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Trivia / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

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  • Approval of God: To the surprise of the game's staff, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman dropped in on their development post-mortem panel at the Montreal Comiccon 2022 Fan Convention, and according to Yannick Belzil on their Discord channel, he thought it was cool that April O'Neil was brought in as a playable character.
  • Ascended Fanon: Some fans on PC modded the game to change the palettes of the heroes to make them resemble other incarnations. Dimension Shellshock includes alternate color options for the playable characters, many of which resemble other versions of the cast.
  • Author's Saving Throw: Because Tribute Games keeps in close contact with the community on their Discord server, the December 2022 patch addresses many small criticisms players had with the game on launch. In particular, throws were given invincibility frames, addressing the major Scrappy Mechanic that throwing would often leave you wide open to attacks; taunts now only fill the first super bar, making them less of a Game-Breaker; Rat King and Zorax do their swarm attacks less frequently, and Super Shredder was tweaked so he can be attacked more frequently; and the tutorial now only shows up the first time you start Arcade and Story mode, rather than every time.
  • Awesome, Dear Boy:
    • When DotEmu were contacted by Nickelodeon to make a game for one of their licenses after the launch of the Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap remake, they made sure to specifically ask about the 1987 version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rather than any other incarnation, simply because of their love for the older cartoon.
    • Tribute Games loved the '87 cartoon and their '90s arcade games so much that they tried to get Nickelodeon's permission to make a new game for roughly 10 years, and rebuffed any offers for adapting their other properties.
    • According to the Tribute Games marketing manager Eric Lafontaine, the staff unanimously intended to have Splinter playable long before the project was even started (helped by the fact that him showing off his fighting skills sporadically within the show itself only increased his mysticism).
    • In this FEED4GAMERS interview, Yannick Belzil said that the original voice actors for the Turtles were thrilled to get back into their parts, as their characters still mean a lot to them.
    • Sean Gurnsey, the voice of Splinter and Shredder (among many, many others), stated in an interview that he was a huge fan of the 1987 series and would always imitate the voices as a child, so he was ecstatic to carry on the roles made famous by the likes of James Avery and Peter Renaday, while also getting to work with some of the people who voiced his heroes.
    • In this interview, the Tribute Games marketing manager Éric Lafontaine downright admitted that when the Usagi Yojimbo protagonist Miyamoto Usagi was highly demanded as a DLC character, it was a no-brainer for the staff since they were also big fans of him themselves.
  • Creator-Driven Successor: Acts as a sequel to both Turtles in Time, in an overall sense, and to the GBA TMNT game, which the staff previously worked on.
  • Creator's Favorite:
  • Cross-Regional Voice Acting: With a tinge of Creator Provincialism - While the usual quartet of Cam Clarke, Rob Paulsen, Townsend Coleman and Barry Gordon as well as Yuki Matsuzaki are based in LA, the rest of this game's voice actors are based in Tribute Games' domestic Canada.
  • Dark Horse Casting:
    • Outside of the American-based TMNT veterans Cam Clarke, Rob Paulsen, Townsend Coleman and Barry Gordon, the rest of the game's cast at launch is entirely comprised of largely obscure or unknown actors from Canada.
    • Special mention goes to voice of Karai in the Dimension Shellshock DLC, Alannah Gurnsey — prior the landing the role, she only had experience doing ad reads rather than character voices, and she wasn't familiar with the character's history until after her audition. She said in an interview that she was worried she only got the part due to her father voicing Shredder, but the casting director made it clear to her that she was chosen because she brought a unique take on Karai rather than emulating a past performance.
    • Amongst the more famous singers and YouTube celebrities, Anton Corazza is the least known of the game's musical guests (although he did collaborate with Tee Lopes on independent projects in the past). His involvement wasn't revealed until the game's song list page was uploaded on Spotify (alongside the more notorious Jonny Atma and Mega Ran) the day prior to the launch.
  • Doing It for the Art:
    • Both Dotemu and Tribute Games are self-professed fans of the original cartoon, with the latter in particular having prepared themselves for this game by binge-watching the cartoon and playing the older Turtles games (as well as other classic beat 'em ups of the era by Konami), as noted in this French interview. Tribute had been trying to gain Nickelodeon's permission for a classic Turtles game since 2010. When the two companies found out they were both trying to get the rights, they decided to team up to pitch the game to Nickelodeon. All to make a love letter to '87 fans.
    • When the game was delayed from its initial release window of 2021, a rarity for a Nickelodeon game project, Dotemu and Tribute Games made it clear that they wanted to take their time to make a great game that could live up to the fans' expectations.
  • Dueling Works: The game was released on the same day as fellow retraux beat-em-up Final Vendetta, which it completely overshadowed.
  • Dummied Out:
    • A few unused audio files were found in the data, specifically for April O'Neil, Splinter and Casey Jones responding to a few of the game's bosses in their intros. Some of their lines eventually implemented following the release of the Dimension Shellshock DLC.
    • The Spriters Resource community has uncovered the artwork for an unused sixth dimension in Survival Mode, called Jurassic.
  • Executive Veto:
    • April's Ass Kicks You team attack seen in her trailer was removed at the request of Nickelodeon, as they felt it was out-of-character.
    • In regards to the Dimension Shellshock DLC, Yannick Belzil confirmed on the Dotemu Discord that the staff at Tribute Games was not given access to the IDW continuity's characters.
  • Exiled from Continuity: A partly self-imposed example. Yannick Belzil said that he would like to have included more than just 1987 characters, but to keep things streamlined, the crew stuck strictly to characters from the 1987 cartoon. Dimension Shellshock would be allowed to feature characters from the Archie Comics adaptation (as well as a few characters exclusive to the 1987 toyline), allowing them to implement Karai, a character who barely existed when the 1987 cartoon was made, though Yannick Belzil confirmed on Discord that characters from the 2011 IDW continuity are off-limits.
  • Inspiration for the Work:
  • Line to God: Tribute Games has both their own Discord server and a separate one specifically for this game, where fans can ask them questions pertaining to the game (as long as they're allowed to answer them without breaking NDA).
  • Lying Creator:
    • The developers initially stated that the playable roster would only feature the Turtles. However, seeing as the animated trailer showed off April and Splinter months before they were confirmed, it's likely that these claims were done to hide the surprise and try to discourage fans from figuring it out early.
    • The developers pulled a similar trick when asked about whether Casey Jones, who was otherwise conspicuously absent from pre-release material, would be playable; their response was that there wouldn't be any more playable characters in the base game and they had no plans for DLC, but that he wouldn't be ruled out. Casey ended up being revealed later on as the last character on the base roster.
  • Milestone Celebration: The initial release window of 2021 was changed to 2022, which is the 35th anniversary of the cartoon's first airing.
  • Newbie Boom: Plenty of players were introduced to the 1987 show's universe, or even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a whole, through this game, given its surprise popularity and it coming out during a lull in Turtles media (with Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles having ended two years prior and the IDW comics being the only other ongoing work at the time).
  • No Dub for You: While the game's text is fully translated in all of its supported languages, there aren't any non-English dubs for the voice acting.
  • Orphaned Reference:
    • The odd prominence of the Punk Frogs beyond their sidequest (showing up as cardboard standees in Episode 6 and theme park balloons in Stage 9, as well as being falsely credited for saving the day in the ending) is a remnant of a subplot about the Foot Clan merchandising them for funding, which goes unstated in the final game.
    • The ending of Survival Mode shows off some "pizzas from all dimensions", which include several that don't correspond to playable dimensions; one of them, a slab of stone covered in Cartoon Meat, likely belongs to the Dummied Out Jurassic dimension.
  • The Other Darrin: While the four main Turtle actors returned for the game (as did Yuki Matsuzaki, the de facto voice of Usagi since 2017), the rest of the cast is voiced by Canadian soundalikes.
  • Real-Life Relative: The voice of Karai, Alannah Gurnsey, is the daughter of Sean Gurnsey, the voice of Shredder in this game (among many other characters). Karai is depicted as Shredder's daughter in many of the series' continuities.
  • Refitted for Sequel:
    • In a meta-franchise sense, this game is intended to incorporate gameplay ideas that the staff never got the chance to use for the 2007 TMNT Game Boy Advance game.
    • Dimension Shellshock is a case of "refitted for DLC", as it includes cameos from characters other than those from the '87 series, which Yannick Belzil initially had the staff leave out of the base game to scale things back.
  • Role Reprise:
  • Sequel Gap:
    • While not a "true" sequel to Turtles in Time, it should be noted that this game came out in 2022, thirty-one years after the game's arcade release in 1991, and thirty years after the game's SNES port, as well as The Hyperstone Heist if you wish to acknowledge that as a separate entry.
    • In a more general term, since it seems to take place after the end of the 1987 series, it comes 26 years after the show's final season in 1996. While there were crossovers such as Turtles Forever and some episodes of the 2012 cartoon, they chose not to acknowledge the events of the Red Sky seasons, while this game references them.
  • Sequel in Another Medium: Basically serves as one to the 1987 TMNT series. Particularly the fact that the Technodrome is in ruins, much like it was at the end of the 80's series, and that a key plot point is the villains reassembling Krang's body which the Turtles used to defeat the villain Dregg in the final episode.
  • Shrug of God: When directly asked on Discord about the animators and artists that might be around for both the base game and DLC, Matthieu Godet said in jest that he can't say anything about the DLC, leaving it ambiguous as to whether this game would get DLC in the foreseeable future. Sure enough, it did.
  • Teasing Creator: Matthieu Godet, who is notorious for his joking misdirections, once responded on Discord to the concern over the apparent lack of female bosses by saying that Tempestra wouldn't be the only one. In a sense, he was right: the Statue of Liberty is encountered as the Statue of Tyranny near the end of the game.
  • Unspecified Role Credit: Only the four Turtle voice actors (Cam Clarke, Barry Gordon, Rob Paulsen, and Townsend Coleman) and Usagi's voice actor (Yuki Matsuzaki) are given specific credits for whom they voice, while the Canadian voice actors from Voxmade are listed solely under "Additional Voice-Over Production". The Japanese website confirmed the voices of April (Katherine Slingsby), Splinter (Sean Gurnsey), and Casey (Darren Worts), while other credits were confirmed by the actors after the fact.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Earlier screenshots and footage showed that the HUD had a more distinct design◊ with jagged segments, before being altered to a more streamlined design◊ much closer to the one seen in the arcade games. The turtles' icons◊ have also been altered (aside from Leonardo's) to reflect their individual personalities. Michelangelo's shortened name on the HUD was also changed from "Mike" to his established nickname, "Mikey".
    • One of the animations in Level 1 initially had Bebop flirting with Tiffany (successfully, at that) until they noticed the heroes and ran off. The level preview video on YouTube shows that this was replaced with Bebop forcing Vernon to film him, while Tiffany is part of the crowd of civilians who run towards the Channel 6 entrance. The sprites for this animation, along with a bunch of others, are still left in the final game's files, suggesting that she initially had a bigger role.
    • Yannick Belzil stated on the Tribute Games Discord that the electronics store in Episode 10, "A Few Screws Loose", was originally going to be called Good Get instead of Micro Mart, as a play on Best Buy, but The Mitchells vs. the Machines beat the staff to it.
    • Yannick Belzil provided some tidbits on the Tribute Games Discord regarding the game's plot:
      • He had a more elaborate plot in mind, but the team settled for a simpler Excuse Plot to maintain the game's fast pace.
      • He and the other members of the team wanted to include April's apartment as a level, but couldn't find a way to fit it in, so it was left out of the locations brought in from the show.
      • The development team initially considered putting a spaceship in Groundchuck and Dirtbag's level, in order to explain their return from Shell-Ri-La, but realized that it didn't add much to the plot and dropped that plan.
      • One subplot that's simply alluded to in-game was going to involve Shredder having turned the Punk Frogs into merchandising icons (similarly to the Turtles in real life) to provide funding for the Foot Clan, which the Frogs are blissfully unaware of.
      • The plot originally had Shredder absent for most of the game until he would make a shocking return at the end, while the Triceratons were free to try and conquer New York City/Earth unopposed in the meantime. Once the title of Shredder's Revenge got chosen by Nickelodeon, the developers felt that Shredder should show up more. The only trace of this initial plot is the Triceratons occupying the National History Museum in Episode 11, "Dinosaur Stampede!".
    • According to the animator Matthieu Godet on Discord, April's Ass Kicks You attack (as seen in her reveal trailer) was removed from the game and replaced at the request of Nickelodeon, since they felt it didn't fit her character.
    • In this interview, Yannick Belzil revealed that the game would have gotten even more NPC cameos, drawing from the comics and toy-only characters, but this idea was scaled back to only the cartoon characters for sanity's sake. Related to this, a pair of sprites for Mona Lisa◊ are left over in the final game, likely indicating she got further in than the rest before getting cut. That said, characters from the Adventures comics did eventually make it as background characters in the DLC.
      • Mona Lisa would get her proper cameo appearance in the Dimension Shellshock DLC, where she, along with Carter, Zack, and Irma are shown fighting against Mutagen Man and Antrax in the background in the Dark Tomorrow.
    • Matthieu Godet said on Discord that there was going to be a One-Hit Kill retro-mutagen effect like the one used by (Super) Shredder in a number of Konami games, but the time and manpower needed to create and program that proved too much for the staff, so this plan was dropped for the game's launch.
    • Though Survival mode's version of Super Shredder has no unique name in the final game, internal references in the files suggest that he was originally referred to as Paradox Shredder.
  • Word of God:
    • The staff officially stated on the Discord that April's removed hip thrust attack was based on Rainbow Mika's Shooting Peach and other similar moves, and they were unaware of the hip thrust that was previously used for Aska in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters.
    • In this interview with GameReactor, Cyrille Imbert specifically noted that April being revealed as playable did not tease a April 2022 launch window for the game.
    • The staff explained on the Discord that the selection process for playable characters summarily consists of Dotemu and Tribute Games telling Nickelodeon why a specific character should be approved (they think the character would be cool, they like them, they would be fun to play because of reasons, etc), but also acknowledged that Nickelodeon could say that they want some other character in the game that should be added without question.
    • Yannick Belzil confirmed on Discord that one good ending scene in Panzer Paladin, which involved Grit leading four turtles through some sewers, was intentional Production Foreshadowing for this game.
    • In this PAX East interview with Frédéric Gémus, he explains that for April's playable appearance they went with the idea that she's been hanging out with the turtles and Splinter for such a long time that she probably picked up a few of their moves to become a skilled fighter herself, similar to how, in several modern incarnations, April is specifically trained by Splinter as a fifth member of the team.
    • Yannick Belzil has explained that the game takes place in an idealized continuity of the '87 show, since the show itself is a bit loose in terms of serialization, but is otherwise faithful to the look, tone and feel of it.
    • In this Xbox Expansion Pass interview, Yannick Belzil stated that the staff would much rather dedicate DLC resources to new playable characters instead of alternate skins. However, Cyrille Imbert later clarified that it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility, depending on what fans want. In the end, the DLC includes both.
    • Yannick Belzil noted on Discord that the carpet in the arcade section of Episode 6, "Mall Meltdown", is directly based on the same one seen in Tribute Games' office.
    • Yannick Belzil stated on Discord that the defunct Incredible Universe store chain served as a partial inspiration for Micro Mart, the electronics store in Episode 10.
    • After the announcement of the Dimension Shellshock DLC, Yannick Belzil mentioned on Discord how he had bought the Mutant Universe sourcebooks for the Adventures comics all the way back in 1992. Amusingly, he didn't anticipate how handy they would eventually be for the character appearances in said DLC.
    • According to Jean-François Major on Discord, Team Sakai actually approached Tribute Games themselves shortly after the game's launch, for negotiations over including Usagi as a DLC character.
    • Yannick Belzil stated on Discord that NPCs (at least for the characters from Adventures) are not planned to be playable as DLC characters.

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