I normally wrestle with technique video games. They’re usually too onerous for me, and I typically get overwhelmed at managing a number of characters or squads. However I couldn’t put down Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown, which blends concepts from technique video games and basic TMNT arcade video games to maintain issues snappy, simple to play, and stuffed with motion.
A method Tactical Takedown — developed by I Am Your Beast maker Unusual 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 completely 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 in a position to customise every turtle’s arsenal by shopping for new strikes, however I didn’t change the movesets in any respect and bought by the sport simply high-quality.
Picture: Unusual Scaffold
Battles happen in a grid overlaid on small chunks of very TMNT places, like a road, sewer, or subway system. Each flip, you’ve gotten 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 in every of your strikes, no menu required, which speeds issues up significantly. You’ve six hearts and three “lives” — lose a life and the sport will rapidly flash a “Proceed” signal earlier than letting you select the place you’d prefer to drop within the stage to maintain the battle going. (You additionally lose a rating multiplier.)
The degrees 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. All of it creates the sense that you just’re taking part in with motion figures.
Maybe Tactical Takedown’s finest trick is that the degrees are always shifting round you. Each every now and then, 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 signifies that you’re always coping with new terrain, layouts, and hazards like toxic sewage or vehicles driving by whereas additionally strategizing on battle dangerous guys. Typically, 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 recreation.
Even higher, if there isn’t a wall, you possibly can ship enemies flying off the sting of a stage into the void, defeating them immediately. It took me a bit to know that the sport desires you to do this as a lot as potential; often, there can be numerous dangerous guys in a stage, and the one technique to effectively take them out is by sending them to their doom.
Picture: Unusual Scaffold
For me, all of it got here collectively in a stage the place you play as Leonardo in a subway tunnel. The extent began on a subway platform, after which the sport signaled {that a} subway automobile would seem. I navigated my method onto the subway automobile, and the platform fell away. After a couple 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 a stage in a faster-paced recreation, and all whereas managing a legion of enemies with Leonardo’s swords.
The style is normally sluggish, however once you get in a great rhythm, Tactical Takedown nearly feels as crisp because the TMNT arcade video games — regardless of being a turn-based technique recreation.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown is now obtainable on PC.