Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fan Game Pays Tribute to Arcade Classic

One dedicated fan has decided to pay tribute to the golden age of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games) by creating a brand new arcade-like TMNT title called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rescue-Palooza!

While plots have rarely played a big role in TMNT games of the past, the story of Rescue-Palooza is actually integral to the appeal of this project. See, it seems that Shredder has decided to re-ignite his rivalry with the turtles by kidnapping all of their friends over the years. Actually, he’s managed to kidnap about 60 people. 

The reason that number is significant is that it also represents the total number of playable characters in this game. Yes, once you rescue one of the many kidnapped characters, they can be selected via the character selection menu alongside our turtle heroes. While that list of characters includes famous series regulars like Splinter and Casey Jones, it also includes some truly obscure friends that only hardcore fans will recognize. 

Gameplay-wise, you should expect Rescue-Palooza! to play similarly to classic TMNT games of the past. Actually, that’s kind of the whole point. Rescue-Palooza! even remixes levels from various TMNT arcade, console, and handheld games and mixes them with new creations designed to invoke the spirit of those games. 

The result is as impressive as it is welcome. While the upcoming Battletoads game may take us back to the glory days of the arcade beat-em-up, there’s never enough modern games in the genre on the market, and there’s certainly never enough of them that recreate the surprising quality of so many great TMNT beat-em-ups of the past. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rescue-Palooza! is free to download and available via this website. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014.