Ninja Turtles Nes/Snes games: Different universe or 80s cartoon/archie universe?

[Mexiun]

I have been thinking this for years, especially the last few months: The Nes and Snes games (Ninja Turtles 1, 2, 3 and Turtles in Time and Tournament Fighters) are either very 80's cartoon/Archie focused but yet they are not and feel as a different universe/take.
The reason why i think this:

1- Character designs are mostly different from the Archie/Cartoon counterparts (Shredder looks completely different, Slash is completely different, and we have Super Shredder that was never in the 80s cartoon or Archie comic).

2- The games seem more "adult" (instead of using laser guns, the enemies use actual guns with real bullets).

3- Bosses actually get killed (I think it was General Traag, but also Krang actually dies in Turtles in Time as his whole machine explodes with him in it).

4- Shredder seems more serious and less goofy (ofcourse he barely has any lines so this may be a stretch but: He actually uses more tactics in his fights, more deathly weapons and he is clearly out for blood in his fights unlike the goofball 80's cartoon version).

5- Slash has a different origin (He is Shredders ally, but he is actually on Earth in the games as a villian and Shredders ally far longer than in the Archie comics, where he was more Krangs ally than Shredders'. And he very VERY different from the Cartoon).

Not sure what other differences are.
Do any of you have any differences from the games compared to the cartoon and archie?

[CyberCubed]

Most videogames based on TV shows/cartoons are essentially in their own universe.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Most videogames based on TV shows/cartoons are essentially in their own universe.

Also, before October 1989 there was no difference between Fred Wolf or Archie (but we didn't know it until November that year, when Leatherhead got a new origin).

[neatoman]

I'm just gonna go with alternate universe because the idea that characters like Karai and Tatsu exist in the FW/Archie world has some... Awkward implications.

[Mexiun]

Originally Posted by neatoman

I'm just gonna go with alternate universe because the idea that characters like Karai and Tatsu exist in the FW/Archie world has some... Awkward implications.

I've read the Archie comics but i don't remember Karai or Tatsu.
Do you know which issue they started in?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Mexiun

I've read the Archie comics but i don't remember Karai or Tatsu.
Do you know which issue they started in?

They are not in the Archie Comics.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Mexiun

I've read the Archie comics but i don't remember Karai or Tatsu.
Do you know which issue they started in?

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

They are not in the Archie Comics.

Yeah, you misunderstood me , Mexiun. Karai and Tatsu aren't in either the FW cartoon or Archie but they are in Tournament Fighters and Hyperstone Heist.

What I meant was that if the games were actually set in the the show or Archie's continuity, it would lead to some rather big question marks. Karai and Tatsu are members of the Foot, quite high ranking ones at that, but FW/Archie depict the Foot as having been reduced to Shredder and a bunch of robots.

Thus if the games were indeed set in either FW or Archie's continuity, that would mean Shredder either still employs humans and we never see them, or that the humans are off doing their own thing independantly of him.

[TigerClaw]

Its based on the TV Show. But also took from the Archie Comics and Mirage Comics as well.

[CyberCubed]

I love how the videogames was just an adaption of all the cartoons, comics and lore that existed at that point in the 90's.

[pferreira]

I have to admit when playing Hyperstone Heist the first time I was not expecting Tatsu to turn up. Very odd choice by Konami as is the 90s movie Game Over screen.