Future Connections To TMNT, Friday The 13th & A Nightmare On Elm Street - Crime Fighters (89) Arcade

Part 3 - I share some in-game future references / easter eggs to Capcom arcade fighting video game Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991) in Konami's 1989 arcade beat 'em up Crime Fighters. You can take a look at the movie adaptions & some associated works & draw further interesting connections.

- Stage 7 of Crime Fighters looks like a prototype for Ken's dockside fighting area in SF2. There is a sunrise or sunset, pier / a harbor / port. A ship can be seen moored up. An enemy fighter in this level wears a red gi (martial arts outfit) similar to Ken's (Ryu wears white). At the end of the level the boss also is reminiscent of Street Fighter's Guile. He wears green pants, white singlet with dog tags and black boots.
- The background music to this stage may sound familiar to fans of Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade beat 'em up (also out in '89).
Musician Mitsuhiko Izumi composed tracks for the soundtracks of both of these games.
- TMNT vigilante hero Casey Jones wears a white hockey mask similar to Friday The 13th slasher Jason Voorhees. He's played by actor Elias Koteas in the 1990 live action film.
- 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 Crime Fighters.
- 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. 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.
- 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).
- Ken's stage in Street Fighter II was reportedly inspired by some scenes in the 1975 action film Hard Times. The alternative title to this in certain markets was The Streetfighter (or The Street Fighter). Charles Bronson & James Coburn starred in this.
- Some interesting graffiti can be seen in the second stage subway train in Crime Fighters. What appears to be "SHEILA" appears in purple & blue in different parts of the level. James Coburn acted in the 1973 mystery The Last Of Sheila.
- There was some production staff crossovers between Japanese video game heavies Konami & Capcom in the 1980's. Yoshiki Okamoto worked for Konami in the early 80's on such titles as Gyruss & Time Pilot. In '83 he joined Capcom and went on to produce beat 'em up Final Fight (1989) & Street Fighter II.