Toss The Turtle is a 2009 online game that is almost Exactly What It Says on the Tin. You shoot a turtle out of a cannon and pepper him with bullets in the hope of getting major distance. Along the way, you can grab cash for upgrades at the shop and ammo for the gun to continue shooting the poor turtle.
Also, the land is littered with spikes, Goombas, bombs, gangster hounds, angry suns, flame dudes, small and big birds, street fighting bananas, cars, UFOs, chainsaw-wielding maniacs, and angry ground creatures.
You can find it on Newgrounds here
or on its official website. The artist, Gonzo, has also gone on to create art for another game, Goin' Up.
A sequel, Super Toss the Turtle, was released December 22nd 2016 for iOS and Google Play. It includes the same action packed game play, while adding new cannons, guns, power ups, and characters.
Toss the Tropes:
- A.K.A.-47: Some of the guns fall into this, such as the "Lone Eagle"note . Amusingly averted with the Trope Namer itself, however, which has its name intact.
- Amusing Injuries: All the injuries inflicted on the poor turtle.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Your turtle can be propelled into space and remain there indefinitely without suffering any ill effects. Other obstacles, like seagulls, can also be seen flying and breathing in space with no issue.
- Bling-Bling-BANG!: The best weapon in the original game is the Golden Gun. Super Toss The Turtle adds the Golden Double-Barreled Shotgun and the Golden Boy cannon.
- Bloody Hilarious: Blood splatters across the ground every time the turtle bounces, and sprays everywhere if it hits a spike wall or gets crushed.
- Catchphrase: SHORYUKEN!
- Collision Damage: Colliding with spikes is enough to kill your turtle. However, other enemies won't damage him.
- Cosmetic Award: Several. Some of them, however, actually increase your effectiveness in torturing the turtle.
- Crossover: The August 2017 event for Zombidle features a crossover with characters from Toss the Turtle as well as GonzoSSM's other works.
- Depth Deception: You can collide with the sun without even leaving the atmosphere.
- Deus ex Nukina: You can buy several nukes to bolster your speed and height.
- Equipment-Based Progression: The game has this as the main game mechanic. The farther you launch the projectile the more money is available for upgrades, and each upgrade helps you go further, and so on ad infinitum.
- Expy:
- That Squirtle, I mean, turtle sure looks familiar.
- Also the
Diglettangry ground creature. - Super Toss the Turtle adds "Kogu".
- Funny Animal: The gangster hounds.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Newgrounds Tank and the Golden Gun. With both of these weapons, you can easily breach the 100-mile mark. In Super Toss the Turtle, the Prestige items count as this instead, with the Golden Gun relegated to Infinity -1 Sword and the Newgrounds Tank much further down the pecking order.
- Just One More Level!: There's an achievement for that. Three of them, in fact!
- Lethal Joke Weapon: That banana gives you the biggest boost out of anything you could possibly hit.
- Made of Iron: It doesn't matter how much abuse the turtle goes through, he just sits up and breathes a sigh of relief when he comes to a stop. Even if you hit the spikes or get crushed, he's still up and about for the next shot, none the worse for wear.
- Man on Fire: Several of the obstacles set the turtle on fire if it hits them. This not only has no lasting effects, but is actually beneficial (being on fire somehow makes you immune to spikes), and the flames die out after a few seconds. The player can also invoke this by getting a perfect cannon launch, or (in Super) by using the Matches.
- More Dakka: You buy increasingly more powerful tanks and guns over the course of the game.
- New Game Plus: In Super Toss the Turtle, activating Prestige essentially works like this. You can only activate it after buying every cannon and gun from the store, and once activated, you have to start over from the beginning. In return, you get a permanent 15% cash bonus, and access to the most powerful items in the game.
- Pun: "Get shot up" says the achievement for landing in the gunfire of a gangster dog and being propelled upward.
- Shoryuken: The banana performs this maneuver if you so much as touch him.
- Shout-Out:
- Several, to Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter and Newgrounds' own revered characters.
- The Newgrounds Tank from the Newgrounds logo.
- The Golden Gun, with its reputation as one of the more powerful weapons in GoldenEye (1997).
- The bonus modifier for somehow not hitting any objects is "Boring Life".
- In some stages there are the remains of Metal Gear Solid's cyborg ninja on the ground.
- The title image, with the turtle on a cliff looking at a distant city, is reminiscent of Ninja Gaiden.
- And the title theme is taken directly from Contra.
- One of the enemies is a Goomba wearing a top hat and monocle. Stomping only one of these gets you the bonus modifier "
Weegee". - Another enemy is a Banana, who delivers a Shoryuken uppercut when hit. He's even called Bananayuken in the sequel.
- Hitting enough UFO's gives you a bonus modifier at the end of the level with some bonus cash. The name of the modifier: "War Of The Worlds".
- Super Toss the Turtle introduces the expies Boe Chong, Clyde M.L Ovalbowl, Bonkers, Fast The Porcupine, Mango, Mighty K, The President, Seymour, Super Fruitian Kugo, and Reberto.
- Spikes of Doom: This particular variety stops you instantly, unless you have a chest bomb on. In Super Toss the Turtle, however, only the Prestige-exclusive Guardian chest bomb will save you.
- Standard FPS Guns: With a slingshot as your starter weapon.
- Tank Goodness: The most powerful cannon in the original game is the Newgrounds Tank. Super also has a tank obstacle that rolls through the stage and will crush your turtle flat if it drives over it.
- Video Game Caring Potential: You can guide the turtle to a safe landing and end his suffering...
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: ...after launching the poor schmuck out of a cannon and shooting at him.
