The heroes in a half shell team up for a tough co-op boss battle against Bebop Watch on YouTube | Subscribe to Polygon on YouTube
After bringing us a not-so-great take on The Legend of Korra and a slightly better riff on Transformers nostalgia, it’s no shocker that Platinum Games is back for a third swing at licensed games. But if our demo at this week’s Game Developer’s Conference is anything to go by, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan may be Platinum’s best and most confident licensed game yet.
The TMNT franchise lends itself to co-op, so Platinum has built a game with many recognizable elements from its other action titles but with a new four-player framework. The game is positioned as a brawler — not unlike the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle quarter-munching arcade games of old — but it has a more strategic element in each turtle’s ability to equip and use special moves that then go on cooldown. Comboing these moves together with your teammates will allow you to pull off more damage, which will be a necessity in the game’s tough, lengthy boss fights.
It also features an interesting mission structure. The turtles are unleashed in a larger open-world area, of which we are told there are several throughout the game. The game pulls from a list of possible missions to send the turtles on within that area at random, meaning each playthrough will be a little different. Once they’ve completed enough of these side missions, the boss fight to finish out the mission opens up.
In the video above, you can watch us, along with the game’s producer and director, play through an early level. We finish off a couple of sub-missions and then go on to fight Bebop, a difficult battle where we need to pull together our various abilities in order to eke out a victory.
You also get to witness some of the game’s incredible charm, including a move that forces enemies to dance and another where Michelangelo turns his nunchaku into a baseball bat and knocks an enemy out of the park. Hard not to crack a grin, at the very least.

It arrives with the Outer Rim DLC on Tuesday,, but it’s free for everyone Tucked into an announcement getting fans of Star Wars Battlefront ready for the Outer Rim DLC is this little nugget: a spectator mode is coming to the game, free to all players, with a title update on Tuesday.
It’s not mentioned in the above video, but it was inside a news release accompanying it this week. We’d seen teases for things like the “Hutt Contracts," which are a series of new missions, new weapons and the increased level cap, but spectator mode wasn’t known until now.
Also, this video confirms Tuesday, March 22 as the Outer Rim launch date, which contradicts an earlier GameStop listing that had it pegged for April 5.
The video above showcases the premium content coming with the $14.99 Outer Rim expansion, which is included for those who bought the $49.99 "season pass" option. Three more premium expansions will be released later this year under that schedule.
There are new maps, plenty of weapons and two new playable stars, Nien Nunb, the Sullustan, and Greedo, who has a so-apropos quick draw ability. Now you know why Han had to shoot first.

Joe Rogan will describe his own ass-beating in the latest update Well, here’s something new: The next fighter in EA Sports UFC 2 is the announcer who calls its action.
That means that Joe Rogan will talk about himself kicking ass or getting his ass kicked, making him the second sports video game commentator to do so in the past year. Steve Kerr was in the virtual booth of NBA 2K15 while also appearing on the sideline in his rookie year as the coach of the Golden State Warriors. (Kerr was replaced by Greg Anthony in NBA 2K16.)
Here’s Rogan in action, via YouTuber Z3E3E3.

To fight with Rogan, UFC 2 players must download the latest title update and then enter the Konami code at the game’s main screen (that is, the one where the only other command is to press the options/meny button to continue to the game).
The code on PlayStation 4 is Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Circle, X and Options; and on Xbox One, Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A and Menu.
Two other like, you know, actual fighters also join the roster for free in this update; they are Jessica Aguilar and Sage Northcutt. EA Sports UFC 2 has more than 250 fighters on its roster.
For more on EA Sports UFC 2, check out our review. Polygon scored it an 8, praising the game for “solid, understandable and enjoyable" fight action.