From the tops of roofs to the deepest sewers, you'll have to literally search the city high and low to look for Splinter. Fortunately, you have the aid of the Turtle Van to get you around the neighborhood. The Turtle Van moves at a good clip, and it can easily run over any Foot Soldiers that you encounter. It's also decked out with two different weapons, a basic gun that has unlimited ammo, and a missile launcher which you must find ammunition to use. The missiles come in handy to deal with two different things. The first are road blocks that the Foot clan have set up around the city which must be destroyed to pass. The second are steam rollers that Foot Soldiers are piloting. While you can shoot them down with a few gun shots, you can instantly destroy them with a single missile. They can instantly kill a turtle, and they damage whoever is driving the van.
Area Map[edit]
- Plan of attack
- Visit building A to acquire some missiles (possibly twice).
- Optionally visit building D to load up on Kiai scrolls.
- Optionally visit building G to rescue a captured turtle, and restore missing any health.
- Enter building J and head down to the sewer to leave through manhole K.
- Enter building L and climb to the top to fight the Mecha Turtle and rescue Splinter.
Building A[edit]
Many of the buildings that you can enter can be skipped, but not building A. You won't make it very far into the city without the missiles stored in the second floor. In fact, the ten missiles that one visit provides may not be enough, so making a second trip through the building is advised.
This one building throws a large number of enemies at you in a cramped space. Fortunately, there's a slice of pizza on the first level, and an entire pizza on the second, so you get the opportunity to restore some turtle's missing health. The enemies that you see can change from one visit to the next. Sometimes you'll face diving birds and fire creatures, other times it's missile dropping balloons and fire-breathing robots with flying heads.
Of particular note are two difficult gaps that you must overcome, both on the second floor. The gap before the full pizza can feel difficult, but the trick is to tap your jump button as late as possible, and as quick as possible so that you don't jump so high you hit the platform above and drop down to the floor below. The very small gap before the missiles has also driven many players mad, as every attempt to jump over it seems to fail and send you back to the bottom of the screen. The truth is in this game, turtles can easily walk over single space gaps, so you don't have to jump over it at all. Just keep walking left, and you'll easily reach the missiles.
Building B and Manhole C[edit]
There is very little reason to drive all the way out to the part of town where building B is. For one thing, you can't access anything from manhole C as the trip through the building and sewer is one-way. You'll need to use a missile to destroy one of the roadblocks in order to access building B. Once inside, you can grab a full pizza for some turtle, and then climb down to the sewers. You'll need to jump carefully and watch out for enemies that try to interrupt your leaps in order to make it to the missiles at the end before you drop down and climb up the ladder to manhole C. While it's not too difficult, it's not really worth the effort.
Buildings D and E[edit]
Building D is optional, but you may wish to visit it for one particular reason. When it comes to the secondary weapons that you can obtain in the game, Kiai scrolls are as powerful as they are rare. This building has scrolls that you can collect, 20 for each visit. It's not very fast to reach them, but it is an easy source. To reach them, enter through building D and make your way up to the third floor. Using Donatello's bo to clear away enemies above you before you climb up the ladders can make the going less treacherous.
Once you reach the third floor, when you walk all the way to the left, you'll have to face a mid-boss, either a fire creature or a robot. Defeat it, and you will be able to climb down the ladder to collect the scrolls. If you choose to continue on, you can climb down to the sewer where you can easily collect a roof-crossing rope, and if you get far enough into the sewer, you can find a full pizza to restore some turtle's health. Just watch out for the enemy which patrols the platform above (you can lure them to fall down into the water below), and jump low from the single block platform into the space where the pizza awaits. From there, you can continue all the way up and around to door E, or simply fall in the water to leave the building.
Loading one or more turtles up with a full set of 99 Kiai scrolls is a sure fire way to have some extra firepower on hand later in the game when you could really use it. Just be careful not to allow the turtle holding scrolls to pick up a different weapon dropped by an enemy by accident.
Buildings F and G[edit]
Buildings F and G are tucked away in an isolated section of the map. You have to destroy a roadblock below building D, then exit the van and walk across a small bridge to reach the buildings. They have a few things to offer.
Most importantly, if any of the turtles have been captured up to this point, you get the chance to rescue one of them from building G. In addition, after a short climb up the ladder, you can find an easily obtainable half pizza which can heal four bars of damage to any turtle. This is an especially great place to visit and get all of your turtles to full health. It's just tucked away between two platforms that can be a pain to jump into, but it is possible. Once you get the distance and the height right, you can reach it every time.
There's also a full pizza on the roof tops of the buildings, but the only way you can access it is by entering through building F and cross the roofs to the right. Since the half pizza in building G is so much easier to obtain, the full pizza on the roof is hardly worth the effort. When you enter building F, you can easily collect a rope tile that gives you 3 more ropes. In general, there's little reason to obtain more than 9 or 12 of them.
Buildings H and I[edit]
Buildings H and I are another set of buildings that generally aren't worth the trouble. You'll need to destroy one of two roadblocks with a missile, and then exit the van and cross a narrow bridge to reach the buildings. There are a few nice items to collect, but there are easier means to collect them elsewhere. A half pizza on the second floor of building H is nice, and the missiles located on the second floor of building I are handy, but the real prize is on the rooftop. A Kiai scroll can be found hanging out in mid-air, but you'll need ropes to create a bridge from one building to another in order to collect the scrolls. And that assuming the enemies don't knock you off the roof and to the ground below before you reach it. In general, it's not worth the effort.
Building J and Manhole K[edit]
In order to rescue Splinter, you have no choice but to hop into building J. When you arrive through the door, you'll need to walk left to reach a gap in the platform above, jump up, and head back to the right to climb down the ladder into the sewer below. Watch out for the enemies that get in your way, and let some of them scroll of the screen if possible to reduce the threat you face.
Down below, you have a significant challenge ahead. One wrong move can knock you into the sewer water below and send you back to the entrance of building J. You'll want to jump low and swing your weapon as you approach enemies in mid-air to reduce the chance that you get knocked back and fall into the water. If you can afford to, sometimes jumping out ahead to scroll the screen forward, and then falling back to the previous platform can reveal enemies that might have collided with you, but it's not a perfect strategy. Also remember that you don't need to jump across gaps that are the size of a single block. And let any enemy that walks fall down into the water if possible.
Two pizzas, a half and a whole, can restore lost health. In fact, the full pizza on the ladder to manhole K should be collected by all four turtles once you reach the other side so that everyone is prepare before you enter building L.
Building L[edit]
You've made it to the final stretch of Area 3. Building L isn't quite as large as some other buildings, nor is it as infested in enemies. But it is still challenging, and you should be on guard. You'll need to navigate the maze of ladders as it takes you back and forth between the first two floors, until you can reach the roof. On the roof, you'll find two small gaps, but there's actually little danger of actually falling through them. Carefully remove the enemies on the rooftop as you make your way to the right until you see Splinter tied up and suspended from a pole.
At this time, Mecha Turtle will attack you. Fighting him at first is not much different than fighting Leonardo. If you have any turtle with a supply of Kiai scrolls, now is a good time to bring him out and activate the scrolls. One hit from their waves can remove a good amount of health from Mecha Turtle. If you don't have any scrolls, try to rely on Donatello's bo attack if he has a good amount of health.
Upon reducing Mecha Turtle's health to zero, he will actually transform, going from a silver color to a gold color, and gain the power of flight. Using a jet pack to move through the air, he will fire missiles at you. Continue to rely on Kiai scrolls or Donatello's bo to damage Mecha Turtle while he floats around above the roof. Eliminating his health a second time will cause Mecha Turtle to be truly destroyed. Splinter will descend, but when you rescue him, a helicopter will fly away, presumably with Shredder aboard. Splinter advises that you get the Turtle Blimp in order to chase after him. Unfortunately, it seems like the Turtle Blimp has been confiscated and is hidden away in a base.