TMNT: Out of the Shadows brings back grittiness and sophisticated fighting
 

http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/21/412...-sophisticated
(note from me there's some new turtles pics within the story turtles they look better but still have that realistic appearance)

By TRACEY LIEN

When Red Fly Studios' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows releases this summer, players will be able to experience a grittier take on the Turtles and an in-depth fighting system that hasn't been seen in any TMNT game before it, according to lead designer Chris Frechette.

In an interview with Polygon, Frechette demoed a pre-alpha build of Out of the Shadows and walked us through Red Fly's take on the TMNT universe.

"I wanted to make a Turtles game that a 30-year old gamer who grew up watching TMNT would relish and say, 'This is what I remember, this is awesome," Frechette says. "The game is inspired by the Nickelodeon cartoon (which is currently in its first season on television) but it's basically our take on this fiction and this new incarnation of the Turtles: What would it look like in a realistic, more gritty setting?"

Frechette says that when Activision approached the studio to work on the licensed gamed, the team at Red Fly saw an opportunity to make the Turtles game they'd always wanted to play. As avid TMNT fans themselves, they didn't want to carelessly throw together a licensed game: they wanted to create something that did the brand justice.

RED FLY WANTED TO PLAY ON ONE OF THE BIGGEST STRENGTHS OF THE BRAND: THE TURTLES THEMSELVES.

According to Frechette, the studio approached the game with the intention of bringing out the personalities of each turtle through their fighting styles. Rather than have four turtles that look the same, act the same and play the same, Red Fly wanted to play on one of the biggest strengths of the brand: the Turtles themselves.

"They each have different physiques — Donnie's the tallest, Mikey's the smallest, Raph's kind of the brute, Leo's a bit of an all-rounder — and we've gone a step further by bringing their personalities into combat," he says. "For example, Donatello is the slowest of the turtles, but he's got the the most reach, so when he's twirling his staff he can hit multiple enemies. He's great for composed players and his style actually has a bit of a kung fu influence to it."

Every character has a different move set, with each turtle having up to 70 unique attacks. The timing of a attack will also determine how it is executed, and whether a player is attacked from the front or behind will determine how a defensive move is pulled off.




Frechette cites Batman: Arkham Asylum as a source of inspiration. He says the team incorporated some elements of Arkham's battle system of balancing offense with defense and the timing of attacking and counter-attacking. The studio also looked to more traditional fighting games for inspiration, particularly for counter-attacks and special attacks.

"It could have been so easy to give them all the same moves," Frechette says. "But since they don't have your typical classes like a tank or a paladin, they don't necessarily have roles. They're all ninjas. They can all hold their own. It's more about how they hold their own."

Frechette says that by giving each turtle a "unique flavor," when the four characters play together it brings an interesting dynamic to the battles. The game allows for up to four-player co-op, and when there are fewer than four players the AI will take control of the remaining Turtles. In single-player mode, players can swap between Turtles using the D-Pad. Every character can be utilized in the team, and when all the Turtles are working together they can chain combos and finishing moves.

"THEY'RE ALL NINJAS. THEY CAN ALL HOLD THEIR OWN. IT'S MORE ABOUT HOW THEY HOLD THEIR OWN."

"For example, I could launch a guy into the air and now you go after him and slam him down," Frechette says. "So there's push and pull, like I'm giving you an opportunity to do something awesome, and we're working together as a team with a unified goal. It was a lot of fun to plan and design."

Frechette says it's important for all four Turtles to be present in the campaign mode because that's when they're at their best. They fight together, taunt together and perform special team attacks together (at one point, players can connect with Raphael to perform the bowling ball maneuver seen in the original movie). Players won't get the best result if they button mash – there's a sophistication to the fighting system and, once they understand the system, the rest will flow like kung fu.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is a downloadable title coming to Windows PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this summer. The game's official trailer can be viewed above.

I'm beyond excited for this game... nostrils or no nostrils. Just to kick shell with some dromers is gonna' be great.

This interview has really bolstered my already high expectations. The different fighting techniques between characters is exactly what i was hoping for. Plus now we find out you can chain attacks with multiple characters and even do specials! Hell, i was excited to see the Tatsu finisher in the trailer, but now we even get the Raph bowling ball attack from the first movie, amazing!
The more i hear about this game, the more it seems to be made by true turtle fans and i cannot wait to get my hands on the finished product

Anyone still think these designs suck? Because I sure dont.

http://cdn3.sbnation.com/entry_photo...e_Portrait.jpg

Bay and Liebesman, take note. THIS is how you bring the Turtles into the real world.

Awesome that looks great. and thank you TMNT is cooler than MOTU for the new Desktop background haha.

An Arkhamized Ninja Turtles game?! Can't wait! Of course it would take up a full night to download but it will be waiting for me to play the next morning.

Totally agree that each Turtle can hold their own. I just hope there are Predator segments that the Arkham games had. Make full use of what ninja are supposed to be best at, Stealth!

really like the design and the interview gives me high hopes for this game, but hopefully its just not all talk!!!!!

He looks like Jar Jar Binks...

Oh god.... I agree, this will be terrible!
ALSO: can ya spoiler your pictures tmntiscoolerthenmotu?

I'm not seeing the similarity, outside of the texture of their skin (and considering Jar Jar Binks' skin seemed kinda reptilian like, anyway, that's kinda something that's hard to avoid with... well, reptiles).

I still don't see it XD Jar Jar has eyeballs coming out of his head XD

It's totally the mouth....it's like Mikey's screaming Jar-Jar.

What are you doing giving them ideas like that? Mike does look like Jar Jar,and overall they all look pretty weird,borderline creepy even.

will there be skins? eg nick, classic 80s?

I totally agree Jester! :D
From the top or middle of the nose down to the rest of the face, its almost like a copy and paste job of Jar Jar Binks. :lol:

Guys, what have you done?
Uh oh... Here come the Episode I haters...

:trazz:

Honestly, I never even watched Star Wars Episode I and seeing that Mikey picture and the trailer made me think of Jar Jar Binks. :lol: ...And that's saying a lot...at least in my head. LOL :P

I get reminded of movies I've never seen all the time :trazz:

Well when the television splashes numerous commercials for the movie, and others make a big deal about the movie itself, and the news reports of some critics stating there is racist subtext behind the character... how could one not remember it? ;) At least from a pop culture standpoint.

Ya maaaaaybe I can see a little binks in the mouth area. The teeth may have something to do with it. When I first saw the mike image I thought it looked like he was photo bombing the other turtles. Hopefully he's just making a wacky face here

exactly what I thought seeing the Mikey picture.

They looks like to me a bit weird...not so bad Michelangelo...I thin Leo is more strange look!!! :tlol:

Don and Raph the best ones in my opinion!! :D

Promo:
http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/5052/4tmntvideo.jpg

:twink::twink::twink::twink:

Could it be because he's the only one in the promo images that has white eyes?

I guess all Turtles will have 'human' eyes that switch to all white eyes when they enter 'fighting mode', just like the TMNT 2007 movie and the Nick show.

Like the idea that the Turtles' eyes white out when they are full of adrenaline. Kind of like when Gargoyles' eyes glow. If this is going to be like the Arkham games, I suppose the Turtles will use grappling hooks or leap onto buildings similar to Catwoman. Hopefully there's freeroaming involving jumping from rooftop to rooftop and sewer roaming.

There won't be. It's a downloadable title. They aren't going to build a giant free roam world.

Also that idea is so tired and short sighted for a TMNT game.

you don't need free roaming to have platforming and mazes.

This is TMNT not Skyrim, unlike Batman or the Assassin Creed dudes, the Turtles can't be seen at all by the public. Free roaming is way too unnecessary when you have to avoid 90% of NY City

Batman can't be seen either...especially in Arkham city (everyone is a bad guy) XD.........at least if the turtles get seen, people won't shoot them right away XD........(they's probably just run screaming) lol

I really dig the designs and the textures. Bravo.

it was more of a comparison to the actual character and the idea of free roaming. Arkham Asylum is not free roaming.

The people know Batman exists, he is a well known Superhero. The turtles are hiding from the public, not to be seen.

true :) but in Akrham city (the second game,which is free roaming) the city is filled with only bad guys and helicopters that wanna shoot you down! so you can't be seen by anyone :D....

if Batman can make it in a city full of villains, I'm sure the turtles can make it in New York without being seen :D

they seem to do a good job in the show at least :)

This isn't such a hard thing to resolve. Just set it up so if you're spotted by people, you have to get out of sight quickly, or you lose.

Plus, I didn't play it, but I've seen a bit. Wasn't it magically night time all the time in Arkham City?

yup XD......I guess it was a looong night for Batman.

This thread pretty sums up the whole "TMNT need to be like Arkham/free-roaming" shebang
http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/sho...ghlight=arkham

and, if there is gonna be free roaming, ala Spider-Man 2 the movie the game, then why even bother to be on the streets. Humans are there, stay on roof tops, and bing! majority of the game is a huge waste.

Free roaming sounds cool, but I don't think it's necessary. Now, a later installment of this series that includes some sort of linear stealth elements between the brawling segments (like Arkham Asylum or Sleeping Dogs' indoor stages) that turn into brawling segments if discovered (like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance) would be extremely cool. Not necessary, but cool.

This game sounds really hard dudes. Age 30 and above and needing to learn 70 moves per character? I can't wait!

No worries, dudeabides! It's actually not gonna be all that hard. I made this video for you, using one of the inspirations for the new TMNT game, to explain how a character can have 70 different moves but it not be that hard to pick up and play. You only need to watch the first few minutes, but if you sit through the whole thing you'll see how the basic skills translate with playing as another character.

I do not see a free-roaming model of gameplay working for the TMNT. They're disciplined ninjas who move in the Shadows or get sliced up by stronger enemies and don't attack those who don't pose any threat to them; the "go wild goofing around and causing havoc" philosophy would be contrary to that more.

I also can't conceal my general annoyance at this sort of game design and its typical weak points that hardly ever get fixed just because it's the stylish thing to emulate. Making an urban environment wider, in every game that does it, also makes it shallower. Having very few buildings you can actually enter is bad enough, but in DC Universe Online, they actually thought it was acceptable to give us maps of Gotham and Metropolis that barely had any population. I think if people can't absolutely nail the expansive world thing, they shouldn't bother. Give me tightly-designed little dungeons that keep me on my toes; I'd much rather be the little guy who has to fight for his life against a big orc than the guy who can shoot a hooker with his AK-47 with no retribution to offer challenge.

I like em. Glad they look like Turtles and not lizards like in TMNT 2k7

Ok, the only reason I'm posting this here is because we don't need another "Out of the Shadows" thread, so don't rip me a new one....

But it looks like there will be another game with the same name. The previously titled "Thi4f" has now been renamed "Thief-Out of the Shadows".



So i guess Thi4f was too hard to pronounce so they just stole another game's title.

uh, what? it's named Thief everywhere, in this video you posted, in the official website, it's just "Thief".

by the way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_...s_(video_game)