Battletoads

This is another of my favorite video games on the NES and an honorable mention in person favorite Beat Em Up/Platform action games. This was the first entry in the highly popular if slightly short "Battletoads" video game franchise.

It's not hard to see why this game was a hit as this came out at a time when the Anamorphic subgenre in Animation was big along with the popularity of NES console and beat em up genre in video games, all three were starting to rise in the 90's and this game didn't waste time in getting in on the action and picked the right time for it, I was swept up into this game as I was a 90's kid and was a fan of all three of these things.

I know the premise and plotline is rather ridiculous and daft when you think about it; a hot but evil queen called uninspiringly the Black Queen she kidnaps a princess along with one of your toad buddies named Pimple (charming name) and it's up to two of them a green one named "Rash" and yellow named "Zitz" (again charming names) to save them and the universe from.

That's pretty much it I know as I said ridiculous and daft but in the 80's and 90's and a lot of animated shows and video games had a lot of these and surprisingly it caught a lot of attention and became best sellers. And that's part of why I love the game as it's in on that fun, it obviously doesn't take itself too seriously as it has it's tongue firmly placed on it's cheek.

Animation is great it really looks like a 90's cartoon come to life, really like the graphical presentation as they were really pushing the power of the system a little further as the game seems to be a slight combo of both 2D and 3D animation and this game shows both make a beautiful combination.

Really like the character animation and the lifely expression of both the toads. Subvillians and bosses are also really book but I really like The Black Queen. I'll admit as a kid I had a crush on this character (I know I'm not alone in that and it's not strange), that's just me as I'm into bad girls like the Baroness on "G. I. JOE" or Morgan from the "Darkstalkers" franchise but that's another story. She basically an archetypal villainess who has long black hair which yeah that was a cliche back then on most villainous being brunettes.

And has this S and M Domenatrix outfit on, again another cliche back then of villains and villainesses wearing black and those kinds of outfits well sometimes. Both factors don't bother me as their turn ons for me, but anyway her motive is pretty cliche but what makes her standout is really in the cutscenes where she delivers some arrogance and insults to you the closer you get, it's kind of funny as you really don't take them seriously or personally as the kind you'd hear from the "Batman 66" show. But also, it was just interesting seeing a video game villain/villainous do that directly which wasn't common at the time, it's also a good motivation device just for you to continue playing and for me to see the Black Queen in person.

Music is also great there are plenty of memorable tracks some of them you could almost play in a party and dance to. One of them I like which is when you pause the game there is this short repeating smashing drumbeat, I remember sometimes just pressing the pause button just to dance to that toon for a little while. But I really love the theme song which is one of my favorite video game themes of all time, it pretty much a hard rocking tone that just sings out hard hitting action coming your way; just hearing that theme just even more motivated me to just press start and get into the action.

But of course, there is the gameplay, which is spot on, the controls are responsive as you have the typical action and jump buttons and you can tap the forward and backward button twice to get your character to run. The things that make this game unique are the fact that each level you play though is different which is cool as it keeps the game fresh but adds to the challenge because you have to quickly adjust how you play depending on what the next level requires you to do. Like in one level it's the typical beat em up routine of going from point A to B and beating the crap out of whoever is in your path. But then on the next level you have to repel down though a caecum from point A to B but you have to take the defenses down quick before they put you in for a long fall.

There are also a few boss battles which by their nature are actually pretty easy but each of them are different in some way, like in the first level you have to this "War of the Worlds" like tripod you have to take down by first avoiding it's beams and crosshairs and at the right moment throw a rock toward it, really like the 3D onscreen effect which at the time was really cool and sort of predates that same effect which was on the sequel "Ninja Turtles" arcade game "Turtles in Time" which came out two years after this game.

I also like that in each level your character have different kinds of moves which also help in keeping the game fresh. Like when you consistently deliver a combo of punches at an enemy you then have a finisher when you deliver it your fist enlarges to giant size. Or in another level you punt one of the bad guys and your foot turns into a giant boot. Sort of like the comic series "Ms. Marvel" (not a fan for the record) only in this game it's actually looks cool.

My only real problem with the game is the difficulty feels a tad imbalanced. In some parts of the game, it's fair but in others it's get turned up just a notch too high. Most notably no surprise is that darn third level which is fun but when you're on the hover bikes and Flintstones ATV those darn walls come at you too fast when you get further, though to me the worst part of that level is when you jump a gap your character for some stupid reason tends to drift away from the platforms in midair. Though you can clear the jump if you shadow meets the platform but still that damn drifting is a needless difficulty that should've been edited out. Also, that difficulty can make the stay on a particular level you haven't cleared yet longer than desired.

But I can get past this as the levels are beatable making beating the game possible.

"Battletoads" is a hard-hitting vintage classic.

Rating: 3 and a half stars.