Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donnie Saves a Princess

About

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donnie Saves a Princess lets you play as Donatello in a dreamworld quest to rescue April. This browser-based platformer remixes classic game tropes into three distinct levels. Each stage parodies a different franchise from the 80s and 90s. You’ll fight Kraang in a Zelda-inspired dungeon, battle Fishface in a Mario-like overworld, and duel Darth Shredder in a Star Wars homage. The humor comes from the turtles themselves playing dress-up. After defeating each level’s boss, one of your brothers pops up in a princess outfit to send you to the next world. The game leans heavily into nostalgia with its pixel art and references. It’s packed with inside jokes for TMNT fans. Raphael as Zelda, Michelangelo as Peach, and Leonardo as Leia all deliver a cheeky twist. Released in 2013 as part of Nickelodeon’s online lineup, it’s still playable in browsers that support Flash. While short, the meta humor and callbacks to old TMNT games make it a standout for fans of the franchise. The Technodrome cameo in the final level is a nice nod to longtime viewers.

Storyline

Donatello falls asleep while playing video games, and dreams that he goes through several TMNT-ized classic games to rescue "princess" April. At the end of each level, he encounters one of his brothers, dressed up like the princess that fits that level's theme. After he rescues each, they say, "The princess you are looking for is in/on another dungeon/castle/space ship." The first level is based on The Legend of Zelda. The boss for this stage is a Kraang, and the princess, based on Zelda, is Raphael. Level 2 apes Super Mario Bros. and has Fishface as the boss. This Peach-like princess is Michelangelo. The final level plays similar to classic TMNT games and has a distinct Star Wars homage atmosphere. The boss is a Darth Shredder and the princess is a Leonardo Leia. Outside of one of the windows, The Technodrome from the original cartoon series can be seen.