TMNT: Tactical Takedown Feels Like Playing A Strategy Game And An Arcade Brawler At The Same Time

You could hardly find two game genres more different than side-scrolling beat ‘em ups and tactical RPGs. So you might think that trying to combine the two would result in disaster, but at least in one recent case, they blend impossibly well. Now, one incredible arcade brawler turned turn-based RPG is coming to Nintendo Switch, after launching on PC earlier this year.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game is one of the best-loved side-scrollers of its era. In recent years, there have even been attempts to recreate its charms in a more modern form, like with the excellent action game TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge. But none of those spiritual successors has been quite as bold as Strange Scaffold’s TMNT: Tactical Takedown, a turn-based strategy game that unexpectedly manages to capture its fast-paced vibe in an entirely new genre.

Even the concept of Tactical Takedown is incredibly bold. At the start of the game, both metal-clad villain Shredder and rat sensei Splinter are dead, leaving the turtles to fend for themselves. As the family is split up to grieve, a new group of villains emerges to ransack their lair in the sewers, setting off a chase to figure out what they’re up to and put a stop to it. With the turtles scattered, you play as just one character in each level, following the separate paths they take to foil the latest plot.

In true arcade fashion, that usually means dispatching a whole lot of enemies as quickly as possible before you’re overwhelmed. In each round of combat, you have six action points to spend moving or using abilities unique to each character, which usually works out to three or four actions per turn. At the same time, new enemies can spawn in on essentially any turn, meaning you need to constantly stay on top of the fight or you’ll be overrun. That means that while you can do a lot in one round, you need to use your actions as efficiently as possible to get by. But rather than a game that asks you to sit and deliberate over every move, Tactical Takedown forces you to keep moving.

That focus on constant movement is baked into every part of combat. Enemies are extremely mobile, so catching up to them or dodging out of range means dashing around the level as much as possible. Almost every attack also has movement built in, and you’ll get the most out of them by carefully positioning yourself before each strike. And if those nudges don’t keep you moving, the fact that the ground literally starts falling away if you take too long certainly will. Every few turns, a set of tiles will drop away, taking out any enemies still standing on them (along with you, if you don’t move fast enough).

With all that combined, Tactical Takedown captures the same energy as a real-time action game in turn-based format. And where playing as each character in a TMNT brawler makes you play just a little differently, here the differences are massive. Donatello favors staying at range and controlling the battlefield, while Raphael does best in the thick of combat. Michelangelo is highly mobile and maneuverable, but the slower Leonardo can cut through throngs of enemies. You’ll switch between all of their perspectives as you play, meaning you’ll need to master each playstyle in the end.

And while combat is the game’s forte, its story is more interesting than such an action-focused game might suggest. It’s certainly not up there with the best tactics games in the story department, but it does have a surprising arc for how each of its characters deals with the grief over the loss of their master.

Mostly, though, TMNT: Tactical Takedown is pure arcade fun in the guise of a strategy game. Its clever melding of fast-paced combat with clever decision-making means it can scratch the itch for action and tactics at the same time, all while looking pretty radical as it does it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown is available now on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PC.