Battletoads (Nintendo, 1991)

Battletoads is an awesome, awesome game. If you're unfamiliar with the game you must not have had an NES back in the day, because this game was really popular. You play one of the three Battletoad brothers in their attempt to rescue their brother from the evil dark queen.
Each of the levels is vastly different from the last--the first level is a side-scrolling beat-em-up style level, the second finds you rappelling down into a mile-long crater battling monsters and robots, and the third level starts as a beat-em-up but turns into a high-velocity turbo tunnel. Other levels include a snake level (where you ride giant snakes around to find the exit) and a spaceship level. However, I must add that the turbo tunnel is so challenging that I was only ever able to beat it by cheating.
Between each level you get to see an awesome little B-movie-esque cutscene that usually involves the dark queen taunting the toads. This game is dripping with style and loaded with fun for 1-2 players. I highly recommend it.

I bought this product with high expectations of a challenging, and fun to play game. I got what I wanted. It's just so challenging I can't get past the third level (and from what I hear, not many people can!). I had known about the infamous hover bike level in this game, that's part of the reason I bought it.

I love the idea of the game, as cheesy as it is. You play as a battletoad (two, if you're playing 2 players) trying to save one of your friends who gets captured. I dislike the two player mode. A lot. It has friendly fire (which more than half the time, you don't mean to hit your friend), and on top of that, once your teammate dies, you both start at the beggining of the level. Ontop of that, the player who didn't die keeps the amount of lives he had when his friend died (so say you have one life left and your friend loses, You have one life, he has 3 after continuing). Single player is still challenging, without having being accidentally pummeled by your friend while trying to help him. On the hover bike section of the third level is when the s**t hits the fan. The level design never changes, so you're able to memorise the layout, but that doesn't stop you from dying over, and over, and over again. Especially on two player, if either you or your friend gets hit by one of the obstacles, you start at the last checkpoint, and ontop of that, if you or your friend loses all his lives, you start at the beggining of the level and have to find the bikes again.

The game has a good amount of challenging creatures and gameplay, but is near impossible to complete in two player mode, you both would have to be experts in the game to complete it. I suggest this game to hardcore, pro, old-school gamers, for it provides challenge of which I rarley find.

This game surpasses almost every other NES game that was ever released. Rare took the idea from TMNT II: Arcade Version and imporved upon it by adding different types of gameplay, from the typical TMNT II side scrolling fighting style, to dropping down a shaft from a rope, to riding a fast hover cart, to surfing, to riding huge snakes through difficult terrain.

It is difficult to beat the game, which is part of the reason that it is so amazing. Games that are too easy are hardly worth playing. On the old side-loading NES system, it was almost impossible to beat because it would always reset or get all screwy. With the top-loader NES system, the game plays perfectly for as long as you want so it opens up the opportunity to actually beat it.

5 out of 5. Amazing game!!

In an era that was enamored with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tradewest's Battletoads turned out to be a game with perfect timing. Easily one of the best examples of how to rip-off a more popular license only to exceed the original inspiration in terms of quality, Battletoads is still considered by many to be one of the best side-scrolling beat 'em up actioners of all time. As not only were the graphics amazing and the challenges high, but the game had plenty of personality too. Though it spawned a Game Boy port and three sequels for the NES and SNES systems, none of them ever approached mindless perfection as closely as this Rare-developed original.

What a fun game, I'm pretty sure that D.D. and Battletoads: The Ultimate Team is a step up from this game but this is a step up from most other NES titles. The music is great and for a Nintendo game and it is also visually pleasing with strange settings for the levels. I enjoy taking parts of my enemies and smacking other enemies off the screen with those parts. The Battletoads franchise is a bit of a rip off from The Ninja Turtles but is definitly a contender. In place of shredder you got a dark princess kidnapping your buddies and thats the object of the game. If you love the NES then I would definitly recommend this one.