I by no means anticipated kicking a member of the Foot Clan to the curb earlier than skateboarding over to choose up a pizza as an orange-clad Ninja Turtle would work simply as effectively in a ways recreation because it does in a traditional beat-em-up, however Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown cleverly interprets the approachable pick-up-and-play motion and slim scope of the crew’s arcadey adventures like Turtles In Time right into a compelling, if barebones, turn-based ways recreation. Whereas lacking a number of the essential communication that make the perfect technique video games tick, it’s nonetheless a blast to lift some shell as New York’s bodacious band of brothers.
Trim and concise, Tactical Takedown doesn’t waste time on an ooze-spilling origin story to get its story shifting. You’ll know nearly every part it’s essential after the primary 5 minutes, although I’m positive you’ll be able to guess: The Foot Clan, led by Shredder’s daughter Karai, is as much as no good as at all times. This time, they’ve teamed up with mad scientist and fellow stalwart TMNT villain Baxter Stockman as they unleash a brand new plot to take over New York. Dialogue is relegated to solely a minute or two of textual content packing containers earlier than and after every degree, however Tactical Takedown nonetheless manages to profit from that slim territory – it delivers a private story about loss that does a fantastic job of coloring outdoors the traces in vibrant blue, purple, pink, and orange when it has to, particularly with Leo and Raph’s relationship.
Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michaelangelo all ring true to the rhyming taglines about them that you could be bear in mind out of your theme music iteration of selection, however this story additionally sees the soon-to-be-20-something turtles going through the challenges of combating with out their brothers. That’s as a result of all the ranges are solo missions, every carried out by a pre-determined turtle on his personal turf. I’m dissatisfied with how precisely Tactical Takedown selected to reckon with that theme of isolation in its third act, nevertheless it does give each brother an opportunity to shine on their very own whereas combating.
Every unit, together with the Turtles, appears to be like like a static figurine on a grid-based board, virtually like what you’d get from a tabletop recreation. They’re extra animated than static recreation items, shifting poses based mostly on their assaults, the final motion they took, or what sort of standing impact they could have, however are largely nonetheless. It’s a intelligent, lo-fi homage to the Turtles’ static origins within the panels of Eastman and Laird’s comics, however a zoomed-out digital camera obscures the persona you’d count on from the colourful, motion figure-like combatants. Couple that with a shocking lack of voice appearing, these typically larger-than-life caricatures of youngsters can really feel extra like lifeless recreation items.
Though the adolescent ninjas all have six well being factors, six motion factors to spend on stuff like shifting and attacking every flip, and three arcade-style continues for when the going will get robust, they’ve distinct movesets that play into their weapons and personalities effectively as they disrupt the Foot of their territory. Leo’s easy prowess over martial arts offers him a satisfyingly rhythmic move that matches up properly with the tight lanes of the subway. Meting out debuffs that arrange a extra devastating blow on the following motion, whereas stacking a buff that enables him to evade any assault, made him my favourite as I cleared a couple of of his missions with out taking a single hit.
In the meantime, Donnie’s advanced however rewarding traps and map management made toxic sewer water my ally. It was enjoyable to make use of his kunai assault to cease Foot ninja once they have been waist-deep within the poisonous sewage, then knock away at their well being from dry floor together with his bo employees whereas throwing out electrical traps to maintain my perimeter protected. Raph’s highly effective bursts of power suited the small Manhattan rooftops effectively as I kicked ninja to their doom, which granted a buff that allow me deal further injury and accumulate further motion factors together with his sai assault. Then, I’d cannonball into one other group of enemies, sending out a harmful shockwave and doling out a debuff that allow me deal further injury to each enemy round me, reaping much more motion factors. Lastly, Mikey’s skateboard made him a dependably acrobatic avenue fighter whose mobility made it simple to jet from one finish of a stage to the opposite earlier than kicking obstacles at Foot ninja like in a traditional martial arts film.
Each turtle has further unlockable skills to purchase from a store utilizing shells, that are doled out based mostly in your efficiency in every degree, however they don’t really feel essential to achieve the top in your first strive – in reality, I didn’t even discover the store till after I rolled credit on Tactical Takedown’s 6-ish-hour marketing campaign. It wasn’t till I began chasing excessive scores in a couple of ranges that I noticed how transformative these new skills may very well be, and I cherished how customizable every turtle’s moveset in the end felt. My favourite added helpful strikes to Raph’s equipment that got here with draw back of damaging himself, however then paired with much less highly effective assaults that had a vampiric therapeutic impact to stability issues out.
Constructing new loadouts additionally highlighted one thing that aggravated me about Tactical Takedown, although: Communication, or lack thereof (mockingly, a core theme of this turtles story). This tackle TMNT doesn’t make vital gameplay components clear in some moments, which could be a widowmaker in any recreation the place technique is king. For instance, new strikes solely describe their vary or space of impact (ie: 1-meter cone) somewhat than displaying you what that form or vary may appear like on the ways grid. One other transfer I found utilized a debuff I hadn’t seen but, nevertheless it didn’t say what that debuff truly did, frustratingly leaving me to search out out a couple of turns right into a battle. Primary tooltips like this have been in technique video games for years, making their absence much more complicated and irritating.
These points aren’t practically as pronounced whenever you’re truly within the warmth of a battle, however they nonetheless pop up in irritating methods. As a substitute of simply displaying what buffs or debuffs an enemy has when hovering over them together with your cursor, like most different up to date technique video games, it’s essential enter a separate inspection mode to determine what that transfer you simply used did to the Foot ninja you’re about to take out. Fortunately, you’ll be able to at all times hit tab earlier than utilizing a transfer to examine precisely what it does. However different stats, like a Turtle’s probability to dodge incoming assaults, which occurred at random, simply weren’t clear sufficient to me.
As soon as I wrapped my thoughts round what every buff and debuff did, I received into a snug rhythm with Tactical Takedown. These results are visualized on the board by altering the sport piece-like characters, every inflicting completely different poses or cartoonish thrives that add some uncommon life and persona, which ultimately made it so I didn’t must tab over a transfer to remind myself of a particular impact each different flip.
Issues additionally turn out to be simpler to trace as a result of Tactical Takedown doesn’t actually develop or evolve after the primary hour or so. When you’ve performed every Turtle’s first degree, you’ll have seen a shocking chunk of the enemy sorts, obstacles, and design concepts the entire bundle has to supply. This leaves all sense of development to wholly optionally available unlocks and the small bites of story, and there’s by no means a lot of a problem till the final degree. Such a slender scope displays that of a traditional TMNT beat-em-up, and like these bygone classics (and Shredder’s Revenge), Tactical Takedown largely will get by on the advantage of its fight and the way precisely it nails the texture of every character. Absolutely clearing the board of Foot troopers in a single flip utilizing a masterful understanding of every Turtle’s moveset was constantly satisfying and pleasurable, however I nonetheless kicked the identical anonymous ninja off of a number of completely different rooftops.
Tactical Takedown additional echoes these classics by grading your efficiency in every degree with an arcade-style scoring system. Every takedown provides to a multiplier, additional encouraging that hunt for a satisfying display wipe. And when you’ve cleared a degree, your variety of KOs, remaining continues, and whole injury will contribute to each a remaining rating and the quantity of shells you’ll earn to spend within the store. Every mission comes with a par rating to shoot for or surpass, which was a enjoyable motivator to get me again in motion and take a look at some ranges with new movesets.
The locations the place this formulation breaks from its arcade inspirations don’t do it any favors, both. Disappointingly, it doesn’t have that many boss fights – and what few are current are saved for the very finish and aren’t very memorable (apart from the final one), which solely worsens that stale feeling. However the lack of a significant team-up makes for a good worse break from canon than the sparse bosses. Whereas I perceive that Tactical Takedown is all concerning the Turtles rising aside, it’s irritating that we by no means get to see the Turtles at their finest: Collectively. Tactical Takedown partially treatments this in its fourth chapter, however not in a really satisfying method.