Battlemaniacs (Master System) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
98A playthrough of TecToy's 1996 beat 'em up/platform game for the Sega Master System, Battlemaniacs.
Played through on the normal difficulty level.
Battlemaniacs is a Brazil-exclusive release for the Sega Master System. Though it was originally converted to the 8-bit system by the British Syrox Developments for a Euro release in mid-1994 (it was even reviewed in the English June '94 issue of Mean Machines, a Sega magazine), it was cancelled shortly before the game was to be finished. TecToy took the existing work and released it, as-is, in 1996. It is based on the SNES title Battletoads in Battlemaniacs, though a fair number of elements are missing in this version of the game. Whichever were intended to be cut for the system's limitations or are missing because they were never complete, I'll let you decide for yourself.
The graphics are surprisingly good for the Master System. They more closely resemble the original Battletoads than the sequel, probably because the SNES game's sprites were absolutely huge, and they've been restyled a bit, but they look pretty good. The auto-scrolling checkerboard stages look really nice here - even if they don't have the SNES's super-fancy reflective effects going on, they handle the pseudo-3D line-scrolling effect pretty convincingly. The sound is similarly good, though apparently incomplete - the remixes of the original tunes largely sound fantastic by the Master System's standards, though some of the stages do suffer from a complete lack of music.
The stages that are included in this version are fairly close to the original ones - especially the first stage and the Dark Queen's tower. The rest of them are approximated well enough, though I have to note that overall the difficulty level has been reduce quite dramatically. Whereas Battletoads in Battlemaniacs was a fairly difficult game, Battlemaniacs is actually quite easy. If you want to give it a go, have no fear: it in no way ever approaches the difficulty of the notoriously hard NES Battletoads.
I really enjoyed Battlemaniacs. Not because of it's relation to the SNES title of the same name (though it is kind of neat that this is the only "port" of that title that's ever been made), but because it is a really solid, playable Master System beat 'em up/platformer that's smooth and stylish. The system needed a few more like this one! (Though preferably they'd be a bit closer to finished than this one was...)
Finally, there are two really funny things I'd like to draw your attention to:
Check out 17:51. Does the Dark Queen's little speech there remind anyone of anything? If not, maybe this will jog your memory... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCZmSQW7-pY#t=01m41s
And I can't help but laugh whenever I think about the player icon at the top of the screen. Look at how Pimple's name has been abbreviated to fit into such a small space. Cheeky Brits anyway :)
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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