Battletoads (Arcade) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
782A playthrough of Electronic Arts' 1994 beat 'em up arcade game, Battletoads.
Played through as Pimple on the default difficulty level.
Closing out a successful run beginning on the NES in 1991 (https://youtu.be/CZ-GQrsWs-4) , the Battletoads coin-op game was the final game to be released for Rare's popular franchise until the lame attempt at a reboot a while back.
It feels much closer to Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (https://youtu.be/otARLzzcUm0 ) than it does any other entry in the series, playing more similarly to a pure beat 'em up than the older titles did. It dispenses entirely with the swimming, the jet bikes, the platforming, the surfing, the snake rides - all in favor of an experience akin to Final Fight or Turtles in Time.
You get a good variety of moves, and they differ between each of the toads: Pimple is the Haggar of the group with his slow-moving but powerful attacks, Rash (Guy) is the fastest but weakest of the trio, and Zitz (Cody) occupies the middle ground.
The game runs across six lengthy stages that resemble those in earlier games, but they are far more impressive than before - the first stage's fight on top of a spaceship as a Star Wars-looking battle is being waged in the background is a particular standout. So is the Dark Queen hologram background during the third stage boss... if you like video game women.
The graphics are outstanding for a 1994 game. Battletoads was apparently the first of Rare's games to incorporate pre-rendered CGI elements, and they blend seamlessly with the huge sprites. Enemies are regularly flung into and out of the screen via cool sprite-scaling techniques like those used in Turtles in Time when you throw foot soldiers at the screen, and the sheer number of enemies on screen can be overwhelming, though the game handles it all without any slowdown whatsoever. It also runs at a much higher resolution than most arcade games at the time - the 512x224 display allows for super-sharp text and images on the attract and the cinema screens. Of course, it was running on some beefy hardware to accomplish what it does - it utilizes the same 32-bit CPU that was used in Midway games like NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat 2.
The sound was excellent as well - David Wise's presence is here in full force, and for as amazing as he made the SNES game sound, the arcade game pushes sample driven music even harder with some awesome guitar riffs and heavy bass.
The game plays just as good as it looks, but just be warned: the difficulty level is a product of its pedigree. It's not unreasonable or unfair - no more so at least than the console games - but it requires a lot of skill and careful attention if you want to beat it without chewing through zillions of credits. It is an arcade game, and so of course you could just feed it endless quantities of fake quarters with your coin button, but where's the satisfaction in that? You have to be careful with your timing - whiffing can leave you wide open, and if by doing so you land yourself in the middle of a group, the enemies will happily chew through your energy. The last stage hits especially high levels of savagery: the game becomes a shoot 'em up similar to the hoverbike stages from the Contra games - there's an endless barrage of gun turrets, ships, and laser cannons you have to plow through before taking on Robo Manus for the finale.
Battletoads took me quite a long time to get good enough at to finish it with fewer than ten credits, and I tip my hat to anyone good enough to get through it without having to continue. I certainly can't. It's not quite as difficult as the NES Battletoads game was, but if you want to compare it to other beat 'em ups, it is significantly harder than the US version of Streets of Rage 3 was on the Genesis, even with unlimited credits.
I think my love of the NES title prevents me from claiming that Battletoads arcade is the *best* Battletoads game made, but it's definitely up there. The humor, the violence, and the difficulty level that made the first game so memorable are all here in full-force.
It's difficult to play Battletoads and to not appreciate the attention, care, and skill that went into creating it. Pre-Microsoft Rare has a legendary reputation, and it was games like Battletoads that shaped it.
(Side note: this is a new recording I've made to address the poor quality of the sound recording in my original upload.)
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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