Were the Mousers popularized by the videogames?
 

As a kid I always thought the Mousers were a big deal because they were in literally all the videogames Konami made. They were in TMNT 1, 2, 3, IV, all the Gameboy titles, Hyperstone Heist, and made cameos in Tournament Fighters.

And yet in the original cartoon they only did appear in a single episode, which was episode 3.

Even the whole concept of a, "giant Mouser" that started in the games found their way into the shows. In the 4kids series there were the "Mouser 2.0" created by Chaplain in Season 3, and in the IDW comics there was a giant Mouser.

I think Konami made the Mousers far more popular than they would have been otherwise. Same with the Roadkill Rodney's.

The video games probably did give the impression that the Turtles fought mousers all the time by the dozen.

Also, the Mouser had a pretty impressive Wacky Action Figure for the time. I know it was one of my most sought-after toys in the early years of the fandom. I currently have one sitting on my desk by my computer too next to Krang in his bubble walker.

I think the game designers knew that the Mousers and Roadkill Rodneys were uniquely TMNT than compared to your standard sci-fi destructive robot in so many other comics/cartoons. They probably put more emphasis on including them in several TMNT video games to maintain the TMNT tone of the game.

Take for example the NES TMNT 1 compared to the NES TMNT 2. TMNT 1 had a huge variety of enemies outside of the mousers and foot soldiers that didn't seem familiar to the show. By the time, TMNT 2 there were basically only foot soldiers, mousers, and roadkill rodneys.

My guess is to add variety to the games. If it wasn't for Mousers, the turtles would mostly be fighting Foot and Rock Soldiers. They tried adding lots of other enemies to Shredder's arsenal in the first NES game but dropped them in all the sequels possibly because the Mousers and Foot Soldiers were in the show and were more familiar and popular to the video game buying customers. Now that makes me wonder what soldiers Berseko used in the handheld game?

Edit: seems JLS already included that point. :s Oops!!

The Mousers were in the Eastman and Laird comics too. It's rather disappointing that they (and the robots that ran on one wheel) only appeared in the very earliest episodes of the 1987 cartoon and never since then. They were certainly more dangerous than mere Foot Soldier robots, which were all too fragile.

Yeah they used a lot of stuff from the early seasons like the Mousers, Roadkill Rodney's, and the Pizza Monsters. They even used those small helicopter robots from episode 3 that Shredder sent out.

Also Cement Man is from Season 2 when Baxter created him using the eye of Sarnath.

The one wheeled robots where awesome. I wish they would of used them more in the ot.

And don't forget a Rex-1 homage in TMNT 2: Back from the Sewers for Game Boy!

There were quite a few Season 2 references in the old Konami games, weren't there?

Hyperstone Heist also adapted the basic plot idea of "The Incredible Shrinking Turtles" just without any actual shrunken turtles.

Heh, too bad we didn't get the Punk Frogs in any of the games. Could have made for some awesome battles and/or team-ups. Eat your heart out, Battletoads!

It was weird how Konami made up those punching bag robots in Turtles in Time. The SNES version replaced them with the more familiar Roadkill Rodneys. Were those punching robots also in Re-Shelled?

Yes, those "boxing glove robots" as they were also called were in Re-Shelled. Its hard to say what really popularized the mousers, as they appeared in issue 2 of Mirage, so it was natural they would appear in Season 1 of all three cartoons. Playmates' Wacky Action Mouser, the first NES game, and the first Arcade all came out in 1989 so it was likely a combination of those releases plus their inclusion on the "Hot Rodding Teenagers" VHS that provided their popularity.

well... not to mention them coming out in all the TMNT games at the time, way after season 1 was over and past. Like previously mentioned, they were in background of the SNES version of Tournament Fighters which came out when the turtle fame was dying out.

It was also interesting the Granitor is a boss in the NES version of TMNT II.

Really odd that the blue rock soldier only appeared in the 4th episode and completely disappeared for the rest of the series.

Then TMNT III The Manhattan Project had a bunch of Granitors as regular enemies. Hell the games named him Granitor. He didn't have a name in the ep he was in.

I was trying to remember if there were any robots like that in "The Mean Machines" but couldn't quite recall.

Seems like I remember him being named in the episode, but my brain might just be playing tricks on me again.

Seen the episode hundreds of time, pretty sure they never actually named him on-screen. We only heard Traag's name.

As a kid I used to just call him, "the blue rock soldier" because I didn't know his name.

Sometimes I wonder if the old video games may have been the most influential media in all of TMNT history (with the possible exception of the live action movies). So much of what people assume about the franchise can be attributed to the video games. Without the games, most fans probably wouldn't have remembered the Mousers or Roadkill Rodneys so fondly. Like in the case of Granitor, I just assumed he was named in the cartoon and never even bothered to listen for it when rewatching the episodes. So perhaps many folks' supposed memories of the cartoon may have been influenced more by the games than they realize.

Action emphasis, martial-arts showcase cartoon?
Eh, the cartoon quickly became more about slapstick. The video games more-or-less defined the beat-em-up genre, however.

Turtles fighting seemingly endless hordes of Foot Soldiers on a frequent basis? Only happened in a couple of episodes, but it was par for the course in the games.

April O'Neil getting kidnapped and taken to the Technodrome?
While the Turtles did have to save April on an almost daily basis in the OT, actual kidnappings weren't quite as frequent as one might assume. And Shredder only took her down to the Technodrome in "Planet of the Turtleoids" (the turtles never even had to go rescue her), but that precise scenario did happen a couple of times in the video games.

Agreed, don't forget Super Shredder. For something that only ever happened in a single movie, they had him become Super Shredder in TMNT III, IV and Hyper Stone Heist.

Also the multi-colored Foot Soldiers, although everyone knew that never happened in the show.

It seemed a lot of the games were based on the first season. It just seemed easier to have the Technodrome in the sewers in the games like in Season 1 unlike Dimension X, the Earth's core, Arctic or ocean. The plots and bosses were modernized but the level enemies stayed true to the first season for the most part since the episodes were in syndication.

A lot of people may remember things like Mousers and Roadkill Rodneys more from the games than the show. Whether they fondly remember them may be up for debate. Though it's been years since I played the games I remember the Mousers were pretty much pushovers, but those damn Roadkill Rodneys were a massive pain in the ass what with their electro tentacle health sucking attack thingy. I'd put them more in the "Love to hate" category than I would "Fondly remember"

You easier recognie it so. If you say "Technodrome" today, most people who aren't super-fans but liked the show, probably think if it drilling in the Earth's underground. And it's still that way today. How many, who were not super-fans but at least liked the show, recall the Technodrome in the Arctic (or even Dimension X) today?