Another great
8-bit NES game. It was released by
RareWare, who have since created such classics as
Donkey Kong Country,
GoldenEye 007, and
Banjo-Kazooie. The Battletoads,
Zitz,
Rash and
Pimple were a group of mutant toads who could make their limbs grow to
humorously large proportions. Their
mentor was
Professor Bird Guy, who provided tips and the
SS Vulture for
transportation.
No matter what, the
controller in the
player 1 port got to control Rash.
Player 2 took control of Zitz. You couldn't actually play as Pimple because, along with
Princess Angelica, he had been kidnapped by
The Evil Dark Queen. As Rash and/or Zitz your goal was to
rescue them.
The game was very ahead of it's time featuring many
innovative levels.
Hoverbikes,
unicycles,
surfing, and riding
giant snakes provided some of the more difficult challenges. Other levels involved racing a
rat to a
bomb, climbing a
tower,
rapelling down a
cavern, and riding
dragons to fight
evil pigs. It's also the first game I know of where you fought a boss from the boss'
perspective, a
device which has been used many times since.
Though an
SNES BattleToads was released, it was essentially the
NES one with spiffed up graphics. The game also crossed over with
Double Dragon in a game known as, Battletoads/Double Dragon: the
Ultimate Team. It was the same Battletoads game, but now you could control
Billy and
Jimmy Lee. This made minimal
gameplay difference. The game was released for the
NES,
SNES,
Genesis, and
Gameboy. If you get one Battletoads game it might as well be this one, though it really isn't much of an improvement.