Turtles and Frogs and Ducks, oh my! We’ve reached the top three, and these guys are all characters that I hope to see in Freedom Force sooner or later. They’ve all been Playmate-ized as toys, and they were, in my opinion, some of the best. They certainly loom large in my childhood memories. As a matter of fact, our first subject owes his popularity almost entirely to his toy incarnation:
3) Ace Duck: Perhaps the number one favorite toy from the days of my Turtlemania, this fighter pilot turned mutant duck just looked too cool to pass up. He shows up in the comics in a completely different form, but the grimacing, bomber jacket wearing fellow from the toy line will always be the real Ace Duck to me. He’s another option for the winged air support that I’d like to give the Turtles, and I think he’d be great from a gameplay standpoint. He probably wouldn’t be too much good at fisticuffs, but with grenades, a pistol, and the ability to take to the skies, he’d certainly change things up. Likelihood: Good. A mostly completed skope exists, though it is in limbo at the moment.
2) Rat King: Definitely my top villain from both the cartoon and the toy line, this master of all rodentia has just always interested me. Part of that probably has to do with the more sympathetic portrayal he received in the Archie comics, but I also loved his look as a kid. As a matter of fact, I liked his figure so much that I couldn’t bear to have him be a villain. In my games the Rat King would have a sudden, dramatic change of heart and join the Turtles against the evil Foot! Don’t ask me why. He’s just about a must for me, and he has the potential to figure heavily into dozens and dozens of possible missions. He’d make a great villain, gameplay-wise. A combination of mind control, grenades, and acid attacks would add some nice variety, and he has a perfectly plausible source of minions. Likelihood: Very Good. He should be a very easy skope and relatively easy skin. The real challenge is how to put together his legion of rats.
1) The Punk Frogs: Genghis Frog, Attila the Frog, Napoleon Bonafrog, and Rasputin the Mad Frog showed up in only two episodes of the original cartoon, but they left a lasting impression on my young mind. These amphibian counterparts to the Turtles seemed like a great idea to me then, and they still do today. I’ve always been a Southern sympathizer, and these four green good-old-boys seemed alright by me. In terms of gameplay, they would add some nice variety to the player’s roster, but they would also be great for a few fun missions drawn from their cartoon appearances. They add four new weapons along with four new characters, a bow, an axe, a bullwhip, and a mace. That has potential! Likelihood: Fair. While I think their skopes would be relatively complicated, the Frogs do have a bit of a following. Here’s hoping it proves to be enough!
Well, I hope that has been interesting to some of you. Now you know my top picks. What are some of your favorite characters? Who would you most like to play as/against in a Turtles game? As always, feel free to leave comments! This series is over…almost. I’ve got one last bit of commentary planned for tomorrow. I hope you’ll all join me again!
The Greylands 
Any three of these skopes would make your mod flat-out fantastic! None of these characters has ever featured prominently in a TMNT video, with the closest thing being Rat King’s appearance on the Footski as a bonus boss in Turtles in Time. These three are certainly at the top of my list, with Leatherhead not too far behind in order to add some depth to the Punk Frog missions.
Thanks Winters! Yeah, one of the things I really want to do to set my incarnation of the Turtles apart is to have as many characters as I can manage, especially those who haven’t really made it into games before.
Yeah, tons of characters are always great, but another thing to remember is that the game becomes better when the characters help to drive the story’s plot as opposed to just standing around for eye-candy. One thing I really like about your existing mod is how seamlessly you are building missions around each new character introduced (much like the original Freedom Force games). It gives all characters a chance to shine. The Punk Frogs, Rat King, and Leatherhead are probably the best candidates for advancing your storyline, with Ace Duck being an interesting X-factor.
No worries on that score, Winters. I agree, it is super important to have the characters drive the plot, rather than just be secondary considerations. That’s about half of the reason I want most of these characters, because they’ll offer me really interesting storytelling options. Even Ace Duck, who isn’t as immediately obvious in terms of story generation, creates the potential for new adventures.
About the Rat Kings legion of rats you could try going with mutant rats as there was a group of mutant rats in the TMNT RPG called the Rat Pack.
I have actually considered that, Dan. I’ve got a nice “Ratman” mesh which I may very well use for just such a role. What I’d LIKE to do is have some regular rats for his main legions, but also have mutated rats available at a later stage.