Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rise of Krang

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rise of Krang (TMNT: ROK) is a fighting video game based upon the fictional universe of IDW Publishing. The game was developed by Mad Man Ninja Studios and NetherRealm Studios, and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Samsung Zeo and Microsoft Windows. It is the third game in the Mad Man Ninja Studios' TMNT series, after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Born to Shred and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: City at War. It was released in January 2026 in North America, Europe, and Australia, and February 2026 in Japan.

Gameplay
Much like its predecessors, Born to Shred and City at War, players select one of several characters from the TMNT Universe (consisting of both villains and heroes), to engage in combat, aiming to knock out their opponent. The game is set in a 2.5D environment: while character models and backgrounds are rendered in three-dimensional graphics, the characters are restricted to fight within a two-dimensional space. Rise of Krang builds upon several aspects from NetherRealm Studios' previous title, including its controls, game mechanics, narrative-driven campaign, and online functionality.

Plot
Krang is both an Utrom and a denizen of Dimension X. He is the heir of Quanin, the former Prime Minister of the Utroms' ruling council who appointed himself Emperor and aggressively expanded the Utrom domain into an empire. However, his megalomanic expansion drive both deprived his home planet of its most essential natural resource, the Ooze, and incited rebellion among the subjugated people of Dimension X, eventually leading to the destruction of Utrominon. Krang, who was as brutal as his father but opposed his uncautious politics, fled with a few survivors of his people through an interdimensional portal to Burnow Island on Earth, where he established a base from which he intended to terraform this world into a new home for his people.

In order to augment his troops, Krang, initially disguised as a despotic human warlord, forms a business relationship with Baxter Stockman, head of the genetics research institute Stock Gen, and supplies him with Ooze, which could be used as a natural mutagen on Earth's organisms. It is through Stockman's experiments that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Splinter evolve into intelligent, humanoid mutants. When the Turtles learn of Krang's genocidal plans thanks to their human friend April O'Neil, a former intern at Stock Gen, they, together with their ally, the Fugitoid (a former Neutrino scientist whose mind is trapped in a robot body and who was forcibly conscripted by Krang to complete his terraforming machine, the Technodrome), and the Foot Clan stop Krang from destroying the Earth, and the Utrom warlord is surrendered to the Neutrinos for trial for his numerous war crimes. While imprisoned on Neutrino, Kraang hires the bounty hunter Hakk-R to eliminate several material witnesses in order to get the trial cancelled, but Hakk-R fails thanks to the efforts of the Turtles. Eventually, Krang is found guilty and sentenced to permanent exile from Dimension X on Earth. However, Leatherhead, one of his former victims and a key witness in the trial, refuses to accept the mild verdict and kills Krang by devouring him. However, as the Fugitoid belatedly realizes, the Utroms possess a natural parasitic physiology, enabling Krang to regenerate himself and take possession of Leatherhead's body.

Characters
Teenage Mutante Ninja Turtles: Rise of Kang features 54 playable characters from the TMNT Universe consisting of both villains and heroes. Additional characters were also released post-launch as downloadable content (DLC). *: Available as downloadable content.

Reception
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rise of Krang was the highest selling game in the United States during its release month of January, 2026. It sold 424,000 copies as reported by industry analysts Cowen and Company, the only game released during that month to sell more than 250,000 copies. According to the NPD group, the game would later continue to stay as the top selling game in the US charts into May and stayed within the top 10 in June. Rise of Krang would also top the all-format game charts in the UK following its week of release.