Rare brought one more Super Nintendo game to the table with their Switch Online emulator rollout, and I'm talking about it today. BACKGROUND:
I have spoken about my background with the Battletoads series when I discussed the 2020 reboot (more on that here), so the only thing I'll add here is that I didn't know that there was a Super Nintendo entry in the series. SUMMARY: Battletoads in Battlemaniacs is split into six main levels, each with different gameplay. You play as either Pimple or Rash, and for many of the levels, you control them as you would in any other classic 2D beat-'em-up game. I'll discuss each of these levels in order. Before I get to the meat of the game, I ought to talk about the story. The gist is that the bad guys (Silas Volkmire and the Dark Queen) are up to no good and plan to use the power of another dimension to take over the world. In the process, the villains kidnap people, including Zitz (one of the Battletoads), and the remaining Battletoads jump into the other dimension to mount a rescue. It's nothing revolutionary, but I appreciate the silliness of this Saturday morning cartoon adventure (expressed mostly through the brief cutscenes between levels). The first level is the one that is the actual beat-'em-up. If you've played a game of this genre before, this will play quite familiar: move to the right, beat up a wave of enemies, then proceed ad infinitum. You don't really have that many moves (running, jumping, various strikes based on your state or the enemy's state, and a throw), and the variety of enemies is quite shallow, but it's still pretty fun to stunlock enemies and hit your finishers. The game messes with you in various ways outside of spawning enemies, like the ground falling apart (creating pits you can fall into) or fire raining down on you (dealing damage). Most of this level was manageable to me, including the end, which features a very simple boss fight. For the second level, you get a vertical auto-scroller where your character is on a floating platform. All you really have to do here is move around to avoid obstacles, though you do have to defeat the occasional enemy in order to proceed. The most dangerous hazards here are the spiked walls, and there are many gauntlets where you have to weave between whole sections of these (with a few forcing you to wrestle with increased speed or wind that pushes you towards the spikes). I found this mostly manageable until the insanely fast ending. The third level is a take on the infamous Turbo Tunnel stage from the original game (a level so infamous, even someone like me who has yet to play the NES game knows about it). This is an intense obstacle course where you pilot a speeder bike and try to dodge obstacles at high speed by swerving and jumping. I don't know how hard the original Turbo Tunnel was, but this level was no joke. You really have to have a lightning-quick reaction time, and the latter sections take things over the edge by not telegraphing the obstacles at all. It's definitely satisfying to beat, but I totally understand any controllers that have been spiked on the ground because of this level. Level 4 is a platforming challenge where you have to rely on moving snakes to get to the exit. There is very little margin for error here as well, as the snakes disappear once they've gotten to their point B, and many sections are riddled with instant-death spikes. I'd argue this is less forgiving than the speeder bike section since you have to figure out the layout as you go along, and each section takes longer to get through. Outside of the unforgiving aspect, it's a serviceable platforming level. We get a rather radical change for the fifth level, as it's sort of a race on rails. The idea is to stay ahead of the lunatic chasing you down with a buzzsaw-equipped vehicle by holding the correct direction such that you maintain as much of your top speed as possible. This is another one that requires you to know the layout in order to succeed, and as far as I can tell, you have to do this all in one shot, which is pretty challenging because your enemy here is always on your ass regardless of how well you're doing. It's probably the level I like the least because of this. For the final stage, you go back to 2D platformer gameplay, but the goal now is to beat the bad guy (who is a rat) to the three checkpoints with TNT by falling down the level and going through the gaps in the platforms. You can whack the rat to knock them back a little and give yourself space, and apart from a few sections with hazards, this part is straightforward. Once you get to the end, you fight the final boss, who is incredibly easy, and you get a little minigame that determines the ending of the story. At two points during the campaign, you will be taken to bonus stages where you try to earn as many points as you can by collecting bowling pins or dominoes while avoiding hazards (which not only hurts you, but also decreases your point total). This is the place to earn extra lives (as that's what your points will be converted to), but getting through the gauntlet unscathed is easier said than done. There is no penalty for dying here, though, so don't worry about any serious penalty. While I thought the graphics were pretty solid (especially the wacky animations of the Battletoads when performing attacks), what truly stood out to me was the awesome music. Many of the tracks are absolute jams with a mostly rock and techno vibe, and they really fit the high-octane action of many of the levels. They also made failing more palatable, since that just means I could listen to the music some more. VERDICT: Battletoads in Battlemaniacs is pretty short, but it manages to keep things interesting all throughout with distinct experiences per level. How fun each level is varies quite a bit (I definitely enjoy some more than others), and the overall difficulty led to a few moments of frustration, but I would say my experience here is a net positive. I think I would have enjoyed if there were more beat-'em-up levels, as I feel like this game barely scratches the surface with what it could do for those sections. Apart from that, I liked what I played here, and it reaffirms that I have to get around to playing the original Battletoads. As far as I can tell, many of the levels in this game aren't exactly new, as they're iterations of what I've seen on the NES game. If you just want a vertical slice of what Battletoads is all about, I suppose this is a fine enough place to start, though I think many would say that the original should be the first stop for anyone interested in the series (it is a bona fide classic that I'd say more than deserves the "essential" distinction). Regardless, I recommend not being shy with save states or rewinds when playing through this, because it's a good example of old-school hard. - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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