Battletoads |
: For the animated series from DiC Entertainment, see Battletoads (television series).
Battletoads is a video game franchise. The first game, entitled simply Battletoads , is a 2D computer graphics fighting game from Rare (video game company) for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Game Gear, Game Boy (as Ragnarok s World), AmigaCD32 and the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in 1991. It was arguably the most graphically advanced video game for the NES, at a time when the game market was turning to Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
An arcade game version of this game was released in 1994 by Rare, and developed by Electronic Arts.
The distinctive music of the Battletoads series was composed by David Wise.
= Story =
Two teenaged, mutant toads affectionately named after skin disorders (Rash and Zitz) have to save their brother (Pimple) and the Princess Angelica from the evil Dark Queen, ruler of Planet Ragnarok, with the assistance of Professor T. Bird and his space ship, The Vulture .
= Main Characters =
== Good Guys ==
Rash - The most well known of the Battletoads. He is the green toad who wears black sun glasses. He is later seen in the series wearing a bandana around his arm. He is considered the craziest of the toads. He is also the fastest of the Battletoads.
Zitz - Zitz is the leader of the Battletoads. Zitz is very intelligent and cunning, and tends to use machine-like attacks (Sawblades and Drills in the Arcade game). It is known that Zitz was originally the brown-colored toad instead of Pimple. Why he was recolored to greenish blue is not known.
Pimple - What this brute lacks in brains he makes up for in sheer strength. The muscular Pimple serves as the toad s tank so to say. He loves using heavy objects to attack his enemies with (anvils, hammers etc). Pimple once used to be the greenish-blue toad instead of Zitz.
Professor T. Bird - This old vulture serves as the Battletoads mentor and guides them through their missions. He also tends to mock the toads when they fail. Other than that, not much else is known about him.
== Bad Guys ==
The Dark Queen - The mysterious ruler of evil. Her ambitions include destroying the Battletoads and ruling over the universe with the help of her evil allies. The Dark Queen bears a rather strong resemblance to the actress Elvira.
Robo-Manus - The Dark Queen s top lackey. This dangerous cyborg has fought the Battletoads many times and was defeated each time. Nonetheless, he remains one of the Battletoad s most intelligent and dangerous opponents. Manus has changed every time he has fought the toads.
Big Blag - Big Blag is another of the Queen s minions. He is a morbidly obese rat who tends to contribute most of his weight to his fighting style, which usually involves flattening the toads. Big Blag also fights using the Morningstar-like spike ball at the end of his tail.
Silas Volkmire - One of the more mysterious of the Queen s allies, Silas Volkmire is said to be responsible for the Battletoad s creation in the first place. Volkmire was encountered in Battletoads in Battlemaniacs as a semi-final boss. He was believed to have been killed when the Battletoads shot down his ship, but his body was never found. Volkmire was also briefly mentioned in the first Battletoads, as his name is referenced in one of the levels.
= Gameplay =
Different level (video games) of the game have very different play styles. There are a few 3D and traditional 2D beat-em-up levels where 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 s marketable appeal is due to its exaggerated ways of finishing off enemies. These include a headbutt that would have the battletoad sprout ram s horns, 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 boulder by having your character line-up vertically on either the right or left side of the playing field.
= Difficulty =
Battletoads is extremely challenging; in fact it is notorious among NES games for its brutal difficulty and quick deaths. It requires a great deal of skill, practice and memory, and luck plays almost no part. Because of its mix of race levels, high-speed obstacle courses, and dangerous instant-kill obstacles and monsters, it requires a broad base of skills which makes the game very difficult to beat. Ironically, although Battletoads is classifiable as a side-scrolling fighting game, the monsters the player defeats through brute force are much less challenging than the obstacles and instant-death traps the player must avoid.
Two features did reduce the otherwise crippling difficulty of the game. In the second level, a quick player could gain multiple 1-up 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 approximately half the levels in the game through judicious use of warp points.
Despite these concessions to the player, Battletoads has a reputation as being virtually impossible to finish, even among hardcore gamers. Even defeating the game with a Game Genie may garner respect from those who remember the game. But for those willing to tolerate the high level of challenge, the game is considered very enjoyable, and possibly one of the best NES games ever.
= Criticism =
Due to its innovative gameplay and (for the NES) superior graphics, the original Battletoads was almost universally well-received by gaming critics. However, it has remained somewhat maligned in the eyes of more casual gamers, due mostly to its high and frequently arbitrary-seeming difficulty.
Even in the first level there are many ways to meet quick death from falling off the edge by walking too close to the bottom or top of the screen (unlike most games, there was no artificial barrier to prevent such occurrences).
In contrast to most games, which become harder gradually as the player progresses, the third level of Battletoads presents an extreme leap in difficulty. The first of the obstacle-course levels, which involves driving a hovering car and avoiding sequences of blocks, it is a formidable challenge even for experienced players.
To compound the problem, Battletoads gives the player limited opportunities to continue (video games) after being defeated (many other games of this size gave unlimited opportunities), and had no password (video games) or lithium battery-based save feature to enable the player to continue the game across multiple sessions. Therefore, only the most dedicated players made it more than halfway through the game, let alone completed it.
Unlike many side-scrolling 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 is also littered with minor glitches that suggested poor beta testing. 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 at his or her disposal.
= List of Games =
There are several other games in the franchise, principly for Nintendo and Sega consoles:
==Comeback==
In 2004 the lead designer of Rare s Game Boy Advance team stated that a Battletoads game would be really cool on the GBA - there s nothing to confirm at the moment, but hopefully we can do one in the future. [http://www.rareware.co.uk/extra/tepidseat/gbateam/index.html] in response to a question whether a new Battletoads game was in development.
= See also =
*Anthropomorphic Superheroes
=External links=
*[http://www.klov.com/game_detail.phpletter=B&game_id=7058 The KLOV entry on Battletoads ] *[http://www.mobygames.com/game_group/sheet/gameGroupId,551/ MobyGame s entry on the Battletoads series] *[http://www.classicgaming.com/battletoads/index.html ClassicGaming - The World of Battletoads]|
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