Can’t say I expected Strange Scaffold’s next game to be turn-based Ninja Turtles

Strange Scaffold has recently covered emotional abuse in El Paso, Elsewhere, voyeurism in Life Eater and Clockolding, and violent power fantasy in I Am Your Beast. Given that trend, I would not have guessed their next game would be a turn-based tactical game with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles licensing.

Uh, yeah, so as part of the PC Game Show, Strange Scaffold has announced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown, which is exactly as I described: turn-based turtles. “I get to make a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game where the very first lines of dialogue establish that Shredder and Splinter are dead. Who else can say that?” said Xalavier Nelson Jr. Bummer, dude, but the turtles have met Batman and the Ghostbusters. Can you say that?

That means a new antagonist has the job of harrowing the turtles. That at least means that the enemies don’t have to exclusively be the Foot Clan, but, from what’s shown, it’s just Foot Clan. Also, each level shows off only one turtle on each level, rather than having you control all four of them. That strikes me as a bit weird, but the press release seems to imply that each turtle has their own storyline.

The actual look of the game is very Strange Scaffold, which is to say, low budget and creative with its resources. The characters are shown as small figurines, and the environments are small spaces with psychedelic backgrounds.

Considering the fact that the big-budget games space has now become so expensive that companies will only take a risk on big established licenses, it’s nice to see these sorts of games fall to fans at smaller developers. We still get more cash-grabby licensed games, but at least that’s not the only way.

There’s no announced release date for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown, and thus far, only PC has been announced.