I never really understood all the rage over the water level. I could get through it when I was a kid and I didn’t even own the game, I would just play it at my friends house. Once you have the layout memorized it’s pretty easy to get through, maybe swapping turtles a couple times to spread out the damage.

I feel like if an NPC doesn’t have something meaningful to say, then they may as well not exist. Otherwise they just serve to waste the players time.