The Forgotten: Battletoads
March 30, 2005
Everyone loves an established video game franchise. After all, some of gaming’s best loved characters have been going on adventure after adventure for years, prompting players to line up to reserve the next installment of Super Mario, Link, Samus Aran, or Sonic the Hedgehog. Over the years, however, some games just haven’t struck gold; they’ve been overshadowed by more popular fare that shares the store shelf or are even passed over due to something as petty as unimpressive box art or an unusual premise. They deserve to be remembered and revived, but instead they are The Forgotten.
Battletoads
Developed by Rare
Released for the NES (1991), Game Boy (1992 and 1993), Super NES (1994), Sega Genesis (1994), Sega Game Gear (1994), and the arcade (1994)
Before Rare lit up the game world with Donkey Kong Country one of the games the company came up with was Battletoads, a side-scrolling beat-em-up in the vein of Final Fight and Double Dragon. Three of the galaxy’s fightingest toads (Rash, Pimple, and Zitz) set out to defeat the evil Dark Queen with their cartoon-inspired moves, such as fists that become an anvil or standard kicks that become giant boots. Alternating with the side-scrolling levels are a series of vertical drop levels, racing levels, and other such diversions to keep gameplay fresh. Battletoads was ported to a number of consoles and the characters even teamed up with Billy and Jimmy Lee of Double Dragon fame, but after Donkey Kong and friends put Rare on the map they left the ‘toads behind.
Rare has floundered in recent years and the company needs a major hit now more than ever. Grabbed By The Ghoulies didn't light any charts on fire and Conker: Live And Reloaded could be too little, too late. While any 3D Battletoads titles would undoubtedly land on the Microsoft Xbox 2 thanks to Microsoft's ownership of the company, it is still within the realm of possibility for the characters to land on the Game Boy Advance either in a port of their original game or a new adventure that expands the ‘toads universe but still retains the fun factor of the original. And bring back classic boss characters such as Big Blag and Robo-Manus!