Battletoads & Double Dragon

"Better than the original Battletoads, but not as good as a real Double Dragon game."

One upon time, a company called Technos Japan created a game called Double Dragon. To make a long story short, it was a successful game at the arcades, but Technos had troubles distributing the game themselves in America, so they gave the licensing rights to another company called Tradewest. A few years afterwards, another company called Rare created their own beat-em-up title called Battletoads for the NES. starring a Ninja Turtles-esque trio of toads named after skin disorders, Battletoads was also published by Tradewest. Despite the confusing game design and frustrating difficulty level, Battletoads did well with Nintendo Power's ''critics'' and was given several awards. Tradewest realized that they owned the licensing rights to both: Battletoads and Double Dragon, so they called Rare (probably without Technos' permission) and told them to make a crossover title based on the two franchises. And that's when Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team was born.

Battletoads & Double Dragon was originally released for the NES and then ported to the Game Boy, Genesis and Super NES (which this review is based on). The premise of BT&DD is simple. The Dark Queen has team up with the Shadow Boss (who is supposeddly a DD villain). So it's up to the Battletoads and the Lee Brothers to save earth from the evil duo.

The gameplay is more Battletoads than Double Dragon. There is only two action buttons: Attack and Jump, but that changes in certain levels. You get to choose between the three toads and the two Lee brothers, both groups has their own individual moves, but there is no differences between the three toads and no difference between the two Lee brothers. It's a shame, because Billy and Jimmy in Super Double Dragon had their own set of moves (and looks too) and so did Rash and Pimple in Battlemaniacs, so why not here? The game starts of very easy, but becomes insanely frustrating in later levels. You only get five energy bars and most of the enemies are really cheap with their attacks. Some of the levels are filled with cheap instant death traps like the bike scene in Stage 2 (where one mistake can cost an entire life) and the rope stage in Stage 3 (with annoying sparks). The most annoying level is the Asteroids-inspired stage in Stage 4, was that neccesary. To be honest, I never liked the original and overrated Battletoads and BT&DD is only slighty better.

The thing that really bugs me is how they got all the Double Dragon villains wrong. They got Abobo right, but Roper is actually a misnamed Willy (the machinegun guy from DD1) and the Shadow Boss (which is supposeddly the nameless end-boss from DD2) is really Burnov from Double Dragon 2 with a muscular makeover. There were no ''Shadow Troopers'' in the DD series, Williams and Roper are misnamed Lopar and Guido respectively and finally, Linda is called Linda Lash for no real reason.

The graphics are improved from the NES version. Billy and Jimmy are now wearing their respective blue and red uniforms, but I wish they would look more like their counterparts from Double Dragon 2-3 and Super (with Billy and Jimmy having different hairstyles). The three Battletoads are also pallete-swapped version of each other too. Overall, the graphics are decent, nothing great. The BGM is good from what I remember, but the SFX was average in it's best.

Overall, Battletoads & Double Dragon is more like Battletoads 2 with Billy and Jimmy than anything else. Fans of the original Battletoads & Battlemaniacs will like it, but true Double Dragon fans will be dissapointed.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/26/01, Updated 03/26/01