The heroes in a half shell are back, and this time they’re pressing right up against your eyeballs. That’s thanks to their debut VR outing, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City, which is coming to Meta Quest 3 and SteamVR sometime next year.
Empire City is the work of Cortopia Studios – which co-developed last year’s well-received gladiatorial bludgeon-’em-up Gorn 2 – and follows Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo in an action-adventure set on (and presumably under) the Foot Clan-infested streets of New York City following Shredder’s demise.
It’s an adventure described as “equal parts hard-hitting combat and an exploration of the bonds of brotherhood”, and there’s talk of “fluid parkour” as players – and up to three friends – scale the urban landscape. Fan-favourite villains are also promised, all readying for a walloping – in battles built around strikes and blocks – with each turtle’s signature weapon.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City announcement trailer.Watch on YouTube
And that, apart from confirmation The Last Ronin author Tom Waltz is saving as narrative consultant, is about all we know. The teaser trailer above isn’t much more informative, but you’ll find a handful of screenshots over on Steam. Expect more details in the run up to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City’s Steam VR and Meta Quest release in 2026.
It’s been busy few years for the Turtles, of course; following 2022’s brilliant beat-’em-up Shredder’s Revenge and acclaimed 2023 movie outing Mutant Mayhem, last year brought the fairly middling Mutants Unleashed and rogue-like Splintered Fate. Strange Scaffold took on the series earlier this month, nudging it into turn-based strategy territory with Tactical Takedown, and it’s already been confirmed more games – including the God of War-inspired The Last Ronin – are on the way. As a scaly green youth once put it, “Totally tubular, dude!”