Battletoads (video game)

Gameplay

The game is a platform scrolling beat 'em up video game with varying elements of racing, climbing and vehicular-based combat. Players start with three lives each time the game is started, and get replenished every time the player continues after players get defeated. The game contains no saving system or password features. While the levels of Battletoads vary greatly in gameplay style, the game is generally presented as "beat-em-up" in which players progress by defeating enemies while avoiding the hazards in the environment. The players can finish off enemies in different ways, such as punching or kicking with an enlarged fist or boot, head-butting with huge ram horns, or by transforming into a wrecking ball.

Side-scrolling stages are generally presented as having an isometric perspective, while platforming stages that feature vertical progression are presented isometrically, which allows the player-characters to crouch. Several levels in the game feature sections in the form of an obstacle course, where the players must dodge a series of obstacles with speed increasing as the level progresses. Other types of level include two "tower climb" levels, a descent to a chasm while hanging from a rope, an underwater level, a maze chase riding a unicycle-based vehicle, a climbing and jumping "snake maze", and a race level in which the players has to fall as quickly as possible through countless platforms to reach the bottom of a tower before an opponent does. Hidden in four of the levels are "mega warp" points, which, when found, allow the players to automatically advance by two levels.

Plot

Professor T. Bird and the three Battletoads, Rash, Zitz, and Pimple, are escorting Princess Angelica to her home planet using their spacecraft, the Vulture. Pimple and Angelica decide to take a leisurely trip on Pimple's flying car. They are ambushed and captured by the Dark Queen's ship, the Gargantua. Pimple sends out a distress signal to the Vulture, alerting Professor T. Bird, Rash, and Zitz that himself and Angelica had been captured. Learning that the Gargantua is hidden beneath the surface of a nearby planet called Ragnarok's World, Professor T. Bird flies Rash and Zitz there in the Vulture to rescue them.

Between levels, the toads receive briefing comments from Professor T. Bird, along with teasing from the Dark Queen. During the game's 13 levels, the Battletoads are faced with Dark Queen's minions Big Blag, Robo Manus and Major Slaughter as bosses, ultimately facing the Dark Queen herself at the top of the Dark Tower, the game's final level. Once the Queen is defeated, she claims it will not be the last they would see from her, later turning into some sort of tornado and flying into space, "retreating into the shadowy margins of the galaxy to recoup her losses". With Pimple and Princess Angelica rescued, the four are brought back into the Vulture and the game ends.

Development

The game was developed by Rare and published by Tradewest. Rare founders Tim and Chris Stamper created the series in response to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze of the early 1990s. To create a contrast to the popular media franchise and other "beat 'em ups" of the time, Rare added extra mechanics in the game to help separate it from these genres, such as racing stages and climbing courses. According to Rare artist Kev Bayliss, the characters of Battletoads were conceived in order to "produce merchandise" on a mass scale, in similar vein Tim Burton's Batman reboot. The game underwent changes through early stages of development, and at one point was originally titled Amphibianz. Bayliss originally designed Battletoads as a Disney-themed video game, however as the game gradually became more graphic, Bayliss took extra liberties to "tone down" violence and restrict all usage of weapons in the game, whilst creating a sense of uniqueness for the characters.

Release

Battletoads has been ported for various consoles upon its original June 1991 release for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The original game was localised for Japan a few months after the first North American release, with several gameplay tweaks resulting in a marginally easier experience. It was ported by Mindscape to the Amiga home computers in 1992, by Arc System Works to the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Game Gear both on 13 July 1993, by Rare to the Game Boy later in 1993, and by Mindscape to the Amiga CD32 in 1994. Ports for PC DOS and the Atari ST were planned by Mindscape but never released.

European CEO of Virgin Interactive, Tim Chaney, purchased rights for Battletoads from Tradewest after the game found popularity in the United States, and planned a Master System release for in 1993, however it never materialised. Due to the extreme nature of the original NES Battletoads difficulty, almost all future ports went to measures to tone it down to varying degrees, seeking to make the game more accessible to casual players. The Mega Drive version of Battletoads features "toned down" difficulty, as well as providing higher definition and more colourful graphics as opposed to the NES version.

The Game Gear port features downscaled graphics, with the removal of three levels and the two-player mode. Despite the original Game Boy version having the same box art and title as the NES release, Battletoads for the Game Boy is a standalone game of the series and features different levels and mechanics from the original.

During E3 2015 it was announced that the NES version of Battletoads would be coming to the Xbox One as part of Rare Replay, a retrospective collection of 30 emulated classic games from Rare. Rare Replay was released on 4 August 2015. Several bugs featured in the original release were fixed in the updated Rare Replay version.

Reception

The game received mostly positive reviews from critics upon release. The Mega Drive version received an aggregate score of 73% from GameRankings. Reviewers of Mean Machines praised the graphics, with one reviewer stating that the cartoon-style cutscenes adds to the "greatness" of the game's presentation. Another reviewer summarised that the graphics were colourful and well-animated, although he considered the sprites to be "too small". Frank O'Connor of Computer and Video Games (CVG) thought the graphics were the best aspect of the game, heralding them as "packed" with colour, smooth scrolling and "humorous" animation. Paul Rand, another reviewer of CVG similarly praised the graphics and presentation, asserting them both of "excellent" quality. Bryan Lajoie of Quebec Gamer praised the graphics, stating them to be among the most graphically advanced NES games, in particular the animation. In a retrospective review for the Mega Drive version, Shawn Sackenheim of AllGame stated that Battletoads was a "graphical leap" for the NES, although he considered it "dated" for the technically superior Mega Drive.

O'Connor praised the overall gameplay, stating that while it borrowed "style and ideas" from other games, the combination of various styles "works a treat" and proved challenging. Rand heralded the gameplay as addictive. Reviewers of Mean Machines were divided over gameplay; one reviewer was initially sceptical over the prospect of "another NES platformer", although he praised the emphasis on beat 'em up action over conventional platforming. Another reviewer of Mean Machines praised the gameplay as fast, addictive and challenging, summarising that the wide variety of levels are enough to prevent the player from "getting bored easily". Lajoie was mixed over the gameplay, admitting that whilst accepting it as a difficult game, the overall experience required "a lot of patience" and determination in order to progress. In a negative retrospective review, Spike ranked the game's ending as the sixth biggest letdown in video game history.

Awards

Battletoads was nominated for the 1991 Nintendo Power Awards in nine categories, winning the first place in the categories: Graphics and Sound (NES), Theme and Fun (NES), Best Play Control (NES) and Best Multi-Player or Simultaneous (NES), it was also given the title of the Overall Best Game for NES of 1990. In 1997, Nintendo Power ranked the NES version as the 89th best game on any Nintendo platform. In 2010, UGO included it on their "Top 25 games that need sequels" also featuring the Arctic Cavern levels on the list of "coolest ice levels". Topless Robot ranked Battletoads as the number one "least terrible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rip-off" in 2008, also naming it as one of ten best beat-'em-ups of all time in 2010 and as one of ten video games that should have gotten toys in 2011. In 2012, it was also listed among ten "classic videos games that deserve an HD remake" by Yahoo! News. GamesRadar ranked it the 18th best NES game ever made, stating that "it was a fun game but its most notable element was its difficulty". Jeremy Dunham of IGN listed Battletoads as the 40th best NES game of all time.

Difficulty

Battletoads has been noted by critics for its extreme difficulty. The game has even been included on numerous occasions among the hardest games ever made, including the number one spot as determined by GameTrailers. A reviewer of Destructoid stated that despite the game's "brutal and unbalanced" difficulty, it was often remembered as one of the most "beloved titles" of the eight-bit generation. In 2012, Yahoo! Games stated that the game was still widely recognised as one of the most difficult games ever made, particularly noting the ability for players to accidentally harm their partner in two-player mode.

Legacy

The game's initial success led to Rare developing various sequels which would later become part of the Battletoads franchise. A spin-off for the Game Boy, titled Battletoads, was first released in November 1991. Two direct sequels, Battletoads in Battlemaniacs and Battletoads & Double Dragon, were both released for various consoles in 1993, with the latter being placed number 76 on IGN's "Top 100 NES Games of All Time" list. Battletoads Arcade was released in 1994 to mediocre sales, and was the last installment of the series. A TV pilot was also produced by Canadian DIC Entertainment, that originally aired in syndication in the United States on the weekend of Thanksgiving, 1992. The TV series, titled Battletoads, was conceived as an attempt to capitalise on the popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, however it was never picked up as a full series.