Battletoads is a classic in my books for the NES. It stands up to the test of time by being infamous for it's cult following and it's notorious difficulty. Before I break down the following categories, be warned if you get frustrated easily or you are not into conquering through repitition and memory you will not enjoy this game. Now then, onto the review!

Graphics: 9
   What can I say? Battletoads is a pretty game for it's day. The art direction is fantastic with a perfect blend of organic and mechanical environments throughout. Earlier stages portray an alien atmosphere very well with fantastic foregrounds and backgrounds. No particular sprite work ever left me guessing what it was or what it was doing there. The later stages tend to move into a more mechanical appearance giving a classic 80's science fiction vibe while still feeling unique. The animations are also done quite well and can best be described as comical in a good way. I find myself laughing every time my toad charges with a pair or ram horns or turns into a wrenching ball. This game is also quite colorful which is extremely helpful when doing the brutally hard auto-scrolling sections. Every graphic feels crisp and well done with Battletoads. The only reason why take away the single point is because I have seen a couple game on the NES library that pull just a little more out of the system graphically.

Sound: 10
   The sound direction is great for this game and has some of my favorite classic tracks of any game. The music is fantastic. It's tough when it needs to be and frantic when things really ramp up. Even the pause music is very catchy. My favorite two tracks in the game would have to be from the dreaded "Turbo Tunnels" level. The first feels very foreboding with a deep bass line. It let's you know this is the level that separates the men from the boy's. The second track being from the speed bike section of the stage. It's fast paced, frantic, and beyond catchy.
   The sound effects are also great. Each hit sounds very solid almost akin to old black and white movies and a power hit sounds like it has more punch. All the other sounds are very distinct, queuing you to exactly what happened.

Addictiveness: 7
   Here's the part that will be the most divided. Battletoads to me is very addictive and nostalgic. It's difficulty poses a great challenge to conquer but I can only play it for so long before I feel like burning the world. I've always owned the game and for 20 some odd years I've always come back to it. However, The difficult may turn many players away instantly. It's fun, it's different, but very difficult.

Story: 5
   The story for Battletoads is simple but exists. More or less you are on a mission to rescue the third toad of your team, Zits from the Dark Queen. You are met with some filler dialogue between stages but that is about all you get. Its not extraordinary but explains more in game than most NES titles.

Depth: 10
   This game is mechanically very deep. At it's core it is a beat-em-up but every stage introduces a new mechanic in which you will have to conquer. This goes from speed bikes to swimming, intense platforming, etc. The challenge is very different from stage to stage, keeping things very fresh. In my opinion, it is one of the deepest games in the NES library just because it does so much and tackles so many mechanics of the time. If you like games that fundamentally change on the fly, play Battletoads.

Difficulty: 10
   Ever get kicked in between the legs? Ever get burned on the stove top? Ever fall out of a jet and land in a vat of battery acid and thumb tacks? Yeah, that's probably more comfortable than the difficulty curve of this game! 23 years I've played this game and I have never made it passed the "Turbo Tunnels" without the use of cheats and that's only level 3 out of 13! Expect to die a lot in this game. Expect your mind to drift to the homicidal when being ultimately crushed into dust and then atoms by this game. There is a reason why it is largely considered the hardest game of all time (Probably well into the 10's of 1000's). Contra ain't got nothin' on this. However, it is not cheaply difficult. All of the deaths I've ever experienced in this game I know exactly what I did wrong. This game requires a godly high skill ceiling but rarely cheats you unlike Ninja Gaiden with enemy placement. The game is designed in such a way that it will crush your soul and make you doubt everything but I can honestly say with total confidence that the player is almost always to blame.

Overall: 9
   Battletoads is a classic I always come back to and is one of my favorite games of all time despite the difficulty and I recommend everyone put playing this game and making it to level 3 at least once on their bucket list. It's a fantastic game that tried so much and finally it is being recognized. I tip my hat to you Rare and Tradewest for this beautifully crafted hell spawn of a game. Now then, happy dying!

Liked the review overall. Though I gotta say that the difficulty of the game is highly overrated. You mentioned never being able to pass the Turbo Tunnel. I notice that is probably the most common level that people say they can't pass. What part do you die on most? Do you crash into walls or are you having trouble making the long jumps with the ramps?

rcarter2 : I agree (maybe cuz I owned so I could pratice forever) but it is commonly flagged as a super hard game. And in your own review, didn't you give a difficulty 10? Stage 3 bikes requires such reflexes and memorization, I always felt the later surfing and airplane stages were way easier than the hover bikes - but definitely not as cool. If you can beat that bike stage, lol, you can probably take anything the game gives you.

endings : I did give it a 10. But the main reason why is not because I found it as impossibly hard as the reputation gives it, but because it is one of the few games that is as difficult as it is without being cheap. A lot of other games that equal this game's difficulty or exceed it do so by factors such as purposefully being outrageously unfair, poor design, sketchy controlling, or other cheap factors. This game is difficult that most games, yet it is completely fair. You aren't bombarded by so many enemies at once that it is near impossible to avoid, the enemies (and even the bosses) aren't really superior to your character, luck plays no factor, enemy placement isn't cheap, the design is pretty clean, and the controls are quite exceptional (especially considering when the game was made). Nothing cheap about it. It was just designed well to be a skillful game. But yeah, once you memorize where everything is, the game is not really bad. The only parts I tend to still have some difficulty with would be Rat Race and the Queen's Tower because those 2 levels are pretty much completely unforgiving of even slight mistakes. Gotta get through those perfectly or it's lights out.