Why Shredder is missing from TMNT's first VR game

Cortopia Studios takes us behind-the-scenes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City

When it comes to the rogues gallery of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Shredder is the guy. He was the enemy in their first comic book back in 1984. He’s been the main villain in the vast majority of their movies and TV shows. And, in 2022, the side-scrolling beat-’em-up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge became the best game in the history of the franchise (yes, even better than the classic arcade game and Turtles in Time).

So then why, for the Turtles’ first foray into the VR gaming space, is Shredder absent? Ace St. Germain, CEO and creative director of Cortopia Studios, said it all came down to what story would best suit the Heroes in a Half Shell in the immersive VR gaming space.

Due for release in the spring, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City is a VR game that allows the player to embody any of the four Ninja Turtles and use their signature weapons to take down the Foot Clan on the streets and rooftops of New York City. It is currently available for preorder and if preordered on Meta you get 20 percent off the $24.99 price tag.

“One of the killer promises of virtual reality is a sense of presence and the social aspect of being with your friends in a virtual space,” Germain told Polygon in a recent Zoom interview. “So when we were thinking about the next game we wanted to make, we needed something that was natively multiplayer and, honestly, I'm just a giant Ninja Turtles nerd.”

That said, the choice of the Turtles wasn’t pure nerdiness, as Germain added, “I really thought the brothers would make for a phenomenal embodiment experience. Waking up with three fingers and a shell on your back, you can't beat that! It was just going to be such a different experience than anything else. We jokingly call it the ultimate Ninja Turtles LARPing simulator.”

As all the best Ninja Turtles games are, Empire City is a multiplayer game that allows up to four people to play in the same session, each as a different Turtle. The experience differs from Turtle to Turtle as well. “Obviously, fighting two-handed with Donatello’s staff feels very different than fighting with Michelangelo’s nunchucks,” Germain said. “There are specific benefits from one Turtle to another. As you might imagine, Donatello can equip more technology than any of the other turtles. Raphael doesn't wear as much tech, but has a lot of health — he can take a lot of hits.”

Besides the Turtles themselves, major supporting characters play significant roles in the game as well. “April is an incredibly important character for us,” said Germain. “She probably has the most lines out of anybody in the game. She mostly hangs back in the Turtle Lair and tries to help guide the players to where they need to go. Casey Jones offers a bit of comic relief and he's an active part of the story and he helps to push a lot of things along. And Master Splinter helps you figure things out from the astral plane.”

And then there’s the villain: Karai, who Germain called “the cornerstone character.”

For those unfamiliar with Karai, she exists in nearly every version of the TMNT and is usually (but not always) depicted as the daughter of the Shredder, which she is in Empire City. She takes over the Foot Clan after Shredder’s death and she sometimes acts as an adversary to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but she’s also been an ally at times. As a character, Karai has often been the most unpredictable force in the franchise because, at times, she seems to want to follow in the Shredder’s footsteps, while other times she seeks to restore honor to the Foot Clan.

As for why she is the villain in Empire City? “One of the hardest parts about virtual reality is, because the player is embodying a character, you can't really ask a player to go through a character arc the way they would in a third person game or even first person playing Fallout or something like that,” Germain said. “In VR, you kind of don't go through an arc, you are who you are. And so, everybody else around you needs to change. With that, we had to create a compelling story arc that builds in all that catharsis, but it all has to happen to somebody other than the Turtles. Because of that, the character that stood out the most for me was Karai.”

Because Shredder is always a bad guy, his presence in any game is generally pretty straightforward, but with Karai, Germain said players can “explore her struggle with becoming a leader and the kind of leader she wants to be.” How you play the game will influence which way she goes, either honorable or more dark and ruthless. “While this isn’t a game with 20 different endings, there is a binary ‘this happens’ versus ‘that happens,’” Germain said.

For inspiration on the story, Germain turned to two major versions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The first was the original comic books where Karai was introduced as the new leader of the Foot Clan during the “City at War” arc, the epic 13-part storyline which saw all of New York in a chaotic turf war with the Turtles stuck in the middle. Another influence was the still ongoing IDW comic book series, which had its own “City at War” story that paralleled the original along with some new twists. Cortopia even brought in IDW TMNT writer Tom Waltz, who wrote the first 100 issues of IDW’s Turtles, as a story consultant on Empire City.

With all that epic story and immersive action to explore, there is one thing left to discuss, something that Germain says has often been the favorite takeaway for people who have tested the game (like myself).

The base of operations for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City is the underground Turtle Lair in the New York City sewer system, an immersive environment where you can chill with the other players, check out the Turtles’ bedrooms, practice your ninja moves and interact with April and Splinter.

When I tested this game personally last fall, I could not get enough of the Turtles’ Lair. All I wanted to do was explore it. The little details are full of deep cuts for Turtle fans and the environment feels like the grungy sewer it's supposed to. Each bedroom is packed with the personality of its respective Turtle and you can even munch on some (virtual) pizza. And, yeah, while immersing yourself as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle may mean protecting the city and beating down on the Foot Clan, what it’s really about is eating pizza and chilling with your bros.

---

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City will be released for Meta, Quest, Steam VR, and Pico in 2026.