Battletoads/Double Dragon (fully titled Battletoads & Double Dragon - The Ultimate Team) is a 1993 beat 'em up developed by Rare and published by Tradewest. It was originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System and later ported to the Mega Drive/Genesis, Super NES, and Game Boy. The SNES version was released on the Nintendo Classics service in September 2024; it was the game's first re-release as it was not released on the Rare Replay collection.

The Ultimate Team is a crossover of Technos Japan's Double Dragon and Rare's Battletoads game franchises, although Technos had little or no credited involvement in production beyond providing the Double Dragon license. The game features the characters from the Double Dragon series, Billy and Jimmy Lee, two young martial arts experts; also included are the three humanoid toad protagonists from the Battletoads game. It is also the first Battletoads game to feature all three toads as playable characters. The game's engine and design are directly based upon the Battletoads series.

Plot

After she was defeated by the Battletoads, the evil Dark Queen flees to the outer reaches of the universe and the 'Toads and their mentor get on with their lives. However, one day the Earth's military is neutralized and the giant spaceship Colossus emerges from the Moon. Apparently, the Dark Queen is back with another plan to dominate the galaxy, and she has allied herself with the Shadow Warriors (from the Double Dragon series) to supplement her forces. Deciding to even the odds, the Battletoads contact Billy and Jimmy Lee for help. The brothers agree, and all five immediately take off for the Colossus in a mission to stop this two-pronged threat.

The first level of the seven-level game takes place on the tail of Colossus, the second on the interior corridors of the ship in level two, the third in the ship's base, and the fourth where the player attempts to destroy the ship from the outside while on a small space craft. The fourth level is where the beat 'em up game turns into a shooter, The 16-bit versions have identical gameplay to their NES counterparts, attacks and jumping are triggered by only two buttons.

The player has a choice of five playable characters: Billy and Jimmy Lee from Double Dragon, and Zitz, Pimple, and Rash from Battletoads. All of the toads are equipped with their usual "Smash Hit" attacks, such as big punches ("Kiss-My-Fist"), big kicks ("Big Bad Foot"), double-handed hits ("Nuclear Knuckles"), headbutt ("Battletoad Butt"), a wrecking-ball-like charge used while hanging on a cable ("BT Bashing Ball"), kicks while hanging on a rope ("Swingin' Size Thirteens"), a pick-up and throwing of enemies ("Take Out the Trash"), backward kicks while riding a speeder bike ("Bikin' Bash"), walker leg bashes ("No Way Back Thwack"), and enemy slamming ("Twin Side Slam"), with a new attack being a kick while hanging on a ledge named "Back 'N Front Punt." Likewise, the Lee twins' Dragon Force techniques are playable, such as spin kick, knee drops, and elbow-drops. New abilities include hanging off of and moving across sides of platforms, and kicking off enemies while doing so, although the player can fall off and lose a life if other enemies step on his fingers.

The NES version features 3D scrolling and other advanced special effects uncommonly sophisticated for the console. The Game Boy version is similar to the NES version, but it is only for one player. The sprites are the same size although the screen is smaller (leaving less room for movement) and the 3D effects are absent. The logo on the game cover art is one of Rare's first uses of 3D graphics.

Reception

Contemporaneous

Nintendo Power asserted that the game has confusing depth perception, but "great action, graphics and theme make this one of the strongest titles this year", and is better than Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (1993). The NES version was nominated for Nintendo Power Awards 1993 in the categories "Graphics & Sound", "Theme & Fun", "Play Control", "Villain" (The Dark Queen), and "The Best Overall Game".

Electronic Gaming Monthlys Steve Harris, reviewing the NES version, loved its "side-scrolling techniques", "nice" attack combos, and combination of game licenses, but found the graphics too average even for 8-bit technology and the controls "slightly haphazard". Hull appreciated its more forgiving difficulty in comparison to the originalBattletoads,

An AllGame critic, Brett Alan Weiss, was harsh on the SNES version, calling it "an unnecessary creation, except to line the pockets of the companies involved", and too similar in looks and gameplay to its 8-bit counterpart, thus not taking enough advantage of the 16-bit console's capabilities. His other criticisms were the "slow" controls, "jerky" character movements, and poor audio, writing that "the sound effects are boring and the music is of the pseudo rock 'n' roll variety, replete with drum machine-sounding drums and thoroughly unconvincing guitar riffs." and the 15 most bizarre crossovers in gaming by GamesRadar. It has been ranked the 76th best NES game by IGN. In 2018, Complex listed the game 28th on its "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time". In 2023, Time Extension included the NES version on their top 25 "Best Beat 'Em Ups of All Time" list, saying that it "[...] seamlessly blends the two worlds together, unshackling Double Dragon from its archaic routes and curbing the difficulty of Battletoads to create an excellent entry point for either series or just a fun, well made one-off.".

Notes

References

Bibliography

<!-- Not using the template until it supports TLS (https) -->

  • Battletoads Double Dragon at MobyGames