Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge | Behind the scenes with the Narrative Designer

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Whoever is, by now, on the avenue of the "anta", hearing the name Turtles In Time will immediately be enveloped by a hint of pleasant nostalgia. That the name reminds him of the hundreds of 200 Lire spent in the cabin on the beach, that it reminds him of the hours he spent peeling his thumbs on the Super Nintendo controller or that it reminds him of the infighting to explain to his classmates that “No! Hyperstone Heist for Mega Drive is not the same game! ", The result will always be one ... a long journey down the boulevard of memories.

For this reason, we who are part of those players about to dive into the" anta ”, when we first saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge presentation trailer, we were overwhelmed by a joy that is hard to put into words. It is not about Hype, nor of that expectation that one has towards a memorable title, how much more of that same, lacerating and at the same childish time, expectation that one had as a child when waiting for Christmas morning to discard the video game that we had admired in the window for weeks.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, in fact, gave us back exactly those sensations, appearing in front of our eyes as a production "out of time". Halfway between the never-released sequel to Turtles In Time and a celebration of the golden years of Konami's beat 'em up, the new production by Tribute Games and Dotemu has so captivated us that we want to, at all costs. , ask one of its creators a few questions.

Our Turtles Fever, from which we have never really healed since 1987, has not gone unnoticed by Yannick Belzil, Narrative Designer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, who as a good fan of the green quartet gave us a chat to dig behind the scenes of the project coming out during the summer.| ); }
The fame of Tribute Games in the field of scrolling beat em ups is now known throughout the videogame panorama, but we want to ask you one thing: why the Turtles? And don't try to answer "why not?". Because we love the Turtles! Since the founding of Tribute Games, the idea was to create games with original stories and characters but, as with all "overgrown children", there are a couple of brands we are so fond of that we can't say no. if it happens to us, as in this specific case, the opportunity to celebrate them in our own way. One is, of course, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the other is Mega Man. Already in the past, more precisely in 2007, our founders were able to work on a game dedicated to TMNTs for the Game Boy Advance; a good game, for heaven's sake, but still far from their dream of being able to create a beat 'em up, multiplayer, dedicated to the Turtles and inspired by the historic productions of the 80s and 90s, dedicated to the famous quartet.




When you think about the videogame history of the Turtles there are only two possible currents of thought: that of younger players, who have only been able to experience a handful of unconvincing tie-ins, and that of players approaching forty, who still remember perfectly, and with a hint of nostalgia, that hat-trick of productions of the caliber of Turtles: The Coin-Op, The Manhattan Project and the unforgettable Turtles in Time. You have already partially answered us on this but we want to ask you if you too, like your founders, wanted to create a scrolling beat 'em up dedicated to the Turtles or if some other genre flashed in your mind in the embryonic stages of the project? For us Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge has always been a sliding beat 'em up. There is no doubt. It is a genre that, as you well know, we love: simple in dynamics, easy to play but which, at the same time, requires dedication to be mastered. If we then think of the historical productions of the genre, dedicated to the Turtles, these are games that, although still very enjoyable today, were clamoring to be reinvented and modernized.


From the very first moments of the game it is doubtful that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge wants to pay homage to the historian Turtles In Time through a series of really pleasant and unobtrusive details and quotes. What surprised us, however, is that, as you anticipated before, you didn't just slavishly re-propose the steps taken by the historical titles of the past but you wanted to create an original title, adorned with game dynamics never seen before. in any of the beat 'em ups dedicated to the Turtles. What surprised us most is how the game manages, from the first levels that we were able to try, to be much more layered than in past titles. We are not only talking about the additions such as the possibility of using April and Splinter but its ability to offer more varied and reasoned gameplay solutions. How was the process of creating the combat system and how useful was the comparison with the titles of the past to find the right balance between all these elements?

The titles of the past have always occupied a huge place in our hearts as gamers. These are the foundations on which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge stands and on which that aura of untouchability that hovers over Konami's historic works was built. As gamers we love them but as developers we are perfectly aware that they were made to steal our, and yours, quarters in the arcade. The most frustrating aspects, the most simplistic mechanics, the contrived difficulty and the general rigidity of the previous games, have become the springboard that allowed us to reach our main goal: how we can make them more suitable, and interesting, for the players. of today? What would make them more fun, more enjoyable, and more profound? Thanks to all these questions we have included dodging, co-op moves, the different skills that characterize each character and so on. After that we played, and replayed, the game several times to balance it in every aspect. Finally, we spent a lot of time with the Dotemu guys to understand, thanks to the results they have achieved with the latest Streets Of Rage, what aspects can make a beat 'em up in 2022 attractive.

We know that not we should, but we want to ask you anyway. In titles like Turtles In Time we were able to face almost all the historical enemies present in the 1987 cartoon. From this point of view, can we expect some surprises from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge? Will there be encounters / fights designed to surprise longtime fans?

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge we have deliberately introduced some enemies, taken from the cartoon, that have never been present in the beat 'em ups made up to now and we are sure they will be an interesting addition to the fans. In addition, as you may have noticed from Vernon's presence in the first moments of the game, we have also included some funny extras, and hopefully unexpected ones, which I think the fans will really like.

During the creative process you had the opportunity to confront each other. with the creative team currently working on the Turtles franchise? Have you been given complete creative freedom by Nickelodeon?

Yes to both questions. Of course, everything we have done has been screened by Nickelodeon, precisely by virtue of their ownership of the brand, but for the most part we have had total freedom. The Turtles are so close to our hearts that we knew perfectly well what to do, how to do it and, above all, what not to do.



To conclude we want to ask you one last indiscretion, hoping it will be possible for you answer us. Will the final version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge contain other playable characters, game modes, graphics filters or secrets of any kind, designed to increase replayability?

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge there are two game modes: Story and Arcade. The Story allows you to build your own character, improve their parameters and replay the levels to reach some hidden objectives. The Arcade reproduces the classic gaming experience on a cabin cruiser, allowing you to tackle the entire adventure from start to finish with a limited number of customizations and based solely on the player's abilities. Playing as different characters will be another way to relive the game using different fighting styles and applying different strategies. As for the presence of additional playable characters, that's something we'd really like to do… and maybe we'll do it if the game is successful!