The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has an extended, wealthy historical past with video video games. Through the years, we have seen the 4 brothers take to the streets and sewers of New York in platformers, preventing video games, pinball experiences, and roguelites, however the style most carefully related to the model is beat-’em-up motion. Unusual Scaffold, the studio behind video games like Clickolding and El Paso, Elsewhere, had a singular concept for tackling a Turtles title whereas retaining the guts and soul of the IP’s historical past in video games. The result’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown, a sport that seamlessly blends the beat-’em-up spirit with the distinct gameplay conventions and mechanics of a turn-based technique sport. I had the chance to play a number of hours of Tactical Takedown and communicate with the crew behind this distinctive, but by some means acquainted tackle the TMNT model.
The thought of engaged on a licensed property first entered Unusual Scaffold studio head Xalavier Nelson’s mind in 2020 when he was practically tapped to turn out to be the inventive director of a Robocop sport. Although that chance fell by, Nelson continued desirous about what it might be prefer to create a sport based mostly on a serious mental property. Within the time since then, Unusual Scaffold has put out video games like El Paso, Elsewhere, Clickolding, An Airport for Aliens At present Run by Canines, Life Eater, and Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3, which simply hit Steam final month.
Regardless of staying busy with a number of video games seemingly in growth at any given time, Nelson continued desirous about engaged on a longtime franchise. “The thought of finally taking a Unusual Scaffold-like strategy to the world of a license with the fitting associate has been on my thoughts for some time, nevertheless it was primarily on the lookout for the fitting alternative, the fitting companions, and the fitting universe for that to actually be its finest,” Nelson says.
That proper match arrived when Nelson related with Paramount senior vice chairman, basic supervisor, and head of worldwide video games and rising media Doug Rosen. Nelson felt as if Rosen understood the fitting approach to collaborate with sport builders, and it made Nelson wish to work with Paramount. After extended discussions of, “We must always do one thing collectively,” Nelson scrolled by Paramount’s IP checklist seeking the fitting match. He finally landed on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with which he felt the crew may leverage some mechanics it developed in the course of the conceptualization part of its upcoming turn-based character motion sport, Teenage Demon Slayer Society. The crew retained the turn-based technique mechanics, however Nelson wished to maintain the guts of the video games that TMNT is most well-known for intact.
“It is the Unusual Scaffold means; that is our model,” govt producer and author Manda Farough says. “We take genres and we create actually weird twists on them. This isn’t the sort of turn-based technique sport that I even thought could possibly be made. However as a result of we had this unimaginable camaraderie and teamwork between all people on our crew and our sport design being as tight and targeted because it has been, the mash-up of genres by some means has coalesced into this turn-based tactical, side-scrolling beat ’em up.”
I used to be skeptical going into my hands-on session with Tactical Takedown. In spite of everything, how do you mix such distinct genres as turn-based technique and side-scrolling beat ’em ups? After spending hours with the sport, I am nonetheless shocked by how nicely all of it works. All of it begins with giving your character a number of motion factors per flip, reasonably than only one or two. This lets you defeat one enemy earlier than beating up the subsequent and strategically place your self for both the enemies’ turns or your subsequent flip. On prime of that, the degrees change as you’re taking turns, with older elements falling away and newer sections popping up, forcing you to take care of ahead momentum as you sprint by the levels.
After making an attempt to duplicate methods I utilized in extra conventional technique franchises like XCOM and Mario + Rabbids, I failed fairly spectacularly within the first mission, inflicting me to fret that this sport might be more difficult to play than I anticipated. I fell off the stage because it mutated, and finally obtained overwhelmed by a Foot Clan ambush, leading to Mikey falling in battle. Nevertheless, after attending to know every character and the way they play, I hardly ever failed a mission.
I loved studying every Turtle’s play model by their particular levels within the first two chapters. Michelangelo’s party-dude persona shines by in his skateboard-based assaults that permit him bounce over enemies, whereas Donatello’s bo employees provides him added vary, like within the NES sport, and his tech brilliance lets him deploy varied devices. In the meantime, Raphael’s brawler mentality makes him really feel able to tackle the world with assaults that grant further strikes and might even pull enemies to new spots. Leonardo’s management skills and strategic pondering let him turn out to be extra highly effective after defeating an enemy. For those who do not like a sure transfer in a Turtle’s moveset, you should utilize foreign money you earn in-game to buy new strikes and customise their loadouts.
Probably the most placing issues about TMNT: Tactical Takedown is that you just solely play as one Turtle at a time, a stark distinction from the co-op beat-’em-up classics to which this sport so lovingly pays homage. Every Tactical Takedown stage routinely provides you a Turtle to regulate, permitting the encounters to really feel ultra-tailored to that particular Turtle’s moveset. Whereas there are clearly gameplay mechanics that went into that call, the narrative decisions fueled that core concept. Earlier than the sport’s occasions, the Turtles’ world is upside-down, with each Splinter and Shredder dying. The Turtles are considerably disconnected as they search to seek out themselves.
“As a author, what [having one Turtle at a time] compelled me to do is rely much less on express relationship constructing and actually lean into… There are going to be moments in between the moments we’re exhibiting you, and there are going to be conversations which can be occurring outdoors of the sport, and that helped information the methods wherein we drill right down to the essence of these conversations,” Farough says. “Writing an ensemble solid is already so sophisticated, so having plenty of views in the best way that we dealt with character growth, each implicitly and explicitly, was actually releasing.”
The distinctive narrative themes have been one of many driving forces behind Unusual Scaffold’s coming into this undertaking. “I feel one of the under-discussed items of the inventive world that we now stay in is, particularly in a time of mega-mash-ups of even totally different universes coming collectively, when you have got Fortnite placing in each IP, throughout the subsequent three months or so, it could actually find yourself being actually under-discussed how each single character has an actual weight to them, a gravity if you wish to deal with them appropriately,” Nelson says. “While you’re telling a TMNT story, if you are going to usher in Splinter, you need him to have a highlight that basically traces up with who he’s and the function that he has on these brothers on this wider world. For those who’re gonna have Bebop and Rocksteady, if you happen to’re gonna have Shredder, these are characters which may’t be put in as throwaway cameos. They should be central focuses, if solely due to the affect they’ve had on all individuals who have beloved these worlds. However each single character you place in like that finally ends up altering what you are able to do in different factors within the sport.”
After taking part in by the primary two chapters of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown, Could 22 can’t come quickly sufficient. The technique style may be fairly hit-or-miss for me, and let’s face it, not each TMNT sport seems nice, however I emerged from my hours taking part in Tactical Takedown excited to not solely additional interact with the cleverly designed gameplay methods but in addition see the place this distinctive story goes. Sadly, regardless of how surprisingly good the sport performs with a controller, Unusual Scaffold couldn’t verify if the sport will ever come to consoles. Nonetheless, Nelson did tease that the studio is consistently investigating methods to carry its video games to a broader viewers. For now, nonetheless, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown is ready to reach on Steam on Could 22.
