Video Game / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

These turtle boys are back and ain't cuttin' Shredder slack!

Raphael: So what now, fearless leader?
Leonardo: Turtles, let's get our shells in gear!
Michelangelo: Mondo notion, dude!
Donatello: Well, what are we waiting for?
All Turtles: Let's kick some shell!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge is a Beat 'em Up game developed by Tribute Games (Panzer Paladin, Mercenary Kings), published by Dotemu (Streets of Rage 4, Metal Slug Tactics), and created by the team who worked on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game and the Game Boy Advance tie-in for TMNT. It is based on the 1987 cartoon, and was released for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on June 16, 2022 followed with mobile ports released on January 12, 2023 via Netflix subscription.

Bebop and Rocksteady have stolen some "gnarly devices" from Channel 6 News in order to reassemble Krang's robot body for his and Shredder's latest evil plot — capturing the Statue of Liberty (again). Naturally, this causes the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to get their shells in gear and storm the streets of New York City, the Technodrome, Dimension X, and beyond to stop Shredder from succeeding in his evil plan. Playable characters include the four Turtles (Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo), April O'Neil, and Master Splinter, along with Casey Jones as an unlockable character.

The game is intended to harken back to the classic side-scrolling brawlers from Konami, specifically the original arcade game and the various versions of Turtles in Time, and even looks the part. Up to six players locally and online^* The PlayStation 4 version is limited to four players when playing locally can join in, and the attack options for each character have been considerably upgraded. There are two main gameplay modes: Arcade Mode is a linear experience that challenges players to clear the game on one "credit", while Story Mode gives players unlimited lives and adds a world map, an RPG-like experience leveling system, and collection sidequests that have additional rewards.

The soundtrack is composed by Tee Lopes, best known for the soundtrack of Sonic Mania, with contributions by other fellow musicians, including Jonny Atma, Mega Ran, Mike Patton, and the Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah and Raekwon. In addition to a digital release, the soundtrack was also made available physically on vinyl and CD day-and-date with the game.

A DLC pack called "Dimension Shellshock" was released on August 31, 2023. It includes two new playable characters in Miyamoto Usagi and Karai, a Survival Mode, and alternate palette swaps for the playable characters.

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Gnarly Tropes:

• Abnormal Ammo:
  • The red Foot Soldiers use crossbows loaded with toilet plungers.
  • Dimension Shellshock DLC features light orange Foot Soldiers that use crossbows loaded with cartoony missiles.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Episode 5, King of the Spill, takes place in the NYC sewers, where the Turtles confront Rat King. It's played with in that the level starts off with the actual New York subway system, which is realistically represented, and then continues into the unrealistically large sewers expected from the cartoon.
• Adaptational Attractiveness:
  • While calling him attractive is a stretch, Slash's facial features are less dopey and more serious than in the cartoon, most notably replacing his buck teeth with fangs, and his spikier shell takes inspiration from his original action figure and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures incarnation.
  • The Punk Frogs look much more like the Turtles themselves here, whereas they originally had more frog-like heads and bulging, sunken eyes.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • April in the original 1980's cartoon was almost always a Damsel in Distress and The Load. This time, like her later animated incarnations, she hits just as hard as the Turtles do. To the point that she can not only go up against the Triceratons, but also stand toe-to-toe with the Shredder (both normal and mutagen-enhanced)!
  • The Turtles themselves can count, when it comes to dealing with the Triceratons. In the cartoon, the Turtles were so hopelessly outmatched that they had to trick the Triceratons into leaving Earth. Here, they can beat them up badly and force them to flee the planet.
  • In this game, Splinter is immune to the Rat King's power of control over the sewer rats. Doubles as Pragmatic Adaptation, considering Splinter's been Promoted to Playable.
  • Downplayed with Usagi. While he has always been a capable fighter, Usagi was unable to defeat Shredder in the older cartoon since the latter resorted to cheating. This time around, both opponents can fight on equal terms, with no tricks involved - aside from a Doppelgänger Attack on Shredder's part, or his Mutagen-empowered Super Shredder state.
  • Compared to her prior animated incarnations, Karai underwent through a massive upgrade: her ninjutsu skills are augmented with supernatural powers. She can call down lightning on her enemies, summon shadow duplicates as part of her Super Attack, as well as levitate in the air.
  • While not a borderline Invincible Villain like his 2012 series counterpart, Super Shredder has still received a major upgrade compared to his debut. In addition to his previous superpowers, such as levitation and wielding Technicolor Fire, he is impervious to most damage.
• Adaptational Curves:
  • The Turtles themselves are more muscular than the original cartoon's designs, especially in promo art. The proportions are actually closer to their 2003 versions.
  • April's sprites have a more shapely figure than her more modest cartoon design — she has occasional bouncing on her chest and a more defined rear.
  • Rocksteady is both more muscular and has a bigger gut than his cartoon self.
  • Karai has an extremely shapely rear end in this adaptation, which gets prominently shown off in her victory pose.
• Adaptational Heroism: Karai's portrayal for Dimension Shellshock is based on her 2003 version, which was one of the darkest and most villainous versions of the character (with her Heel–Face Turn not happening until the Grand Finale movie). Here, despite looking sinister in some of her animations and even leading her own Foot Clan at the end of the main campaign, she's a straight up hero and ally to the Turtles.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Downplayed with Casey. In the cartoon he was only on neutral terms with the Turtles and their allies, as long as they were able to curb his paranoid tendencies. Here, he has little issue doing team-up maneuvers with them, and he's shown willingly eating pizza with them during the party in the ending.
  • Karai is outright shown high-fiving the Turtles and acting like one of the team.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Karai seems to have mystical powers which she demonstrates in her super moves, taunt, and victory pose (the latter two by floating with crackling purple electricity and glowing eyes), whereas most incarnations of Karai are generally just very skilled fighters.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Just like in Turtles in Time, Metalhead serves as a boss here even though he normally helps the Turtles. Unlike that game, where it's not clear why he's working with the Foot Clan, it's made clear here that he has been reprogrammed. Beating him knocks some sense back into him, thankfully.
  • Mutagen Man makes a cameo in what appears to be a razed alternate timeline in Survival mode, teaming up with Anthrax to threaten Mona Lisa, Carter, Irma, and Zack. Mutagen Man in the 1987 cartoon was only a villain due to being manipulated by the Shredder, and quickly switched sides when Shredder betrayed him.
• Adaptational Weapon Swap: Downplayed. Karai wields a sword in most adaptations, and it's present here, but due to this game borrowing from her Tournament Fighters moveset, she largely fights hand-to-hand, and reserves using her sword and two other weapons for more situational attacks; her sword is used for an aerial strike, a kusarigama for her charged attack, and a steel claw for an "X"-shaped strike akin to one of Shredder's attacks (the latter referencing her stint as the Shredder in the 2003 cartoon).
• Adaptation Dye-Job:
  • In the cartoon and video games, the Pizza Monsters were basically just Alien's Xenomorphs, but with eyes and a yellow paint-job. The ones encountered in the game are noticeably smaller and have distinctively different designs that, while closely resembling the original design, aren't obvious Xenomorph Xeroxes. Notably, these Pizza Monsters actually live up to their name by essentially being sentient, gooey masses of melted cheese and pizza toppings.
  • Karai's outfit is a mild case, being based upon her 2003 counterpart, but her default palette switches the dark gray out for dark purple, likely to retain consistency with that being the 1987 Foot Clan's dominant color scheme. Her sash is also red like her headband rather than gray.
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • Leonardo and Donatello, like most of the other video games based on the original cartoon, are far more serious here than in the show. Raphael goes a step further, as he behaves more like his film and 2003 selves than the original cartoon, and even his HUD icon is scowling. Michelangelo, to a lesser extent, tends to be always smirking rather than having his bright and cheery smile.
  • From what little is shown of his personality, Casey Jones takes cues from his later, straighter incarnations — as opposed to the 1987 series, which followed the Mirage comics' example of making him a paranoid vigilante lunatic whose bizarre nature was played for laughs. Notably, he doesn't have the "Filthy Harry" accent here, marking him as a bit more mentally stable.
  • Usagi was depicted as overtly emotional in the 1987 cartoon. In this case, he is consistently stoic and in control of his emotions, which is more in line with how he acts in his original comic book series and later crossovers with the Turtles.
  • Karai's expressions noticeably feature her smiling often, her introductory image showing her with a cocky smirk, whereas in the 2003 series (which the game's design borrows from), she was generally serious and rarely smiled.
• Affirmative Action Girl: In the base game, April was the only female playable character; Dimension Shellshock adds Karai.
• After the End: One area in Dimension Shellshock's Survival Mode, Dark Tomorrow, is set in a parallel universe that shows New York City in ruins, as a potential outcome to Shredder and Krang succeeding with their plans.
• Aggressive Play Incentive: Fitting her aggressive personality, Karai's mechanics encourage an aggressive playstyle — building up a combo builds a charge that gradually buffs her movement speed, allowing her to more easily follow up on combos. At full charge, it reduces the length of her taunt, making it the fastest in the game and allowing her to easily unleash Super Attacks. The charge goes away if she doesn't attack for a while or if she gets hit, but attacking again before it fully goes away will bring it back up to a slight charge.
• Airborne Mook: Tubular Transports and Foot Clan soldiers in Hover Bike-like contraptions serve as the flying enemies in this game, the latter being more durable than the former.
• All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats: Maybe not all of them, but Usagi dons one for his victory pose. Where he was keeping it probably isn't worth asking.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: The second-to-last level in Episode 15 re-introduces enemies that were encountered only in previous stages — Knuckleheads from Episode 6, Mouser Model 3s from Episode 10, Triceratons from Episode 11, the Technodrome's hanging turret guns from Episode 13, and Pizza Monsters from Episode 14.
• Ambidextrous Sprite:
  • The characters change which hand they carry their weapons in when they turn around — most obviously with Mikey's nunchaku, April's microphone, and Splinter's cane. Justified, as their turning animations actually show them switching their weapons between hands.
  • The most notable are the cars in Episode 10, where the steering wheels suddenly switch to RHD, as opposed to the correct positioning in Episode 2 & 3.
• Amusement Park: Episode 9, "Crisis on Coney Island!", takes place at the eponymous amusement park, where the turtles pass by old-timey carnival games staffed by Foot Soldiers before confronting Leatherhead.
• Amusing Injuries: Characters can get zapped, frozen, flattened, smacked by a loose floorboard, and so on.
• Animal Stampede: Groundchuck and Dirtbag's level, Rumble in the Zoo, has the player trying to survive a stampede of animals released from the zoo.
• Animated Credits Opening: The game starts out with an animated sequence set to a remix of the original cartoon theme - sung by Mike Patton of all people!
• Anti-Air:
  • Pressing the jump and attack buttons simultaneously makes your character do a Shoryuken-style jumping attack with invulnerability frames, which naturally works well in this regard.
  • While most enemies are perfectly safe to approach with divekicks, the standard purple Foot soldiers and all of the Triceratons are more than happy to counter you with uppercuts and horn stabs if you test them.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Super Attacks use a separate energy bar, instead of removing a small slice of health.
  • Two new additions help the game flow more easily than its predecessors — a dodge maneuver lets you escape being trapped into enemy attacks, and the taunt button lets you fill up your energy bar in slower moments.
  • Because of the dodge mechanic and the lack of need to quarter-munch like the arcade games, enemies fight more fair than past games in the series, removing unavoidable cheap hits and random boss patterns. A skilled player can get through a stage unharmed with well-timed barrages and evasions, to the point multiple stages in Story mode have a challenge to clear the level without taking a hit.
  • In the older games, pizzas would only heal one player, leading to fights to grab them. Here, Party Pizzas will appear in multiplayer levels to act as full heals for every player. Some pizzas still only heal one player to keep that nostalgic in-fighting, and the Cheapskate levels don't have Party Pizzas at all.
  • A player cannot pick up a pizza if they are at full health.
  • The revival mechanic in multiplayer. Teammates have 10 seconds to approach their downed ally and hold the button to heal the player. If the time runs out, the player loses a life; during a boss fight, if a boss is defeated while a player is still in a revival state, the player will keep their life.
  • The health sharing mechanic in multiplayer. Ideally, you coordinate with your teammates, transfer most of your health to them, and then grab the pizza.
  • During the Chrome Dome boss fight, if the player is struggling to get a clean Foot Clan throw to the boss a la Turtles in Time, or not even realizing they have to, an exploding barrel will appear; setting it off will draw Chrome Dome back to the playfield.
  • The Custom Game menu added in the December 22, 2022 update has a Free Game setting that turns off game overs, allowing new players to complete the game at their leisure.
  • For Survival Mode, playable versions of bosses (Bebop, Rocksteady and Shredder) gain an additional (although much shorter) health bar on top of main HP that regular characters have. It's very crucial when it comes to preserving the small amount of HP left in hopes of getting the Pizza pick-up for a full restore.
  • The crystal shards never disappear in Survival Mode. Whichever shards that were not immediately picked up automatically add to the score before the next round starts.
  • After a playable character levels up to 5 in Survival Mode, "Dimension Skip" is unlocked for that character, which allows you to skip to a specific wave with full health and lives, which is helpful in unlocking the crystals for the unlockable palettes or simply if you want to fight the mode's final boss without having to go through the whole gauntlet (though you'll still have to go through the Dark Tomorrow).
• Animesque: Partial example; the animated intro and promotional artwork are closer to the show's style, but the in-game graphics give a distinctive chibi-esque look to the cast, fitting for the Konami games that inspired it. The animations make use of several manga visual effects, such as Blank White Eyes and Sword Lines. April and Karai even get a Luminescent Blush when they're grabbed by a Mouser or Rat.
• Arrange Mode: The Custom Game option added in the December 2022 update lets you play through Arcade Mode with adjusted rules, represented by DIP switches, which can be mixed and matched to make the game easier or harder. Examples include "Dopplegangers" (multiple players can use the same character), "Old-School Super" (super moves take off health rather than their dedicated bar, like in Turtles in Time), and "Blasting Baddies" (enemies explode upon defeat).
• Ascended Extra:
  • April and Splinter were merely NPCs in the original Konami games. Here, they are playable.
  • In stark contrast to most of the franchise, the Casey Jones of the 1987 cartoon was a very minor character that only appeared in five episodes of the show and two of Konami's video games.^note Technically four, if one were to count each version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters as its own separate game. It's largely thanks to the popularity of the character as a whole that he's playable here.
  • The Turtle Tenderizer, a Foot Clan vehicle based on an unproduced toy that otherwise only appeared for a few sections in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Manhattan Project, gets a fully dedicated boss fight in Episode 3.
  • Baxter Stockman was simply yet another boss in most of the Konami games. This time around, he actually plays a major role in the plot, since he's the one responsible for reassembling Krang's robot body. In gameplay terms, he's encountered pretty late and has a rather elaborate boss fight.
  • The Neutrinos showed up as NPCs for a Collection Sidequest in the base game, but otherwise had almost no impact on the narrative. In the Dimension Shellshock DLC's Survival mode, they kick off the plot by crashing the Turtles' latest pizza party, to recruit them into saving the multiverse from Shredder.
  • Karai never even appeared in the original '87 series, though she was a final boss character in both 16-bit versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters. Her prominence in almost every adaptation after the 2003 cartoon meant that she became the second character added in the Dimension Shellshock DLC.
• Ascended Meme: The achievement for earning a 250-hit combo is called "Cowabunga It Is" and features a picture of Michelangelo, referencing an infamous image macro.
• Asteroids Monster: One of the new enemies introduced is the Mouser Model 3, a humanoid robotic enemy with Mousers for hands. When it's destroyed, the hands break off into individual Mousers.
• Author Appeal:
  • Besides the fact that April, Splinter and Casey are fan favorites and established staples in the franchise overall, the Tribute Games staff noted in interviews that they personally wanted them to be playable in the game.
  • The Tribute Games president Jean-François Major once admitted that he liked Krang and Rocksteady the most among the '87 rogues gallery. Unsurprisingly, Rocksteady shows up often alongside his partner Bebop in the first seven Episodes, while Krang's robot body is a major focus of the plot. What's more, Krang is the only villain to make a clean getaway by the game's end, suggesting that he'll be back in a follow-up story. The Dimension Shellshock DLC would also make Rocksteady playable as a limited perk for its new mode.
  • Anton Corazza, one of the game's musical guests and the vocalist for "Mutants over Broadway!", is a dedicated fan of Jazz music. This is reflected in the lyric "We play 'em faster than bebop, Gillespie with the technique", which references the famous trumpetist Dizzy Gillespie, the father of bebop as a sub-genre of jazz.
  • Yannick Belzil, Tribute Games' narrative designer, has an outspoken fondness for Action Girls. This most likely was a factor in the overall decision to promote April as a playable character, and also added Karai for the DLC.
• Auto-Scrolling Level: Like in Turtles in Time, some levels have the Turtles riding on Cheapskates, their flying skateboards. They pop up in Episode 3, Episode 8, and the first part of Episode 14.
• Badass in Distress: Following the defeat of the Turtle Tenderizer in Episode 3, Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang's head end up being kidnapped by Groundchuck and Dirtbag shortly after the truck crashes outside the Central Park Zoo.
• Bad Future: The "Dark Tomorrow" dimension in Survival mode takes place in a ruined future where the Foot Clan rules New York City. The Statue of Liberty can be seen in ruins within the dimension's background.
• Bat Out of Hell: Wingnut, an alien bat from the planet Flagenon. While he's an ally to the Turtles in the toyline and Archie comics, in the episode he appeared in he and his partner Screwloose were evil, which holds true in the game. Screwloose is missing, though.
• Beat the Curse Out of Him: Beating the reprogrammed Metalhead restores his programming to normal. If Donatello is in play, he even lampshades it as soon as the fight starts:
  Donatello: Don't worry, Metalhead, I'll fix you!
• Big Applesauce: Episode 2 is called Big Apple, 3 PM, and takes place on the streets of New York, where the Turtles make their way to a scrapyard to fight Rocksteady. The final battle against Super Shredder takes place on the streets of New York at 3 AM.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: In the intro to Survival mode, Karai rejects the offer of pizza. The ending, however, depicts her eating the unusual pizza from other dimensions, such as one with tentacles and an eyeball on it.
• Boastful Rap: "We Ain't Came to Lose" starts the first verse with Shredder dissing the Turtles and declaring how he's going to thrash them. The second verse gives the Turtles the chance to do the same to Shredder.
• Body Horror: Applied to Super Shredder. Thanks to the mutagen, he's able to warp his own body by virtue of making himself larger. Also, when you consider how his costume is altered by the mutagen, and with how the spikes on his shoulders bulge and warp along with his muscles, it gives the impression that his costume has become a part of his body.
• Boss Banter: Each boss battle is generally preceded by the boss(es) making a bold declaration and succeeded by vocally expressing their pain upon defeat.
• Boss Subtitles: Each of the bosses get a personalized introduction before you fight them.
  • Bebop: Bad News Boar!
  • Rocksteady: Rampage-Relishin’ Rhino! ^note An unused version found in game's files gives him another one: Knows where the Ouchies Lay.
  • Turtle Tenderizer: Turtle-Trashing Monster Truck!
  • Groundchuck & Dirtbag: Pardners in Trouble!
  • Rat King: Rumblin’ Rodent Regent!
  • Tempestra: The Dame of Games!
  • Bebop & Rocksteady: Best of Pals, Worst of Your Problems!
  • Wingnut: Planet Flagenon’s Flappiest Fighter!
  • Leatherhead: Sultan of the Swamp, Ready to CHOMP!
  • Metalhead: Reprogrammed Techno-Terrapin!
  • Captain Zorax: The Triceraton Terror!
  • Baxter Stockman: Mutated Mad Flyentist!
  • General Traag: General of the Granite Grunts!
  • Chrome Dome: Metallic Master of the TechnoDrome!
  • Slash: Twisted Turtle from Dimension X!
  • Krang: The Burbling Brain from Beyond!
  • Shredder: Ready for Revenge!
  • Statue of Tyranny: Liberty No More!
  • Super Shredder: Raging for Revenge!^note He earns the second subtitle for Survival Mode: Shard-Stealin' Master Of the Void!
• Boss-Only Level: Episode 16, Wrath of the Lady, consists solely of fighting the Statue of Tyranny and Super Shredder back-to-back with no extra side-scrolling segments.
• Boss Vulnerability: Most bosses are the "always vulnerable" sort, with a few exceptions:
  • Dirtbag can't be harmed when he's fully underground but is vulnerable otherwise.
  • Rat King is invincible when he's summoning his Swarm of Rats — he jumps into the background to do this.
  • Tempestra is only vulnerable when the digital clones of Tokka and Rahzar are not on the field. She's invulnerable otherwise.
  • Metalhead is normally always vulnerable — until the missile rain where he puts up a forcefield. The players either have to wait this one out, or hit the missile that didn't explode right beside this forcefield.
  • Baxter Stockman can't be attacked when he's activating his laser traps. Players have to wait it out until the attack stops.
  • Chrome Dome is another "wait-them-out" sort, but he's immune to all damage until the player temporarily shorts him out in his foreground phase by either throwing a Foot Soldier at him, or by exploding a barrel that appears after a few Foot Soldiers are defeated.
  • The main game's Super Shredder battle is analogous to Chrome Dome: he only becomes tired out and temporarily vulnerable after he uses the green forcefield attack that warps his body, or when his shadow clones are neutralized from each corner of the arena. However, he is fully vulnerable at all times during his battle in Survival Mode, though he makes up for this by being harder to hit.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Metalhead is reprogrammed by Shredder to fight the turtles. You restore his original programming by beating him up.
• Breaking Old Trends: This is the very first '87 TMNT licensed game to feature Usagi as a playable character. What makes his case stand out is that his crossovers with the Turtles were strictly done outside of video games, with the only exception prior to this game being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus in 2004.
• Broad Strokes: The game is described to take place in an "idealized" continuity by the developers, due to much of the 1987 cartoon having very loose serialization, with the back half of the game revealing it to in fact be a continuation of Season 10, due to the dilapidated Technodrome from that season making an appearance, but the game's overall tone leans toward the earlier seasons. It also contains elements of the older video games that weren't in the show itself, such as the Rat King having a crashed Footski from the SNES Turtles in Time, as well as the Foot Clan stealing the Statue of Liberty for their evil plot from the same game. The trope is also in effect for Usagi and Karai, the former whose name and personality are based more closely off of his comics, and the latter who was never formally introduced in the 1987 cartoon's continuity, but the game acts as if she was otherwise always present.
• Brutish Bulls: Groundchuck, a mutant cyborg bull. Naturally one of his attacks is charging around the arena bulldozing anyone in his path, including his ally Dirtbag if he's in the way.
• The Cameo:
  • Vernon appears in the opening level, where he's acting as Bebop's cameraman. He's taken further into the stage every time the Turtles find them. Tiffany is also among the Channel 6 employees running out of the building at the start of the level.
  • During the fight with Tempestra, she summons digital clones of Tokka and Rahzar to put more distance between her and the team.
  • During the fight with Leatherhead at the amusement park, the Punk Frogs are riding a roller coaster nearby. They even start dropping barrels or pizza to help the Turtles.
  • Survival mode raises the amount of cameos significantly, bringing in characters from the toyline and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures in addition to the cartoon. Specific examples include:
    • Mirage — Mondo Gecko, Halfcourt, Jagwar, Ray Fillet, and Dreadmon.
    • Edo — Ninjara, Chien Khan, Al-falqa, Warrior Dragon (a.k.a. Hothead), and Hamato Koji.
    • Omnichannel 6 — Cudley the Cowlick, Kerma, Armaggon, and Fugitoid.
    • 8-bit Battleground — Tattoo, Scumbug, Ace Duck, Screwloose, Pizzaface, and The Uncanny Trio (Nocturno, Hallowcat and Nevermore).
    • Dark Tomorrow — Mutagen Man, Antrax, Mona Lisa, Carter, and Zack (a.k.a. "The Fifth Turtle").
• Cartoon Bomb: One of the Foot Clan enemy types throws dark grey sphered with a wick and a Foot Clan symbol.
• Circling Birdies: Most of the bosses are left seeing stars after their defeat. The heroes suffer this as well if they get caught in Rahzar's bad breath cloud, or if their health is reduced to zero while playing in multiplayer.
• Climax Boss:
  • The fights with Tempestra in Episode 6 and Metalhead in Episode 10 start with Shredder showing up to activate them, and end with the villains obtaining one of Krang's body parts: Tempestra's arcade machine contains the torso, and the machine that reprogrammed Metalhead contains the legs.
  • The battle against Baxter Stockman in Episode 12. He's the one in charge of reassembling Krang's body parts and is the last boss the Turtles face on Earth (besides the Statue of Tyranny and Super Shredder) before they head to Dimension X for the finale.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: A minor case for Super Shredder's powered-up form at the end of Survival mode. While he has more attacks than before, in particular using Good Old Fisticuffs if you get too close to him, he's also fully vulnerable at all times, making it much easier to whale on him than the main game's encounter. This is likely to accommodate for the fact that you'll be fighting him multiple times if you choose to keep repeating Survival mode.
• Collection Sidequest: The NPCs you rescue during episodes each want you to find things for them.
  • Burne wants classic headlines he wrote in the past.
  • Irma wants her secret diaries returned.
  • The Punk Frogs want disgusting bugs to eat.
  • Vernon wants VHS tapes; he says they're "filled with important reporting".
  • The Neutrinos want crystal shards to power their hover car.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • The various Foot Clan enemies wear different-colored clothing depending on what attacks they will use against players. For two early game examples, classic purple ninjas only use basic punches and flying kicks, while yellow ones will throw tire irons in a boomerang fashion.
  • The colors of collectible crystal shards for Survival Mode are used to define the dimensions they originate from: silver for Mirage, green for Edo, golden for 8-bit Battleground, blue for Omnichannel 6, and purple for Dark Tomorrow. The red crystals can only be gained by successfully defeating Super Shredder in The Void.
• Color-Coded Multiplayer: Each character has a specific color they're associated with in trailers and gameplay. Obviously, the Turtles themselves have their signature mask colors (Leonardo is blue, Donatello is purple, Raphael is red, Michelangelo is orange), April is yellow, Splinter is magenta, and Casey is cyan. Dimension Shellshock adds light blue for Usagi and dark purple for Karai.
• The Comically Serious: Karai is portrayed as taking the threat of Shredder the most seriously and constantly makes a big deal out of honor and duty. Despite this, she is just as susceptible to the slapstick damage as everyone else is.
• Combination Attack: Two players can combine to use special moves for more damage. For example, one player can roll into a ball to be launched by another player, and both players can squash an enemy using their Ass Kicks You attack.
• Company Cross References: One of the arcade games in Episode 6 is Panzer Paladin, which was another game by Tribute Games.
• Competitive Balance: Each of the characters has a unique set of stats (Range, Speed, and Power) that affects how they play:
  • Leonardo: Medium Range, Medium Speed, Medium Power
  • Donatello: High Range, Low Speed, Medium Power
  • Raphael: Low Range, Medium Speed, High Power
  • Michelangelo: Low Range, High Speed, Medium Power
  • April O'Neil: Medium Range, High Speed, Low Power
  • Splinter: Medium Range, Low Speed, High Power
  • Casey Jones: High Range, Medium Speed, Medium Power
  • Miyamoto Usagi: Medium Range, High Speed, Medium Power
  • Karai: Medium Range, Medium Speed, High Power
• Composite Character:
  • While Raphael is still his usual jokey self as seen in the '87 cartoon, his aggressive fighting style and combat-ready demeanor take more from his serious incarnations in most other TMNT series, including the original Mirage comic. His own voice actor Rob Paulsen even gets to deliver a few lines that show his rougher edges.
  • While Usagi appeared in the 1987 series under the name "Usagi Yojimbo" (which he was also called in this game's marketing), his depiction here is much closer to his comic book counterpart; he is properly referred to as Miyamoto Usagi, and he has his original stoic personality rather than the overly-emotional portrayal seen in the 1987 cartoon. He's also voiced by Yuki Matsuzaki, who voiced him in the 2012 series and Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles.
  • Some of Shredder's attacks incorporate lightning, similar to Karai from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters, with one of his attacks from his playable variant in Survival Mode resembling her Dark Thunder super move, being a short-ranged attack that covers him and some of the field in lightning. Coming full circle, some of Karai's attacks resemble Shredder's in this game.
  • Karai uses her 2003 series design (sans the three-pronged Foot Clan insignia), but shares her combat stance and some moves with her SNES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters self, such as her air attack where she rapidly punches downward^note One of her alternate skins gives her an orange and purple color palette resembling her incarnation from said game, and her more relaxed, playful personality with her 2012 series counterpart.
• Conspicuous Electric Obstacle: Second half of episode Technodrome has wall-emitted electric bolt emitters that fire at regular intervals.
• Conspicuously Light Patch: In addition to the normal version where interactive / destructible objects are given darker lines and more dynamic colors, level art is done in a softer palette that evokes the painted backgrounds of the animated series.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Four terrapin brothers, a news reporter, a wise rat sensei, a masked vigilante, a rabbit ronin, and a vengeful kunoichi are going up against hundreds of Foot Soldiers, robots of many shapes and sizes, an invasion force of Triceratons, a contingent of Stone Warriors, and occasional Pizza Monsters.
• Console Cameo: Donatello plays with a classic gray Game Boy in his taunt animation, and the Foot Soldiers can occasionally be seen playing them too.
• Counter-Attack: Attacks can be parried and countered using the new dodge mechanic.
• Crate Expectations: Often there are crates with a foot clan symbol in the middle of the stage. Said crates often contain useful items.
• Crosshair Aware: Hazards and attacks that quickly appear offscreen are often indicated by warning sign or a crosshair.
• Crystal Prison: In Survival mode, the heroes can become temporarily trapped in crystal from being hit by certain attacks. It's effectively a Palette Swap of the freezing turrets from Episode 12 in the main game.
• Curse of The Ancients: Groundchuck belts out one upon defeat, as befitting his cultural lingo.
  Groundchuck: Dadgummit!
• Cycle of Hurting: Downplayed. Any enemies that grab with a rope or bite will gradually drain the player character's health unless they're manually shaken off. Getting frozen by a turret in Episode 12 or trapped in a crystal in Survival mode also has the same effect.
• Damsel out of Distress: April and Splinter are playable characters from the very start of the game. Notably, whenever they appeared in games they usually did nothing or need to be rescued, especially in the other games based on the original TV series.
• Decoy Leader: At the end of Episode 13, you run into a silhouette that looks to be Shredder with his signature purple cape, until it turns around to reveal Chrome Dome, who tosses the cape away before fighting you.
• Delayed Causality: Donatello and Usagi both have a unique property to their flying super, where any Foot Soldiers caught within will be stunned and then take damage a few moments later. This extends the combo meter, but doesn't actually deal any additional damage.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The Mirage dimension in the Dimension Shellshock DLC's Survival mode is entirely in black-and-white, just like the comics it was inspired by. All of the playable characters can unlock costumes that emulate this look as well, with the only thing remaining in color being the turtles' masks.
• Denser and Wackier: On two levels:
  • While the older licensed games had their fair share of comedic elements (albeit mostly limited to the Turtles' Amusing Injuries), they were otherwise strait-laced action games. This game puts the comedy elements to the forefront by usually having at least one humorous scene per Episode, in a conscious effort to bring the tone closer to the '87 cartoon.
  • The '87 cartoon was highly comedic at times, if relatively grounded in the types of injuries that the cast would suffer from. Here, the heroes can be subjected to all sorts of hazards that could kill them in the cartoon, yet are none the worse for wear as long as they have health remaining. This is especially the case for the otherwise serious Usagi, making this game his silliest appearance to date compared to even the episodes featuring him in the '87 cartoon.
• Developer's Foresight: With each charge level of her speed boost, Karai performs a different running animation.
• Didn't Think This Through: When the Survival Mode is completed, the Neutrinos surprise the Turtles and their allies with many variations of pizza across multiple dimensions. Some of those prove to be not as tasty for the heroes, to put it mildly.
• Dig Attack: Dirtbag's specialty. He'll burrow into the ground and track down a player, jabbing them from below with his shovel if he gets under them. He does it once before popping back up at high health, then twice at lower health, along with digging, tunneling, and jabbing faster. You can also fall into the hole he leaves when he burrows down, which deals minor damage.
• Dismantled MacGuffin: The Turtles and their friends are scouring New York for the pieces of Krang's suit after he integrated them into different machines to advance his plot. After the suit is assembled and subsequently destroyed in Episode 15, Krang reveals this was a diversion all along; his actual plot was to repurpose the Statue of Liberty into his new suit.
• Divergent Character Evolution: In the original arcade games, all of the Turtles essentially had the same walk and run cycles. Here, all of them have individualized animations that better fit their personalities. Furthermore, their attack animations are also all personalized. For example, Michelangelo's heavy attack has him using a headbutt, while Raphael uses a drop kick instead. Also, many of the older games gave all the Turtles the same voice clips, where here, each of them has different voices provided by their original voice actors from the 1987 cartoon.
• Drop-In-Drop-Out Multiplayer: Multiple players can enter and exit the game at any time.
• Dual Boss:
  • Groundchuck and Dirtbag are fought side-by-side in Episode 4, as are Bebop and Rocksteady in Episode 7. Also, in Episode 6, Tempestra can summon digital clones of Tokka and Rahzar, who start by battling you individually and later start to work together.
  • Survival Mode puts the random boss battles at certain points. It is possible to encounter two different villains at the same time.
• Duel Boss:
  • Leatherhead in Episode 9 doesn't summon any minions, machines or magic doppelgangers of himself in his boss fight, fighting solely by himself with his jaws, tail, and using the environment to dive in and out of the battle. It's downplayed in the fact that the players are the ones that get aid, via the Punk Frogs periodically throwing items in to help them.
  • Slash in Episode 14 also doesn't summon any aid in his boss fight. He fights solely by himself with his weapons, martial skill, and the environment.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: After beating the game, Vernon credits the defeat of Shredder and the restoration of the Statue of Liberty to the city's protectors... the Punk Frogs, much to the Turtles' frustration alongside April and Splinter.
• Early Game Hell: Survival Mode can be difficult due to the playable characters only having one life, one Ninja Power bar, and fairly low health when the game mode is first started. As the mode is replayed, however, the characters level up which makes subsequent playthroughs a bit easier.
• Elevator Action Sequence: A carry-over from both The Manhattan Project and Turtles in Time. The game sports two of these in Episodes 7 and 13 ("Roof-Running Reptiles!" and "Technodrome Redux" respectively).
• Elite Mook:
  • The black and white Foot Soldiers are the hardest among their ilk to fight. The former ones recover quickly after hits (making them difficult to combo), jump around frequently and throw their sais frequently while doing so, while the latter ones can attack in multiple ways with their swords and use them to block attacks as well.
  • Rock Soldiers are only encountered in Episodes 13-15 of the game. They have more health than Foot Soldiers and use a shoulder charge move that renders them Immune to Flinching while hurting any player they run into. Some of them even enter the screen using this move.
• Endless Game: The new Survival Mode introduced by the Dimension Shellshock DLC has a main objective of going through 100 combat challenges, which ends with one final battle against Shredder. Once this is done, the player can either go back to the Neutrinos for the ending, or keep doing challenges until they run out of health.
• Enemy Summoner: Large Mousers will periodically cough up regular-sized ones to assist in the fight, and they can still attack by chomping on a character's head.
• Evil Is Bigger: All the bosses are larger than the playable characters, even ones who are normally the same size as the turtles like Rocksteady and Bebop.
• Evil Knockoff: Slash is presented in this way, primarily using larger versions of Leonardo's weapons and having moves similar to the other Turtles with an added Herd-Hitting Attack aspect.
• Excuse Plot: Shredder and Krang are going after the Statue of Liberty again, thus the Heroes in a Half-Shell and their allies have to go after them. This isn't a bad thing, as the point of the game is traveling New York (as well as Dimension X) and fighting the most prominent members of the Turtles' Rogues Gallery.
• Exploding Barrels: Some of the levels have barrels that explode shortly after being hit, instantly destroying weaker enemies around them.
• Expressive Mask: Downplayed with Casey Jones, since he never takes off his hockey mask (as usual for the '87 series). While not too expressive, Casey's mask has moments of emoting, such as Blush Sticker when he high-fives with other characters, and the eye holes going wider should he get flattened.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The game takes place over the course of roughly 12 hours — Episode 2 is set at 3 PM, and the final boss encounter is set at 3 AM. The stages also gradually change in appearance from afternoon to evening to nighttime, making it clear they are all within the same day.
• Fake Longevity:
  • The "No Need For Mutagen" achievement for getting every character to Power Level 10 in Story Mode requires you to essentially beat the game seven times. This number goes up to nine, as far as Dimension Shellshock DLC is accounted for.
  • The Survival Mode significantly ramps up the longevity factor. Adding up to Crystal Collection, getting more Power Levels and unlocking more palettes requires completing waves after waves of enemies, as well as meeting the pre-requisite amounts of shards per dimension (which only get bigger). The kicker? You have to repeat the same steps for every single character.
• Fake Ultimate Mook: Knuckleheads appear to be imposing Giant Mooks, with a huge size and being normally invulnerable to grounded attacks. However, they're not very mobile, their attacks are surprisingly easy to avoid, and their basic smash attack in particular makes the rider stunned for a while and leaves it vulnerable to damage, nullifying most of the threat they pose.
• Final Boss, New Dimension:
  • A rare inversion. After spending a few levels in Dimension X, you return to Earth for the final fights with the Statue of Tyranny and Super Shredder.
  • Played straight at the end of Survival Mode, where the heroes travel to the Void for the final fight with Super Shredder.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Usagi is transplanted from his home in medieval Japan to New York City circa the 1980s, and consequently finds himself confused by its strange "castle" (Channel 6 Studios) and "caves" (sewers). His ending states that "whether at home or in a strange land, Miyamoto Usagi vows to keep fighting with honor!"
• Flunky Boss: Several bosses have minions that periodically enter the fight to attack the players.
  • Rat King will summon a Swarm of Rats that bite you like Mousers.
  • Tempestra summons holographic clones of Tokka and Rahzar to do most of the fighting, with her only direct attack being an electric shock Combo Breaker.
  • Captain Zorax will summon a rush of Triceratons to charge across the screen, with a few of them joining in the fight instead of moving offscreen.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: This game adds new attack mechanics (namely sliding attacks, rising attacks, back attacks, dive attacks and new super attacks) that easily allows player characters to clear out crowds of enemies. Having up to 6 skilled players in particular is enough to see all of the enemies constantly rebound off the screen borders.
  • On the villains' side, this is a favored tactic of Bebop, Rocksteady, and Groundchuck. While the former two will aim at your character when charging and knock themselves silly when hitting the edge of the screen, the latter will charge around the room in a random pattern three times and rebounds off the edges of the room.
• Forced Tutorial: It popped up every time the Story and Arcade modes are launched, despite having a separate option in the main menu. Thankfully, it's skippable when a certain button is held depending on the system. The December 2022 patch fixed this issue; the tutorial only appears the first time you start each mode.
• Friendly Fireproof:
  • Played straight with the playable characters, but subverted with the enemies — their normal attacks won't hit each other, but if they do something like hit an explosive barrel or drive a car, they'll hit any other enemies in their wake.
  • Several bosses have area-hitting moves that don't harm any flunkies. Metalhead's and Chrome Dome's missile rain attacks do not affect any enemies caught in the blasts. Baxter Stockman's laser machines don't affect his Mousers, even the full-screen triple laser.
  • Rocksteady's Grenade Spam subverts this, as it can also hurt any Foot ninjas that enter the fight.
  • The dual bosses subvert this in the same way, as they normally won't hit each other, but they will during certain attacks; Groundchuck can make himself and Dirtbag dizzy if they ram into each other and Rahzar's bad breath can cause Tokka to flinch while Tokka's shell spin can knock Rahzar down. Bebop and Rocksteady are particularly prone to friendly fire: aside from ramming into each other and dizzying themselves, Rocksteady's grenade explosions can hurt Bebop and Bebop's multi-directional plasma gun blasts can hurt Rocksteady.
  • Rocksteady and Bebop's charging attacks will also damage and knock down any Foot Soldiers caught in the path.
• Funny Background Event: In Episode 2, Bebop can be seen on TV sets hosting a cooking program, which he presumably did during the events of Episode 1.
• Funny Bruce Lee Noises: Donatello makes these when finishing a combo instead of saying something like most of the other playable characters.
• Game-Over Man: When you lose all your lives, the game over screen shows Shredder laughing at your defeat.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The map of Story Mode depicts the Turtles getting from level to level with the Party Wagon and/or the Turtle Blimp. While the Turtle Blimp does appear in the levels (albeit in the background), the Party Wagon's wheels are stolen in Big Apple, 3 PM, forcing the Turtles to chase the villains on foot or through Cheapskates. This incongruity doesn't apply to Arcade Mode, which does not have the world map of Story Mode at all.
• Gang Up on the Human: Although the Triceratons are not affiliated with the Foot, they will not fight them and will instead prioritize their attention on the heroes. This is at least justified in-universe; the Triceratons are a Lone Wolf Boss who have no reason to bother with the Foot.
• Genre Refugee: Usagi, as usual for his crossovers with TMNT. In this case, he behaves like you would expect a samurai warrior in a more serious Jidaigeki game like Mystic Warriors, rather than a silly sci-fi romp where improvised weapons and combat pragmatism are encouraged, and allies support each other with pizza.
• Gemstone Assault: Super Shredder in Survival mode has some new gem-based attacks thanks to absorbing the Void's red crystal. His primary attack is a dash attack that leaves behind a trail of crystals, and he can also grab nearby players, both of which cause the victim to become encased in a gemstone on contact (equivalent to being frozen).
• Glass Cannon: Applies to the playable versions of Bebop, Rocksteady and Shredder (which are exclusive to Survival Mode via special perks). All three are far stronger than the regular cast, but they can't take nearly as much punishment.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: Bebop and Rocksteady, as per usual. In this case, not only do you fight them multiple times, but the early part of the game is mostly spent chasing them down as they try to run off with Krang's head.
• Golden Ending: Completing all the NPC side objectives in Story Mode rewards you with a bonus ending scene: the Channel 6 crew, Neutrinos and Punk Frogs all posing on the Statue of Liberty, which is now smiling and has a giant red ninja mask put on in honor of the Turtles' victory over the Foot Clan.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Strangely enough, this is one of the new moves that Super Shredder gains in his encounter at the Void, likely to make up for him no longer having total immunity.
• Graphics-Induced Super-Deformed: Downplayed; while still relatively well-proportioned, the in-game characters' sprites are noticeably smaller and cuter than how they look in the promotional artwork, character select, and cutscenes. The level select map screen plays it straighter, with the NPCs having adorable minimalist designs.
• Gratuitous French: Michelangelo's end quote after finishing the stage is "Outstanding, mon frère!", the last part of which translates as "my brother".
• Green Boy Color: In the Dimension Shellshock DLC, all of the playable characters can unlock costumes that alter their palettes to Game Boy green.
• Guest Fighter: The Dimension Shellshock DLC makes Usagi of Usagi Yojimbo into a fully playable character. Despite its frequent crossovers with TMNT, the property is wholly owned by creator Stan Sakai.
• Harder Than Hard: The Custom Game menu added in the December 22, 2022 update has several settings that can let the player invoke this for the higher difficulty modes. These include health consumption for Super Attacks like in the older games, no taunts, enemy explosions that damage the player upon defeat, and more aggressive enemy AI, among others.
• High-Altitude Battle: The entirety of Episode 8, "Panic in the Sky!", has the heroes use Cheapskates and the Turtle Blimp to chase Wingnut in the sky around Liberty Island, to prevent him from delivering Krang's head and torso.
• Hit Stop: Powerful attacks briefly stop time.
• Human Hammer-Throw: Several bosses and enemies can use this maneuver, such as the Mouser Model 3 bots, Slash, and most oddly, Rat King.
• The Hyena: Raphael's taunt is to cross his arms and laugh — so it's easy to make him come across as one of these if you taunt as him frequently.
• I Am Not Shazam: Invoked; while Usagi is properly named "Miyamoto Usagi" in-game, he is referred to as "Usagi Yojimbo" in marketing, likely to stay consistent with the 1987 cartoon (where he was called that) and to make his origin more clear.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Chill (Easy), Okay (Normal), and Gnarly (Hard).
• Immune to Flinching:
  • Using a charge attack will render a character immune to flinching against non-knockdown attacks during the charging. This also applies to enemies with such attacks, such as the axe or sledgehammer-wielding Foot Soldiers.
  • Most bosses will gain super armor after a few hits on them, and often follow up with a Combo Breaker attack.
  • Large mechanical enemies like Large Mousers and Mouser Model 3s don't flinch when hit by any attack, instead displaying a Flash of Pain when hit. The only time they can be knocked around is when they've lost all their health.
  • Rock Soldiers have a shoulder tackle attack that prevents them from being flinched while doing so. Trying to attack them directly in this period will likely get you run into and hurt.
  • Captain Zorax is extremely resistant to being flinched, stunned, or knocked down. He can even tank super attacks with no problem and continue attacking and directing his soldiers through them.
  • As long as he's not short-circuited, Chrome Dome is not only completely immune to being flinched, stunned, slowed, or knocked down, but is also immune to damage, including super attacks. The missile rain phases of the fight where he's on the battlefield essentially force you to keep away from him due to this.
• Immune to Slapstick: Averted for April, Splinter and Casey Jones, as well as Usagi and Karai in the DLC, as they can be subjected to the same Amusing Injuries as the Turtles when hit by certain enemies and obstacles, by virtue of being playable.
• Improbable Weapon User: April uses her microphone, a boom mic, and camera in her attacks.
• Incredibly Lame Pun:
  • Among the bosses who deliver those are Groundchuck and Dirtbag.
  • The name of Episode 12, "It Won't Fly!", can be seen as one due to Baxter Stockman's encounter at the end.
  • Splinter's random quote at the beginning of the stage is: "I fear that something is afoot!".
• Internal Reformist: In Karai's ending, she takes over the Foot Clan after Shredder's defeat in order to turn it into something that isn't evil.
• Joke Item: You'll sometimes find trays of sushi in the place of pizza boxes. Picking one up gives you a measly 10 point bonus, and all of the Turtles complain about the "raw fish". But Splinter and other characters are fine with it, naturally.^note Although, strangely, picking up sushi as Usagi plays the Turtles' line.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: A surprisingly viable tactic against certain enemies and bosses.
  • The little A6 Annihilator drones can only be damaged after they're left Flipping Helpless from a knockdown move. They're immune to attacks that don't knock them down otherwise.
  • Chrome Dome cannot be hurt at all when he launches the barrage of missiles — or when he jumps into the foreground. After a Foot Soldier is thrown straight at him Turtles in Time-style, or if an explosive barrel is blown up, Chrome Dome falls back to the floor and short-circuits, making himself vulnerable and open for attack.
  • Super Shredder is completely untouchable no matter what he does. The only way to damage him is to wait before he finishes warping his body or take out 4 shadow clones at each corner of the arena — he rests on the ground, providing a brief opportunity to strike.
• King Mook: Certain bosses act as this for specific enemy types:
  • Captain Zorax is one to the Triceratons, to the point that he uses a honeycomb shield and fights similarly.
  • General Tragg for the Rock Soldiers, as expected. However, he is more heavily armed, so he doesn't exploit his brute strength much unlike his troops.
• Kung Fu-Proof Mook: One late-game enemy type is the A6 Annihilator, a small spider drone that is immune to non-knockdown attacks, requiring a knockdown move to flip over. Once it's flipped, it becomes vulnerable to all damage and takes a good bit of time to right itself.
• Last Villain Stand:
  • The boss fight with Bebop and Rocksteady at the end of Episode 7 can be seen as one. With nowhere else left to go upon reaching the top of a building under construction, they hand off Krang's head to Wingnut and try to fight the heroes one last time.
  • Played straight at the end of the game with Shredder. With the Foot Clan depleted and Krang having hauled his tentacles out of New York, Shredder sticks around and mutates himself with mutagen, for one final chance at getting his revenge.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Michelangelo says "Feels like we're in a video game, dude" at the start of Episode 13.
• Leitmotif:
  • Shredder has a leitmotif that appears as part of the instrumental for "We Ain't Came to Lose", which is fleshed out into a more fully-featured melody in "A Dish Best Served Cold" and "Bloody Shards of Doom".
  • The themes for Omnichannel 6 in Survival Mode, "Believable Source" and "Artifical Facts", both incorporate parts of the melody from "Jaw-Breaking News!", making it into a leitmotif for Channel 6.
• Lightning Bruiser:
  • Casey Jones is the most hard-hitting among the playable characters, having medium Power and Speed coupled with maximum Range — by contrast, the others have some sort of compromise between their stats. Usagi and Karai have similar stat layouts — Usagi prioritizes Speed, and Karai prioritizes Power — though both are Mechanically Unusual Fighters, which gives them a bit of a learning curve.
  • Raphael has great speed and power, at the trade-off of having an awful range.
  • Super Shredder becomes pretty much the same among the bosses, thanks to the December 2022 update.
  • Among the boss perks of Survival Mode, Shredder fits this criteria the most. Compared to both Bebop and Rocksteady, he can perform combo strikes, and his speed is remarkable both on the ground and in the air.
• Little "No": Tempestra says one at the end of her boss fight, when she realizes that turtles have just defeated her.
• Lone Wolf Boss: Outside of the Foot Clan, the Turtles and their allies also have to deal with bosses unaffiliated with them, who get in the way for different reasons.
  • In Episode 4, Groundchuck and Dirtbag abduct Bebop and Rocksteady and steal Krang's head for seemingly no reason while they're setting the animals free at the zoo.
  • In Episode 5, Krang's head comes into the possession of Rat King after the events of the previous episode, and is promptly taken back by Rocksteady.
  • In Episode 9, the Turtles battle Leatherhead while searching for the rest of Krang's body at Coney Island.
  • In Episode 11, the Triceratons invade the Natural History Museum and the Turtles force them to retreat. While they aren't related to the greater plot, it does allow the Turtles to find Baxter Stockman's hidden laboratory underneath the museum, where he managed to reassemble Krang's full body.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Groundchuck, Wingnut, Metalhead, and Chrome Dome launch volleys of missiles as part of their attacks. Groundchuck fires several volleys of three missiles horizontally that fan out from one of his horns, Wingnut releases vertical waves of missiles that need to be jumped or positioned in a gap to dodge, and Metalhead and Chrome Dome fire missiles straight up that then target the heroes' positions and rain down.
• Magic Pants: Just like in case with The Secret of the Ooze, Shredder's entire costume (including cape and spiked armor) grows with him after he transforms into Super Shredder. Some of his animations seem to indicate that the costume became part of his body.
• Meaningless Lives: Starting the Story Mode provides the players with standard count of 3 lives - the number increases with more Power Levels obtained by particular characters. Fluid control and simple mechanics are among the many factors that can prevent Game Overs easily; starting any level reverts the player back to the max amount of lives. Another bonus is the matter of reviving teammates in multiplayer: 10 seconds is quite a generous window for doing so, and holding the dedicated button freezes the timer.
• Mecha-Mooks: The Foot Soldiers, Roadkill Rodneys, Tubular Transports, Mousers, Large Mousers, Knuckleheads, Mouser Model 3s, and A6 Annihilators are mechanical enemies that explode on defeat.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter:
  • According to an interview, Usagi was designed to be a more aerial fighter; he can double jump rather than super jump, allowing him to change direction in mid-air, the end of his basic combo string launches his opponent upward, he does not do the standard dive attack after jumping but instead a three-hit combo move, and his basic super attack also allows him to launch enemies straight upward to leave them open to aerial attacks.
  • Karai's unique gameplay mechanic is that she receives a speed buff with more combos she performs on enemies - said buff is indicated by her sparking with electricity. Her charge increases her movement speed and decreases the length of her taunt, allowing her to continue comboing enemies and build up her super meter more easily. However, she will lose her charge if she gets hit or if she hasn't hit an enemy in a while.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: In the tradition of Turtles in Time, most characters can repeatedly slam opponents if they have them grabbed (only Karai does something different).
• Mic Drop: April drops her mic during her victory celebration after beating the stage.
• Mighty Glacier:
  • Out of all the playable characters, Splinter has a high power stat but a low speed stat.
  • The hot pink Foot Clan ninjas use a powerful axe attack that has a long charge-up time, during which they're Immune to Flinching.
  • The Statue of Tyranny's attacks are extremely hard-hitting, with the mouth laser even being a One-Hit Kill. Its weakness is that almost all of its attacks have a very long telegraph and charge-up time, giving ample time for players to get out of the way.
  • Playable versions of Bebop and Rocksteady (which are exclusive to Survival Mode) are basically this. Their respective punches and kicks are enough to knock out basic enemies in one hit - but their speed leaves a lot to be desired (unless you abuse their dashing).
• Mini-Boss: Episode 13 has General Traag, who is the only boss fought halfway through a proper level. The actual boss fought at the end is Chrome Dome.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking: April is portrayed this way. While she still does her reporter duties, she fights the Foot Clan alongside the Turtles the rest of the time.
• Mirrored Confrontation Shot: One piece of art◊ shows a confrontation with the turtles and their allies on one side, and the Foot Clan on the other.
• Mook Maker: Large Mousers will create regular Mousers if you give them the time to cough them up.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • April is a family-friendly version, much like in the cartoon. The moves she pulls and some cutscenes show off her tight jumpsuit lovingly emphasizing her curves and toned legs.
  • Karai isn't terribly fanservice-y during gameplay, but her victory pose at the end of each level shows off that she's wearing form-fitting pants and has a shapely backside.
• Multiple Endings:
  • The ending will have different epilogue scenes depending on which character(s) you beat the game as.
  • The Survival Mode has two slightly different endings after beating Super Shredder on a given run. If you decide to end the run right then and there and go home, the Neutrinos will thank you and give you pizza from across the multiverse. Though if you decide to continue your run and eventually die, you'll get another ending where the Neutrinos still thank you with pizza, but wince upon seeing the injuries you've sustained.
• The Multiverse: Survival Mode in the Dimension Shellshock DLC features the Turtles traveling through various dimensions that represent different incarnations of the franchise, such as the Mirage comics and the NES version of the arcade game. This also allows them to team up with Karai (who is based mostly on her appearance in the 2003 cartoon) and Usagi (who comes from his own universe).
• Music Is Eighth Notes: When Rat King plays the flute, eighth notes will be shown around him.
• Mythology Gag: Has its own page.
• Near Victory Fanfare: When the health of a boss is reduced in half during a standard boss fight, the music switches to a remix of the series' theme song.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: It wouldn’t have this trope if Leatherhead wasn’t in this game.
• New Game Plus: The Story Mode offers a variant in that if you choose to start a new game in order to reset the challenges and collectables, it will ask you if you want to retain your current progression on the characters or reset them back to zero.
• Ninja Run: When Karai gets a speed boost, she also changes how she runs, putting her arms behind her back like a true ninja.
• No Fair Cheating: The Custom Game options added in the December 2022 update disable achievements if activated, since a few of them would make the game much easier (for example, Free Play mode).
• Non-Standard Character Design:
  • While slightly altered to better resemble the 1987 cartoon's artstyle, Karai's design is directly based on the one from the 2003 series, making her stand out among her 1987 peers.
  • Usagi in cutscenes is noticeably based upon his somewhat lanky-looking comics design rather than a variation of his 1987 cartoon design.
• Nostalgia Level: Episode 13, appropriately titled "Technodrome Redux", acts as a revisit to the Technodrome stage added in the SNES version of Turtles in Time. While the Technodrome is in a dilapidated state, it still consists of two sections separated by an Elevator Action Sequence (this time in reverse, with players starting on the upper floor and taking the elevator downwards), and has two boss fights, one of which involves throwing Foot Clan ninjas at the screen just like the Shredder fight from that stage in Turtles in Time.
• Obvious Rule Patch: The December 2022 update made it so taunts only fill up your first power bar, preventing you from stacking power bars by repeatedly taunting.
• One-Hit Kill:
  • In Episode 11, one section near the end has a portal machine that will instantly suck in any enemy that's knocked down regardless of their health, which temporarily makes all knockdown moves from the players into this.
  • The Statue of Tyranny's laser which is shot from its mouth. Thankfully, it can be easily avoided by moving up or down the arena.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder:
  • Tubular Transports take a single hit from any attack to go down.
  • Rat King's rat minions scamper away from the fight after taking a single hit.
• One-Winged Angel:
  • Shredder shatters a vial of mutagen for the Final Boss battle, turning into Super Shredder.
  • As if it wasn't already enough, he augments himself even further by absorbing the power from the last crystal shard in the final battle of Survival Mode. Despite having new attacks at his disposal, this version of Super Shredder lost the invincibility from the main game - thus he can attacked more often.
• Orcus on His Throne: In the final area of Survival Mode (the Void), Super Shredder is encountered sitting on the throne. Sure enough, he gets up and absorbs the shards' energy to empower himself.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Groundchuck, Dirtbag and Leatherhead all get Foot Clan members out of the way solely so they can get to fight the Turtles and their allies.
• Out of Focus: Survival Mode does not feature any boss encounters with the Rat King, Baxter Stockman, Chrome Dome, Tempestra, Leatherhead, or Krang, due to their boss fights all having gimmicks that would kill the pacing of the mode. Rat King does at least make an appearance in the Survival Mode's Super Shredder boss fight, albeit as a ghostly attack.
• Ow, My Body Part!: Bebop, Rocksteady, and Wingnut will complain about their snout, horn, and wings respectively when they go down.
• Palette Swap:
  • Many of the Foot Clan mooks use the same sprites but under a different color, though generally have a different attack or weapon.
  • Dimension Shellshock adds alternate skins for the playable characters, all of which fall into this trope, generally recoloring them to resemble other incarnations of the characters. Yet some of these options are much more thorough, adding small details to the sprite to better evoke the alternate version (such as Leonardo gaining two red marks around his eyes, similar to his Rise incarnation, or Splinter sporting his 2003 version's colors). Several options (like Mirage Comics-inspired monochrome or NES-inspired 8-bit palettes) are unlockable by means of leveling up characters in Survival Mode.
  • Regular mooks in Survival mode gain new palettes as the players collect more crystal shards across the five dimensions — and those variations signify much stronger opposition.
  • When Super Shredder powers up in the Void (the final area of Survival Mode), his palette switches from purple to black due to the power given to him by the crystal shard. This isn't just a cosmetic change, however. He gains new attacks: namely, summoning shadow duplicates of bosses from the main game, leaving behind trails of red crystals during dashing, and grabbing opponents to trap them in crystals, as well as Good Old Fisticuffs for close encounters.
• Personal Space Invader: Mousers tend to attach themselves to turtles, affecting their movement. Same goes to rats in Rat King boss fight.
• Piss-Take Rap: The first half of "We Ain't Came to Lose" essentially amounts to Shredder boasting that he's more powerful than Leonardo and Splinter, and that the Turtles gorge themselves on pizza.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Captain Zorax of the Triceratons. While every other villain tries to reassemble Krang's body, acts as a line of defense or at least gets in the way on purpose, Zorax spearheads an invasion that has nothing to do with the main scheme, and his troops even ignore the Foot Clan so they can attack the heroes. If nothing else, their level provides a memorable setpiece.
• Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: Large mechanical enemies and Final bosses emit series of small explosions after being defeated.
• Power Creep: All six characters available at the start of the game have 6 points spread between 3 stats. The three unlockable/DLC characters have 7 points spread between the 3 stats, so they're all at least average at everything and a master of one.
• Powers Do the Fighting: Tempestra never makes any physical attacks, only using an electrical shock that hits everything near her or summoning digital knockoffs of Tokka and Rahzar to attack you in her stead.
• Power Floats:
  • Weirdly enough, Karai receives this treatment. By comparison, her animated incarnations were not known for such an absurd degree of supernatural powers.
  • Tempestra can do so naturally, thanks to her being a digital construct.
  • Obviously, Super Shredder also gets it after his transformation... along with several other supernatural powers to boot.
• Power Up Letdown: Sometimes, the pizza health pick-ups are replaced with a box of sushi. It gives you no health back and only grants 10 points. For an added bonus, the Turtles groan about it when you pick it up.
• Practical Taunt: Taunting fills up combo meter.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • In the cartoon, Splinter has expressed distaste for pizza. For his playable appearance here, pizza can be used as a health pickup like with the rest of the roster, though his dislike for it is referenced in how he's seen eating sushi during the ending.^note Hilariously enough, the inverse also happens since sushi trays are also in the game as a Joke Item that give +10 points. Splinter even has a unique response when he (as well as April and Casey) picks them up while the Turtles are unanimously grossed out by the "raw fish".
  • Rat King's rat-controlling music doesn't affect Splinter as a player character, despite demonstrably doing so in the show. You even get an achievement for beating Rat King as Splinter, called "Ineffective!"
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Each boss throws one of these. If the right character is picked before the encounter, they'll have a response to the line.
  Bebop: "Sign-off time!" *snort*^April "Your show's cancelled, Bebop!" ^Usagi "Get ready for war, warthog!" ^Karai "Prepare for destruction!"
  Rocksteady: "Say your prayers!"^Leo "You never learn, Rocksteady!"
  Bebop & Rocksteady: "Turtle-smashing time!" "We're gonna stomp you wimps!"^{Mikey in Episode 3} "Better buckle up, dudes!" ^{Casey in Episode 3} "Hope you have truck insurance!" ^{Raph in Episode 7} "I'm good. Which one's the bad and the ugly?"
  Groundchuck & Dirtbag: "You're gonna get the horns, pardner!" "Can you dig it, suckers?"^April "Breaking news: you're going down!" ^Casey "Is it two-for-one at the idiot store?" ^Usagi "What manner of yokai are these?"
  Rat King: "I am the Rat King. You're trespassing on royal grounds."^Mikey "Dude, you wear two bandanas?"
  Tempestra: "Behold the might of Tempestra!"^Leo "It's game over for you, Tempestra!"
  Wingnut: "Get ready for some winged warfare!"^Don "I thought bats were nocturnal!"
  Leatherhead: "You don't be escapin' from ol' Leatherhead!"^April "Who's running away, chompers?"
  Metalhead: "DELETE THE TURTLES."^Don "Don't worry, Metalhead, I'll fix you!"
  Captain Zorax: "Glory to the Triceraton Empire!"^Leo "You're about to be history, Zorax!"
  Baxter Stockman: "Buzz off, Turtles! I'll have my revenge!"^Don "Be reasonable— you're a fly of science!"
  General Tragg: "Lord Krang's will shall be done!"
  Chrome Dome: "INTRUDER ALERT."^Raph "This tin man needs a brain!" ^Casey "Gonna crush you again, tin man!" ^Usagi "A metal samurai? Let's see if you have honor."
  Slash: "I'm gonna trash you mutants!"^Splinter "There is no need for violence. Join us!"
  Krang: "I am invincible! I'll teach you some manners!"^Raph "You're all brains and no guts, Krang!" ^Karai "Get ready for defeat, you monstrous dolt!"
  Shredder: "I will show you how a true ninja fights! Ah ha ha ha ha ha! The world is mine!"^Splinter "You're a disgrace to your clan, Shredder!"
  Statue of Tyranny (Krang): "I shall rule the earth with an iron fist!"^Mikey "Hang on, Lady Liberty! We'll save you!"
  Super Shredder: "I will get my revenge!"^Leo "Give it up, Shredder! It's over!" ^Splinter "Revenge is a fool's errand, Oroku Saki." ^Karai "You've brought shame to the Foot Clan!"
• Production Foreshadowing: The box art for the Radical Edition distributed by Limited Run Games contains some easter eggs that referenced IDW Publishing's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures spin-off comic (namely posters of Donatello wearing VR glasses and a Rock Soldier dressed as a rocker), since its artist Tim Lattie was involved with both.
• Promoted to Playable: Downplayed in Survival mode with Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady, as some perks allow you to morph into them, but this only lasts for a few combat challenges.
• Purple Is Powerful: On several fronts.
  • Karai is assigned the primary color that is much closer to traditional purple shade. She performs attacks augmented with purple lightning, and she is tied with Raphael and Splinter due to her maximum Power stat.
  • Sure enough, Super Shredder is primarily purple himself. And all that power comes from that Mutagen vial that he smashed right before the final battle.
• Recurring Boss:
  • Bebop and Rocksteady are fought as bosses three times in total; individually for Episodes 1 and 2, driving the Turtle Tenderizer in Episode 3, and finally together for Episode 7.
  • Krang and Shredder are fought twice each, back-to-back in Episodes 15 and 16 — first Krang in his fully-assembled robot body, then a one-on-one fight with Shredder, then Krang in his new Statue of Tyranny body, and finally Super Shredder.
• Recurring Riff: Bits of the cartoon theme song pop up in most of the game's music. The jingle of "Heroes in a half-shell!" is easy to catch.
• Refuge in Audacity:
  • April finishes her Metronomic Man Mashing attack by taking a picture of her downed enemy just to humiliate them further.
  • Splinter delivers powerful bites at the end of his combos.
• Remember the New Guy?: Karai appears to be fully acquainted by the Turtles according to Dimension Shellshock, despite making no appearance in the 1987 cartoon (only having appeared in Tournament Fighters, Mutant Madness, and the 2003 version appearing in Turtles Forever), and apparently has a feud with the Shredder over how he runs the Foot Clan, judging by dialogue and the description for the DLC saying she's a former Foot Clan member.
• Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?: The NPCs who give you collectible sidequests occasionally make reference to memorable moments from the cartoon.
  Irma: (wistfully) Remember when I became a giant?
• Retraux:
  • The game uses pixel art akin to the original arcade games (and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game), but with much more fluid animation and an expanded color palette. The music is also CD quality, and the opening is a fully-animated video, making it closer to a late '90s console game.
  • The Dimension Shellshock DLC's Survival Mode features an area that's done entirely with 8-bit NES style sprites, as an homage to the Konami TMNT games of the period for that console. The songs for this area, "I 8 a Bit Much" and "Nostalgia Evoking Song", are also done in an emulation of the NES's sound chip. In addition, two sets of alternate skins for the playable characters are done in the styles of Konami's NES games and Green Boy Color.
  • Another area in Survival Mode is a dimension done in the style of the original Mirage Comics era, complete with the only colours in the environment being white and shades of grey and black.
• Revenge of the Sequel: This game is more of a conceptual sequel to Turtles in Time rather than a direct one, yet the titular villain's desire for revenge is stronger than ever before. Shredder pulls all the stops to make Turtles pay for his previous defeats. He even goes as far as to use mutagen on himself in order to give Heroes in a Half-Shell the fight of their lives. In his transformed state, Super Shredder verbally proclaims revenge before and after said fight.
• Run the Gauntlet: This game involves the Turtles and their allies having to fight the entirety of their main rogues gallery, including both major and minor villains, as they try to prevent the Foot Clan from reassembling Krang's android body while foiling their latest takeover.
• Secondary Adaptation: The game is based on the 1987 cartoon specifically, which was itself loosely based on the Mirage comics. It's also worth noting that the game was inspired by the Konami beat-'em-ups, which themselves were based on the 1987 show. With inclusion of Usagi and Karai as DLC characters, the Tertiary Adaptation comes into play: the former comes from his own line of comic books, and the latter combines several traits from her later incarnations (mostly from the 2003 and 2012 shows).
• Secret Character: Casey Jones. He can be unlocked by beating the Story Mode once.
• Sequel Hook: The game ends with the heavy implication that Krang will be back to cause more trouble, since he ran off following the destruction of the Statue of Tyranny, while Shredder has essentially been left for dead when he's defeated in his Super Shredder form.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: More like Sharp-Dressed Mutant in his case, but Bebop is rocking a clean three-piece suit during Episode 1, "Jaw-Breaking News!"... which he promptly rips to pieces before the boss battle.
• Shock and Awe: Tempestra has an attack where she shocks anyone close to her with lightning. Karai also makes use of lightning in her attacks.
• Shout-Out:
  • According to the developers on their Discord server, they took inspiration from the female fighters in the Street Fighter games when designing April's moveset, with one example being in that April's rising attack is based on Chun-Li's Tenshokyaku.
  • Splinter has a Hurricane Kick special move very clearly inspired by the Tatsumaki Senpukyaku.
  • Raphael's rising attack is a Shoryuken, though his pose when performing it more specifically resembles Sol Badguy's Volcanic Viper.
  • Michelangelo's super flying attack bears resemblance to Liu Kang's Bicycle Kick.
  • Donatello's fighting stance, which includes him twirling his bo staff at one point and also spinning it real fast for his ground super attack is reminiscent of Billy Kane from both Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters (specifically Billy's appearance in KOF '97).
  • Casey's rising attack is animated identically to Zero's Ryuenjin/E-Blade, itself a reference to the aforementioned Shoryuken.
  • On top of her Tournament Fighters-inspired moveset, Karai can also perform an attack that bears resemblance to M. Bison's Psycho Crusher.
  • In Episode 1, you can spot Bebop on a TV screen similar to how Damnd looked in the intro of Final Fight when he called Haggar on TV.
  • The arcade in Episode 6 includes games similar to OutRun and After Burner II.
  • One segment in Episode 9 involves pumping balloons shaped like the Punk Frogs, as a nod to the balloon-pumping bonus stage in The Simpsons, another cartoon beat-'em-up by Konami.
  • There's an achievement called "Mode 7", which is accomplished by throwing a certain number of enemies at the screen. This references the Mode 7 graphics mode the Super Nintendo had which allowed for scaling and rotating effects and became a sort of shorthand reference for their use in games, though the SNES port of Turtles in Time didn't actually use said mode.
  • Chrome Dome’s intro is based on Krauser’s from The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match.
  • Along with being a throwback to Turtles in Time's original plot, the Statue of Tyranny fight is likewise similar to Gideon's second boss form in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game.
  • A perk in Survival Mode is called "Turbo Teens", its icon a wheel on a red background - a reference to Turbo Teen, a mid-80's animated series about a teenage boy who can morph into a sentient red car.
  • Another Survival Mode perk is called "Totally Rad", after the NES game of the same name.
• Shown Their Work:
  • Having been developed by fans of the cartoon, not only is the game primarily faithful to it (with some logical creative liberty for the gameplay's sake), there's also a lot of little nods to other parts of the overall franchise, as detailed within the Mythology Gag sub-page.
  • Unlike the cartoon, which had a mostly vague fictionalized New York City, this game makes a more faithful effort to represent the city as it was during the late 80s/early 90s, landmarks and all. One good example is the game's staff having looked at photographs of Coney Island, which is used as the location for Episode 9.
  • The reason why Tokka and Rahzar are only digital clones in Story Mode? They were neutral characters in the cartoon who only wanted to be left alone, and the Turtles helped Tokka escape from Dirk Savage after the hunter captured him. They're the real deal in Survival Mode, however.
• Shows Damage: Both the playable characters and the bosses begin flashing red when low on health. The flashing becomes more intense the lower their health gets. Enemies that are beaten have their body darkened out to show that they're definitely out (but can still be juggled to build meter and combo count).
• Smoke Out: After being defeated, Shredder disappears with the help of a smoke bomb. He also tends to exit this way after he taunts the heroes.
• Smug Super: Not only is this iteration of Karai explicitly superpowered, she's very arrogant too, often belittling her enemies, telling them to worship her during her taunt and just having a much more cocky demeanor than usual with her ever-present smirk as she floats around, sparking with electricity in certain animations like her victory pose.
• The Smurfette Principle: April is the only female playable character in the base game; likewise, Tempestra is the only female boss.
• Spinning Piledriver: Karai uses an Izuna Drop instead of the standard Metronomic Man Mashing when she has an opponent grabbed.
• Squashed Flat: The characters are flattened when they're run over by obstacles such as cars in the Big Apple, 3 PM level.
• Stalker without a Crush: Roughly midway through Episode 14, Slash can be seen in silhouette with a demented smile, peering from behind some bushes. He later makes his ambush for the boss fight at the end.
• Start My Own: Karai's ending in the main campaign has her create her own Foot Clan after the defeat of Shredder, bringing it back to its former honor.
• Stealth Sequel: The game presents itself as another game adaptation loosely based on the '87 cartoon, much like the Konami games were... That is, until the heroes reach the Technodrome, which is in ruins. This heavily hints that the game is actually set after the end of the series itself, in which the Technodrome was in disrepair after the Turtles left it stranded in Dimension X, and Krang's robot body was previously destroyed when it was used to defeat Lord Dregg, with the game's plot subsequently centered on reassembling it. The ending of Karai's story also implies that it follows the '87 series; she leads the Foot Clan herself, which was a plot thread that occurred in the Mirage comics after Shredder's death.
• Steam Vent Obstacle: In Episode 5, there are a few pipes that vent out damaging steam at regular intervals.
• The Stoic:
  • Splinter, true to form. His taunt has him sitting down to meditate in the lotus pose, he puts away his cane and bows solemnly at the end of a stage, and he betrays almost no emotion apart from the small, contented smile of an experienced sensei. While the other playable characters' reveal trailers show off their comical injured animations, absolutely nothing in his trailer manages to land a hit on him.
  • Usagi counts as well, rarely showing emotion beyond a stoic frown no matter how absurd the situation is. Much like Splinter, nothing in the Dimension Shellshock trailers lands a hit on him.
• Studiopolis: Episode 1, Jaw-Breaking News, takes place at Channel 6 Studios. The Turtles make their way through multiple film sets, including a cooking show, an exercise program, and the news, where Bebop has taken control.
• Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Shredder is seen watching the heroes' current movements on a monitor at the end of some Episodes, exactly like he normally does in the show. Contrary to expectations, this isn't from inside the Technodrome, but Shredder's new Outworld hideout. This is also how the heroes find out that his real plan was to convert the Statue of Liberty into Krang's new robot body.
• Swarm of Rats: Rat King's main gimmick in his fight is summoning waves of rats that the players have to maneuver around or jump over (with a few individual rats also engaging the players), getting caught in the swarm will cause a Personal Space Invader rat to grab onto the player's hand and must be shaken off, spawning an additional enemy.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: In the main game, Super Shredder will use a green forcefield attack that makes him temporarily tired and vulnerable to damage after it ends, and at half health he uses a similar move but with four purple shadow clones that must be taken down to end the attack and also render him vulnerable. He's immune to all damage at any other point.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Parodied. After the gang has beaten Metalhead and ended his reprogramming by Shredder, Mikey is shown offering him a slice of pizza.
• Taunt Button: Pressing this button will fill one whole level of the special meter, but it leaves you wide open. Each character has a unique taunt animation: Leo takes a breath, Donnie plays a handheld video game, Raph laughs, Mikey dances, April asks her opponents "Any comments?", Splinter meditates, Casey threatens his enemies, Usagi takes a sip of tea, and Karai levitates with aura surrounding her.
• Team Killer: Played for laughs with Groundchuck and Dirtbag. Inconveniencing the Foot Clan by kidnapping Bebop and Rocksteady and letting the Foot Soldiers get hurt by the loose zoo animals isn't a surprise, since the duo is generally not associated with them. Their boss fight, on the other hand? Groundchuck often charges and can hit Dirtbag, so he can potentially defeat his own partner out of recklessness.
• Team Member in the Adaptation:
  • Wingnut never had any connection to the Foot Clan in the cartoon, yet he's openly working for them here.
  • Karai is the reverse, in that she has always been loyal to the Foot Clan first, but in this game, is fighting against them. Justified because, like in some other incarnations, her goal is to usurp Shredder and restore the Foot Clan to its former glory.
• Technicolor Fire: The Final Boss utilizes green, due to mutagen augmentation.
• Techno Wreckage: The Technodrome in Episode 13 is a downplayed version. While the area's in ruins and disrepair, as evidenced by the broken hull as well as soil and plants covering several of the areas, it's still functional. General Traag and his Rock Soldiers still man the area, there are operational machines and guns, and there's a functional lift on the area where Traag is fought. As noted at the end of Episode 12:
  Raphael: The old Drome has seen better days.
• Teleport Spam: Super Shredder in Survival Mode no longer has his invincibility from the main game, but he will often teleport away when a player attempts to attack him and usually follow it up with a punch or grab from behind.
• This Cannot Be!:
  • Tempestra states this upon being defeated.
    Tempestra: Beaten by turtles? No...
  • Before reverting back to normal from his transformation, Shredder exclaims this.
    Super Shredder: No! My revenge... Impossible!
• Three-Point Landing: Enemies that drop down on the ground often fall on two legs with one arm on the ground.
• Totally Radical: Embraced, in keeping with the original aesthetic, with gnarly catchphrases up to and including the ultra-powerful "Radical Mode". The Neutrinos also retain their strange mix of then-contemporary and 1950s slang in their cameos.
• Traversible World Map: In Story Mode, New York City is navigated via the Turtle Van (which changes to the Turtle Blimp when not on land), with the stages themselves laid out as icons.
• Trick Boss:
  • Episode 13 has General Traag as a boss, but the battle occurs suspiciously early in the level and his silhouette doesn't match the one shown at the start of the level. Sure enough, the level keeps going afterward, and its real boss is Chrome Dome.
  • Think you've finished Episode 15 after defeating Krang? Shortly after you defeat him, he claims he has a "surprise" for the Turtles and Shredder promptly appears as the real boss of the stage. This one is more unexpected than Episode 13's considering the boss silhouette shown is that of Krang's, not Shredder's.
• Truer to the Text:
  • In general, the game is far closer to the '87 cartoon than past TMNT games from the same era, not only by having an irreverent comedic tone kept throughout, but also by bringing in the supporting characters from it, such as Burne, Vernon, and Irma. Furthermore, the levels are all set in locations featured in the cartoon.
  • This was the intent behind Usagi's characterization for this game, according to the Tribute Games marketing manager Éric Lafontaine. While the more active side of Usagi's source comic series is well-known, the staff wanted to represent its more contemplative moments via the mannerisms he displays here, making him all the more faithful to the spirit of Stan Sakai's stories.
• Turns Red: The bosses switch up their attack patterns when they reach half their health. The standard boss theme kicks into high gear when this happens.
• Two Girls to a Team: As of the Dimension Shellshock update, the main team of playable characters includes two girls, April and Karai.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The first level had our heroes save Vernon from Bebop. At the end of the game, Vernon credits the Punk Frogs on air for stopping Shredder, to the annoyance of his saviors. Admittedly, they did leave him tied up to chase after Rocksteady...
• Unique Enemy: Many enemies are encountered in more than one part of the game, including those that were encountered in only one level beforehand but make a reappearance in Episode 15. However, there are three that do not:
  • Rats, which are functional reskins of the small Mousers, only appear as minions for the Rat King during his fight in Episode 5.
  • The freezing floor turrets appear in a single cluster of nine in Episode 12, and never again afterwards, making them the only place to see the characters' frozen sprites. A few of Super Shredder's new attacks in the DLC's Survival mode use a gem-recolored version of the frozen effect, however.
  • The floor turrets in Episode 14. There are only five of them in the entire game in the section right before the boss.
  • Versions of Foot Soldiers with visible armor enhancements are exclusive to Survival Mode only.
• Underground Monkey: There are several instances where the game introduces new variants of existing enemies. In the base game, there are sixteen different versions of the basic Foot Soldiers alone: purple, cyan, navy, blue, hot pink, yellow, magenta, green, pink, indigo, lime green, white, red, teal, black and orange. And the DLC introduces even more!
• Unlockable Content:
  • The main game must be cleared once before Casey Jones can be used as a playable character.
  • Different palette sets have different requirements for unlocking when it comes to Survival Mode. Some require collecting specific Crystals for the first time, while others become available after reaching Power Levels 9 and 10.
• Victory Pose: Leo poses with his katanas, Donnie pogo-jumps on his staff, Raph takes a slice of pizza, Mikey jumps with excitement, April does a Mic Drop, Splinter bows, Casey throws his arms up in jubilation, Usagi puts on a conical straw hat, unfurls his cape and takes a traditional ronin pose, and Karai turns her back to the viewer.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After the Statue of Tyranny is defeated, Krang makes a clean getaway.
• Villain Song: "We Ain't Came to Lose", a Boastful Rap by Ghostface Killah, from the perspective of Shredder, about how the Turtles and Splinter don't stand a chance against his strength. The second half hands it off to Raekwon the Chef as the Turtles, who raps that they and their friends can beat insurmountable odds if they work as a team.
• Villains Out Shopping: The Foot Soldiers that aren't already attacking busy themselves with background activities: working at an office, preparing food, doing car engine maintenance/stealing, actually shopping, etc.
• Villainous Breakdown: Shredder seems in the throes of one by the end of the game, if willingly mutating himself is any indication.
  Super Shredder: I will get my REVENGE!
• Vocal Dissonance: Dask, the leader of the Neutrinos, has a very deep voice here compared to his high-pitched teenaged boy voice in the show.
• Vocal Evolution: Due to 35 years passing between the cartoon and the game, the Turtles sound deeper, reflecting their older voice actors. However, this also means that the naturally deep Rat King, Bebop and Rocksteady barely sound any different at all.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: In two consecutive levels.
  • Episode 3's boss, the Turtle Tenderizer, is the first boss that fights in a less conventional way. Bebop's ball-and-chain counterattack can quickly catch players off-guard, Rocksteady pelts shots as the truck moves vertically, and the truck itself bounces all over the screen every so often. Studying this boss' patterns is crucial to win, especially on Gnarly difficulty.
  • Episode 4 has Groudchuck and Dirtbag, the game's first Dual Boss. Neither of them leave much room to breathe with their attacks (which are pretty elaborate by themselves), so micromanaging damage output to both of them is the best way to win, lest you get crushed.
• Weak, but Skilled: April is supposedly this if you judge by her stat card, having 3 stars in speed, 2 in range and 1 in power (the only character with a power rating below 2). However, her actual damage values are not only not that far off from the rest of the cast (being even better in some regards than 3 star power characters), Mikey is straight up worse when compared side by side despite supposedly having a power stat of 2. So in practice, this trope is slightly more applicable to him.
• Weaponized Camera: Several of April's attacks involve hitting enemies with camera equipment.
• Weaponized Stench: The digital clone of Rahzar summoned by Tempestra leaves clouds of bad breath as an obstacle that causes the players (and Tokka) to recoil in disgust.
• We ARE Struggling Together: While the rest of the villains related to the Foot Clan have no issue assisting with the latest scheme, Groundchuck, Dirtbag and Leatherhead immediately attack whoever has Krang's body pieces to claim them for themselves. Additionally, the Mouser remains in Rat King's boss area strongly imply that he's been defending his lair from Baxter Stockman for some time. The Triceratons are the only villains to avert this, as they don't attack any members of the Foot Clan at any point.
• Whack-a-Monster: Leatherhead's boss fight has attack phases where he dives in and out of one of the five drain covers on the floor, requiring you to guess where he'll end up in order to hit him and to avoid taking damage when he jumps out.
• Wham Shot:
  • At the end of Episode 12, right after Krang's android body activates a portal to Dimension X, the team arrives at the Technodrome, in ruins. This puts Krang and Shredder's scheme in an entirely new perspective: the Turtles' war with the Foot Clan has taken such a toll on them that they're pulling out all the stops to conquer New York City at this point.
  • After the heroes defeat the Statue of Tyranny, Shredder descends from the sky and, upon landing, pulls out a mutagen vial and smashes it on the ground, transforming into Super Shredder. All bets are off at that point.
• What the Fu Are You Doing?: A variant with Slash. During the boss fight with him, one of his attacks is to spin around and swing his twin katanas (similarly to Leonardo's charge attack), only to make himself dizzy. Most of his other attacks make use of brute force, including tossing boulders, bouncing in his shell, and grabbing the player character to spin them around all over the arena like a top. All in all, he doesn't fight very much like a ninja turtle.
• Would Hit a Girl: None of the villains have any qualms about harming April or Karai. Likewise, the male heroes won't hesitate to hit Tempestra directly.
• Wrestler in All of Us:
  • Raphael's choice for a throw is the German Suplex.
  • Instead of an ordinary Fling Slam attack, Karai performs a supernatural version of the Izuna Drop.
• Writing Around Trademarks: The Museum of National History, which is used as the location for Episode 11, is instead referred to in-game as the National History Museum.
• X-Ray Sparks: Getting electrocuted results in the player's skeleton briefly being shown. There are some small Easter eggs hidden for attentive players — while otherwise having humanoid anatomy, the Turtles, Splinter, and Usagi have anatomically correct skulls for their species, and Karai's skull resembles Shredder's helmet rather than a normal human skull.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Played with. Karai has the distinction of rocking purple lightning for majority of her moves. It isn't just for aesthetics, however - it also slightly boosts her movement speed. Whenever she gets hit or remains idle for a bit, however, the lightning shade changes to orange.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Despite all the Turtles' efforts at keeping Krang's head away from the Foot Clan, the villains successfully manage to retrieve Krang's head, body, and legs before reassembling them and allowing Krang to get his robot body back once more.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: At the end of the game, Vernon announces that Shredder has been defeated by the city's protectors, the green guardians of good, the web warriors themselves... the Punk Frogs. The Turtles and April let out a collective "Aw come on!" while Splinter just facepalms.

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Leonardo: Looks like another victory for the forces of good!
Donatello: Way to go!
Raphael: Easy-peasy.
Michelangelo: Outstanding, mon frère!
April O'Neil: What a scoop!
Splinter: I trust I have made my point.
Casey Jones: Job well done.
Miyamoto Usagi: It is done.
Karai: You were no match for me!
All Turtles: COWABUNGA!

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