Nothing sets Shredder’s Revenge apart from prior TMNT arcade brawlers like making April O’Neil and Master Splinter playable. For the folks over at Tribute Games, it was a no-brainer.
“We really wanted to add [April and Splinter] ever since the beginning,” Yannick Belzil, narrative designer at Tribute Games, told GLHF. “For Splinter, we’re told he’s the master who taught the turtles everything they know. So we thought, ‘how does he fight,’ and what does it look like when he’s beating up foot soldiers?”
Unlike the turtles, April and Splinter didn’t have previous iterations from which Tribute Games could draw inspiration. Every kick, punch, and tackle had to reflect both characters’ personalities. It wasn’t easy. However, after a warm reception at PAX East 2022, the development team knew all that effort was worth it.
“Having seen [the reaction] at PAX, a lot of people are really excited about playing these characters,” Belzil explains. “There’s something about people [in] my age [group], and I’m in my early 40s – I don’t have any kids, but a lot of friends have kids. And I feel that many TMNT fans might see themselves as Splinter now, as the father or paternal figure, so they’re sort of excited about being Splinter.”
“And it’s the same for April O’Neil,” Belzil continues. “Her move set is exciting, and I could see that there are a lot of players out there who are excited about playing as her and kicking ass. It was all stuff we were thrilled about bringing to the game.”
Check out GLHF‘s review of TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge if you need further convincing that this game rules.
TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge will release on June 16, 2022, for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. It’ll also be playable via backward compatibility on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Game Pass subscribers get launch-day access too.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.
