Battletoads & Double Dragon

"Same gameplay. Same toads. New characters stolen from another game."

Back in the late days of the NES, Rare made a nifty little game called Battletoads. This featured, as you may have guessed, fighting toads. Not just regular toads, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Toads, as I like to call them. They are the same size as humans, and have somehow learned to fight. Whatever their lame excuse was, the game was still pretty fun. It was a simple and fun beat-em-up that I fondly remember as a kid. Following its success, Tradewest wanted to make another game. So, they thought ''Hey! Remember that other beat-em-up we made? That really popular one, Double Dragon? Well, what if we basically remake the old Battletoads game, put them into it by making them clones of the Battletoads, change a few enemies and levels and call it a new game!''

The graphics are just a slightly less pixilated version of the NES graphics. While the characters look ok, it's nothing amazing. The only thing I can really give it credit for on main characters is the caricature graphics that appear when finishing off an enemy. And while cartoony, it is the style of the game, and it still looks good.

Contributing to the whole cartoony style of the game is the number of cute facial features they give to the characters. When a boss appears, the toads, as well as the Lee twins, will do an anime jaw-drop and eye bug-out. Bosses will scream before they are killed, etc. As far as up close graphics go, its also pretty good. The large talking bosses or characters at the beginning look really good, and I like those a lot. Backgrounds look fairly pretty. I wish they had some more levels, but they look pretty good. One final note to the graphics: Whoever draws the icons cannot draw worth of crap. They made Billy and Jimmy look like a bunch of stoned punks!

The gameplay is exactly like that of the original Battletoads. Hit guys until they're weak, and then kill them with a super punch. Do this for about every enemy until you reach a boss, then do a couple jump kicks and repeat. While it was not very deep, it was extremely fun for when the first game came out, so who cares? So it's not as deep, we don't mind. It's fun! And the game was. It had plenty of battles, much better multiplayer action that Double Dragon II, and some cool minigames to keep you going. But the new one is still the same thing. If it were just another Battletoads game, I wouldn't mind so much. It's what they did to the Lee twins.

Double Dragon was a very deep beat-em-up. With its RPG elements, it was the best around. But by bringing them into this, it's almost an insult. The deep and well-made characters have been brought over into a dumbed-down clone of their own game! They don't fight like they used to anymore. Now they just punch until they can do a finishing move. Where's the fun? When I first played it, I didn't care much. My friend always choose the toad, I always got a dragon. We played through it, and we had alot of fun. And for multiplayer purposes it was. But now looking back on it, it's just not the same.

The game is a rehash of the first one, and that’s really the biggest problem. There are several levels I can remember playing in the original, which is just laziness on their part. The only thing that has been really added is the Double Dragons and their few new enemies. But other than that the game is still exactly the same. And that hurts it.

If you can look past that, then the game is still pretty fun. Just beat the guys up as fast as you can and collect power-ups. Throughout the level are also some items you can get to beat enemies faster. Some of the fun levels and minigames are still there, so it’s at least good just for those. Boss fights are a pain in the ass, since the boss can't be approached unless you’re invincible. If you can somehow manage to perform a full combo on him, he'll pop right back up and take away most of your life. To beat most of them you just have to repeatedly jump kick until they die.

The sound and music isn't too bad. I like the tunes on alot of the places. It still sounds like an NES game, but it's not bad. Sound seems to have been added at the last minute though. There are very little sounds at all, even when characters are supposed to be speaking or whatever.

In terms of replay value the game really shines. Multiplayer is still very fun. With a friend going through it with you, you'll have a solid 6 hours of gaming fun. Two people make the hard parts infinitely easier, and beating up bosses a hell of a lot more satisfying.

If I've led you to believe that this is a bad game then you have the wrong idea. As a game by itself, it's still good. But as a sequel it's not too hot. They really don't improve much of anything, and just got lazy on some parts. More importantly, they stole characters from a great game and forced them to be in this. If only Jimmy and Billy had controlled slightly differently I wouldn't have minded so much. But, oh well. I'd still like to see a new Battletoads some day (scratch that. I want a new Double Dragon!).

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/02, Updated 09/09/03