Battletoads

[Discoalucard]

www.hardcoregaming101.net/battletoads/battletoads.htm

Rare's answer to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took the characters into a wide variety of genres, with an impressive amount of cartoonish abilities, but were often undermined by their extraordinary difficulty.

I was hyped for this game because Video Games and Computer Entertainment lavished it with praise, saying it was sa 16-bit game on an 8-bit console. And yet the only reason it got any play as a kid was because I got a Game Genie on the same Christmas, which was the only way to get anywhere, save the guidance from Nintendo Power of where to find the warps. Even skipping around, I don't think I was able to complete a single one of the later leve.s

We also discussed this series in a thread on the Emulation board but I'd like all discussion to continue here. Here's the old thread for reference: hg101.proboards.com/thread/12096/battletoads-arcade

[Lord Dalek]

Hey do you got Battletoads?

[ReyVGM]

My only good memories about Battletoads is the music. Specially that last stage music from Battlemaniacs.

Also, something strange about the NES and SNES Battletoads: the game has four random ending script/quotes. A seen here:
www.vgmuseum.com/end/nes/a/battle.htm
www.vgmuseum.com/end/snes/a/battlemania.htm

They are totally random and there's nothing specific you have to do to get them.

RARE did that on several other games too, for example: in Banjo Kazooie, Gruntilda had four random quotes on two different places in the ending.

[Bobinator]

And one of them is a Street Fighter 1 reference, for some reason?

[ReyVGM]

In regards to the GB Battletoads:

"The Japanese version differs only in the between level cut-scenes, where the boss name is displayed with their picture instead of a corny taunt."

Any picture examples for this? The article doesn't have any.

[pennywise]

I know this stuff can go over a lot of peoples head, but Battletoads for the NES is a very noteworthy game from a technical perspective. The text is compressed with Huffman compression, which is very rare on the system. So much so, that's perhaps only a few NES games actually use that compression. It makes hacking/altering the text quite difficult unless you have a solid programming background as compared to most NES games where altering the text is quite easy and requires little knowledge. Anyway, here's a link that talks about it a bit and provides a tool to decompress the text.

forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?t=8609

If there's any interest, I'd be willing to attempt to write a paragraph to explain all this technical stuff.

[16bitter]

Mar 2, 2015 22:18:06 GMT -5 ReyVGM said:

In regards to the GB Battletoads:

"The Japanese version differs only in the between level cut-scenes, where the boss name is displayed with their picture instead of a corny taunt."

Any picture examples for this? The article doesn't have any.

lol, I had considered posting the comparison, but thought that it wouldn't be that interesting to anyone. Go figure.

[sarge]

Very happy to see a writeup on this. Now that I've somehow managed to beat Battletoads legit, I have a lot more respect for what they were trying to do. The creativity on display is amazing. But some of the criticisms are also clearly on-point. It's a great game that can only really be considered great by a small contingent of folks that have the time, perseverance, and reflexes (or just plain outright stubbornness) to push through it, which certainly limits its long-term appeal.

[tbb]

The light color option doesn't appear to be working with this article.

[Seth0708]

I had no idea that the Amiga CD32 version had two different levels. It has always struck me as odd, but nice, how a number of games from that era engaged in the practice of adding levels in CD and computer ports. Sadly most of the time when said games get later ports or remakes they often lose these additions.

[Sac (a.k.a Icaras)]

I can remember in the early 90s, a local K-Mart had the 1st Battletoads game in demo Gameboy staion instead of tetris like most other stores had, tho I could never get past the flash gates of stage 2. I actually played it that often that my parents bought Battletoads for me when I got Gameboy myself for Christmas in 1993 (Sadly, the box, which I've since lost, was empty, so I actually had to wait a day or 2 to get the cart.)

I played the hell out of GB Battletoads, though I could never beat the game, the furthest along I got was a later stage where you jump around on round platform that have swinging axe blades attached.

The arcade game looks like it'd be fun and I've watched a playthrough of it on youtube. I quite like the theme that plays just before the levels when the toads type into that wrist communicator thing to see the levels boss.

While I don't own an Xbox, I'd still like to see the 'toads come back in a modern game. It could happen, given that Killer Instinct ended up with a new game.

[🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀]

Battletoads is a game I want to like, but can't.

Granted, I'm only familiar with the NES version of the first game.

[Leona Phoenix]

Oh man, I forgot that ArcSys had a hand in some of those early ports.
Great article overall.
Like Rey, my favorite part is definitely the music, with my favorite track being Ragnarok Canyon in Battlemaniacs (only partially because its melody sounds kinda similar to cheesy Fist of the North Star song I Kill the Fight). I genuinely enjoy the gameplay as well, hard as it is. The first title is a perfect example of that early western development style of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. (Not that it was exclusive to western devs, hello, Konami.)
I also love the various silly attack animations (my favorite has to be beating dudes through the ground with poles in Battletoads & Double Dragon).
I prefer the Genesis version of the first (thank to the easy raven lives) but the lack of the intro from the NES (especially the neat scaling effect of the spaceship) bugged me. The first character changing between games is interesting, though I stick with Rash when possible.
Those high res graphics in the arcade game are great, too bad they're mostly limited to background effects.

Ultimate Team music said:

the Genesis version sounds better

Disagree.

(Also, laffo at the high score screencap of the amiga version)

[Bobinator]

I'd honestly say that Battletoads and Double Dragon is the best of the series, even if they got the DD side of the crossover entirely wrong. It feels like the difficulty's been toned down a bit, even if it can still get incredibly rough at points. I also appreciate how they went even further with the multiple genre thing, as well, and tended to mix different setpieces together in a single stage.

...Y'know, I keep hearing rumours a Battletoad's going to show up in a new Killer Instinct. I kind of hope that comes to pass.

[Magma MK-II]

Mar 4, 2015 8:32:59 GMT -5 Bobinator said:

I'd honestly say that Battletoads and Double Dragon is the best of the series, even if they got the DD side of the crossover entirely wrong.

Like I said in the other thread, they probably just played the first stage of the original NES DD/just read it's manual and drew material from there. I kinda wish someone would make a ROM hack of the game to restore the DD side. Like, just restore Willy's name back and modify the Shadow Boss a bit: remove that weird helmet (Double Dragon Dojo calls him the Furnace-guy), edit some of his moves then change his name to Mysterious Warrior, add some pick-up weapons here and there and we're set.

Mar 4, 2015 8:32:59 GMT -5 Bobinator said:

...Y'know, I keep hearing rumours a Battletoad's going to show up in a new Killer Instinct. I kind of hope that comes to pass.

I wouldn't mind them showing up as guests, and they would definitely not look out of place there in a game with a werewolf, a cryogenic alien, a skeleton, the Human Torch, a velocyraptor, a Mesopotamian mummy and a golem.