The newest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game will leave you wanting more

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been everywhere lately. From an excellent movie to a renowned graphic novel to a handful of great games, Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie are consistently reaching new peaks in terms of popularity. So, where is left for the quartet to go after 40 years? Developer Strange Scaffold answers that question by both pulling the Turtles apart and sending them to an unexpected game genre with Tactical Takedown, a bite-sized game that TMNT fans will surely eat up.

As the title implies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown is a turn-based tactics game. Throughout its 20 levels, you control a single Turtle as he battles against the goons the Foot Clan throws his way. Each Turtle gets a set amount of hearts, with most Foot attacks dealing one or two hearts’ worth of damage, and three lives for each level. You’ll always be vastly outnumbered, so mowing down enemies quickly and getting some distance between you and them are crucial to survival.

On a Turtle’s turn, you’ll jump around a battlefield and dish out damage. My favorite Turtles’ moves were the ones that pushed Foot ninjas back. Each level sort of exists on a floating plane, meaning you can easily knock enemies off the map if you position the Turtles just right. Why hit them for one heart of damage when you can just push them off to their doom?

Each Turtle plays differently: For example, Donatello controls the battlefield while Leonardo gains buffs on KOs. It’ll take a few levels to really gain mastery over each Turtle, but once you figure out how to string together their abilities each turn, you’ll feel like a master ninja. You’ll earn a score at the end of each level, correlating with how well you did, and some currency to purchase additional abilities for the Turtles, allowing you to fine-tune their skill sets however you want.

The main antagonist isn’t Shredder, but the comics foe Karai, who’s leading the Foot Clan. Both Shredder and Master Splinter are dead in this continuity, though their presence hangs over the entire game. The Turtles wonder what Splinter’s opinion of them would be now, and, in a tender moment at the end of the game, Raphael says the boys are the best of Splinter. “[Splinter’s] skills. His kindness. He passed it on and watched it grow.” Though the plot is mostly about the Turtles chasing after the Foot and thwarting Karai’s nefarious scheme, Tactical Takedown surprisingly has more emotional moments than I expected coming in.

The teens are reunited by the end of the game after chasing the Foot through various parts of the city (on the subway, through the sewers, across rooftops) and in another tender moment from Raph (who is this guy?? I’m loving it), he gives Leonardo a big squeeze of reassurance. These Turtles in Tactical Takedown still squabble — they’re teens, after all — but there’s a wonderful undercurrent of sincerity throughout their story, which is what makes the TMNT so endearing throughout all these years.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown doesn’t overstay its welcome. Each level takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete, and you can wrap the whole game up in five hours or less. Its short runtime allows Tactical Takedown not to drag; its combat, while enjoyable, can grow stale over long gaming sessions, and I think making the game any longer than it is would have been a mistake. Instead, Strange Scaffold presents a game that both works in bite-sized chunks when you only have less than half an hour to play as well as a bingeable game if you find yourself unable to put it down.

While Shredder’s Revenge might be the most well-regarded TMNT game of the past couple years, Tactical Takedown shouldn’t be overlooked. It tries something new with the Turtles, and its experiment pays off; hardcore Turtles fans and those who can’t remember which Turtle is who can both find something to enjoy with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown’s enjoyable combat and heartfelt story.