Genre: Action
Perspective: Side view
Visual: 2D scrolling
Gameplay: Arcade, Beat 'em up
Setting: Sci-fi / futuristic
Published by: Electronic Arts
Developed by: Rare Limited
Released: 1994
The game gives you a choice of three toads (Pimple, Rash and Zitz) and the ability to play two players at once. From the first level, you are transported to a 2D isometric level typical of Beat-em-up games. What immediately catches your eye from the first minutes, the game has moved to a higher-quality graphical view, compared to the previous ones. But if the graphical step is immediately noticeable, then nothing new is given to you in the gameplay yet, everything is just as straight forward - everything that moves! The levels themselves, I note, are created in the good style of similar games, interesting and without distracting from the main action, as befits a substrate. You may notice that Battletoads has now taken on an even more brutal nature. If in the previous parts you had to inflict savory blows, literally drive opponents into the soil, even holding the girl with one hand by the hair, with the other hand hitting the chest, bending her and hitting her with a knee in the face, then in Super Battletoads all this is presented to you with the same in a big way, but with blood! I immediately recall the feminists - there are no women here, their fate has passed by being beaten. Each of the three heroes now have individual moves! For example, Zitz has a peculiarity - his hand turns into a kind of drill, with which he can drill the head of a lying enemy, seal with a bucket, saw through an opponent in the air with a knife, etc. Rash has the ability to hit opponents with savory kicks with spiked shoes, ax, mace, etc. Pimple is equipped no worse, it has in its arsenal the "football head" trick, when from acceleration it hammers into the enemy with its head, which turns into a kind of football (American) helmet, or can shiban the enemy in a jump with a hammer, anvil - it looks delicious. In addition to some special techniques, the heroes also have general ones, for example, they can fight off enemies on both sides in a jump, give a powerful kick, so that the enemy flies directly onto the screen (a good effect known to us from games about ninja turtles and other similar sharpeners) ... But, if the blood distinguishes this game from its predecessors, then finishing in the style of Mortal Kombat is already a feature that clearly stands out from the general view, is remembered for a long time. Finishing off a prone opponent by crushing his head with a multi-ton sinker of the Pimple's leg is no longer a joke, cruelty in its most striking manifestation with blood and brains on the sides. Moreover, there is even the ability to cut off the enemy's head !!! - this is usually done with a jump - Pimple, Rash or Zitz inflict their cutting, stabbing or just a strong blow with a hammer, blade on the enemy, after which the opponent simply flies off the thinking apparatus to the side. Why isn't Jonny Cage's fatal uppercut or Kung Lao's hat for you? That's just it. The revolution of brutality in games, massively promoted in MK, has reached Battletoads, where it is appropriate, by the way.
As you might expect, this episode did not give up weapons. Heroes can grab large boxes and throw them at opponents, swing in all directions with some kind of pillar, etc. And what is more interesting, there is an opportunity to take away firearms, shoot them at enemies.
Bosses! This is another of the quality features of the series, which Super Battletoads did not forget, even recreated in the best traditions of the first series. For example, on the first level, the boss is a certain general Slaughter, whom you can easily kill, but how effective it is! The fight takes place as usual, but you can kick the enemy out of bounds, after which he again shows his angry muzzle and jumps into the area to continue the fight with you. At the same time, pay attention to the details, with each new precise blow to the face of this general, scratches, bruises and black holes appear on his face in the dental composition - a trifle, but how pleasant it is for the player.
Traditionally, the levels move from an oblique isometric view (you can move back and forth and up and down on the site) to a strict side view (you can only walk back and forth). On the second level, you go down into a passage filled with all sorts of reptiles - and in the original game (and in any subsequent series) on the second level there was the same action. Further, the view of the game is given only from the side, without the ability to walk up and down the site, and the action is transferred to icy caves with a slippery floor. In the middle of the game, there will be levels with the ability to climb the stairs to the upper floors, simultaneously carrying out the tones of a motley beast. Meet a couple of interesting inserts where giant balls will roll on you (the moment is borrowed from the arcade game Golden Ax: The Revenge of DEATH ADDER), and the boss Big Blag will appear to you as not such a small rat from the NES version and not a big rat from the SMD version , but just a giant rat, which can hardly fit into the frame of the screen! You will even be offered a bonus level in which you have to smash the plane during the time (the moment happily migrated, apparently, from the Street Fighter game, where you also smash a car) board of a space boat. To be honest, I was not particularly pleased with this innovation, since I would like to go through the final level of the game in the traditional style of Battletoads gameplay, slamming a couple of powerful punches into the opponent's jaw. But no, the final battle with Robo-Manus is made exactly in this form - he appears from different corners of the screen, and the player must shoot him, moving within the ship. Yes, the ending came out so-so.
Well, it's time to say a few words about the compound games. The graphics, as I said, are excellent here! Characters completely drawn in the style of the series, and not just the same shape repainted, but a different look is drawn for each. Mostly spectacular levels, enemies, etc. And I liked the bosses a lot! Great inter-level chic art and you should really like it. By the way, this game has an unusual screen resolution - 512x224, which, apparently, looks great on an original arcade machine or a widescreen monitor if emulated on a PC.
Music of the game in your own style. Here they play musical compositions in the traditional style of the series - downhole rock melodies. BSMT2000 screams at all 24 MHz, guided by the 4 MHz Z80! Combat music sets you up for the desire to slap all the villains that will only get in the way of the hero.
The sound effects here are of an average level, since there are sounds that are unpleasant to the ear, such as the sound of electricity, etc. But mainly the sounds of blows are heard - dull "boo", and the screams of "aA-A" enemies. Of course, it should be noted that it is in Super Battletoads that for the first time in the entire series, a voiceover is used, which voices the most successful blows. A trifle that discreetly makes the game a little bit better in terms of sound.
Overall, I was pleased with the game. I don't even know, the feelings are mixed - on the one hand, good graphics, sound, gameplay in the best traditions of Battletoads, but the fact that the game is short and very straightforward is the cost of the platform, which is intended to pump coins out of our pockets, and not for long hesitation ... Arcade, of course, gave the game something, and took something away, but the game remained the same classic game, which only included moments from other series of the game. This series absorbed many of the features of the previous parts, as well as from the games popular at that time. Although comics and cartoons failed, without becoming anything remarkable, for that quality Battletoads games became the hallmarks of their time, of the platforms on which they came out. It is a pity that the series is over, and already there will be no place for it in the modern gaming market, since by and large the genre has sunk into oblivion, which means many hits of past years, including Battletoads. But what was released would be unforgivable to pass by.
Recommended to everyone who loves games of this genre, loves the Battletoads series, and indeed games from arcade machines.
Plot
The plot of the arcade Battletoads tells that the Dark Queen has once again decided to destroy the brave spotted green guys and enslave the world. And this time her most important henchman, Robo-Manus, became her inspiration for these exploits. He and his no less disgusting accomplices, General Slaughter, Karnath, Big Blag and other famous and unknown villains took up the practical implementation of a brilliant plan to conquer the universe, in the first paragraph of which the destruction of the brave toads. One way or another, our mottled green comrades will have to give them the first number again.