You Mean I Can Kick Ass as April O’Neil in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge?! Radical!

Gamescon 2021 is going on right now (virtually, for obvious reasons) and kicked things off with an Opening Night Live Show hosted by Geoff Keighley. As to be expected, the two-hour live stream revealed a lot of game announcements, but the one that stuck with me like cheese on a pizza box involves Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge.

Developed by Tribute Games and published by Dotemu (who blessed us with Streets of Rage 4 last year), this upcoming TMNT game is a clear callback to the beat-em-ups that came before it, complete with retro-style graphics, vivid colors, and a tubular soundtrack. The game was announced back in March of this year and, as to be expected, showed the four turtles in action.

I didn’t think there could be any more turtle announcements to make me more hype for this game, after all, I LOVED Streets of Rage 4, and games like Turtles in Time continue to live rent-free in my head.

But then?

This happened:

April.

O’Neil.

Is.

Playable.

With a name like Shredder’s Revenge you kinda expect a retro turtles game to have you saving April, complete with “untying the rope” animation so she can go off and report the news. Instead, she’s joining the turtles, bright yellow jumpsuit and all.

I absolutely cannot get over the fact that I get to play a beat-em-up as April O’Neil – who comes with a killer move set that perfectly fits her personality. I adore that you can literally have a mic drop moment that does damage. The combination of badass brawler moves and using her reporter tools as weapons is fantastic.

I already needed this game, but now I NEED this game!

I honestly can’t think of a TMNT game where April got to do some damage (save for maybe the Genesis version of that Street Fighter-esque Tournament Fighters game from the 90s that I didn’t know about until after my step-brother’s Genesis was collecting dust) The only memory I have of her being in a beat-em-up is her shocked Pikachu face when the Statue of Liberty was stolen by Krang in Turtles in Time. Being able to see her share a high-five with a turtle after kicking some serious shell fills me with such joy.

Like.

She’s not afraid to get rough with these foot soldiers, going so far as to curl up in a Sonic the Hedgehog-like ball so Leonardo can roll her into enemies.

I’m so happy about this you have NO idea.

This does bring up the obvious, most important question of all when thinking about what else this game has to offer: will there be even more characters down the road?

I am begging you to let me have Casey Jones by my side as I walk the streets with April. I know we already got five characters, but there’s always room for more.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge will be released in 2022.

(Image: Tribute Games)

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Briana Lawrence

Briana (she/her - bisexual) is trying her best to cosplay as a responsible adult. Her writing tends to focus on the importance of representation, whether it’s through her multiple book series or the pieces she writes. After de-transforming from her magical girl state, she indulges in an ever-growing pile of manga, marathons too much anime, and dedicates an embarrassing amount of time to her Animal Crossing pumpkin patch (it's Halloween forever, deal with it Nook)

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