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The title
Battletoads is synonymous with pure infuriatingly cheap anger-inspiring difficulty. The original NES game is generally considered one of the hardest games to be released on the system. Maybe ever.
In January, the forum over at
http://www.racketboy.com decided to play the NES cult-classic as part of the monthly Together Retro game club. Obviously I took this as an excuse to massachistically expose myself to the Game Boy version.
As it turns out, the NES version was eventually ported to the Game Boy under the title
Battletoads In Ragnarok's World and eventually even spawned a crossover sequel called
Battletoads & Double Dragon. However I tackled the self-titled Game Boy cart, which turned out to be a completely original game that was very obviously inspired by the varied levels -- and of course difficulty of the NES game. Here's how I did:
The first level is a rather straight forward 2.5D beat-em-up stage. It's been an extremely long time since I've played the NES game, but I'm pretty sure this level is very similar to one from the original game. Nothing too difficult really. Level boss is a big cow.
The second level is already proof of the effort that went into making this little black & white cart into a game as compelling and varied as the original. It's a shmup stage! There are checkpoints that help keep you going, but it gets really hard, really fast. There's a part where you need to keep squeezing very tightly into a small hole in a series of walls. And it goes fast! But if you memorize the layout of the wall holes, then you should be able to pull it off after a few play-throughs. The end boss is a mouse-robot-spaceship, which is maybe the most awesome Darius ribbing ever.
Next up is the ice stage, another platformer. This is actually a bit of breather after the high-speed shmup level. If you're any good at platforming, then you should have no problem with this one. I got through it no problem.
The fourth stage is where things start to get out of control. The jet ski level. This stage is actually a lot harder than the shmup stage was. It took me a while to get the hang of the jet ski -- which also goes really fast. But eventually I pulled it off. The level boss is super easy.
Fifth stage is where I really start dropping the F-bomb. This stage sucks. Big time. You gotta run through this ant-farm style maze level while this big testicle/brain thing chases you like in Temple Of Doom. It's awful. If it touches you once, you die. And the level is not that short. No checkpoint. Just start over from the beginning of the level. I actually only beat this level once.
Sixth level is a lot like its NES counterpart. I can't go into much detail, because I died before the endboss, and I've only made it up to here once. Apparently there are three more levels after this one. And there's a good chance I'll never see them, as the thought of firing this game up for any more punishment just seems rather out of the realm of possibility for me any time soon. But really, I could never see myself getting rid of this game from my collection after puting such effort into. Sure it's demanding and brutal, but it's also extremely rewarding when you finally beat each level. Who knows, maybe I'll try again next year? Or the year after that...
At any rate if you happen upon this little grey cart, pick it up! It's a very complex game packed into a small monochrome package.
