NES #9: Battletoads

Battletoads! Hell yea! Anthropomorphic animals were very popular in the 80's and 90's with the most famous being the Ninja Turtles. So what animal did Rare turn to when they hoped to take on the Turtle's games? Toads, but not just any toads these are Battletoads! Rare also managed to create one of the hardest games in history, in my opinion at least.

My earliest memories of Battletoads are playing in my cousin's den one Saturday evening, and never getting any further than the first stage because we could never figure out how to beat the laser canon boss. We were just kids, how were we supposed to know to throw rocks at the screen? I have sense gotten further than the first stage, but have never been able to beat the entire game.

Battletoads plays like any side-scrolling beat'em up, that is at first glance. As you advance further in the game it changes things up a bit. One stage you might be propelling down a shaft by a long stretchy line, then you might find yourself riding a high speed bike as it rockets forward. It is the high speed bike stages that always proved to be my downfall, requiring fast twitch reflexes and a good deal of memorization of the track.

The Toads may have never gained the popularity of the Turtles, but they did give us one thing and that was some kick-ass pause music. Battletoads, the only game to make pausing awesome.