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We’ve been enjoying our time playing through the side scrolling Turtles beat ’em up games and luckily for us, most of the ones we want to play are included in the Cowabunga Collection. But one game on our list that’s not in the collection is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rescue-Palooza! and that’s because it’s a fan-made game. Developed by Merso X Games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rescue-Palooza! was released for PC in 2019. We actually checked this out once around the time it came out and remember enjoying it. It is a free fan-made game based on the classic NES Turtles titles and, yes, that includes the first game. Rescue-Palooza! does take things directly from those games but features improved graphics, seventeen stages, sixty playable characters, voice clips from the show, rideable vehicles, and it supports four player local co-op. It’s a love letter to the official Turtles games, original series, and toyline. It does come with a neat instruction booklet PDF which covers a lot of the new stuff and the game does support controllers.
The story goes Shredder kidnaps everyone the Turtles care about so the Turtles set out to rescue their friends and defeat Shredder. And they use a device called the “Cloneulator” to make robot doubles of anyone they come across and this is the explanation for the insane amount of playable characters in the game. Rescue-Palooza! comes with three game modes; a story mode, arcade mode, and bonus stage practice mode. You need to play through the story mode to unlock the arcade mode and all the characters. You’ll be able to play as not just the Turtles but also their numerous friends and villains and each character has different stats in power, speed, life, and range.
Rescue-Palooza! is nowhere near as challenging as the NES titles but it does put up a decent fight. It’s not brutal but it’s also not a cakewalk. If you enjoy the official Turtles games, you should be able to appreciate what’s on display here and we would say Rescue-Palooza! is very accessible. When you jump into the story mode, you navigate around the overworld map to select a stage and when you complete a stage, you unlock new characters. As expected, Pizza pickups will replenish health and the game features a Mutagen pickup that will increase your character’s size and grant invincibility for a limited time.
The Turtles retain their classic move set from the NES titles and the game introduces a run mechanic. As for the other characters, not all of them share the same moves or even have their own variations. Despite some characters having what I’ll call a limited move set, they all do manage to feel unique. Playing as Splinter feels different than playing as Irma or Tora or Muckman for example. Some characters use ranged weapons, some can fly, and some can unleash powers. However, some characters, whether it be their size, speed, or limited move set, are poor choices for certain levels. It can be frustrating to get them to navigate around certain obstacles and in our experience, it’s the levels taken from the first NES game. Unfortunately, Rescue-Palooza! does not include the scoring system from Turtles III. Your score is simply how many enemies you’ve defeated.
For the most part, we would say the game is balanced pretty well overall considering how many characters and stages there are. It’s not perfect but it could have been worse. Depending on the situation, some characters may have an advantage over others and to figure that out will be a trial-and-error process. You won’t know what you’re up against on a first run and it’s the kind of game where you’ll want to try out all the characters so you know which ones you like and dislike and because it’s fun. Many of the enemies and bosses from the official games are present here along with some new foes, some of which are clearly taken from other games. While Rescue-Palooza! may not be as tough as the NES titles, it can be challenging at certain points and playing with others can alleviate some of that challenge. Plus, playing with others is more enjoyable in our opinion. Every stage ends with a boss and I’m happy to say none of the familiar bosses are as tough or as spongey as their counterparts in the official games. Many retain their move sets from the official games and can still be challenging but don’t feel quite as relentless here and the fights never felt like they dragged on.
Many of the stages in Rescue-Palooza! are updated versions of stages from the NES titles. Just like the official games, you move from area to area defeating enemies. Most of the stages are not exact recreations but are more like remixes with areas from other stages thrown in. However, even with the updated and recolored assets, the stages and areas from the first NES game do feel somewhat out of place. As you may or may not know, that game is quite different than the classic beat ’em up formula of the arcade game and Turtles II and III for NES. It’s not really a huge problem because they’re not super hard to get through here nor do they overshadow the better stages. In addition to the regular stages are multiple bonus stages. Every so often you’ll get the opportunity choose one for a chance at extra lives and these can also be accessed in the bonus stage practice mode.
Rescue-Palooza! showcases a colorful presentation along with sprites and other assets that should look familiar to veterans of the NES titles but have been updated visually or redone. The game also includes assets from other Turtles games like Turtles in Time and Tournament Fighters for example. The recoloring is done well, most of the sprites are a great fit, the stages and backgrounds are nicely detailed, and everything looks and feels consistent in our opinion. It doesn’t feel like the devs simply ripped assets from other games and just threw them in willy nilly. Work was actually done to make the presentation feel consistent from beginning to end. The action is accompanied by great music and voice clips from the show and the latter is implemented well. Unfortunately, while the game can be played in widescreen, it will be stretched so we decided to maintain the proper aspect ratio. On the technical side, the game ran smooth and we encountered no issues.
In the end, we really enjoyed Rescue-Palooza! It’s a well made game. While there are some things about it we didn’t care for, there’s really not many negative things we can say about it. It’s a lot of fun and doesn’t feel slapped together. You can see care was put into it. The draw here is obviously the multitude of characters and all the stuff from the NES games redone. It also features some cool new stuff. We feel it’s balanced well enough considering how many characters are present and it is definitely more forgiving than the official titles. Anyone can jump into this, enjoy it, and even beat it. All the playable characters should keep you occupied and coming back for a while especially if you want to master the game. Rescue-Palooza! gives players plenty to do, it can be enjoyed with friends, and it’s free.
We would recommend Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rescue-Palooza! because it’s fun and it’s free. This is a quality Turtles beat ’em up without actually being an official Turtles beat ’em up. If you enjoyed the NES games, you should definitely check this out. It’s a game designed by Turtles fans for Turtles fans. But even if you’re not the biggest Turtles fan, if you enjoy the genre, Rescue-Palooza! is definitely worth checking out if only because it’s free.