Ars Technica is reporting that Game Arts, the developer responsible for the wildly popular Super Smash Bros. Brawl, is currently working on a new TMN (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) game for the Wii. The game is currently slated for a Fall 2009 release and serves to help celebrate TMNT's 25th anniversary.
Source: Ars Technica [ more info ]

Where several sites around the gaming news world are reporting this same story, there is not currently an official press release available at Game Arts or Ubisoft. Until I can provide you guys with such a link, consider this news a rumor from a trustworthy source. Note: Ubisoft's 3rd quarter 2008-09 report does mention a new TMNT game, but they do not mention a developer, a platform, or a release date.

Before there were the crappy movies, weak cartoons, miserable toys, and terrible games there were the rather enjoyable comic books by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. From these pages I draw my enduring love of the turtles. Everything after the merchandising blitz just makes me sad. But, I'm a purist; so, that's to be expected.

Then why, you might ask, am I (or for the sake of continuity, Ted) excited about a new TMNT video game? Well, because I like Brawl and I have high hopes. Being a purist and being hopeful aren't mutually exclusive concepts. Now, I'm not keeping my fingers crossed that the Turtles will all be wearing read masks, identifiable only by their weapon choices. But, I maintain the hope that the game will be a fun, adventurous diversion that doesn't latch on too heavily to any TMNT bastardizations after say... 1987.

In closing I will let you guys in on one of the larger disappointments in my life. I met Kevin Eastman once. And in my refusal to seem too fanboyish... I didn't ask for an autograph or anything. **sighs** It's the same refusal to act like a fanboy that later lead me to explain kidnapping plots I'd hatched with several other game journalists to R.A.Salvatore (complete with sketches). Yeah, sometimes I wish I weren't so freakin odd too.

____________________
Today's Pimpage: Woody is wearing a "Egg, Milk and..." shirt and Ted is wearing a "Found Anything Yet?" shirt from Threadless.Com.

I was a bit too young to be aware of the comics until after the fact, but I was a big fan of the original cartoon and I must have pumped a load of quarters equal to the Gross National Product of Uruguay into the original arcade game.

I just hope that when Game Arts is done with the product that it is more than a "best of 3 falls" fighting game and instead portrays some kind of wacky plot hatched by Shredder to annihilate the Turtles once and for all... HAHAHA!

I got into the Turtles craze when the TV show came out, and I was only vaguely aware of the comic at the time. A couple of my friends were a bit more hard core, though. (Went to the concerts/live events owned every single toy, etc...).

I love the original arcade game and the NES/Super NES/Genesis games. I think I spent more time playing those games than anything else in the 8/16 bit era. The Smash Bros. team developing a TMNT game sounds great, though. Here's hoping it happens!

I definately agree with the current bastardization of TMNT, the original comics were a few years before my time, but I grew up watching the original cartoons and playing with the original toys. I'm not a fan of the new TMNT. I refuse to watch the new CG movie and have only seen a couple episodes of the new cartoon, only to turn it off after a few minutes. I really hope they stick to the roots with this new game, as I personally would love to relive the classic TMNT. I think this is inspiration to go check out the original comics. Thanks Woody.

Cowabunga!

Who is everyone's favorite? I used to own every Raphael figure known to man and turtle kind.

The "bastardized" TMNT is really all I even knew, being born in 85 and all. But I loved it. Spent a ton of cash on the turtles in time arcade game, and threw my first Nintendo controller during the stupid swimming level(with the electric seaweed and bombs to disable) on the nes turtles game.

It's a big part of my childhood.

I loved "the turtles" when I was a wee boy... I believe I started to really enjoy them from the first movie, but I never really watched the cartoon too much. Mainly I was into the dolls, and the video games of course. Actually, my first memory of the turtles was the TMNT pc game! (Later relased on NES by "Ultra") The 3rd movie killed it for me - that, and everything that has come since just hasn't been right in mine heart.

Thusly, I didn't go to see the new movie nor did I do anything beyond play the demo of the latest iteration of the turtles. Although I missed the comics, it would be an interesting delve for me - I would love to see how the Turtles were! Not how they've been mutated over the years...

Contextually relevant poops jokes? Now we finally know who the dev at Blizzard is, making all those stanky quests in WoW.

Originally Posted by Woody:

... and serves to help celebrate TMNT's 25th anniversary.

I could legally share a drink with Donatello?

Old grow I.

I picked up the comics after the cartoons and enjoyed them much more. I actually enjoyed the new CGI movie they did. The dynamic between Raph and Leo was spot on and the fight scenes had a more brutal feel to them.

We shall see. I hope they don't over do it brawl style, just doesn't fit the whole idea of what I think a TMNT fighting game should be.