**EDITOR’S NOTE: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City will be available Spring 2026 for $24.99, with Meta Quest pre-orders available now at a 20% discount. You can also try out the introduction to the game with a demo during Steam Next Fest, February 23rd – March 2nd, 2026.**.

In previous diaries, we’ve talked about how you move through the city, how combat feels when everything clicks, and how the game changes the moment you bring friends along for the ride. But what about when all of these elements really come together for the game’s best moments, when the heavy hitters show up? 

Get your health up and go in with a strategy, because you might not live to regret it. It’s finally time to talk about boss fights.

Larger Than Life (Literally)

One of the things virtual reality does better than almost anything else is presence. Scale hits differently in VR, and that became a huge pillar for how we approached boss encounters in Empire City.

Bebop and Rocksteady aren’t just enemies. They’re forces of nature, and they should feel like it. Their size, their weight, the way they dominate the space around you all shift how the encounter feels. They overwhelm and make you feel small. Being able to capture that feeling in-headset makes them feel exactly as big and intimidating as they are.

All New Podcast Episode

To complement this dev diary, we dove into the subject in podcast format and brought in TMNT heavy hitter and TMNT: Empire City Story Consultant, Tom Waltz, to discuss boss fights and, we assume, two of the franchise’s most beloved characters. Take a look at the video below!

It’s Not Just “Hit the Big Thing”

Empire City has a lot of room for planning, stealth, and teamwork, and boss fights are no different. Sure, you can try to rush a boss with your whole crew, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re after four bruised and battered brothers.  

Each boss is unique, but two things that most have in common are their ability to counter-attack and willingness to call for backup. Spamming attacks is a sure way to end the fight quickly… for yourself. Each boss is equipped with several tools to interrupt your momentum, create distance, close distance, and hit you with something from anywhere in the room. Reading their movements and familiarizing yourself with their patterns is the only way to stay alive and win. And, when they’re not charging at you or pelting you from afar, expect Foot to mob you from every direction. And while these extra minions might not seem like the biggest threat in the room, when you combine them with area-of-effect attacks that force you to move, reposition, and make decisions fast, you’ll find yourself knee deep in chaos, wishing you’d had the foresight to plan ahead.

Making Turtle Soup

With so many beloved eras of Turtles, we’re not pulling inspiration from just one place when it comes to boss fights. We’re pulling from everything, including classic games in the Turtles canon.

While we didn’t want to attempt to emulate making this an arcade beat-em-up in VR, it was hard not to be influenced by the incredible TMNT games that came before like Turtles in Time and Shredder’s Revenge. These games solved a lot of inherent problems in their design to make fights fun for both single and multiplayer experiences, and we looked to them to learn from their greatness.

We even took inspiration from the original NES game. While the mechanics were justifiably simple, there was something about their presentation, sequencing, and mix that always stuck with me. One fight in particular is a major callback to that game. I’ll let you guess which one.

It’s not so much that you’ll instantly recognize the influence, but when you meet our boss characters, something in your memories just clicks on, even if you can’t quite put your finger on what. 

Bebop and Rocksteady: Goofy, Terrifying, Indestructible

Few characters embody Turtles villainy quite like Bebop and Rocksteady. They’re dumb, funny, chaotic – and absurdly dangerous.

One of the things I love about their modern interpretation, especially Tom Waltz’s work in the IDW comics, is the contradiction of low IQ and unbeatable power. These are two of the least intellectually sophisticated characters in the franchise, and at the same time, two of the hardest to take down. You can’t just punch them until they fall over. You have to outthink them and outmaneuver them. Sometimes you even have to let them defeat themselves.

That approach to these characters carries directly into Empire City. These fights aren’t just about smashing someone until their health bar shatters into a million pieces (although, if Bebop were on the design team, that probably would have been the solution). They’re about understanding who these characters are and using that against them.

They want to belong; to be part of something bigger. They try too hard. And when they try too hard… things explode.

What Comes Next

Movement, combat, story, and tone all crashing together at once – boss fights are where systems collide. But they’re nothing without the right characters behind them. In our next dev diary we’ll be diving into someone we’ve only hinted at so far. It’s someone that plays a major role in shaping the world around you. Maybe even the most important character in Empire City that isn’t wearing a shell on their back.

Until then, thanks for sticking with us.

Booyakasha,

Cortopia Studios

We’ll see you in the city.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City will be available Spring 2026 for $24.99, with Meta Quest pre-orders available now at a $20% discount