Against expectations, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City turns out to be a genuinely great VR beat ’em up, not just fan service for longtime Turtle disciples. Cortopia Studios delivers fast, flexible combat, light RPG progression, and a strong comic-book presentation that punches well above its price point. It’s not without some padding and design quirks, but the core experience is energetic, accessible, and totally radical. Possibly tubular.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City is a game where the effort is clear, yet as a whole, the game doesn't come together in a way that turtles should when fighting crime in VR.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City is a buggy, repetitive, and incredibly barebones adventure that mostly fails to capitalize on its extremely awesome premise. The decent parkour system, amusing dialogue, and co-op joy of hanging out with your friends as dorky turtles can be amusing for a bit, but you’ll have to contend with completely lifeless open-world areas, loads of repetitive and sloppy combat and stealth, and quest objectives or other important interactions breaking on you constantly. A cooperative TMNT VR game has all the potential in the world of being a truly great time, but Empire City only offers an occasional glimpse of what that could actually look like.