As the orange Ninja Turtle works just as well as the classic Beat M-Up, we never expected to kick members of the legged clan to the curb before picking up a skateboard to pick up pizza, but Teenage Ninja Turtles: Tactic Takedown cleverly translates outscoped ahi-angle scope via time-up action. In the case of Barebone, it’s a turn-based tactical game. While lacking some of the communications that need to check out the best strategy games, raising the shell as a band of New York brothers is still an explosion.
Trim and a brevity tactical takedown waste time on narratives of oozing origins to drive that story. You know everything you need after the first five minutes, but I’m sure you can guess: The legged clan led by Shredder’s daughter Karai is not as good as usual. This time they are mad scientists and worked with mad scientists and Star Wart villain Baxter Stockman to unleash a new plot to take over New York. The dialogue is relegated to a 1-2 minute text box before and after each level, but tactical takedowns still allow you to make the most of that slim area. It offers a personal story about doing a great job of coloring the outer colours of bright blue, purple, red and orange lines, especially along with Leo and Raf’s relationship.
Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michael Enguero are all faithful to the rhyme taglines you might remember from the iterations of theme songs of your choice, but this story is watching 20 Turtles soon after facing the challenge of fighting without brothers. That’s because every level is a solo mission, each one being performed by a pre-determined turtle on their own turtle. I am disappointed that Tactical Takedown chose to consider the theme of isolation in the third act, but it gives all the brothers the opportunity to shine on their own while fighting.
Each unit containing the turtle looks like a static figurine on a grid-based board. This is exactly what you get from a tabletop game. They are more animated than static game pieces, and they shift their poses based on attacks, final action, or what status effects they have, but most of them are still there. A clever, lo-fi homage to the turtle’s static origins in the Eastman and Laird cartoon panel, but the zoomed-out camera blurs the character expected of combatants like colorful action figures. Combining it with an incredible lack of voice acting, more caricatures than these teenagers’ lives can feel like a lively game.
All adolescent ninjas have six health points, but they have six action points to spend on moving and attacking each turn, and lasts when the three arcade styles become difficult, but there are clear move sets that often affect weapons and personality as they disrupt the legs of the territory. Leo’s candid prowess in martial arts gives him a satisfying rhythmic flow that matches well with the tight lanes of the subway. Distributing debuffs that caused more devastating blows to the next action, stacking up buffs that allow him to avoid attacks, and clearing some of his missions without taking a single hit, he became my favorite.
Meanwhile, Donnie’s complicated but rewarding traps and map controls made poison sewer water on my side. Using his kunai attack, I stopped the foot ninja as the toxic sewage was sitting down, then dumped the electric trap to keep my surroundings safe, knocking out health from the dry ground with the Bo Staff. Raf’s burst of powerful strength was suitable for the small Manhattan rooftop as I kicked the ninja to their destiny. I then fire another group of enemies, send out harmful shock waves, deal extra damage to all the enemies around me, and hand out debuffs that can earn even more action points. Finally, Mikey’s skateboarding made him a trusted acrobatic street fighter. That mobility made it easier to jets from one end of the stage to the other, then kicking ninjas with ninjas, like in classic martial arts films.
All turtles have the unlockable ability to purchase from the shop using shells that are dolled out based on their performance at each level, but you don’t have to reach the end on your first attempt. In fact, I didn’t notice the shop until I rolled my credits on Tactical Takedown’s 6-hour campaign. I started chasing high scores on several levels and realized how transformative these new abilities are. And I loved how each turtle’s move set was ultimately customizable. A useful move has been added to my favorite Raph kit. This comes with the downside of damaging yourself, but was then combined with a more powerful attack that had the healing effect of vampires that balanced things.
Building a new loadout highlighted something that bothered me about tactical takedowns: communication, or lack of it (ironically, the core theme of this turtle story). This take on TMNT does not make it clear to some moments the key gameplay elements. For example, only new movements explain Rather than indicating what their shape or extent will look like in a tactical grid, they are the areas of their range or effect (i.e., a meter cone). Another move I discovered applied a debuff I hadn’t seen yet, but didn’t say what the debuff actually did, leaving me to find a few fights in annoyance. These basic tooltips have been in the strategy game for years, making their absence even more confusing and annoying.
These issues appear in less pronounced, but still frustrating ways when you are actually in the heat of fighting. Like most other modern strategy games, you need to go into another inspection mode to not only show the buffs or debuffs that the enemy has when hovering with the cursor, but also to get a grasp of what the movement you used did to the ninja you are trying to take out. Thankfully, you can always press the tab before using Move. However, other statistics happened randomly, like the possibility that the turtle would dodge an incoming attack, but not clear enough for me.
After wrapping my mind around what each buff and debuff did, I got a comfortable rhythm with a tactical takedown. These effects are visualized on the board by changing characters like game pieces. Each one causes different poses and cartoon-like prosperity, adding unusual life and personality.
Tactical takedowns don’t actually grow or evolve after the first hour or so, making things easier to track. Playing the first level of each turtle, the entire package must provide an astonishing chunk of enemy types, obstacles and design ideas. This leaves you with a sense of progression completely unlocking options and small bites of the story, not much challenge until the final level. Such a narrow range reflects that of the classic TMNT beat-up, and like those bygone classics (and shredder revenge), tactical takedowns get mostly on the merits of that combat and how precisely it nails each character’s vibe. Having a great understanding of each turtle’s move set and fully clearing the boards on a single turn has always been satisfying and enjoyable, but I’ve just kicked a ninja that doesn’t have the same name from many different roofs.
Tactical Takedown echoes these classics further by grading performance at each level with an arcade-style scoring system. Each Takedown is added to a multiplier, further promoting a satisfying screen wipe hunt. Also, completing levels will contribute to both the number of KOS, remaining continuance, and the total damage you earn to spend in the shop. Each mission comes with a shooting or superior perscore. This was a fun motivation to get me active and try out some levels with a new move set.
Where this formula breaks from arcade inspiration either won’t benefit from it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have that many boss fights – and the few that exist are very last saved, only exacerbating that old feeling (except the last one) that is very memorable. But the lack of meaningful team-ups is a much worse break from Canon than a sparse boss. Tactical takedowns understand everything about turtles fall apart, but it’s frustrating that we can’t see the turtle at their best: together. Tactical takedowns treat this in part in chapter 4, but in a very unsatisfactory way.
