENZY This move is one that a lot of characters struggle to deal with. It does a LOT of damage regardless of whether it is blocked, gives Karai heaps of meter, is difficult to intercept without an anti-air attack, and allows Karai to escape all the way to the other side of the screen afterwards making it very difficult to punish. Furthermore, it is so easy to execute - it is a two button (HP+HK) press move, but you don't need to hit the two buttons simultaneously (as in, in the same frame). As long as the two buttons are being held down together at some point in time, the move will execute. This means, you can literally have two buttons continuously held down and the move will keep executing one after another! No skill or timing is required to pull off another one as soon as Karai lands from her previous Flying Fist Frenzy. The next one is essentially immediately executed on the exact frame she is able to do another one! To address all the issues above, the move has been fixed in several ways, for human players: 1. The total attack duration has been shortened by about 40%, resulting in less damage and meter gain. 2. After the move, she no longer jumps back to the end of the screen, but rather stays in the same horizontal position. This means she is in much closer range to be punished afterwards, particularly if the move doesn't fully connect (e.g. opponent walks forward, so only about a third of the punches actually lands). 3. The input requirement for the move is now a charge down, and then up and punch, to simulate Street Fighter's Claw's Sky High Claw move. This means that executing another one requires forethought and precise timing otherwise Karai will get hit before the move comes out, or even clipped as she tries to jump backwards. There is a huge upside to this move change - it no longer overlaps with the input requirement for her Dark Thunder Ultimate Attack! IZUNA DROP The move isn't really overpowered, so no changes were made to it. However, from an executional standpoint, this move is too easy to perform. The input requirement for this move is now a charge down, and then up and kick; just like Street Fighter's Claw's Izuna Drop. GENERAL DAMAGE, DEFENSE AND DIZZY REQUIREMENTS Despite the above changes, Karai is still very powerful. Her ground attacks have huge range, large vertical hitboxes and great speed. The speed of her air attacks is unmatched, and allows her to close in to her opponents with little difficulty. Together with her special moves, all Karai's tools facilitate a very strong high/low/throw mixup game which can still overwhelm the opponent. As a result, her general damage has been reduced by 25%, her defense has also been reduced by 25% (meaning she takes 25% more damage than other characters), and her dizzy requirements have been reduced (from being greater than all other characters!!) to that of Raph/Mike who have the lowest dizzy requirements in the game. This means that Karai is now a "glass cannon" and must play a lot more carefully, as any mistakes can be very costly. As usual, the CPU controlled Karai still retains her normal damage, defense and dizzy requirements. FUNCTIONAL AND AESTHETIC CHANGES -------------------------------- Some other functional and aesthetic changes were made to the game to make the game feel more complete. NO NEGATIVE EDGE ON SPECIAL MOVES Negative edge is when certain special moves for certain characters can be executed on release of the appropriate attack button, as well on press. For unknown reasons, not all characters have this programmed in (e.g. War) and not all specials have negative edge either! Not only that, the way the negative edge is programmed into the code is also wildly inconsistent, differing between the characters!! Not only is this inconsistent, but when combined with the extremely lenient timing requirement of attack button presses (i.e. you can even press/release buttons before the directional requirement has completed), this can make special moves come out when you don't want them to. This is most noticeable when trying to execute combos, particularly when the cancellable normal move and subsequent special move use different buttons, for example, Raph's s.HP into HK Chest Buster and Mike's c.LP into HP Rising Thunder. As a result, to make things more consistent AND to make combos easier to execute, ALL negative edge detection on Special Moves has been removed. GRANDMASTERS EDITION SUBTITLE The subtitle "Grandmasters Edition" has been added in place of the Copyright text on the Main Screen. KARAI'S PORTRAIT Karai's character portrait has been replaced with an improved one, which better resembles her in-game sprites. NO CRASH FOR CREDITS ROLL AND BOSS ENDINGS; FASTER CREDITS ROLL The Champion Edition patch unfortunately introduced a crash for the high difficulty level credits roll (i.e. the version where there are fighters duelling in the background). This has been addressed by always loading the text only version of the credits roll. Additionally, because the credits roll takes so long (almost 4 minutes), the credits roll has been significantly sped up. Rat King and Karai were never intended to be played in Tournament Mode, and since no endings were programmed for them, the game crashes instead. This has been fixed, by jumping past the ending sequence and straight to the credits roll. CONTINUES IN STORY MODE This seems like a trivial change in comparison, but it always seemed unusual that there are 4 Ninja Turtles, but there is a 3 or 5 option for number of continues. In story mode, it should be that each continue can represent each Turtle so that when all Turtles are eliminated, the game is over. As a result, the number of continues you can choose from has been changed from 1,3,5 (and 10 with the secret code) to 1,2,4 (and 10). ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Credit goes to Enigami for the wonderful Championship Edition that formed the base ROM that this Grandmasters Edition was built on top of. The colour palette changes, improved menu navigation and accepted default settings for competitive play has helped to breathe new life into this amazing game.