{"id":559189,"date":"2026-04-30T18:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/559189\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T18:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:44:13","slug":"teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-vr-review-totally-radical-beat-em-up-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/559189\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles VR’ Review \u2013 Totally Radical Beat ’em Up Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

While I don\u2019t think anybody was really asking for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles\u00a0game in VR, much less a story-driven campaign with optional co-op: it\u2019s here. And I\u2019m so glad it is, because it\u2019s totally radical.<\/p>\n

Developer:\u00a0Cortopia Studios
Publisher:\u00a0Beyond Frames Entertainment
Available On:\u00a0Quest<\/a>,\u00a0SteamVR\u00a0<\/a>, Pico<\/a>
Reviewed On:\u00a0Quest 3
Release Date:\u00a0April 30th, 2026
Price:\u00a0$25<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Gameplay<\/p>\n

There tends to be a common mantra when branded VR games come out: \u201cit\u2019s alright, but it\u2019s probably only going to appeal to fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City. Sure, it\u2019s an unabashed love letter to classic late \u201980s, early \u201990s TMNT\u2014which absolutely appeals to me as a massive Turtles fan growing up\u2014but it\u2019s also just happens to be one of the best casual beat\u2019em ups I\u2019ve played in VR to date. Stick with me, because I\u2019ll explain.<\/p>\n

I am (and forever will be) a fan of Leonardo. Maybe that says something about my personality. Whatever the case, you can guess who I chose for my playthrough; my man Leo with the dual katanas.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although you can technically switch turtles at any time during the campaign, although you\u2019ll also lose expensive character upgrades when do, incentivizing you to focus on mastering a single weapon,\u00a0be it Raph\u2019s sais, Don\u2019s bo staff, or Mikey\u2019s nunchakus. More on upgrades below.<\/p>\n

Anyway, here\u2019s the narrative: set in New York City in a post-Shredder world, you and the boys are trying to navigate the resultant power vacuum. Shredder\u2019s former underlings are jockeying to be the most overtly evil bad dude, culminating in an unlikely alliance. It\u2019s basic Turtle fare, including missions across New York\u2019s various iconic boroughs to do things like retrieve high-tech batteries, retrieve parts for robots, retrieve \u2026 well, a lot of stuff.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image courtesy Cortopia Studios<\/p>\n

As it is, the game is built across several key areas which you can access via the large overland map of New York, or more quickly via the sewers conveniently connecting everything to your Turtle Lair. Some of the action happens out on those city streets, although a majority of the big narrative beats happen in warehouses\u2014essentially the game\u2019s dungeons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image captured by Road to VR<\/p>\n

To be honest, I don\u2019t really begrudge TMNT: Empire City for the heavy emphasis on fetch quests. A slate of VR-native puzzles, fun and memorable boss battles, and armies of Foot Clan soldiers provide enough variety to keep you guessing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image captured by Road to VR<\/p>\n

As for combat, enemies include regular Foot soldiers, Foot with an unblockable lance, heavy Foot with unblockable smash moves, crossbow Foot, machine gun Foot, elite Foot with all of the above plus\u00a0a better health and damage stats\u00a0\u2026 the list goes on.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good variety, although the meat of the game is in boss battles, each of which has their own\u00a0quirk. Bosses aren\u2019t very tough to beat, and most only have two phases, although I still had fun blasting around and figuring out attack patterns\u2014you know, beat\u2019em up stuff.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image captured by Road to VR<\/p>\n

Granted, if you do find yourself in a tight spot and get killed, (or rather \u201cknocked out\u201d, you\u2019ll simply respawn where you were last to continue the fight, making it a fairly low stakes gameplay experience. I can imagine the same isn\u2019t true for multiplayer, although I still have to pop in when it officially launches to say for sure.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also no real penalty for not following the game\u2019s own logical combat flow, where you parry strikes (with a yellow weapon flash) and dodge unblockable strikes (colored red). I found myself naturally pinballing around and slashing wildly until everyone died, which works just as well in most cases.<\/p>\n

While a lot of the game focuses on beat\u2019em up encounters, there is a stealth element that makes things much easier\u2014maybe even too easy at times. You can technically throw your weapon and instantly kill\u00a0most unalerted Foot, making it fairly simple to weed out low level guys from afar so you can take on heavies on the ground, or ignore them entirely if you want and head on to your next objective. Your weapon will respawn in your shoulder-mounted holsters, so you basically have infinite ammo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image courtesy Cortopia Studios<\/p>\n

If that were it, I\u2019d say you\u2019ve got yourself a pretty full Turtles game right there already. But there\u2019s more. You can also upgrade your abilities as you go, which are done in three principal ways: finding blueprints so you can 3D print consumables like throwing stars and health vials, finding rare items to print \u2018Ability\u2019 cubes, which lets you do things like double jump or fast movement, and upgrading your characters level, which unlocks stuff like more health bars and ability cube slots. It\u2019s a really good amount of stuff to help you balance your Turtle.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not for free. All of this takes scrap, which you will be constantly hoovering up as you wind through warehouses, sewers, and New York alleyways. In the latter half of the game, the sheer amount of scrap you find becomes more than a bit overwhelming\u2014probably only appealing to die hard completionists who want to upgrade the whole Turtle team, and not just one character.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image captured by Road to VR<\/p>\n

But wait, there\u2019s more.\u00a0There are also gads of found audio tapes that you can listen to optionally for more story (not a must), as well as a ton of easter eggs, as well as optional time trials throughout the game, giving you plenty of reasons to explore and search everything.<\/p>\n

While I really liked TMNT: Empire City, my only real complaint the game\u2019s crime rating system, which requires you to keep crime under 100 percent throughout the overland city map. You do this by shutting down Foot Clan outposts\u2014usually three soldiers protecting a simple puzzle\u2014or by stopping active crimes, which periodically come over the radio and give you a visual waypoint.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image captured by Road to VR<\/p>\n

Honestly, throughout my six hours playing the single-player campaign, I never even tried to keep it under 100 percent; I would just randomly run across baddies and gank them when convenient and it never managed to creep up to 100. Still, these encounters got old real quick though, and you never seem to get anything actually good out of these encounters anyway, making for essentially useless padding that you can mostly ignore.<\/p>\n

That said, one thing that I suspect will need to be patched post launch is the ability to cheese certain bosses by hiding on high structures and throwing your main weapon to knock down health. It\u2019s unsportsmanlike, and I definitely did it once on one of the harder bosses to give me a fighting chance.<\/p>\n

Immersion<\/p>\n

Developer Cortopia Studios has absolutely nailed the Turtle vibe; everything from the cartoony story, voice acting, cell-shaded comic book style visuals, and the massive overland map that is surprisingly detailed (even on Quest). Really, I don\u2019t want to understate any of these things, as I found production level to be surprisingly much higher than the $25 price tag suggests.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image courtesy Cortopia Studios<\/p>\n

That said, there are some things that make the game a little less immersive than it could be. Empire City\u00a0is very UI heavy. Many of the options can be found in your wrist-mounted watch\u2014a smart way to represent 2D UI. However much of the action is dominated by objective-based markers, which can make you feel like you\u2019re being led by the nose a bit. True exploration is only really done between missions, and even then, you\u2019ll be assaulted by crime objective markers that flash yellow and include how many meters you are away.\u00a0In turn, I never once looked at the map in my watch, simply because it was fundamentally useless.<\/p>\n

There are also a lot of doors you can\u2019t open, objects you can\u2019t pick up or operate in any way, and even some ledges you\u2019re not supposed to climb, which makes it a little bit of a guessing game at first. Granted, inaccessible doors usually have a big \u2018NO ENTRY\u2019 sign, and fake ledges are usually quite high, although it\u2019s still a disparity in what the user expects to interact with, and what they actually can interact with.<\/p>\n

Even then, actually openable doors are a pain to operate, as they only react to your hand awkwardly trying to push it forward, and not your weapon or rest of your body so you might otherwise tap or shove your way through. That said, the shoulder-mounted weapon holsters and waist-mounted inventory all worked very well, and felt quick and natural to use.<\/p>\n

Comfort<\/p>\n

This is a game that focuses heavily\u00a0on running fast, jumping high, and kicking hard. And considering the circumstances, the studio has done a lot to make sure all of this is fairly comfortable.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not used to frenetic artificial movement though, you may want to take it easy and not stack too many of those moves at once. Still, combat and map traversal requires all of those things to some extent, so it\u2019s best to play in small bites if you\u2019re worried about motion sickness.<\/p>\n

Notably, bumping into level geometry can send you sliding or smashing in opposite directions at times, which can be uncomfortable if you\u2019re committed to going full-bore and slashing at the fastest pace possible.<\/p>\n

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles VR Comfort Settings \u2013 April 30th, 2026<\/p>\n

Turning<\/p>\n

Snap-turn
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Quick-turn
\n\u2716<\/p>\n

Smooth-turn
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Movement<\/p>\n

Teleport-move
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Dash-move
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Smooth-move
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Arm Swing-move
\n\u2716<\/p>\n

Blinders
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Head-based direction
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Controller-based direction
\n\u2716<\/p>\n

Swappable movement hand
\n\u2716<\/p>\n

Posture<\/p>\n

Standing mode
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Seated mode
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Artificial crouch
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Real crouch
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Accessibility<\/p>\n

Subtitles
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Adjustable difficulty
\n\u2716<\/p>\n

Two hands required
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Real crouch required
\n\u2714<\/p>\n

Hearing required
\n\u2716<\/p>\n

Adjustable player height
\n\u2716<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While I don\u2019t think anybody was really asking for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles\u00a0game in VR, much less…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[86,56,54,55,4297,4298,4299],"class_list":["post-559189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-virtual-reality","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-virtual-reality","tag-virtualreality","tag-vr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}