Battletoads Arcade Longplay (Arcade) [QHD]

Developed by Rare and published by Electronic Arts in 1994

I'd imagine most folks are familiar with the console versions of Rare's warty-skinned heroes, which was something of a NES classic. I owned a copy of the Sega Genesis version back in the day and, if I'm honest, didn't have much love for it; yes, the humour was cool, but the difficulty - especially the infamous turbo tunnel - was off the charts.

Perhaps lesser-known than the home versions is the arcade release, also developed by Rare, and published by EA in 1994. If I'm honest, this game is really what the home versions should have been: unadulterated beat 'em up fun, packed with variety, and bearing a sense of humour unique to Rare.

Much of the game's success is down to the absolutely brilliant artwork by Kevin Bayliss, and the soundtrack by David Wise is equally amazing. The tone is also more mature, featuring blood, gore, and a more adult sense of humour.

It's a real shame this never got a port to home consoles, because I'm sure it would have been a hit; the PlayStation and Saturn could easily have replicated the experience, but I guess it wasn't to be.

Credits
Hardware Concept: Chris Stamper
Hardware Design & Construction: Pete Cox, Chris Stamper
Coding: Chris Sutherland, Mark Wilson
Design: Gregg Mayles, Kevin Bayliss, Chris Sutherland
Lead Character Artist: Kevin Bayliss
Additional Character Artists: Keri Gunn, Gregg Mayles, Steve Mayles, Chris Peil
3D Models: Kevin Bayliss
Music & Sound: David Wise

Chapters
0:00:00 Attract Mode
0:00:31 Stage 1
0:05:29 Stage 2
0:12:42 Stage 3
0:25:05 Bonus Stage
0:26:11 Stage 4
0:31:54 Stage 5
0:43:42 Stage 6
0:58:13 Ending

#battletoads
#retrogames
#arcadegames