Tag Archives: Rare

Battletoads, Arcade

Battletoads is a humorous side-scrolling beat ’em up, developed by Rare Coin Games and distributed into arcades by Electronic Arts in 1994. It satirises the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters, turning them into muscular toads, called Zitz, Rash and Pimple.

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Battletoads, NES/Famicom

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.

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Marble Madness, NES

The NES conversion of Marble Madness was developed by Rare and published by Milton Bradley, in North America and Europe, in 1989. I don’t think the game was ever released in Japan, though. And it’s a very good port, with some small enhancements and decent controls and playability.

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Wizards & Warriors X: The Fortress of Fear, Game Boy

Wizards & Warriors X: The Fortress of Fear is a handheld version of the popular Wizards & Warriors games on the NES. It was developed by Rare and published by Acclaim Entertainment, exclusively for the original Game Boy, in 1990.

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Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros: Visions of Power, NES/Famicom

The third game in the Wizards & Warriors series was released for the NES in North America in 1992 and in Europe in 1993. It was once again developed by Zippo Games for Rare, although the game did encounter a few issues during development*, and was published by Acclaim Entertainment.

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Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II, NES/Famicom

The sequel to Wizards & Warriors was developed by Zippo Games (with help from Rare) and published by Acclaim in North America in 1989 and Europe in 1991. It’s another action platform game that doesn’t deviate much from the formula of the original, but is different enough to make it interesting.

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Wizards & Warriors, NES/Famicom

Wizards & Warriors is an action platform game developed by Rare and published by Acclaim (in North America and Europe) and Jaleco (in Japan) in 1987.

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R.C. Pro-Am II, NES/Famicom

This 1992 sequel to R.C. Pro-Am was once again developed by Rare, but this time was published by Tradewest (not Nintendo), and is pretty much the same kind of game as before: a scrolling isometric racing game featuring small, remote-controlled cars.

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Championship Pro-Am, Megadrive/Genesis

Championship Pro-Am is an “enhanced” remake of the classic NES racing game R.C. Pro-Am. It was developed by Rare and published on the Megadrive/Genesis by Tradewest in 1992.

I’m emphasising the word “enhanced” here out of pure sarcasm, because – when you look at the game closely – there is very little that is actually enhanced over the original, other than the graphics. In fact: it is a very bare bones port and the Megadrive deserved better from Rare.

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R.C. Pro-Am, NES/Famicom

Rare‘s R.C. Pro-Am is a classic isometric racing game that was published by Nintendo on the NES in North America and Europe in 1988.

In it you race remote controlled cars around tracks in order to win points and stay in the championship. If you drop too low in the rankings then you are eliminated from the game and must start again.

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