Empire City Unveils Early Parkour Gameplay on Quest 3

I stumbled upon this spiel about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles doing… I dunno, parkour or something in this pre-alpha thing on Quest 3. Never thought I’d be writing about virtual turtles leaping around, but here we are. So, here’s the deal. It’s this first-person, action-adventure gig by Cortopia Studios, where you can either go it alone or team up with three other folks if you’re feeling sociable.

Ace St. Germain, the creative director, dropped some gems in a developer diary—like, you actually get to be all ninja-ey with the turtles and do this wild parkour all over Quest 3. He even shared some in-engine gameplay, but my brain was stuck on this — he calls this whole thing “anime parkour.” Sounds wild, right? Apparently, they found this by accident. Something about a funky momentum bug that had him bouncing off a mailbox and onto lampposts or whatever. Anyway, don’t expect it to be like, real parkour. Germain says your virtual self is auto-tuned to move like the ninja turtles, you know — sprinting, jumping, zipping around — the whole shebang.

So, you’re flinging yourself around Empire City, hopping from streetlamps to parked cars and all that jazz, getting faster each time you do it. They’ve got these ninja tools too, but details are scant for now. Wonder if they come with a user manual, though.

I couldn’t help but notice it’s got Ghost of Tsushima vibes. You get to pick one of the turtle brothers—Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, or Michelangelo—and run havoc across the place. The studio’s already shared some concept art, and this is the second time they’ve dropped more info. The game? Yeah, it lands in 2026 on Quest and Steam. Why I remember this bit? No clue. Brain’s weird like that.