Title: Smite
Year: 2014
Producer: Hi-Rez Studios
Publisher: Hi-Rez Studios
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Xbox One (2015), PlayStation 4 (2016)
Genre: MOBA
Why in Database: Smite is a multiplayer online MOBA game. It have a lot of turtle content.
The main turtle element in this game is one of the playable characters, Kuzenbo, King Kappa, added to the game in February 2017. The introductory video includes the following text and relevant images, also shown below.
Kappa are devious creatures. They linger just below the surface of rivers and lakes, waiting for mortals to test the water before snatching and drowning their fleshy meal. Taken merely at their appearance and juvenile sense of humor, they could be mistaken for mischievous turtle-men, almost playful in a rude sort of way, but they are dangerously strong and ruthless when submerging their prey. King among these monsters is Kuzenbo; bigger, stronger, and more cunning than the rest, but just as infantile.
Kuzenbo led his nine thousand Kappa followers to Japan, where they harried river villages and fishing boats, using their unnatural strength to pull mortals below. So clever, so hungry had the Kappa become, that Japan’s army marched to fight back, but they were no match.
As the bowl-shaped indentation atop a Kappa’s head is filled with water, that Kappa grows impossibly stronger – far stronger than a mortal. Yet, bound by their strange sense of honor, a Kappa must bow when bowed to, spilling their power upon the ground. It is the only known way to defeat one.
And of the countless battles Kuzenbo has fought, he was defeated only twice. Upon his second defeat at the hands of General Kiyomasa, Kuzenbo was forced to swear to never again sow strife between man and beast. A vow the Kappa King has honored ever since.
Gods, however, are fair game.
The mentioned introductory video also shows various skills of this character (and his smaller companion), we show some screenshots below:
This character debuted with one skin, the basic one (default), and over time it acquired a large range of other appearance options. All 13 available skins are: Default, Yokozuna, Honorbound, Shino-bo, Kuzenbot, Slash, Kaijunbo, Jingle Shells, Crime Boss, Molten Doom, Golden, Legendary i Diamond.
There are a lot of sound cues in the game, including “taunts”, both in general and directed at a specific character. Many of them are directed to Kuzenbo and clearly contain turtle references. We present them below:
Trickster Loki – “Who brought the turtle to the party?”
Primal Storm Susano – “Aren’t turtles supposed to be.. gentle?”
Admiral Ao Kuang – “Turtles don’t belong in the air.”
Hachiman – “You should respect your betters, Kappa!”
Paintballer Jing Wei – “Ah ha, I love your little turtle buddies!”
Regal Warrior Erlang Shen – “Even I am a greater turtle than you!”
Space Cadet Vulcan – “Encountered angry turtle-like being with a hole in its head. Well, two now.”
Vamana – “What happened to your turtle power?”
Lady of the Sea Discordia – “Heh, uhh! Don’t scare me like that, I thought you were a sea turtle, urghhh!”
Kson Nemesis – “Can I keep this little turtle?”
Maui – “Hoo, that was the meanest turtle I ever caught! And I’ve got some nasty buggas.”
Croaki Loki – “You were quite quick for a turtle.”
Not everything about turtles in this game revolves around the above character, however!
As many as three characters in their introductory videos, in the “Lore” section, mentions turtles, we quote them below, in two cases, turtle images were also shown, and of course we also show them.
Mercury:
As an infant, Mercury escaped the watchful eye of his half-brother, Apollo, stole his cattle, fashioned a lyre from a tortoise shell, and snuck in a nap, all before Apollo found him missing.
Apollo:
In his humble youth, Apollo was a cattle herder. The trickster God Hermes stole Apollo’s charges and led them to a nearby cave. From the shell of a tortoise and the body of a cow, he crafted the first Lyre. Apollo finally caught up with Hermes, saw the instrument, and simply had to have it, trading the rest of his cattle to Hermes for it.
Nu Wa:
As the Earth shuddered and broke, and the skies turned black with ash, Nu Wa forged five mystic stones, one for each of the elemental forces of nature: Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, and Metal. With the power of these stones, she slew a gargantuan tortoise, severed its legs, and raced to the broken World Pillar. One leg she used to prop the Heavens aloft and with the elemental stones, she sealed it in place.
One of Erlang Shen’s skills is “72 Transformations”, which allows you to turn into a mink or a turtle, which of course adds appropriate bonuses to the character.
Kappa Bot is one of the skins that can be used when placing a “ward” (something like a lookout tower), and there are a few different turtle icons in the game, probably more than a few shown below.
Among the sets of character quotes, there are also some turtle ones:
Chang’e – “The hare always wins! ..Right guys?” (reference to The Tortoise and the Hare)
Foxy Amaterasu – “You’re as slow as a tortoise!”
Lady of the Sea Discordia – “Sea turtles are what we really need to be looking out for.”
Erlang Shen – “I’d show you my turtle form, but I wouldn’t want to… shell-shock you.”
In November 2020, one of the regular updates was released, containing a lot of content related to Ninja Turtles!. We will not describe in detail here how you could obtain individual items, we will only present what elements were included in the game.
First of all, four characters received special skins related to the basic four turtles. All the mentioned characters received a regular skin and a radical version, Loki was the only one who received three skins, Raphael in the Retro version is the third one.
Osiris – Leonardo, Radical Leonardo.
Loki – Raphael, Radical Raphael, Retro Raphael.
Mercury – Michelangelo, Radical Michelangelo.
Sun Wukong – Donatello, Radical Donatello.
In addition to the basic lineup, four other TMNT skins also appeared, including one more turtle, Slash.
Hachiman – Splinter
Ravana – Shredder
Xing Tian – Krang
Kuzenbo – Slash (we also show it in the list of Kuzenbo skins, because we discuss it separately above, but here we double it to describe everything related to TMNT in one section)
Four different loading screens have also been added:
The last elements are a set of unlockable avatars, two skins for Ward, two thematic boxes and a frame. There are probably some more TMNT/turtle elements in this game, but I think we’ve covered in this note the vast majority of them.
Author: XYuriTT
