Exclusive: 'TMNT: Shadows Of The Past' Reveals Bebop

Back at the start of the Kickstarter campaign for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past --- a new board game designed by Kevin Wilson that follows the continuity of IDW's TMNT comics and features input from TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman --- I mentioned that I was pretty excited about it. I am, after all, a sucker for big campaign-based board games, while Wilson has designed some of the best I've ever played, like the Lovecraftian adventure of Arkham Horror, and the current run of TMNT comics is one of the best things going. Well, it turns out I'm not the only one.

In the two weeks since its launch, Shadows of the Past has racked up a staggering half a million dollars, doubling its initial goal and unlocking plenty of stretch goals for the Kickstarter-exclusive "Works" edition, including everyone's favorite mutant warthog in shutter shades, Bebop. Here's your exclusive first look:

Bebop joins other characters that have been added to the game over the course of the campaign, including Casey Jones, Old Hob, and Kevin Eastman himself --- changes to the game that Nate Murray, project manager for IDW games, wanted to highlight:

The game's following IDW's timeline, but a huge upswelling of fan support lead to us adding Bebop to the game. Hopefully the other half of the gruesome twosome will join the campaign as well. An addition like this shows why crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter are so interesting. Backers can influence games mid-development.

As Murray says, getting Bebop by himself would be pretty weird --- and seems like it would make for a pretty lonely figure to just stay in the box, trying to console himself with his chainsaw --- so I think we can all make a pretty easy guess as to what the campaign's next stretch goal might be, and whether it might involve a rhinoceros with a sledgehammer.

The Kickstarter campaign runs through February 25.