Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (arcade)/Gameplay

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game is fairly straight forward, but the following content on this page will help you be aware of some of the basics.

Selecting the number of players
From the title screen, press to toggle between one or two players, and then press  to confirm your selection.

Character selection
After selecting the number of players you want from the title screen, and before the intro cinematic plays, you will be able to choose from one of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Use to select the character (denoted by the blinking 1p or 2p symbols), and confirm by pressing.

Each turtle has their own unique animations, but they do not have unique abilities. They all have the same attacks, take the same amount of damage, are the same height and width, and move at the same speed.

User interface
You should be aware of the data that is displayed while you're playing in the top margin of the screen. On the left is data that applies to player 1, and on the right is data that applies to player 2 (if a second player is not present, the TMNT logo will take its place). The following key points are marked in the image:
 * 1) PTS.: points; you can acquire points by killing enemies or performing secret actions.
 * 2) LIFE: this is your health. If it reaches zero, you lose a rest. Remember that each enemy deals slightly different amounts of damage; the basic foot soldier will only punch you for half of a health block, but every strike from a boss will usually deal a whole block.
 * 3) REST: these are your lives. If you run out of lives, you must restart the game.

Combat
There is no way to block an attack, however you can dodge enemy attacks and take advantage of the AI to prevent your character from taking damage.
 * Defending

There are three methods of attack in the game:
 * Attacking
 * 1) Normal attack: press to perform this move while on the ground. Your character will swing its weapon in one of two animations (they have the same range, delay, and damage).
 * 2) Jump kick: press to jump, and then  after you reach a certain height (just below the peak of your jump) to perform a diagonal jump kick. If you do this while moving, you can cover large areas of ground quickly. Remember that you can delay your kick and unleash it just before you reach the ground. This attack is most useful against bosses and dodging attacks.
 * 3) Special attack: press to release the most powerful attack in the game. You should use this attack against regular enemies as much as possible because it kills foot soldiers in one hit. It has a slight delay (the animation takes about 1 second to complete), which is bad for bosses who will counter you quickly, but good for killing groups of foot soldiers who may walk into the attack half a second after it started.

Power-ups
There is only one power-up in this game: pizza! The pizza slices you can collect will restore your health to full, so if you are already topped off, don't grab the slice until all of the enemies are you are dead.