Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus is a video game of the top-down beat 'em up

Beat 'em up

Beat 'em up is a video game genre featuring melee combat between the protagonist and a large number of underpowered antagonists. These games typically take place in urban settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge-based plots, though some games may employ historical or fantasy themes...

 genre released in 2004 by Konami

Konami

is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...

. The game is based on the 2003 TV series

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 TV series)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an American animated series, mainly set in New York City. It first aired on February 8, 2003 and ended on November 21, 2009...

.

The game offers cell-shaded graphics, four-player option and has the classic arcade game of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (arcade game)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, released as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in Europe, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Super Kame Ninja in Japan, is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up released by Konami as a coin-operated video game in...

as an unlockable. Leonardo

Leonardo (TMNT)

Leonardo is a fictional character that appears in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media.In the Mirage comics all four turtles wear red bandanas, but in other versions, he wears a blue bandana. His signature weapons are two ninjaken , which are universally referred to as...

, Donatello

Donatello (TMNT)

Donatello is a fictional character and one of the four main characters in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media. He is co-creator Peter Laird's favorite Turtle....

, Raphael

Raphael (TMNT)

Raphael , a fictional character, is one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles .In the Mirage/Image comics all four turtles wear red bandanas over their eyes, but unlike his brothers in other versions, he is the only one who keeps a red bandana...

, and Michelangelo

Michelangelo (TMNT)

Michelangelo is a fictional character, one of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . His mask is typically portrayed as orange outside of the Mirage/Image comic series and his weapons are dual nunchaku, though he has also been portrayed using other weapons, such as a grappling hook, tonfa, and a...

 are playable from the beginning, while Karai

Karai

Karai is a fictional character in several incarnations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, where she is usually a high-ranking member of the Foot Clan. In some incarnations of the character she is also related to The Shredder.-Name:Karai is a Japanese word commonly used to describe...

, Slashuur, Splinter

Splinter (TMNT)

Master Splinter, or simply Splinter is a fictional character in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe. -Origin Story:Splinter has two origin stories, and which one is used depends on the medium...

, and Casey Jones

Casey Jones (TMNT)

Arnold Bernid "Casey" Jones is a character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Like the turtles, Casey Jones is a vigilante, and was created as a parody of vigilante characters that were in comics. Casey wears a hockey mask and cut-off biking gloves and carries his weapons in a golf bag...

 can be unlocked.

Overview

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 Battle Nexus is a video game based on second season of 2003 animated series. It features levels based on episodes:
Search for Splinter (Parts 1 and 2), Turtles in Space (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), Secret Origins (Parts 1, 2 and 3), The Ultimate Ninja, What a Croc!, Return to Underground, City at War (Parts 1, 2, and 3) and Rogue in the House (Parts 1 and 2). The game also has 4 tournaments consisting of waves of enemy attacks. The fourth, Battle Nexus Tournament, is based on the episode Big Brawl.

Gameplay

Battle Nexus supports four players. Each player may select a "team" that consists of a turtle and an unlockable character that can replace the turtle. Four teams are present in the game, if less than four players are playing, one player may select more teams and cycle through them in the game.

Blue Team	Red Team	Orange Team	Purple Team
Leonardo Leonardo (TMNT) Leonardo is a fictional character that appears in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media.In the Mirage comics all four turtles wear red bandanas, but in other versions, he wears a blue bandana. His signature weapons are two ninjaken , which are universally referred to as...	Raphael Raphael (TMNT) Raphael , a fictional character, is one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles .In the Mirage/Image comics all four turtles wear red bandanas over their eyes, but unlike his brothers in other versions, he is the only one who keeps a red bandana...	Michelangelo Michelangelo (TMNT) Michelangelo is a fictional character, one of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . His mask is typically portrayed as orange outside of the Mirage/Image comic series and his weapons are dual nunchaku, though he has also been portrayed using other weapons, such as a grappling hook, tonfa, and a...	Donatello Donatello (TMNT) Donatello is a fictional character and one of the four main characters in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media. He is co-creator Peter Laird's favorite Turtle....
Slashuur	Casey Jones Casey Jones (TMNT) Arnold Bernid "Casey" Jones is a character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Like the turtles, Casey Jones is a vigilante, and was created as a parody of vigilante characters that were in comics. Casey wears a hockey mask and cut-off biking gloves and carries his weapons in a golf bag...	Karai Karai Karai is a fictional character in several incarnations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, where she is usually a high-ranking member of the Foot Clan. In some incarnations of the character she is also related to The Shredder.-Name:Karai is a Japanese word commonly used to describe...	Splinter Splinter (TMNT) Master Splinter, or simply Splinter is a fictional character in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe. -Origin Story:Splinter has two origin stories, and which one is used depends on the medium...

Each team has their own specific abilities that can help players progress through the game. Blue Team can attack while dashing, and cut through certain obstacles (gates, trees, bamboo, etc.). Red Team can lift and push certain heavy objects. Orange team can reflect arrows with their guard (and Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...

 can fly with his nunchucks). Purple team can utilize computer consoles (and Donatello

Donatello

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...

 can fire a laser instead of throwing shuriken).

Unlike the previous game, players share one health bar

Health (gaming)

Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....

so if one player gets hurt, the health decreases for all off them. Characters have "weak" and "strong" attacks and they do different moves with different combinations. To beat the level, you must either get to the designated point of the level, kill all enemies, kill the boss, survive until the time runs out or do the specific goal until the time runs out.
Side goals are to collect artifacts that are usually in hidden or hard-to-reach places and to collect crystal pieces that increase your attack, defense, charge attack and shuriken throwing ("flying") abilities.