TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS Introduction Disclaimer Controls MainMenu/GameMenu Turtles Combat Items/Weapons Guided Walkthrough Rant ========================================================= == Introduction ========================================================= == Hi there and welcome to my guide for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) Out of the Shadows (OOTS), this will be my best effort to explain this game with the limited content that exists out there. Hopefully I can fill in some gaps to this difficult but fun game. One thing to point out, this game uses a lot of references to the 3Gen cartoon (Nickelodeon’s computer graphic one), only modifying the look to a 'realistic' take. My hope is that I can provide some level of documentation to this game, as guides and walkthrough don't seem to exist. A simple thing as finding all of the Comic Books (concept art) is proving difficult since there has been no guided account of all of them. I may not have all of the answers, but hopefully I offered about 90% of them here. I'll be upfront, first FAQ written and I'll probably be giving my two cents a lot in it as opposed to a neutral step by step of how to play. Take it for what it is, and I wish there was a discussion/feedback part. I really like this game, and really saw potential as a BETA version of a possible full on sandbox game. I believe if you're going to criticize, offer an alternate solution. So if the idea for a full fledge game could ever be a reality, I'd really want to be by this design. ========================================================= == Disclaimer ========================================================= == This guide is written by YATSU2ME. This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any website or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. ========================================================= == Controls ========================================================= == (XBOX 360 edition) LStick - Move RStick - Camera/Special Moves A - interact/hurdle/climb/jump/crawl/drop down/squeeze gaps/somersault/wall kick-off flip/backroll (evade) over fellow turtles and enemies (this is a very diverse button when it comes to movements) B – counter (also a block, and there is a meter limit to this)(you can deflect lasers) X - attack Y - kick (block breaker) L3 - Stealth/Upright R3 - LB - use item RB - sprint LT - cycle through items RT - hold to engaging TPKO or Special Move (usually requires joint button push or control stick move) Start - pause and menu options Select - CPad - character selection, each character is one of the four directions. If you hit the direction of your character while your standing, you'll taunt. If you hit the direction of your character while your in stealth mode, you switch between the orders of wait and follow. One of the great things about this game is the sheer quantity of moves that can be preformed. It's also a downside in some parts, when you realize they tried to cram so many moves into a control that has only so many buttons, joysticks, and players with ONLY two thumbs. That and precise control manipulation is required to pull off specific techniques. That can be hard to do when the Foot Clan is chasing you down, and your lost in a sea of clashing bodies, as your trying to pull of these precise controls. As a player you will probably accept doing certain kinds of moves and leave the rest for chance. I myself am not totally clear how I jump over an enemy and heel him in the back of the head as I'm going over. I just accept when it happening and keep swinging when I hit the ground. Combination button pushing and stick movements are the name of the game and many things can happen depending on what your character is doing in the moment. Than through out the environment, added effects and moves exist that aren't always welcomed. On top of the technical glitches do happen. Things get chaotic pretty quickly. I'd like to know how many times someone has accidentally gotten caught in a loop of wall backflip kick-offs that seems to go on forever on their own. I've noticed even in the Dojo training, the most stress- free environment to try out moves, the different combos with very similar button pushes have weird timing to their presses. Some require a rapid-fire press to pull off, while others, want to pace it and get the enemy in position. The instructions barely explain out what needs to happen. Some combos are almost identical accept for maybe pausing between the last button push, or the last button is a tap versus a hold. These are hard things to figure out in just the Dojo, but when gangs of ninja are on top of you, you'll just be glad your smacking them back, instead of getting those precise movements done. Even something as simple as a juggle tag team move in- game gets weird as I knock the enemy into the air, the instruction indicates selecting a partner to finish the job from the control pad, and instead of seeing another Turtle do an aerial finisher, the game simply swaps me over to the other Turtle to play, and the move doesn't get done. Precise movements required, but all being done in an environment that is too chaotic to be achievable. ========================================================= == MainMenu/GameMenu ========================================================= == MainMenu (rooftop in awesome poses) Continue to HQ - continue to play your previous game, starting at lair New Game - Select a slot for a new game (or write over an old one), and start with April Load Game - select a different save game than your previous play Help&Options – Game controls and other configurations Leaderboard - compare scores with the world Achievements - about 30 goals you can complete in game from moves preformed to enemies knocked out to areas beat Quit Game GameMenu (sewer lair) This is where you go between campaign missions. If you have a list of options to help you develop yourself and your characters to help in the campaign. *If you started a new game, you will be brought to this screen after you've done the initial April O'Neil mission that acts as an intro to controls. NYCMap- Campaign game- the story with the four CHAPTERS you have to fight through and beat the snot out of Shredder. *Survival- Playable after you defeat Chapter 4. The Turtles work as a team to beat waves of enemies before moving ahead, no pizza to restore so what you got is it, beyond a tiny replenishment for each level beat. Gain some XP from your overall score, about 1% with options to increase this. Challenge Mode- Swarms of enemies attack your character in attempts at making high scores, with the chance at gaining a LITTLE extra XP. Online Game Sessions- join a four man team Workshop- see Items/Weapons Stats- see Turtles Dojo- see Combat Fridge- through out the game, comic books will be hidden everywhere which unlocks game art on the fridge. There’s 25 comic book covers to gather, and their display on the fridge is based on total number gathered, as opposed to which ones. The ones you do find, if you play any chapters again, will not respawn like all of the other items in the game. Arcade- a unique gameplay that uses stage layouts like the original arcades in linear fashion side scrolling fashions, but the characters use OOTS combat and gameplay, and can fight 360. The concept is simple, fight waves of enemies and progress right until the end. Levels are unlocked as you play through the main Campaign. No XP is gained from this. Help&Options- just like the MainMenu Exit to MainMenu- see above **additional features Ninja Mode - enemies don’t show colorcoded forewarning indicators to their attacks Classic Mode - Black & White coloring through the whole game, suppose to look like the classic comics, but the game is too grey to sell it ========================================================= == Turtles ========================================================= == The Stats screen will be very important here. As you fight through the Campaign and Challenges, you gain experience points (XP) that bump up your character levels, which provides ability points to improve stats. Ability points can be used in the TECHNIQUES CATEGORIES, found in the Stats menu, for each character to unlock moves, techniques, combo shorteners, and boosters that can additionally improve stats of characters. While experience is applied to all characters and levels them up equally, ability points have to be distributed. One difficult is that some TECHNIQUE CATEGORIES make you choose between two different moves when you cash in your abilities points. If you select one move, you forever lose the other. Read the descriptions to know what you’re selecting. As a single player with a team, you could theoretically build up one character to max early on, and make the others suffer in the later levels when they need more strength. However, it's worth it for all characters to build up as you notice great combat skills from the non- players with more team move events that devastate enemies. It'll also help if you like to jump around between the four Turtles. In some of the abilities categories for turtles, there are a few instances where you have to choose between on of two upgrades. Selecting one makes you lose the other. It is very important to read the descriptions before making a choice so you know what you’re picking. Ability points are awarded for gaining enough XP from combat. One thing to note, if you know you gained enough XP to progress to the next level, the ability points are not awarded until you’ve reached a checkpoint. You’ll see a green flash when it happens, and the note on the right side. You can pause the game and distribute the ability points right away, making characters better mid-chapters. Some categories require more than one point to max out. You’ll notice in the descriptions of the category, the various levels per number of points used and the gradual improvement gains. FOR BELOW, UNLESS NOTED, CATEGORIES REQUIRE ONE ABILITY POINT TO UPGRADE. Leonardo (blue)- leads His style shows cases a formal and discipled art, who flows from one combo attack to another. His swordplay shows broad slashes with his twin katanas and his kicking is direct and forceful, knocking back enemies with gut shots. Easy to use and understand for earlier learners. Initial Stats: Health- Avg Damage- Lowest Toughness- Low Speed- Avg TECHNIQUES CATEGORIES (this is the same for all turtles) =Attacks & Finishers Weapon Mastery Kick Mastery Weapon Mastery 2 (2pts) Kick Mastery 2 (2pts) Stun Finisher Shell Shock Throw Finisher =Defense Leaping Counter Smoke Evade Special Counter Block Master Iron Shell (either 3pts) Counter Mastery Counter Attack Mastery (either 2pts) =Specials 180A 180B* (bottom to top clockwise) 360A 360B* (full circle clockwise) Special Attack Mastery (2pts) 180 Expert (bottom to top counter-clockwise) 360 Expert (full circle counter-clockwise) *I don’t know how, but while you can only pick one of the two moves when cashing in ability points, somehow you are awarded the unlocking of the other move. I’ve only noticed this after maxing out the game and noticing some of my characters have both moves unlocked. It’s not consistent because some of my other characters still have the other locked, so I don’t know what is happening. I welcome feedback here. =Combat Advanced Training (3pts) Katana Master (3pts) Extended Combo (2pts) Shoulder Run TPKO Threshold (2pts) (WORTH IT!!!) =Leadership The Leader (3pts) Special Taunts (2pts) Stand Together Silent Warrior (either 2pts) =Team (1 opened at start) Team Attack Team Counter Team Fortitude Challenge Training (either 2pts) Team TPKO Donatello (purple)- does machines A calculating and off balancing fighter with ranged attacks. Not the strongest of the group but makes up with knocking appoints away with his staff, giving additional time to come up with the next attack. His kicks are more lower sweeps to trip up opponents, delaying their response to retaliate. Initial Stats: Health- Avg Damage- Low Toughness- Low Speed- Lowest TECHNIQUES CATEGORIES =Attacks & Finishers Weapon Mastery Kick Mastery Weapon Mastery 2 (2pts) Kick Mastery 2 (2pts) Stun Finisher Shell Shock Throw Finisher =Defense Stance Counter (2pts) Smoke Evade Special Counter Block Master Iron Shell (either 3pts) Counter Mastery Counter Attack Mastery (either 2pts) =Specials 180A 180B* (bottom to top clockwise) 360A 360B* (full circle clockwise) Special Attack Mastery (2pts) 180 Expert (bottom to top counter-clockwise) 360 Expert (full circle counter-clockwise) *I don’t know how, but while you can only pick one of the two moves when cashing in ability points, somehow you are awarded the unlocking of the other move. I’ve only noticed this after maxing out the game and noticing some of my characters have both moves unlocked. It’s not consistent because some of my other characters still have the other locked, so I don’t know what is happening. I welcome feedback here. =Combat Advanced Training (3pts) Countering On It Line Em Up (either 2pts) Extended Combo (2pts) Strike a Pose TPKO Threshold (2pts) (WORTH IT!!!) 63|\|1U$ (GENIUS) The Genius (3pts) (points towards weapon upgrades) Special Taunts (2pts) Hackster (2pts) (improves hacking abilities) Maximum Range Cyber Ninja (either 2pts) =Team (1 opened at start) Team Attack Team Counter Long Distance Plan Special Training (either 2pt) Team TPKO Raphael (red)- cool but rude A powerhouse fighter that pommels opponents with devastating strikes and slams. His sais aren't additional weapons for him to use, but extensions of himself as he intertwines them with his fists. His kicks use roundhouses to the face and knees, with his own rising knee strikes mixed in. Initial Stats: Health- Low Damage- Avg Toughness- High Speed- Lowest TECHNIQUES CATEGORIES =Attacks & Finishers Weapon Mastery Kick Mastery Weapon Mastery 2 (2pts) Kick Mastery 2 (2pts) Stun Finisher Shell Shock Throw Finisher =Defense Punishing Counter (2pts) Smoke Evade Special Counter Block Master Iron Shell (either 3pts) Counter Mastery(3pts) Counter Attack Mastery(2pts) =Specials 180A 180B* (bottom to top clockwise) 360A 360B* (full circle clockwise) Special Attack Mastery (2pts) 180 Expert (bottom to top counter-clockwise) 360 Expert (full circle counter-clockwise) *I don’t know how, but while you can only pick one of the two moves when cashing in ability points, somehow you are awarded the unlocking of the other move. I’ve only noticed this after maxing out the game and noticing some of my characters have both moves unlocked. It’s not consistent because some of my other characters still have the other locked, so I don’t know what is happening. I welcome feedback here. =Combat Advanced Training (3pts) Stunner Specialists (either 2pts) Extended Combo (2pts) Reciprocity (2pts) TPKO Threshold (2pts) (WORTH IT!!!) =Hot Head Hot Head (3pts) Special Taunts (2pts) Groundwork To the Finish (either 2pts) =Team (1 opened at start) Team Attack Team Counter Team Destruction Team Resilience (either 2pt) Team TPKO Michelangelo (orange)- party dude Aerial and fast fighter. With his whirling nunchaku covering all angles of attack around him, this gives him freedom to strike as many enemies as possible as they hesitate in approaching. He may not be strong, requiring more hits to complete combos, but his speed will get him there in the same amount of time as his brothers. Initial Stats: Health- Avg Damage- Lowest Toughness- Lowest Speed- High TECHNIQUES CATEGORIES =Attacks & Finishers Weapon Mastery Kick Mastery Weapon Mastery 2 (2pts) Kick Mastery 2 (2pts) Stun Finisher Shell Shock Throw Finisher =Defense (1 opened at start) Bust a Counter Smoke Evade Special Counter Block Master Iron Shell (either 3pts) Counter Mastery Counter Attack Mastery (either =Specials 180A 180B* (bottom to top clockwise) 360A 360B* (full circle clockwise) Special Attack Mastery (2pts) 180 Expert (bottom to top counter-clockwise) 360 Expert (full circle counter-clockwise) *I don’t know how, but while you can only pick one of the two moves when cashing in ability points, somehow you are awarded the unlocking of the other move. I’ve only noticed this after maxing out the game and noticing some of my characters have both moves unlocked. It’s not consistent because some of my other characters still have the other locked, so I don’t know what is happening. I welcome feedback here. =Combat Advanced Training (3pts) Kickin It rapid Fire (either 2pts) Extended Combo (2pts) TPKO Threshold (2pts) (WORTH IT!!!) =Party Dude The Lil Brother (3pts) Special Taunts (2pts) Isn’t that Special Butter (either 2pts) =Team Team Tactics Team Counter Hyper Speed Endurance Training (either 2pt) Team TPKO Some nice touches to the games: - When the Turtles' weapons are holstered, you can see their pupils. When they the Turtles go into combat, their eyes go white. - When non-player Turtles get too far away from the player, you'll see purple smoke bombs go off and the lost Turtle will reappear next to you. - The dialogue isn't half bad, with random conversations that have interesting views from the Turtles. - The other Turtles actually offer some level of support in the fight. Upgrading them, even when you're not playing them, and they'll use TPKOs to take down bad guys. - Whether by accident or research from the developers, a lot of moves have a history with the Turtles that is impressive. Leo has a lot of vertical and horizontal spin attacks that resemble some of his Tournament Fighter moves Don is always using his pole vault attack in various games, and that’s the same here as he sprint attacks, along with his pole throw from NES TMNT3 Raph uses his Endless Screw from Tournament Fighters as his most powerful 360 attack Mike has his Kangaroo kick from NES TMNT3, and a form of Dragon Breath from Tournament Fighter **There isn’t any major cheats, but there is a cool code that offers the option to make all the turtles wear red headbands, like the original series. While in gameplay, (Xbox code, PS3 different code) hold down the RT and type YABBA YABBA on the buttons. If done correctly, a save icon will appear and when you select turtles to start missions or challenges at the HQ, an additional option will be at the bottom to change their colors. ========================================================= == Combat ========================================================= == I'm just going to flat out ask: do you know how to use the combat system of the Batman Arkham games? If yes, you already know enough. Simple explanation, they mimicked that system of combat with the attacks/counter system. The big difference is that instead of the cape stun, it is now a kick that both stuns, breaks blocks, and strikes all in one. Like Arkham, as you strike, counter and evade, you'll build up a combo that allows for TPKO (Turtle Power Knock Outs) moments to happen. Additionally, more combat also builds up mutant power bars that can be used as a 1 bar (quarter circle stick move), 2 bar (half circle stick move), 3 bar (full circle of the stick) for Special Moves. My advise, use Special Moves every chance you can. They are great. Outside of the mutant bars, there's no need for a build, so they can be your first attack on new enemies, they have good XP gains, and their generally pretty devastating, plus the bars fill up pretty quickly and you don't lose bar strength during the down times. Another advantage to the TPKO and Special Moves is that as the animation of the attack plays out, you’re invincible during that time, so other attackers won’t affect the situation. Their only downfall is that controls aren't perfect for the quarter and half circle moves. Team attacks also use one energy bar. Shell Shock attacks seem to require energy bars too. Know the color scheme of enemy attacks and what they mean: white - attacks, block and counter at will yellow – combo, follow attacks to come green – special, ability unlock and special timing red - unblockable, dodge out of the way instead Combo system works by successfully striking, dodging, or evading attacks within less than a second of each movement, without also taking hits from an enemy. This can be carried out on multiple enemies so you can punch one guy, counter another's attack, evade over the second guy, and proceed to attack him, until he’s knocked down and continue sticking it to the first guy until he's out and turn around and finish the second guy as he stands back up to total knock out. That right there will probably give you a double digit in combo count and as long as you don't get hit or wait a second between your moves and attacks, it will be a successful combo. Originally TPKOs need about a 10 hit combo to start, but with TECHNIQUE CATEGORY upgrades, you can short this requirement. This is really worth doing as TPKOs have very valuable experience gains. Some would argue this 'FreeFlow' system isn't as effective as Batman's, and they wouldn't be wrong. Batman can jump clear across a combat scene to deliver the next blow, effectively keeping the combo count growing without interruption. These Turtles do it, but in more awkward manners. They're fighting isn't as smooth, and they don't always lock onto the next villain to keep the fight going. Also it doesn't help that while Batman's game was designed so that thugs move in two or three at a time, keeping the rest more in the background until it's their turn, helping to pace a player's attacks and strategies, all of the Turtle villains swarm to a center point and bringing all the non-player Turtles together. You end up with a mash-pit of bodies and visual effects that’s sometimes hard to decipher. Villains will shows signs of attacking, but won't indicate which of the four is the target, making it confusing to know which move to do. The camera also doesn't help either in certain chaotic moments as it swings around and uses low angles. Every Turtle has their own list of moves, but a large majority of these moves use the same button mashing techniques to execute. There are a few differences, but not hard enough to figure out with enough game play. If you keep the hint option on, which will display when to use certain attacks, understand it isn't the only move that can be preformed; when the combo reaches its requirement, you can TPKO attack or throw, and at limited times, Shell Shock (slam a downed bad guy on the ground to full knockout). The one frustration to this game is to MAX out all of your abilities and special weapons, your going to have to play the same levels a lot to gain enough. At a certain point, you need 5000XP to advance to the next level and be awarded a few additional abilities points. That pretty rough when you consider knocking down a bad guy gets you 10XP. Really try to focus on using the TPKOs, 360 attacks, and stealth knockdowns as their values range between 50XP to 125XP. Don’t forget to be greedy too, if your support is computer controlled characters. Even though they’ll attack bad guys and even do stealth attacks, nothing they do adds to the XP, so rushing around jumping in their fights can help add to your score. Also between checkpoints, you’ll notice little objective goals of so many needed Special Moves, so many TPKOs, and variety of other fighting techniques that have a tally score. Meeting the requirement can get you 500XP, so try for them a lot. ========================================================= == Items/Weapons ========================================================= == *Note- non-player characters tend not to use items at all. Pizzas will get used only when they're revived by another character. Pizza - health restoration (each can carry a max of 5) Energy Drinks - Maxes your mutant bars for a few seconds, and gives you a boost in attacks with some invincibility (max of 3) Shuriken - throwing star (max 20) Electric Shuriken - throwing star with a little extra, works well on humans, but really hurts the mechanical enemies EMP Grenades - stuns mechanical enemies Grenades - all out destruction Special Weapons - Each weapon is built in Donnie's Workshop, and each has three levels to them. You can cash in a level point for one weapon upgrade after you beat an entire Chapter. That's right; four weapons, three levels a piece, twelve Chapters to beat to max out. Since the game only has four Chapters, you have to beat the game three times to max them out (one exception is that Donatello, as a part of his TECHNIQUES CATEGORIES, can take three ability points and make them weapons upgrade points, which I think was intended to max out his own weapon without having to work too hard at it). Or beat the first Chapter a few more time, since it is the shortest and an easy walk through. Unfortunately the special weapons get a bad rep, most people complain they don't seem them being used when selected. The difficulty is understanding that you have to cycle through your items to find them (LT), activate them like you would an other item (LB), but then they still don't do anything. Instead when you use a power bar for a Special Attack, the Weapons Attacks will come out instead. If your weapon is at level 1, you can use only the quarter circle (1 bar) move, same with level 2 and half circle. Max out the weapon, and you can quarter, half or whole (same equivalent to circle movements). The correlation is there: Special Weapons and Special Moves all use the energy bars. Team attacks also use one energy bar. Shell Shock attacks seem to require energy bars too. Leo - Blade Staff - he joins his katanas at the hilts and throws them like a boomerang Don - Gravity Gauntlet - a throw back to a fantasy comic adventure of Donnie's, he can manipulate gravity and slam his enemies from a distance and the surrounding area. Raph - Iron Fists - he puts on iron gloves and uses them with his basic melee combat, seems to help with combos. However, he has powerful punch drills that he can use with the gloves that work pretty good. Mike - Kusarigama - like the 3Gen cartoon, his nunchaku chain extends with a blade on handle, and he whips it around, knocking down surrounding enemies. ========================================================= == Guided Walkthrough ========================================================= == This game is a series of movements through areas with pauses to encounter gangs of enemies. Once all the enemies are defeated in an area, you start moving again through the terrain to the next engagement. One trick I've learned, to revive a downed Turtle, you need to give up one of your pizzas or the down character needs to have one in his inventory to use. If your fighting a batch of enemies and you have a downed characters, determine if this batch of enemies is almost defeated. If any characters are down when you clear all enemies from an area, all characters will recovery automatically to move onto the next part with you, and it won't cost pizza to do it. Their energy will be low, but sometimes it's worth holding out for a little bit longer. Also there's no time limit, and the levels are pretty linear. There's a couple random corners and dead-ends that hold a couple of items, but nothing is so severely hidden that it can't be seen to be found. Take your time and enjoy bashing enemies. The levels do form barriers that prevent you from going back at certain points. Doors slam closed, or ledges become unreachable. When you progress forward, know you don’t need anything else. INTRO As you start a new game, it immediately begins with chaotic sounds and Donnie's cry out to April. The screen comes to view as April recovers from a fall and finds herself in a dark and creepy warehouse. This is an introduction to the basic movements as Splinter's Wisdom tells you the basic controls and buttons to maneuver through the building and get through the obstacles. You'll learn to walk, jump up, jump down, squeeze through, hurdle over, roll under, and push a control panel. All the while, massive lasers will burn through the building, a truck while fly over, and the floor will collapse to electrified water. Once your outside, you run through a yard of transport containers as a shadowy figure chases and abducts you. Then the story will jump back to earlier that day… Brief cutscene to the GameMenu, select NYC MAP, to start Campaign. You'll always be forced to start with Leo on the first try. CHAPTER 1 **Concept Art Locations: (7, should reveal training dummy) -alley past pizza parlor where you do your first stealth attack -alley ramp close to where the massive pipe wrench thug appears -after running up the four flights of stairs, and jumping to the first rooftop, on the left -TCRI parking lot behind trucks -first subway station, on the stair case and purple dragoon hangout -top of a parked subway car at the second subway station and purple dragoon hangout -third subway station where the foot appears, on the stair case Dynamic intro as the Turtles enter on rooftop and take position over a Purple Dragon gang receiving a truck of gear. Yellow highlights are indicators of where to use the (A) button to leap over or leap across. Leo is the first to jump down and engage the Purple Dragon as a couple waves of them attack behind the tattoo parlor and the fenced in alley way. Once done, you dodge the cops by going through a pizza parlor. *(1) Pizza Start sneaking as Raph, taking out as many Purple Dragoons as possible with stealth takedowns before starting a couple back alley brawls. The alleyway after knocking out the solo bad guy provides a means to wall jump to the roof and find an extra pizza there. *(2) Pizza *(1) Energy Drink Jump the parked bus, next back alley brawl, with a massive monkey wrench wielding enemy that can't be blocked. There's another alley that provides a wall jumping area to the roof to get an energy drink. *(2) Pizza *(2) Energy Drink Sneaking up April's building. *(1) Pizza *(1) Energy Drink Jump across rooftops, follow the yellow highlights. Helipad brawl, more bad guys open the door to the next destination, some wielding knives. Enter the building when all of baddies are down and progress through the building to overlook TCRI as Purple Dragoon begin to rob the place. However it seems the Krang aliens are not oblivious to their presence either. *(1) Pizza Start from the rooftop, stealth your way down, stealth taking down the Purple Dragons on overwatch, and as many on the ground as you can before they see and charge you. There's a another wall jump that can take you onto the roof top of the parking garage next to TCRI, but there's nothing there. It can provide another point of entry to attack. The Krang bots will join the fight by shooting widely with their laser rifles, but beat them up like everyone else. Important note: Krang are fighting the Purple Dragon as much as you're fighting both of them too. A hasty retreat here will allow the two sides to thin out before, taking out the semi-victor. You can block laser bolts with counter, or just dodge them. As cops show up, one of the thieves will try to drive away, and you throw a shuriken into the tire of his truck, causing him to crash and run off on foot. Subways fights with Purple Dragon gangs as you progress deeper into the subway tunnels. *(2) Pizza Your first introduction into hacking panels. A simple game of drawing a line between to identical points without lines crossing each other. Holding the joystick in a direction and tapping (A) confirms your movement to that next block, with options to delete previous lines and quit all together. If lines you trace pass through timer icon blocks, you get more time. In almost all cases, you need to solve these, and it doesn't hurt to quit, since I've seen easier puzzles come up after failing the first try. Important clue: the direct route for some can block others from making the connection. Know when the long path is needed. This first one should be incredible easy to selves as it only uses two sets of icons to introduce. Important clue to the whole thing: sometimes a straight line isn’t the correct answer. Some icons need to loop around so other icons can reach their match. You'll open up more tunnels, more Purple Dragons hanging around trains until you reach a subway platform where Foot Ninjas will attack you. Learn from them as you'll need the experience shortly. Still the same counter and attack method, but you'll need more counters, since these guys are more aggressive. Once you beat all of them, a train will pull up for you to jump on top of. *(5) Pizza *(1) Shuriken BOSS - Riding on top of the train, Karai will come and challenge you by calling on a swarm of Foot Ninjas as she jumps in and out of the fray. Let the non-player characters take on the troops as the player focuses on Karai. She's good at blocking the basic attacks, but kicks have been successful as you build up combos to unleash TPKO and Specials on her when she's momentary stunned and open. Part way through, another train rolls up along side, and you can hop back and forth between the two, but still focus attacks on Karia, until she bombs the place. CHAPTER 2 - It's not a bad idea to save gear until the end, especially various Shurikens and Grenades. **Concept Art Locations: (8 plus previous 7, should reveal Cerberus Mouser) -at the start of the level, down the stairs -below spiral staircase, you rail surf down -the sewer tunnel will have two holes to drop down. Drop down either hole and turn around, run back to the ventilation fan -Kamikaze Mouser sewer tunnel, a side tunnel that explodes open -supply closet before the relay point, difficult hack -mouser relay point, side tunnel -Foot and Mancers Lab, upper side tunnel -Mouser warehouse, Baxter opens door to Mancers where it is Start out in a rainy alley, pummeling a couple Purple Dragons before going underground. *(1) Pizza A quick corkscrew slide rail down and you run into a Purple Dragon hideout that is crashed by the tiny Mousers. These mini-mechs are more annoying than dangerous, so keep stomping and crushing them away. *(2) Pizza Once you open a gate from a panel switch, you walk down a tunnel where you can jump a gap or fall down into it. Falling down has a Comic book right behind you and leads to the same area as if you had fallen down the second gap. Even better if you fall down, and jump up, your character will run up the walls to return above. If you jump over first, you'll find an item. From here, you go through massive tunnels, with lots of side rooms and tunnels contain items as you continuously get swarmed with Purple Dragon and Mousers. You'll enter a huge chamber with a swarm of Mousers below that you can't get too. A wall will collapse forcing you to go another way. *(1) Pizza *(2) E.Shuriken Hack the Gate and down the tunnels to battle more Mousers, and the new Kamikaze Mousers(black with red highlights) have the unblockable move of exploding in close proximity. *(1) E.Shuriken Turn down a small walkway and you'll find a storage room with a locked secret room that requires a very difficult hack. It's worth it as lots of items are inside. Continue forward and battle a round of Foot Ninjas and various Mousers. The worst is to come as the Mancers will make a grand entrance. Baxter has been studying the Krang bodies for these things, and they are tough. Besides blocking most of the basic attack majority of the time, they have an unblockable move when they spin their upper torso and charge. *(1) Pizza *(2) Shuriken *(1) Energy Drink The Mouser Relay is a wide-open area with a couple different items hidden through out. Before you shell slide down below, explore all you can in the overhead catwalks above since you can't come back once you slide down. Getting that pizza behind the chainlink fence for me requires running up where the tarp is hanging. There's an additional catwalk you have to jump across for the item, a few tunnels to explorer, and an elevator you have to hack. While you're hacking Baxter’s antenna, you'll be introduced to yet another enemy; the white clad Ninjas. They're more ruthless than the black ones so be careful. Know you will not progress forward in the game until you get into the locked control room and pull the level that opens a massive waterway, so explore all that you can. You won’t get access to this room until you've hacked the Mouser control system and Mousers start returning to your location along with Mancers, who will smash through brick walls, giving you a backdoor access to additional areas and the control room. *(5) Pizza *(1) Shuriken *(3) E.Shuriken *(1) Grenade *(1) EMP Mouser Tsunami. Probably the most hated part of the game. You don't fight anybody; you run in a parkour fashion down a sewer as a wave of Mousers follow you. One slip up and they take you, forcing you to start over. This is where the less than stellar controllers and camera hurt people the most. As a single player, go with Mikey; his speed and aerial movements can help keep pace. Just hold sprint down the tunnel and hit (A) at every obstacle to jump-over or slide under until the door slams behind you. Another massive LAB. You can probably sneak up on the four Foot Ninjas and take them out, but you'll have to battle the Mancers at the bottom. Again, another room with lots of side tunnels and hidden items. From the bottom, there's a ladder you climb up to get to the other side. I'm told there's a glitch where that ladder sometimes won't be there, in which you have to reset back to the last checkpoint. *(1) Pizza *(1) Shuriken *(1) E.Shuriken You'll finally come back above ground into a rainy shipping yard. You'll meet April and try to sneak through stacks of shipping containers with Foot Ninja on patrol. You can try to stealth takedown all of them, but usually one gets alerted and they all gang up. There are a lot of hidden corners and items scattered around this area for good reason, something big is coming up. Depending on when you finish off the last Foot Ninja is when the next scene will play. You can run all the way up to the warehouse with the Foot still on you, and you're expected to go back and beat them all. Once you beat all the Foot Ninja and your standing next to the warehouse, the scene will play. *(4) Pizza *(2) Shuriken *(2) E.Shuriken *(1) Grenade *(1) EMP Baxter and Karai will be shown watching you on circuit camera. The next fight scene will be played out like it's on monitor as the Turtles get cut off and swarmed with Mancers and little Mousers. This is a pretty tough fight. Fortunately, Mancers cluster together at the beginning, so one EMP grenade can stun all of them for quick KO's and the little Mousers aren't a problem. BOSS - Hack into the outer door panel, collect the hidden items, then hack into the inner door panel. Your in the warehouse, where April gets cut off from the Turtles and the Turtles fall onto the assemble floor of a Mouser factory. You'll be attacked by all form of Mousers, and Foot Ninja before Baxter takes matters into his own hand. From the floor will rise a huge Cerberus Mouser (three heads), with four bluish weak points surrounding the body; one on each leg making two, one below the center head, and one on the tail end. Hit them enough times and they turn red. Once all four turn red, the Cerberus Mouser drops to the floor and one of the heads is vulnerable to be destroyed. If you don't hit that particular head enough, the Cerberus Mouser gets back up and you have to do it again. All the while, various Mousers are running around the floor attacking you. Cerberus Mouser has massive lasers shooting from the mouthes, and shakes its body violently to create shockwaves to knock you back. *(4) Pizza *(2) Energy Can *(1) E.Shuriken *(1) Shuriken When you kill the first head inside the warehouse, Cerberus Mouser picks up a truck and throws it, before smashing outside where the fight will continue. All kinds of Mousers will be chasing you around, but they do end eventually if you want to keep your focus on them first. When battling the Cerberus, this is where I found the grenades and shrunken to be most useful. The lasers aren't a problem but the violent shaking is. Use the projectiles as much as you can on the four weak points, before bashing whichever head drops. If you have to use your weapons, the legs and back aren't that bad, but the front is hard. Don't forget about using Special Attacks, and if you have Energy Cans, use them to beat this down. You'll notice the lasers and flying truck are the same as April's intro when she's navigating another warehouse before her abduction leading into the start of the story. *Maybe it's me, but I feel some in-game dialogue during the fight is trying to direct you towards the means to defeat Cerberus without getting slammed as much. As some point a Turtles says, "maybe we can use his toys against him". I feel this mean you should throw the small Mousers at Cerberus, which excited me since it is a throw back to Turtles in Time and throwing Foot at Shredder's giant robot. And the kamikaze Mousers do explode like grenades on impact when you throw them. However there's a few flaws in the plan and I've never seen the non- player characters do anything but charge in and get crushed. 1) Throwing is a TPKO which means you need a combo first. Little Mousers don't offer much to combo building and Mancers are so tough, you'd want to use TPKO on them 2) When do you get to throw, I've never been able to decide which enemy to throw, the game always picks the one closest from the swarm around me, so I could never choose the Kamikaze Mouser 3) I tend not to control which way I throw, so I wouldn't be hitting Cerberus anyways. CHAPTER 3 **Concept Art Locations: (2 plus the 15 from previous, should reveal Shredder’s lair) -the last rooftop before you jump onto the construction site, go right to a lower rooftop -after fighting Shredder, go down a level. One door will have April, the other will be a dojo with the comic book So the attack on Shredder's HQ is simple: go from ground level up the parking garage, across some buildings and swing in from the crane into the sunroof. Simple, right? The ground up the parking garage is pretty straight forward. Three levels with Purple Dragon everywhere, and Foot Ninja at the top. Once you beat all of them you jump over to the first building where you attempt to take out as many Foot Ninja as possible with stealth takedown. Nothing exciting here. *(3) Pizza *(1) Energy Can *(1) E.Shuriken *(1) Shuriken Eventually, you'll enter a rooftop warehouse where the door will slam behind you and cut you off from going back. You'll come out the other side and continue on the rooftop adventure taking out more Foot Ninja. Eventually you'll be attacked by the Foot Elite. These guys dodge just about everything. Only the most wide range attacks work enough to hit and stun them, allowing you to wail on them to defeat. They like to be flashy, so don't let up. *(1) Pizza *(1) Energy Can Enter the construction site and Karai will attack with a swarm of White and Foot Ninjas. When you've beaten her on each level, she'll jumps up to the next level to rain grenades down on you. Chase her up to where she is and beat her and her army some more, getting all the way to the third level where the final show down happens. The second to last level, the stairs are blocked. Used the scaffolding in the center to progress up. It should have the signature yellow highlight to show you can press (A) on it. *(5) Pizza *(1) E.Shuriken *(1) Shuriken BOSS - A swing on a crane and you’re through Shredder's roof and in his lair, where he is comfortably sitting on a throne. He will proceed to throw waves of White, Elite and Foot Ninjas at you before getting involved himself. The elevators will open with more troops, and items will be stashed inside. Don't be too discouraged as Shredder is only half interested in this fight. Much like the Elite and Karai, you need to use the TPKO and Specials on him, as he dodges just about everything. *(1) Pizza *(1) Energy Can Once Shredder dips out, you can take the elevator to the lower level where you'll find two locked rooms; a dojo with Elite training and April in a cell. Rescue her and you're done. CHAPTER 4 **Concept Art Locations: (8 plus the previous 17, Shredder will be the last art) -after going through the tunnel, the first door on the right -second hacked door on the first level -after going down one level, second hacked door -leading to the room Donnie will locate Shredder, under the ramp -At the Portal ground level, behind crates on the opposite that you entered -At the Portal ground level, in a side room -After the Portal room, take the elevator down and there will be two doors, behind the hacked door -In Shredder’s Arena Start out in the Mouser dug tunnel that leads to a standalone room before entering the ground level of Krang's base *(2) Pizza *(1) Energy Can Follow into the TCRI ground level that has many hallways and side rooms that can be hacked for additional content. You can't progress until you've defeated all of the enemy that come charging out from behind locked (red pads) doors. *(2) Pizza *(2) Grenades Once you progress, you enter the Humanoid Simulator which really feels like an area battle before you can go upstairs and smash the energy source and jump through the window to use the elevator. Now your down in Basement level 1, which looks a lot like the ground level. Lots of items here so look everywhere. You even get to find a side room of hacked Mancers to smack around. Again you can't progress until all enemies are defeated in the hallways, so if the door won't open, run back until you find the lone gunman to knockout. *(1) Pizza *(1) Shuriken *(1) E.Shuriken *(1) Grenade *(1) EMP *(1) Energy Drinks Progress to Basement level 2, which looks like the others until you find the next area room to knock some Krang around in. This is where the story comes up finally as you get closer to Shredder, with the tell tale signs of Foot Ninja actually attacking for once. *(1) Pizza *(1) E.Shuriken *(2) Grenade Another level down. Of note, if you see black columns with neon pink stripped lighting layered in a vertical fashion, those are actually ladders that take you to additional rooms. As you progress you reach the biggest level challenge of the game. Oh man, the Dimensional Portal room. Three overhead power source levels and the ground floor, this one can take awhile. Each upper level requires you to hack a panel to expose four power sources that need to be smashed before progressing to the next lower level. You’ll progress down on a floating platform until you reach the final power source level. Instead of the platform, you’ll hop over a couple of smaller platforms to get to the side rooms where an elevator takes you to the ground floor where the Dimensional Rift is spewing out bad guys none stop, and has two more energy sources that need to be destroyed. Don't destroy the remaining two energy sources right away and you can spend an unlimited amount of time fighting off waves of Krang and getting a tremendous amount of XP. *(5) Pizza *(2) Shuriken *(1) E.Shuriken *(2) Grenade *(2) Energy Drinks Now you’re down to the lowest level after the next 
elevator.  Getting there and so close, you’ll need a good 
place to stock up on all of items before the final 
showdown.
	*(5) Pizza
 	*(1) E.Shuriken
 	*(4) Grenade
 	*(2) EMP
 	*(3) Energy Drinks

Boss - Super Shredder is the big finally in a three-part 
battle.  First is without the helmet, second he has the 
helmet but doesn't do much yet.  Third is when the Krang 
step in and he uses the powers of his new helmet to put 
the beat down on the Turtles.  Like Chapter 3, the 
difficulty of him is that almost all of his moves are red 
(unblockable), and he blocks just about everything.  Keep 
performing TPKO and Special Attacks on him, even if you 
have to attack him with useless basic attacks.  There are 
plenty of Krang and Foot to defeat to help build up your 
meters to unleash the strong attacks on him.  Definitely 
keep the other Turtles up and running as the extra 
manpower can distract him from you.
	*(4) Pizza
 	*(1) EMP
 	*(2) Energy Drinks



=========================================================
==Rant				
=========================================================
==

Why did I write this?  1) I didn't see one in GAMEFAQ 2) 
I like Ninja Turtles and this particular game.  OOTS is 
dark, gritty, characters are individualized, combat is 
brutal, and for brief moments, I felt like I was sneaking 
around the streets of NYC.  It's not great, but too me, 
it was a sign of the Turtles games going in a good 
direction, or so I thought.  Now I fear this is a one-
time thing, and since this game doesn't exist physically, 
it will fade into oblivion.  Now I know a few of you 
would jump and say there are problems in this game.  I'll 
be up front and say, yes it isn't perfect, but every 
Turtle game made has been built in a weird frustration of 
just being called "almost good but not quite". Instead we 
potentially dilute the pool of interest to players by 
pumping out subpars, where any future game of potential 
value, the counterargument is going to be, "well they 
tried that before and failed, so why should I expect 
anything different here?” That's darn frustrating because 
the content has such a rich source to pull from.

To start, the infamous NES game, fun but insanely hard 
with no saves or passwords.  Arcade game 1 and 2(Time).  
Both are pretty awesome with you and three friends.  Some 
would argue the first, with its limited moves makes the 
second game better, until the SNES topped even the arcade 
with additional content, but lost the four player mode.  
I think that SNES game would have peaked the series if 
they had gotten a four player option into the mix.  Of 
course the SNES had Tournament Fighter, also great but 
Karai is plain weird.  Think they should have made Aska 
into Karai and changed the freakish Karai character model 
into an android Krang instead.  Then the oversized and 
flying ‘thing’ would have made more sense as a robot. 
Genesis had this game to in a different design, but it 
wasn't much.  However, HyperStone Heist was good.

Skip ahead since generation 2 cartoon didn't offer 
anything too exciting, but SmashUp and Mutant Melee are 
something for the bro times, and Movie4 game offered the 
potential for big city movements, which could have been 
useful for the game of our dreams.

With the current Gens, outside of OOTS, we get TMNT 
(cartoon), Danger of the OOZE (DOTO), and Mutants in 
Manhattan (MIM).  The last two are the examples of where 
I thought, whatever good OOTS could offer, they 
contradicted my belief that developers would go that way.  
DOTO only worked for those who had the nostalgia for the 
classic NES game (see above).  Today, I didn't think it 
held up, and much older Metroidverse games are way better 
designed than this.  MIM, wasn't a bad thing.  Loved the 
art, loved the charters' personality, but a generic story 
and the Turtles felt like carbon copies of each other 
with too much hype that they would be unique and a larger 
than life game. Levels were generic and copies of each 
other, but the bosses were fun.  What's worse, the one 
thing TMNT has needed was the evolution to a sandbox 
world, and MIM teased the idea and fooled us badly.  

I think back to PS2 Spiderman2 and it's massive gameplay 
in a model of New York City with a story line and 
hundreds of mini quests on the side, and wonder how sixth 
generation got such a good working design, but were at 
the eighth generation still using generic formulas to 
pump out by-the-book games to cash in on movie releases.  
Any level with TRCI with MIM was a nightmare of 
"seriously that's the best level design you game up 
with?"  One level was a rehash of all previous bosses up 
to that point, and the other has the whole level being an 
elevator ride with wave upon wave of enemies falling in.  
I think they did that back at the SNES days.  The earlier 
levels had to be 'sneaking missions' where bad guys 
shouldn’t catch you.  So did developers add air ducts or 
catwalks to sneak around on?  No, instead I literally 
watch a bad guy maintain a walk into a wall so I could 
easily walk up behind him and stealth takedown.  How 
could current game developers, who probably play games 
themselves, pitch this kind of half-assed gameplay 
content as original, exciting, and maximizes the TMNT 
experience by rehashing these dated concepts on new-gen 
game systems?

Again would like to emphasize that I would love to see 
OOTS game expanded to a full fledge sandbox game, and the 
currently distributed OOTS as almost the BETA level test 
of things to come.  Some considerations to the any 
potential future:

	Movement controls - it's hard to tell when (A) is the 
answer and (sprint) is the answer to movements.  
Sometimes one does the wall kick backflip and sometimes 
the other button does it.  Sometimes (A) hurdles objects, 
and sometimes (sprint) does it.  Case in point, you can 
run at any wall and push (A) and one of four things will 
happen; a wall kickoff backflip, a wall climb, a back and 
forth wall climb (rare and environment specific), nothing 
and Turtle does a shoulder roll.  Need to really solidify 
what does what, and make it effective enough to tackle a 
sandbox city with skyscrapers.  Also there's a glitch 
that can practically get you stuck doing flips even if 
you were to put the control down.  Continuing on, 
standing still and pushing (A) gives you a straight up 
jump.  All other Turtle games, jumping is a very aerial 
thing that takes some time.  This game it's pretty 
instantaneous, which is frustrating when you have two 
different sets of moves that can be preformed, but most 
be timed to where you are within the jump.

	Combat - SO MANY MOVES!! Almost too many, and the 
controls don't feel precise enough to help players get 
the exact move they want in the heat of battle.  I mean I 
love the whole variety, but right away, the quarter, 
half, and full stick are not the most effective and 
sometimes it feels 50/50 on what you're going to get.  
Also some combo presses and tagteam moves requirement 
button pushes so speedy and precise, they can't be done 
when you’re swamped.  While I'm not an expert game 
player, the Dojo has refused to acknowledge I know how to 
do Leo's sprint attacks, even when I know I'm doing them.  
No one cares as much about pauses between presses, 
tapping versus holding, and all of that when they're 
trying to knock back armies of bad guys.  I think most 
settle for satisfying chosen few attacks, and ignore the 
rest.  Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see all these 
moves kept, just a means to more effectively deploy them.  
Lets also cut down the effects, these are super 
distracting, or at least let the signals only showcase 
for the moments that impact the controlled player view 
point.  I don't need to see the attack signals fly for a 
character in the background, or close to me for a 
different Turtle, adding to the confusion of who's doing 
what.

	Enemies - need to be better staged and coordinated to 
allow players the chance to focus on their combat skills.  
This may be almost there, as it seems fellow Turtles 
don't usually crowd the main player that much, allowing 
enemies to scatter in all directions.  However, a Turtle 
by himself, enemies don't seem to have problems gang 
rushing single characters, which leads to blind swinging 
to get them off.

	Environment - I'll say it again: sandbox NYC.  Means 
to move all over buildings gracefully (wall crawl, edge 
crawls, zip lines, base jumping), great sewer systems to 
sneak through, subway rides, more rails and shell slides 
that the games OOTS gives a small taste of but didn’t 
expand on much.  For the small city MIM offered, it did 
offer the means to travel around it pretty effectively.  
Have your main story with areas and bosses, but have 
plenty of side missions like bank robberies, car jacking, 
muggings, Krang warehouses and portals, weapon caches, 
mutant sightings, along with the basic Purple Dragon 
hideout raids.

	Camera - would love to see a smarter camera, and one 
that doesn't get blocked by the environment objects.  
Really would love to see it pull back and up during 
combat so it can help assess the battlefield situation 
more, and have a slightly better delay system following 
characters; I felt like I was having to babysit where the 
camera was fazing most of the gameplay.  This would also 
help with the free flow system, since part of the problem 
and lining up your next enemy for attack doesn't always 
workout because he's usually off camera, and you end up 
attacking in the wrong direction, effectively killing 
your combo count.