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.
Tag Archives: Tim Stamper
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.
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.
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.
Continue reading Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II, NES/Famicom
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.
Knight Lore MSX2 Remake, MSX
This 2009 MSX2 remake of the classic Knight Lore was created by Manuel Pazos and Daniel Celemin of Retroworks, and it is a fun addition to the ever-growing number of Ultimate remakes on the internet. The same guys who made this also made the MSX2 remake of Alien 8, which I quite liked.
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.
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.
Gunfright, Atari 8-Bit
One of the better Atari 8-bit homebrew Ultimate conversions, Gunfright was ported by Mariusz, Jose Pereira, Emkay and Saul Cross in 2017. It plays pretty much the same as the ZX Spectrum original and looks similar to the Commodore 64 homebrew release of 2017. In fact there may be a connection between them since one of the people who worked on the C64 port also worked on this.
Knight Lore, Atari 8-Bit
This conversion of the classic Knight Lore was ported to the 8-bit Atari by Krzysztof Dudek, Mario Krix, and Michal Radecki in 2008. And it’s another somewhat disappointing conversion, to be honest.
What I find frustrating about these homebrew conversions is how the programmers sometimes decide to change things to the detriment to the game, and don’t seem to realise that their choices are bad…
The King of Grabs 