Several future / predictive easter eggs to the 1990 movie version of comic book, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may show up in the 1989 Konami arcade video game Crime Fighters. Konami also produced several hugely popular games based on the turtles franchise around this time.
Arcade games appear in the movie in Shredder's lair / the foot clan training / recruiting area at around 31 minutes into the movie. One of the game cabinets shown but not so easy to identify is the beat 'em up side scroller Crime Fighters, released the previous year.
I looked at the gameplay of Crime Fighters and found some very interesting predictive hints to what would wind up in the 1990 TMNT film:
- Many of the bosses may have been inspired by American horror films. The final opponent of the level 2 train stage wears a hockey mask similar to Jason Voorhees of the Friday The 13th films. The boss of the stage 3 warehouse wields a chainsaw and the boss of the stage 4 rooftop level appears closely modeled on A Nightmare On Elm Street's Freddy Krueger (complete with metal claws).
- Actor Corey Feldman voices purple masked brainiac hero Donatello in TMNT (1990). He previously squared off with Jason in 1984's Friday The 13th The Final Chapter.
- Elias Koteas plays New York City vigilante Casey Jones who also wears a hockey mask.
- Skeet Ulrich had a part in TMNT ('90), he later starred in A Nightmare On Elm Street creator Wes Craven's new horror franchise Scream (1996).
#crimefighters #tmnt #jasonvoorhees #freddykrueger #fridaythe13th #nightmareonelmst #caseyjones #scream
