This week, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash Up is being released for the Wii and PS2. This is a release of particular interest to me, as not only am I a fan of the TMNT series, but a fighting game fan as well. The game is developed by several members of Game Arts, who developed Super Smash Bros Brawl and former members of Team Ninja, who are responsible for Dead or alive and Ninja Gaiden.

Of course, you may be wondering if I'm blogging about how much I want to play the game. And believe me, I more than anything would like to give the game a whirl. But lately, there are two things that have been irking me in relation to this game: Fans and Ubi Soft themselves.

First off, een before the game was released, there has been a certain element of the fanbase that has been very vocal about what they want. These are comprised mainly of the folks who primarily remember the Turtles via the old 1980s show. That's all well and good, but some of them seem to have an attitude abnbout them that stinks of elitism, harshing on any aspect of the series that isn't from the 80s toon, especially the 2K3 series. Never mind the fact that the 2K3 series is as close to the original Mirage comics, if it's nothing like the cartoon (or, heaven forbid in some cases, the horrible live action Fox series) they despise it. I actually have some fondness for the 80's cartoon, because if it wasn'r for that show,I'd never be interested enough to find the original series and I'd never be a big a fan of the TMNT as I am.

Anyway, these fans became very insistant that Ubi Soft include Rocksteady and Bebop in the game, or Tokka and Rahzar, or various other characters from the 80s show and comics (well. to be honest, the Archie comics. There were demands for charcters from the Mirage series, but not nearly as much as I'd have liked to see.) And a lot of these fans swore that the game would suck if they didn't include them or would never buy the game if Ubi Soft never put them in there.

It's the same insanity I saw with Super Smash Bros. Brawl in the months before it was released. And just like then, I wanted to roll my eyes with annyance at the narrowmindedness of that sentiment. As I said in GameFAQS, not playing this game because Rocksteady and Bebop aren't in it makes about as much sense as not playing Street Fighter 3 because Guile and Chun Li didn't show up in it. (Fortunataley, she was included in 3rd Strike and Remy is as close as Guile as you got...and, would you look at that, the game didn't suck.) Ultimately, I feel as though fans like that are never gonna be satisfied with anything the developers would have done. If the guys were in the game, I'm sure someone would have found something wrong with them, like not being the correct voice actor, or not using the right gun. Ultimately, the final decsion of the roster was in the hands of Ubi Soft and Peter Laird himself.

And thus brings us to problem 2: Rabbids.

See, this game is billed as a celebration of 25 years of TMNT, and that's all good, but the inclusion of the Rabbids, especially to TMNT fans, makes about as much sense as anyone saying they liked the Image version. (For the record, I thought that in theory, that series sounded like a good idea, but was horrible in execution, especially with what was done to Leo, Raph and Don. ESPECIALLY Don and Leo.) I mean, look at characters like Baxter Stockman (the original), Rat King,Miyamoto Usagi (from Stan Sakai's "Usagi Yojimbo") Nobody and the Triceritons. Hell, I'd have even taken Hun.

But...Rabbids?

Yeah, uh....what?

Strictly speaking, the only possible reason to include them, aside from the fact that they are the prerequisite joke characters, is to help promote the Rabbids upcoming game. And that's not exactly exclusive to them: you sit there and tell me, with a straight face, that Konmai did not use Snake's appearance in Brawl to get hype up for MGS4. If anything, Sony should be thanking Nintendo for getting some people to buy a few extra PS3s! But 3 differant ones?

To paraphrase Optimus Prime in S.O.S. Wheeljack "UbiSoft, why the FUCK did you put 3 Rabbids in this game?"

But I'm ol with it. I'll live. It just means I can ninja kick the damn rabbids now. Every fighting game has people you hate. Don't get me started on how muuch I hate fighting guys like SETH, Yamazaki or, for fuck's sake, JIGGLYPUFF.

But then of course, there are those who are being, well, really pissy about the inclusion of the Rabbids. If you go on over to the Smash Up forums or, God forbid, GameFAQS, you'll see what I mean. These people are declaring that Smash Up sucks and will never play it. Despite the fact that, you know, they haven't actually PLAYED it yet. The ones who actually have pplayed it have been giving failry positive reviews. And as of the current writing of this, Nintendo Power has scored the game a 7.5 which is a good review. But since the game has no sign of Bebop and Rocksteady in it and the Rabbids are in it, the game sucks, end of story and they'll never play it.

To these people I offer this nugget of wisdom: CHILL THE FUCK OUT ALREADY YOU BABIES!!!!!

James Harvey, in his review of TMNT Smash Up, said it best in these two paragraphs:

"To changes speeds for a second, I do understand some of the complaints toward this game, particularly the character roster. Not only are three Rabbid characters inexplicably included, but the original 1980s cartoon series isn't really represented here. The recent 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon gets it due here, with the majority of the voice cast returning to voice the featured characters, as does the 2007 TMNT movie. For fans of the original 1980s cartoon, there is a Technodrome-themed level available in the game to unlock along with a couple more surprises to uncover the longer one plays. Along with the leniency on the original cartoon content, I also don't understand why Ubisoft would include the Rabbid characters, characters from a completely different and unrelated video game franchise, in this game. Sure, they're worth a small chuckle, but Ubisoft definitely should have at least included Bebop and Rocksteady, or perhaps Tokka and Rahzar, or even Slash and a couple more nods to the overall Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise instead of using up three roster slots on characters from a completely different franchise.

While I understand why some fans are moving to boycott this game, and I can't really blame them, I think they're missing out. This game really feels likes a love letter to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans, even with only a light nod to the 1980s series. If fans can get past that and the baffling inclusion of three Rabbid characters, then I think they'll definitely find a great game worth playing."

Now, who wants pizza?