Battletoads
1991 · Beat 'em up / Platform · NES
Overview
Battletoads (1991) is Rare's NES action game starring three toads, mixing brawling, vehicle and climbing stages — and infamous for its difficulty.
Deep Dive
Battletoads sends Rash and Zitz after the Dark Queen to rescue their fellow toad Pimple and Princess Angelica. Each stage changes the rules: beat-'em-up brawling with exaggerated 'smash hits', the high-speed obstacles of the Turbo Tunnel, rappelling down a chasm, racing on snakes and unicycles. Two players can join in, and they can hurt each other. Rare built it partly to rival the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and its punishing difficulty became legendary.
Developer Story
Battletoads was designed by Mark Betteridge and Michael Wiley at Rare in 1991. The three anthropomorphic toad warriors — Rash, Zitz, and Pimple — were explicitly created to compete with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The game was notorious for extreme difficulty and friendly fire in two-player mode. The turbo tunnel level became one of gaming's most infamous challenges.
Did You Know?
- Battletoads was explicitly created to compete with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — Rare wanted their own anthropomorphic animal franchise.
- The Turbo Tunnel level (Level 3) was so difficult that many players never saw Level 4, despite the game having 12 levels.
- Two-player co-op had friendly fire enabled — punching your partner was entirely possible, and the hit stun was just as severe as from enemies.
- The game's difficulty became legendary — asking if someone "beat Battletoads" became shorthand for asking about extreme gaming skill.
Sources & further reading
- Battletoads — Wikipedia
