Battletoads

Battletoads for the Game Boy brings to the handheld a series known from the NES and arcade cabinets, in which the player controls one of the mutant toad warriors fighting against the army of the Dark Queen and her minions. The game combines platforming passages with beat 'em up combat, in which the main hero uses grotesquely exaggerated, shape-shifting limbs — whether a giant fist or a hammer-shaped head — to take down enemies, complemented by fast action sequences such as riding a motorcycle or speeding down a tunnel viewed into the distance. It's these speed sections in particular that are notorious for their merciless difficulty, where a single mistake often means the immediate end of an attempt.

The Game Boy version retains the series' characteristically high difficulty and requires precise timing of attacks and dodges, since a mistake often means an instant loss of life. Battles with individual members of the Dark Queen's clan also have their own, well-recognizable behavior patterns, which the player must first learn before they can reliably defeat them. The graphics on the monochrome display remain legible even in more action-heavy sequences, albeit with fewer details and less background than the NES version. The toad warriors' characters and their grotesquely exaggerated attacks remain well recognizable despite the lower resolution, helping the game maintain its typical, slightly comic-book humor. The music keeps an energetic pace and accompanies the fast, at times chaotic action typical of the whole Battletoads series well.

The game was received as a solid transfer of a popular brand to the handheld, although some players complained about the high difficulty the series was already known for on home consoles and arcade cabinets. From a genre perspective, it shows how beat 'em up elements could be combined with platforming and speed sequences even on the Game Boy's limited hardware. Today the game is remembered mainly by series fans as a faithful, if demanding, transfer of a beloved brand into a compact, portable form.

Why play it: For fans of the series, it's a faithful, if demanding, transfer of a beloved brand into a compact form, showing how well beat 'em up elements worked even on the Game Boy's limited hardware.