Dust off your cowabunga collection and prepare your fists for some serious turtle-powered mayhem, because this week on Play Comics we’re diving shell-first into TMNT: Mutant Melee, the 2005 arena-based fighting bonanza that took the 2003 animated series and asked the most important question: what if we just got all the turtles, their friends, AND their enemies into one room and let them beat the absolute snot out of each other? Developed by Konami for PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and PC, this isn’t your typical one-on-one fighter—it’s more like if Smash Bros and Power Stone had a shell-covered baby and that baby knew all of Splinter’s teachings.
Joining us for this body-slamming brawl is the incomparable Tommy Proffitt from Distant Echoes and Lee Carvallo’s Podding Challenge, a podcast wizard who understands the intricate art of dissecting character-based chaos and canon coherence like few others can. Plus being able to bring his signature blend of gaming nostalgia and comedic precision to help us determine if this colorful chaos simulator managed to capture the spirit of its source material or if it swung its nunchucks at empty air.
Together, we’ll navigate the treacherous waters of Last Man Standing mode, contemplate why anyone thought having 22 playable characters was a good idea, and investigate whether the game’s holiday-themed cosmetics (seriously—set the date to December 25th and watch the turtles rock Santa hats) are feature or bug.
Learn such things as:
- What does it say about a game when its best feature might legitimately be the ability to unlock the original arcade game inside it?
- What’s the difference between a party fighter and a fighting game that doesn’t know what it wants to be?
- Can the 2003 cartoon’s tone can survive being translated into “everyone fights everyone all the time?
- And so much more!
You can find Tommy on Bluesky @awkwardcomma, and his podcasts Distant Echoes and Lee Carvallo’s Podding Challenge.
If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.
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Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.
You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky.
A big thanks to Byrds Eye View Comics and There Are Houses In The Woods (brought to you by Blue Frog Den Comics) for the promos today.
Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who’s favorite turtle is Franklin.
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