Battletoads & Double Dragon

Battletoads & Double Dragon is a side-scroll beat 'em up developed by Rare that came out for the NES, Genesis, SNES, and Game Boy in 1993. For the first, and only time, we get to see two of the hardest beat 'em up games out there combine into one kick-ass adventure! For use of this review we're going to be looking at the Genesis version because it was my childhood and the SNES version sucks! You heard me.

The title screen gives us our selection of one and two players. Two players is separated by mode A and B which basically means do you want friendly fire on or off? I don't know why anyone would want to play Mode A. One of you would have to stand back during all the boss fights or you'd just hit each other. There's no advantage to it. Once you decided on a mode you can start your game.

  TOADS IN SPACE! Seriously, how do they breathe?

You get your choice between Rash, Zits, Pimple, Billy, and Jimmy. Each have their own advantages that they brag about in the opening cut-scene if you wait around on the title screen, like for example Pimple's so dumb you have to stand right next to the opening to throw those fire crackers back at the window guy. Both the Toads and the Dragons have their own animation for their attacks that makes them unique to each other.

There are two buttons for attacking, and one for jumping. As usual A and C pretty much does the same thing. With a running start you can launch more powerful blows to earn a higher score when raking up points. Does more damage, too. Each set of enemies triggers a new animation for your character when taking them down, and it's funny the random things they'll react to. Like if the guys from stage two catches you climbing their eyes will bug out. It's hilarious.

  That guy looks like Guile.

Both the Turbo Tunnel and Rope Descent from the first Battletoads return in this game. Turbo Tunnel isn't nearly as hard as I hear it is in the original game, but man, oh man is the Rope Descent on stage three a pain in the ass. Not only do you have guns shooting at you, but you have crows flying at you all while desperately trying to kick them before they knock you off. Why did their have to be so many? There's a move you can do to make it easier to take out enemies by causing the characters to shapeshift, but I could never do it.

Items come to you in the form of small gray balls you can break for extra lives, health, points, and a small screw that grants invulnerability for a time. These items are usually either laying around someplace, or appear while you advance. After a while you get into the habit of collecting them even if you don't need the health. The extra lives are always good to get even after you max out your hearts. The most challenging part about the Turbo Tunnel is getting all the items in a row to earn an extra life. 

  That look says it all right there.

A lot of love and care went into each stage. There's a lot of attention to detail and the levels are fun as well as challenging, and I do MEAN challenging. This is a Battletoads/Double Dragon game, after all. The levels are split up into parts and on the final bit you face the boss, like this asshole in the picture above. Bosses are a mixed of Battletoads and Double Dragon enemies just like the thugs you fight.

Battletoads & Double Dragon only have seven stages overall. One of them plays more like a game of Asteroids than your typical side-scroller. That's when you get into the pod and take on the Rat Ship. In one stage you're running on a rocket headed to Earth and you're flooded by minibosses while they combine obstacles from previous stages to halt your advance. Reminds me of the last level of Aladdin, only not as lazy.

The mix of space action with everything else gives the game a nice sense of variety as you never know what to expect. Don't worry about length since back in those days, what the games lacked in length, they made up for in extreme difficulty. You don't get to pick the difficulty, either.

 Can't... Breathe!

On Stage 6 you take on the Shadow Boss himself. There's a cool image of him standing in the background gazing upon you from the darkness while you're working your way through his thugs. Pretty cool. For the boss fight itself, you need to jump on a lamp in a ceiling and hang from it in order to avoid his rolling attack, and then go back to whaling on him until he's dead. As evident by the above picture it's possible to destroy it beforehand. Don't do that.

  Right in the face!

After that it's the Dark Queen herself. She spends most of the boss battle in the ground as flames. You have to avoid her and then wait for her to come up to throw fire at your ass before you can get any offensive of your own in. Meanwhile, the machine on your right shoots out items for you to take to help along the way. Once the Dark Queen is defeated the game is over, and you saved the day.

  What you get for not keeping that hair short.

The graphics hold up pretty well given how old it is. Everything is clearly defined, bright, and colorful. One of the reasons I like the Genesis version so much better than the SNES is because you have different color hearts for each character. Not the boring white hearts you get with all of them in its counterpart. Some times the simplest things can have the most impact.

Music is pretty catchy and will be stuck in your head for days. Another perk to the Genesis' version is that there's a separate track for the boss fights so you know it's clobbering time! I had to try to salvage that line somehow. 

  Back when Rare knew how to make games.

Battletoads & Double Dragon combines the best of both worlds to make a fun, and challenging beat 'em up. If you're a fan of Battletoads, Double Dragon, or both, then I can't recommend it enough. If you're not familiar with either, don't worry, it's still a fun game. This was the first Battletoads/Double Dragon game I played and it's responsible for introducing me to both franchises. Have a blast!

Get it