TMNT rocks Steam Next Fest with the snappiest, slickest tactics RPG I've ever played

gamesradar.com:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown proves that beyond being able to rock almost any tone and visual aesthetic, the turtles with attitude can lend themselves to almost any genre. TMNT: Shredder's Revenge is an all-timer beat 'em up. They're incredible as fighters in Injustice 2. They've even landed in Call of Duty more than once. But developer Strange Scaffold's strategic take on the turtles is already one of the best TMNT games as far as I'm concerned, after spending a couple of hours with the Steam Next Fest demo.

Strange Scaffold is an eclectic indie game dev titan known for punk, rough-and-ready, mechanically rich cult classics such as I Am Your Beast (one of the best shooters of 2024), El Paso, Elsewhere (Max Payne with Vampires), and Clickolding (the most cursed clicker game on the market). Working on a licensed game is unusual for the studio, but, then, when have they ever been usual?

Likewise, while much in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown is what you'd expect from the genre: a grid of enemies, action points dictating moves you can make, and the chance you'll get crushed if you're not clever enough, it's also so much more. Thanks to its playful sense of momentum and dedication to encouraging the turtles to turn the tides when outnumbered, it's unlike anything else I've played in the genre.

Though core rules remain the same, each Turtle has their own mechanical quirks that make them feel distinct – the demo I play having me go shells-on with each in turn. The wisecracking Michelangelo is the speediest of the bunch, able to move around as he attacks and flips and spins past enemies with big jumps. The moody and brawny Raphael can dash into groups of enemies and push and pull them to apply debuffs, gaining more action points as he dispatches foes with his sai. Tech-wiz Donatello can use his staff to attack in horizontal or vertical lines while also using stun kunai and shock bombs to control enemy movement. Leonardo, the leader of the