How Shredder’s Revenge captures the essence of classic TMNT arcade games

Frederic Gemus still remembers the first time he played the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game. There was something about the experience, with its big expressive characters and approachable gameplay, that sucked him right in. “Playing that game was so mind blowing because it was just like playing the cartoon,” he tells me over Zoom (with a huge collection of retro games behind him). “It was so different from the Nintendo back in the days.” So, when Gemus, now a designer at Montreal-based studio Tribute Games, had a chance to work on a modern take on TMNT, it was pretty much a dream project. “That was pretty awesome to learn about,” he says of being put on the project.