Game:

Battletoads (1991)

Duration: 15:25

44 views

6

Gameplay Performed by: TrevorDFox

Battletoads is a beat 'em up/platform video game developed by Rare and published by Tradewest. It is the first installment of the Battletoads series and was originally released on 1 June 1991 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was subsequently ported to the Mega Drive, Game Gear and Amiga CD32. In the game, three space humanoid toad warriors known as the Battletoads, Rash and Zitz, embark on a mission to defeat the evil Dark Queen on her planet and rescue their kidnapped friends; Pimple and Princess Angelica.

The game was developed in response to the interest in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. It has received mostly positive reviews upon release, with critics praising the graphics and variations of gameplay, however many critics were divided over the difficulty. It won six awards from the 1991 Nintendo Power Awards, and has since been renowned as one of the most difficult video games ever created. It was later included in Rare's 2015 Xbox One retrospective compilation, Rare Replay.

The game was developed by Rare and published by Tradewest. Rare founders Tim and Chris Stamper created the series in response to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze of the early 1990s. To create a contrast to the popular media franchise and other "beat 'em ups" of the time, Rare added extra mechanics in the game to help separate it from these genres, such as racing stages and climbing courses. According to Rare artist Kev Bayliss, the characters of Battletoads were conceived in order to "produce merchandise" on a mass scale, in a similar vein to Tim Burton's Batman reboot. The game underwent changes through early stages of development, and at one point was originally titled Amphibianz. Bayliss originally designed Battletoads as a Disney-themed video game, however as the game gradually became more graphic, Bayliss took extra liberties to "tone down" violence and restrict all usage of weapons in the game, whilst creating a sense of uniqueness for the characters.

Due to the extreme nature of the original NES Battletoads difficulty, almost all future ports went to measures to tone it down to varying degrees, seeking to make the game more accessible to casual players. The Mega Drive version of Battletoads features toned down difficulty, as well as providing higher definition and more colourful graphics as opposed to the NES version. The Game Gear port features downscaled graphics, also removing three levels and the two-player mode.

During E3 2015 it was announced that the NES version of Battletoads would be coming to the Xbox One as part of Rare Replay, a retrospective collection of 30 emulated classic games from Rare. Rare Replay was released on August 4, 2015.

Battletoads has been noted by critics for its extreme difficulty. The game has even been included on numerous occasions among the hardest games ever made, including the number one spot according to GameTrailers. A reviewer of Destructoid stated that despite the game's "brutal and unbalanced" difficulty, it was often remembered as one of the most "beloved titles" of the eight-bit generation. In 2012, Yahoo! Games stated that the game was still widely recognised as one of the most difficult games ever made, particularly noting the chance of players accidentally killing their partner in two-player mode.

Battletoads was nominated for the 1991 Nintendo Power Awards in nine categories, winning the first place in the categories: Graphics and Sound (NES), Theme and Fun (NES), Best Play Control (NES) and Best Multi-Player or Simultaneous (NES), it was also given the title of the Overall Best Game for NES of 1990. In 1997, Nintendo Power ranked the NES version as the 89th best game on any Nintendo platform. In 2010, UGO included it on their "Top 25 games that need sequels" also featuring the Arctic Cavern level on the list of "coolest ice levels". Topless Robot ranked Battletoads as the number one "least terrible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rip-off" in 2008, also naming it as one of ten best beat-'em-ups of all time in 2010 and as one of ten video games that should have gotten toys in 2011. In 2012, it was also listed among ten "classic videos games that deserve an HD remake" by Yahoo! News. GamesRadar ranked it the 18th best NES game ever made, stating that "it was a fun game but its most notable element was its difficulty". Jeremy Dunham of IGN listed Battletoads as the 40th best NES game of all time.

Support us!! Subscribe to Refresh Games!! Help us to create more content for everyone!! Thanks to watch!!

Just 15 Minutes is a Refresh Games productions.

Other Statistics