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Battletoads is a video game developed by Rare Ltd.. Starring three anthropomorphic toads named after skin disorders (Rash, Zitz and Pimple), the game was created to rival the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games.[1] The first game was developed by Rare for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991. It was subsequently ported by Mindscape to the Amiga in 1992, by Sega to the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Sega Game Gear both in 1993, by Rare to the Game Boy in 1993 retitled as Battletoads in Ragnarok's World, and by Mindscape to the Amiga CD32 in 1994. Ports for IBM PC and Atari ST were planned by Mindscape but never released [2]. A fully developed Sega Master System version was also kept unreleased by Sega.[citation needed] It is arguably one of the most graphically advanced video games ever released for the NES, at a time when the video game market was turning to the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game became famous for its extreme difficulty and humorous ways of beating enemies, as during finishing attacks, the character's body parts transform into gigantic, exaggerated appendages for devastating attacks and comic effect.
[edit] StoryAfter their friends Pimple and the Princess Angelica get kidnapped by the Dark Queen, Rash and Zitz have to save them with the assistance of Professor T. Bird and his space ship, The Vulture. The backstory of Battletoads, written by Rare employee Guy Miller, was also published in a Nintendo Power comic. The storyline in Battletoads in Battlemaniacs is somewhat based on this back story. [edit] GameplayDifferent levels of the game have very different play styles. There are a few 3D and traditional 2D "beat-em-up" levels in which the player progresses by defeating enemies, though even these levels tend to have many lethal obstacles. The most difficult levels are the obstacle course and race levels, where the character must dodge a series of obstacles while driving or flying at high speed, or outrun an enemy that can instantly kill the player. These levels typically required the player to memorize the sequence of obstacles in the way, and to have extremely rapid reflexes. Other levels include a climbing/jumping "snake maze", an underwater level with lethal spikes and dangerous monsters, and two difficult "tower climb" levels, including the final climb of the Dark Queen's tower. Part of the series' marketable appeal is due to its exaggerated ways of finishing off enemies. These include a headbutt that has the Battletoad sprout ram horns (or, in Pimple's case, a football helmet in the arcade game), a punch with an extremely enlarged fist, a two-handed smash into the ground that yielded only the enemy's head sticking out, a kick move with the character sprouting a very enlarged boot, and on climbing/falling levels, the ability to transform into a wrecking ball by having your character line-up vertically on either side of the screen. [edit] ReceptionThe original Battletoads was well-received by most gaming critics. However, it has been remembered for its extreme difficulty, even for experienced players.[3] The game has even been included in numerous occasions among the hardest games ever made.[4][5][6][7] One notorious[8] aspect of the difficulty is that during a 2-player co-op game, one player may attack the other at anytime. This may be intentional, such as attacking the other directly, or unintentional, such as one player attacking an enemy with the other player getting in the way. This can be especially annoying with attacks that result in a one-hit knockout. There was no option to disable "friendly fire". To compound the problem even further, Battletoads gives the player only three opportunities to continue after being defeated (many other games of this size gave unlimited opportunities), and has no password or save feature to enable the player to continue the game across multiple sessions. Therefore, only the most skilled players were able to beat the game. Unlike many games in which two players cooperating can complete the game more easily than one, Battletoads becomes even more difficult to complete with two players, because of the many obstacle levels. If either player crashes during an obstacle course, both are sent back to the start to try again; thus, both players need perfect play to get through many of the levels. The game also suffers from several minor glitches. The most critical flaw occurs in level 11, entitled Clinger Winger. During a 2-player game, the second player is unable to move in level 11, and therefore must lose all of his or her lives before player one can continue the level. This makes finishing the game even more difficult for the second player, as that player had one less continue and any accumulated extra lives at his or her disposal. Two features did reduce the otherwise crippling difficulty of the game. In the second level, a quick player could gain multiple lives by repeatedly hitting defeated enemies before they fell offscreen; thus a skilled player could build up a store of ten or more lives to spend in future levels. Second, there were several "warp points" scattered throughout the game that let the player skip ahead two levels. A knowledgeable player could avoid three levels in the game through judicious use of warp points. Despite these concessions to the player, Battletoads for the NES is considered to be among the most difficult games ever made. The Mega Drive/Genesis version tones down the difficulty considerably, rewarding the players with more lives and generally featuring more forgiving controls and gameplay than the NES version. The game was reviewed in 1992 in Dragon #187 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.[9] [edit] SequelsBattletoads proved to be a hit and was followed up with sequels released over the ensuing years. 
[edit] Animated series
Battletoads also spun off an American half-hour, traditionally animated television special produced by DIC Entertainment, airing on Fox Kids in the Holidays of 1992, about three teenage kids who have been chosen to be turned into humanoid toads known as "The Battletoads" to rescue a Princess captured by the Dark Queen. However, only the pilot episode made it to the airwaves; it was never picked up as a full animated series, despite comic-style ads in GamePro magazine claiming otherwise. A VHS tape with the pilot was released in the United States on January 15th, 1994. The pilot served more as a prequel to the video game franchise. Set in Oxnard, California, the show stars three kids (despite the fact that the comic's story revolved around three video game testers). The trio is given the ability to transform into anthropomorphic toads with superhuman strength and the ability to change their arms and legs into weapons in techniques called "Smash Hits." They are charged with protecting Professor T. Bird and Princess Angelica from the Dark Queen, who wants to steal Angelica's magical amulet for her plans of universal conquest. It is likely that the show was an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Incidentally, DiC Entertainment would try this again later on by producing Street Sharks and then later Extreme Dinosaurs. [edit] See also[edit] References
[edit] External links
Categories: 1990s American television series | 1991 video games | Amiga games | Animated series based on video games | Beat 'em ups | Cancelled DOS games | Cancelled Sega Master System games | CD32 games | Cooperative video games | Fictional frogs and toads | Game Boy games | Game Gear games | Nintendo Entertainment System games | Platform games | Rareware games | Science fiction video games | Sega Mega Drive games | Tiger handheld games | Video games featuring anthropomorphic characters | Video game franchises | Side-scrolling video games | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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