Bookwyrm627: You would deny Raphael his purpose in that game?! He made for a great damage sink to tank through the big seaweed part.
Matewis: He did? I used to play with him the most and I think he was usually dead by the time I got to the damn dam level! The short range of his weapon was generally bad news when it came to his survivability. Honestly though, the dam level wasn't really all that bad. I think its difficulty gets a little bit exaggerated, at least nowadays. It definitely was murderous for me when I was 5 :P Also, perhaps it is somewhat trickier with an nes controller.
His short range pretty much relegated him to "less useful than anyone else". Mike can do everything Raph can do, only better. Leonardo is similar to Mike. Donatello had the best range (and damage?), but he didn't have the vertical coverage that others did (missing enemies above/below his straight line attack).
Thus, Raphael was almost always full health at the start of the dam, so I'd pull him in when you had to navigate that loop of seaweed and let him take the damage. Sometimes I'd just ignore the "safe path" and swim right through the stuff, switching to someone else near the end when Raph got low.
I tend to agree that with some practice, that level really isn't that bad. Just need to get in that practice first, and come up with a plan.
