8 Insanely Different Versions Of The SAME Video Game

While the console wars may indeed be a thing of the past that only wisened gamers reflect on while looking into a low poly fireplace and sipping a crisp 25 year-aged Mountain Dew Double XP Edition, we must remember that the battle for supremacy was a very real deal.

Whether it was Sony vs Microsoft, Nintendo Vs Sega or The Atari Jaguar Vs Common Decency, battles raged in every corner of the video game industry, and while many of the fighting was done over who had the most processing power and best exclusives, there was another much more sly battle going on.

For you see just because a video game released on several platforms at once, didn't necessarily mean that the game would be the same, leading to many confused discussions on the playground as people recounted levels, boss battles, and even entire gameplay differences to that which you were playing through at home.

While it's strange to see so much effort go into making each release feel unique, the shared branding of these games sure does make for some interesting reading.

It's not uncommon for fighting video games to differ slightly depending on what platform you play them on.

Well, clearly no one told Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters this, as the NES, Genesis, and SNES versions might as well be completely different games.

For a start, the rosters outside of the classic pizza-loving turtles wildly differ, with the NES packing a measly seven fighters into the roster against the Genesis's eight and the SNES's TEN. However within the fighters is a world of difference, with each installment getting unique characters based on the comics showcasing that a lot of love went into every iteration.

Hell, even April O'Neil squares up for a few rounds!

The plots diverge heavily as well; in the NES version the turtles battle between themselves to see who is best to take on The Shredder, whereas in the SNES version the Turtles notice that a tournament of power is taking place and that Shredder has entered. Thinking they could defeat him for good, they all sign up.

It's the Genesis version then that actually does something interesting with its plot, as here the battles take place in Dimension X, with the Turtles defeating powerful warriors to locate their Master Splinter who has been rat-napped by Krang.

The differences are so many, especially when you consider the impact the different controller layouts have on gameplay, that the team could have easily released this as three separate games and milked the concept for all it's worth.