Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown Review (PC)

Yes, it’s licensed. And yes, it’s coming from nowhere: Indie developer Strange Scaffold’s own take on TMNT.  What matters at the end of the day, though, is whether they hit the bullseye: fun, intrigue, non-stop engagement, and all. And I’d say, making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown a turn-based beat ‘em up? I don’t know. It sounds risky to combine the two genres when TMNT games have always been brawlers and work best that way.

Having a go at turn-based isn’t the only wild card Strange Scaffold draws. Instead of keeping the Ninja Turtles together, playing off their unique strengths and potential fascinating synergies, they decided to keep them separate. You control each turtle individually, wiping out mobs of the Foot Clan. And each turtle looks like a miniature tabletop figurine, and brawls take place on a literal grid system, completing stage by stage till the end. 

Pitch all of that to me, and I’ll quickly turn Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown down. However, give it a chance and play the game itself, and it becomes clear, rather quickly, the vision that Strange Scaffold shares. Do tag along, as we expound on the features you might expect in our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown review below.

Splinter and Shredder are Dead

There isn’t much to the story, really. Or rather, it won’t be what keeps you strapped to your seat for hours on end. Within the first few minutes, you already have your lay of the land. Master Splinter is revealed to be dead, as is his archenemy, and TMNT’s primary antagonist, Shredder. So, in a way, we’re exploring a somewhat new start in the lives of the turtles, where their master is gone and they’ve separated to mourn in their own ways. 

But true TMNT enthusiasts will know that this isn’t really a new trajectory in the history of the franchise. The ninja turtles have split up before, only to face a new danger that bands them together again. And this time, it’s the resurgence of The Foot Clan under a new leadership: none other than Shredder’s daughter, Karai. It’s supposed to be a story of brotherhood and reuniting after a grave loss. But for some reason, the turtles decide to remain separate. Well, not for some reason. The gameplay itself structures their reunion as individual fights between the turtles and hordes of the Foot Clan. 

In any case, we have what we need to begin getting our hands dirty and feet bloody. There was never a need for a profound story, even though Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown’s plot does have its peak moments. The text-based dialogue can be funny and relatable when exploring the relationships between the brothers and their vulnerability. But it’s the combat that truly shines.

Heavy Nostalgia

Before we get into the combat, the presentation deserves mentioning. It’s clear from the vibrant colors and designs of the turtles that Strange Scaffold draws inspiration from classic cartoons. And the menus that look ripped straight out of comic book art styles. There’s a deep nostalgia for the turtles, as they strike poses and lean into their signature moves they’ve always been famous for: Leonardo with his swords, Donatello with his tech-savvy traps, etc. 

It can be a downer, though, that the turtles are mere miniature tabletop figurines. They are initially static on a grid-based board. But as soon as the action starts, the turtles strike poses when they attack, switch abilities, or get hit. These play out as animations that, combined with mowing down hordes of the Foot Clan, build visual momentum on screen. 

Keep Moving

Strange Scaffold has also taken a step further to mutate the grid itself, where you’re encouraged to keep moving forward, or else, you’ll get stuck in the red zone and fall into the abyss. If you see the “Go” sign, it’s your cue to hurry on forward before the red zone literally breaks off the grid and falls off into nothingness. Of course, this can be a clever way to trap enemies into the red zone so they fall to their deaths along with the collapse. 

Beyond the grid mutating, you’ll play across a limited but still diverse set of environmental stages. You have the subway, where Leonardo spends most of his time. Donatello sticks to the sewers, and then you have the rooftops and the streets of New York. Each one can throw fun visual flairs, like the oncoming traffic you need to evade or use against enemies, or the poisonous sewage that can drain enemy health. You even get roadside restaurants, at times, that throw you pizza slices for health renewal. 

Solo Vigilantes

On the enemy front, they have a limited variety. Quite honestly, their only fear factor is that they often spawn on the stage in droves. With each turn, more and more of the Foot Clan enemies spawn and easily overwhelm you, given it’s a one-turtle fight against hordes of foes. For their by-the-numbers, they can prove a challenge. And they also seem to be smart about evading the red zone and obstacles like incoming traffic.

So, it’s really all up to you to outsmart them, finding ways to kill as many enemies as you can before they kill you. And because you hardly have defensive move sets, it’s really all a matter of relying on your attacks and ways in which you can use the environment to your advantage. Unfortunately, the offensive options Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown gives you aren’t balanced, where some feel more powerful than others.

Taking a big swing at enemies, for instance, can easily topple them off the board, resulting in an instant kill. And it doesn’t cost many Action Points, making you resort to it a little too often. Meanwhile, there are far cooler abilities at your disposal. And a ton more once you earn Spells that unlock new tricks and upgrades. 

Given that each turtle has their unique skills and abilities, with quite outstanding depth and variety, you almost always lack the incentive to experiment with them all when there are far quicker and cost-efficient ways to dispatch enemies. But at least, there’s an incentive to replay, which is pretty welcome given Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown’s roughly five to six hour playthrough. You have a preset score for each stage that you’re challenged to hit. And successfully hitting the score always feels super satisfying.

One Turtle at a Time

While attempting to hit high scores, you unearth the many thrilling skills and abilities of each turtle. It’s where you master Leonardo’s kunai, stunning enemies, debuffing them, and building up Radical energy for explosive attacks. You learn to keep enemies at bay using Donatello’s staff and utilize his electric bombs to immobilize enemies for a more precise and damaging attack. Breezing past enemies on your skateboard becomes second nature as Michelangelo, while launching enemies into the air. And Raphael’s knocking enemies off rooftops will remain ever-satisfying. 

Every turtle has their own style and flair, and mastering each one’s perks goes a long way to ensuring your time in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown is well-spent. Factor in the tactical play, where your next turn has to be carefully thought through. You have to anticipate the enemy’s next move while ensuring you maximize damage output, minimize damage intake, and optimize synergy. Plenty of factors go into your next move, as has been the way of doing things in turn-based gameplay. 

But Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown manages to add more tactics to consider in each turtle’s uniqueness, the mutating grid, the consistent spawning of enemies, the random bus and bursting sewers, and all other shenanigans. All of it plays a little too perfectly; you’re left craving more. 

Verdict

It’s understandable to be unsure about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown. But somehow, Strange Scaffold makes sense of a blend between turn-based and beat ‘em up action. Even when the turtles have been shrunk in size to miniature figurines, they somehow still nail that chaotic energy of slamming and dunking foes. 

Make no mistake, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown is still a brawler like any other TMNT game before it. It just plays around with a novel idea of turning the action into turn-based combat. And by God, does it work flawlessly. The range of the abilities at your disposal isn’t just impressive, it ensures you always have new, clever ways to outsmart your enemies. And every turtle plays uniquely, so you truly feel satisfied to master them all. 

However, the story is serviceable. It doesn’t totally suck but it could certainly be more creative with its arcs. And the presentation, well, that part’s thoroughly done, with vibrance and visual flair. You might find the roughly six-hour playthrough rather short. But it’ll be a sweet ride, nevertheless. And you can always jump back in to try and hit a higher score. Rest assured, even on consecutive runs, there’ll always be new tactics to discover.