After more than six years without a big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, 2022 was a slice of heaven for TMNT fans. Not only did we get The Cowabunga Collection, an excellent retro compilation featuring 13 games from throughout the Turtle’s storied history, but we also saw Shredder’s Revenge, a brand new beat-’em-up that quickly cemented itself as one of the most beloved TMNT games ever, even giving Turtles in Time a run for its money.
Not content to leave new movie Mutant Mayhem as the biggest new Turtles release of 2023, Tribute Games recently announced that Shredder’s Revenge is getting DLC later this year. Dimension Shellshock will bring a new game mode, new playable characters, and the ability to customise the turtles with skins based on their designs from across TMNT history.
As exciting as the announcement for Dimension Shellshock was, the short teaser trailer left us with more questions than answers. I had the chance to speak to Frederic Gemus, lead game designer on Shredder’s Revenge, to try to get those very answers.
Let’s get one thing out of the way first - what is Dimension Shellshock? The trailer didn’t exactly give a lot away, leaving room for speculation. As it turns out, Dimension Shellshock (which Gemus confirms has been in the works since the last title update in December), isn’t just a set of new levels like many assumed and is in fact a “brand new game mode filled with new content”.
Gemus explained that the team wanted to do something that had more longevity than a level pack, and decided a new game mode was the best way to do it. Beyond Gemus teasing that it’ll bring a “new and exciting gameplay experience outside of the base game” that aims to be more replayable, we still don’t know what it is that makes Dimension Shellshock play differently from the base game, but it does confirm that we’re looking at more than a new set of stages to play
through.
Gemus reveals that he was inspired by Turtles in Time, long hailed as TMNT’s best video game, which is why we’re also getting unique locations across various dimensions.
“When we started, we thought about how Turtles in Time brought players to new and surprising locales, and wanted to do something even wilder,” Gemus says. “That’s why we decided to go with the inter-dimensional setting: We really wanted to pay homage to the whole TMNT universe that existed around the original cartoon’s era, but also present new and surprising locations filled with Easter Eggs and cameos.”
Interdimensional setting aside, the biggest new thing that the DLC is introducing is a fan-favourite playable character - Usagi Yujimbo. Even though Yujimbo isn’t part of the Turtles universe and is, in fact, from Dark Horse Comics, long-time TMNT fans will remember his cameo appearances in the ‘80s show and across other iterations of the series, leading to him eventually becoming synonymous with the heroes in a half shell. That made him an obvious choice for the DLC.
“Usagi was probably the most requested character by the fans and from people within the team,” Gemus says. “When he appeared in the original 1987 cartoon, he was a visitor to the Turtle’s world so we figured out that since our DLC is taking place within multiple dimensions, having him would totally make sense.”
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find out any details about who the next character being added to the game alongside the DLC is, but I have faith considering in Tribute Games considering how long they were able to keep Casey Jones as a secret, something that Gemus noted was to make sure that the fans had
Gemus also detailed what makes Usagi different from the rest of the roster, revealing that he’s the best aerial fighter on the team and focuses on keeping enemies airborne. Usagi is also the only character on the team who can double-jump, which combines nicely with his ability to perform his full combo string in the air, which should make him play very differently from anyone on the roster.
Dimension Shellshock is due out some time this year, and it might not be the last we see from Shredder's Revenge. When asked if there would be further expansions on the way, Gemus was coy. "Who knows what the future might hold?".