Battletoads is a scrolling action game, developed by Rare and published by Tradewest in 1991. It satirises (and takes advantage of the popularity of) the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and features a group of cartoon toads, called Zitz, Rash and Pimple.

Two of the toads – Zitz and Rash – are on a mission to rescue their third member, Pimple, and Princess Angelica, both of whom have been kidnapped by the evil Dark Queen and taken to her planet. The toads fly to the planet in their spaceship and lower themselves down to the surface using their ‘Turbo Ropes’. From there they begin the fight to free their friends.

Battletoads features a mixture of gameplay styles, but the majority of levels are mostly scrolling fighting sections. The game can be played by two players simultaneously, or one player on their own, and follows conventions set by earlier scrolling beat ’em ups, like Double Dragon and Final Fight, by having players defeat a certain number of enemies before they’re allowed to move on.

The Battletoads can pick up items (usually parts of destroyed enemies) and use them as weapons. They can also ride certain beasts as ‘vehicles’; throw exaggerated piledriver punches, and eat flies to replenish health.

Occasionally, the game will switch to a completely different style of gameplay to add variety to the proceedings. The boss battle at the end of the first stage, for example, requires that you avoid lasers being shot at you from a first-person POV from the boss, and to pick up and throw rocks at the screen to damage it. Later on there are also sections where the dynamic duo lower themselves down a pit on their Turbo Ropes, kicking and punching enemies as they go, and there are also motorbiking, snake-climbing, surfing, and flying sections.

Battletoads is known for being notoriously difficult (the biking/flying sections in particular are mind-bendingly hard). There are no passwords and no saves, but you are given continues. The game starts off pretty easy, but gradually becomes a real test of reaction and endurance. What keeps it fun, though, are the humorous elements (like the fact that the toads can ‘accidentally’ punch each other, for some comedic “friendly fire”), the fast pace, the great presentation, and the varied gameplay. This is a classic NES game from Rare that is still enjoyable to play today, and still looks and sounds great.

Battletoads was ported to a number of other systems, including for the Megadrive/Genesis, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Game Gear, Amiga, and CD32. It even made it into arcades, although the arcade version turned out to be a commercial failure (although it is a good game). Battletoads was also rebooted by Rare in 2020, for XBox One and Windows PCs.

More: Battletoads on Wikipedia