I normally wrestle with technique video games. They’re usually too laborious for me, and I usually get overwhelmed at managing a number of characters or squads. But I couldn’t put down Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown, which blends concepts from technique video games and traditional TMNT arcade video games to maintain issues snappy, straightforward to play, and filled with motion.
One approach Tactical Takedown — developed by I Am Your Beast maker Strange Scaffold — retains issues easy is by having you play as only one character in every of the sport’s 20 ranges. The 4 turtles have totally different movesets; Leonardo, for instance, makes use of his swords to aggressively assault enemies, whereas Michelangelo can zip across the taking part in discipline on his skateboard. You’re capable of customise every turtle’s arsenal by shopping for new strikes, however I didn’t change the movesets in any respect and acquired by means of the sport simply fantastic.
Image: Strange Scaffold
Battles happen in a grid overlaid on small chunks of very TMNT areas, like a avenue, sewer, or subway system. Every flip, you could have six “motion factors” to spend as you please, whether or not that’s shifting across the stage or attacking dangerous guys. You simply press a button to make use of one among your strikes, no menu required, which speeds issues up significantly. You have six hearts and three “lives” — lose a life and the sport will shortly flash a “Continue” signal earlier than letting you select the place you’d prefer to drop within the stage to maintain the combat going. (You additionally lose a rating multiplier.)
The ranges really feel like tiny dioramas, and whereas characters will transfer right into a kick or a punch when attacking or a fall when taking harm, they aren’t actively animated second to second. It all creates the sense that you just’re taking part in with motion figures.
Perhaps Tactical Takedown’s greatest trick is that the degrees are continuously shifting round you. Every every so often, the sport will present you {that a} new piece of land goes to drop in on the following flip, and after that spot is in place, you’ll get a warning that one other a part of the extent goes to fall away. It implies that you’re continuously coping with new terrain, layouts, and hazards like toxic sewage or automobiles driving by whereas additionally strategizing on tips on how to combat dangerous guys. Sometimes, after including a brand new chunk of a stage, the sport even flashes the phrase “Go,” encouraging you to maneuver ahead such as you would in an arcade sport.
Even higher, if there isn’t a wall, you may ship enemies flying off the sting of a stage into the void, defeating them immediately. It took me a bit to grasp that the sport desires you to try this as a lot as doable; often, there will probably be a whole lot of dangerous guys in a stage, and the one solution to effectively take them out is by sending them to their doom.
Image: Strange Scaffold
For me, all of it got here collectively in a stage the place you play as Leonardo in a subway tunnel. The stage began on a subway platform, after which the sport signaled {that a} subway automobile would seem. I navigated my approach onto the subway automobile, and the platform fell away. After a number of activates the subway automobile, it “arrived” on the subsequent subway cease, and I needed to hop off. It actually felt like I used to be “advancing” by means of a stage in a faster-paced sport, and all whereas managing a legion of enemies with Leonardo’s swords.
The style is normally sluggish, however whenever you get in rhythm, Tactical Takedown virtually feels as crisp because the TMNT arcade video games — regardless of being a turn-based technique sport.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown is now out there on PC.
