Battletoads

aka: Battletoads in Ragnarok's World
Moby ID: 6134
NES Specs
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Description official descriptions

The Dark Queen has attacked and kidnapped (toadnapped?) your best buddy. To make matters worse, she nabbed the best looking girl around! So, what will you do? Cry? Whimper? Hide? Call the Starcops? NO! Cause you're a Battletoad! Battletoads don't cry, hide or call for help! And they certainly don't whimper! They get MAD then they get EVEN! So grab your blaster, hop on the Toadster and go get 'em!

You will control a battletoad through 13 levels (five of which are missing from the Game Boy port). Some are side-scrolling beat-em-ups, other are vertical drops down a shaft, fighting as you go, others have you riding a rocket or surfboard, shooting or avoiding enemies. At the end of each area, there is a boss. In some areas, about half-way through, you may have a mini-boss.

Spellings

  • バトルトード - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (NES version)

10 People

Original Concept
Producer
Design
Additional Design
Art Director
Additional Graphics
Programming Director
Graphics Decoding
Programmer
Hardware
Music
Product Testing
Cover Artwork

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 69% (based on 46 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 141 ratings with 7 reviews)

Bad design, nothing more.

The Good
The graphics are good. The game is longer than the usual platformer. The levels vary a lot: you've got beat 'em up sections, platform levels, 2D races and more.There is two player mode as well where you kill your friend half the time because you can actually hit each other, which is interesting. Oh, and the pause sound is amazing!

The Bad
The story is not very creative, but that can be said about almost any game of this type, so that's fine. But the game is just badly designed. The difficulty level is ludicrous and there's one reason for that: You have to memorize the whole game. There are dozens of situations (especially in the race stages) where even the most skilled players would fail because you simply have to know what to do. That's all, and that's no fun. Other games do that as well, but not 90% of the time. The fact that you only have limited continues does not help.

The Bottom Line
It's way too hard because of poor design. I don't want to play game where I have to learn patterns like vocabulary for school. If you want a next to impossible game, play Contra. Contra is hard as hell too, but I demands skills, not memorization.

NES · by Katharian Berg (17) · 2010

Impossiblest game ever

The Good
The game is extremely fun, you play a (or two) toad and have to beat off many foes in a strange world divided into 12 stages. Also, there is some race stages. Actually, every stage have a different game-play in it, that was one of the most innovative game, and extremely fun.

Also, the graphics are very good, all animations are detailed, and, well, everything was fun about it, fore example there is walking robots that looks like a road lamp and you can use their legs as a weapon once you beat them.

The music is cool and the sound quality is very good for the NES, there is many stuff like pitch slide or volume effects. Also there was some cool sound effects when you punch or kick any foe.

The Bad
Everything was made in this game to render is as so hard that it becomes impossible. Well, very very very very hard if you don't like the word "impossible". At least, I doubt anyone have ever beat the NES version of Battletoads cheat less. Personally I used save states only, and it was still very tough to beat. It's very hard to explain why. First of all, you never have a "cool" place. From the beginning to the end of the game, you'll never be able to take a small break (except on the very first stage). Never. Even if you pause the game, there is an stupid rhythm that will make you continue to play. They just make every small detail in the game in order to make the game harder. Also, in the 2-player mode, you'll always hit your friend, like if the game wasn't already impossible enough (actually much of their work would be worthless without save sates and so on...) I can't really explain why it's that hard, you'll have to play the game yourself to understand.

Don't except to beat it someday, just put all efforts that you can to go as far as you can like I did.... All stages are 2 times harder than the previous stage, and the third one is already out of the range of any average player. I don't exaggerate. The game IS that tough.

Last of bad things, the storyline is dummy, and the ending is stupid (you even hear the boss music during the whole ending !).

The Bottom Line
Battletoads is an hardcore action game, that's probably the hardest "well-done" game of all time. Some others game are that hard, but it's because the programmers did just shuck. This isn't the case of Battletoads at all. The programmers are extremely good, and put all that they could to make the game impossible. It's definitely a must-play, especially if you're a hardcore player. Check it out !

NES · by Bregalad (937) · 2005

A funny, weird, aggravating, and quite difficult game

The Good
It's a funny game. The world of the game is very bizarre, but will make you laugh (if you're not pulling your hair out). The gameplay is also varied such that each level offers a different experience with different challenges, thus preventing the game from ever becoming repetitive.

The Bad
The worst part about Battletoads is that it's so very hard (and when you DO beat it after a very long, difficult time, the ending is very short and entirely unrewarding). Some of the levels are just too difficult (Volkmyre's Inferno, ahem). Also, clinger winger is impossible with 2 players (literally) because of a glitch that automatically kills the second player if you ever make it there (it's the 2nd to last level).

The Bottom Line
This a game that has a lot of good things going for it. It's fun to play for the most part, and it's quite a unique experience, with each level offering something new. Playing 2 player is always good for a laugh or a fight, since you can hit your friend on purpose or accidentally.

NES · by Feem (30) · 2005

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Trivia

Music

On level 9 (Terra Tubes), you'll hear the same music as level 5 (Surf City) in the NES version, but you'll hear the same music as level 8 (Intruder Excluder) in the Genesis version. It's the only place where the musics doesn't match between the various versions.

Awards

  • EGM
    • 1992 Buyer's Guide - Best NES Game of the Year
    • 1992 Buyer's Guide - Most Challenging

Analytics

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  • MobyGames ID: 6134
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

Game Gear added by Rogee. Amiga CD32 added by Martin Smith. Genesis added by Roedie. Amiga added by Katakis | カタキス.

Additional contributors: Guy Chapman, chirinea, Alaka, Bregalad, LepricahnsGold, Patrick Bregger.

Game added April 7, 2002. Last modified March 3, 2024.