Sabatos Gaming

Classic Game Reviews

Battletoads in Battlemaniacs for the SNES

posted on November 16, 2003 by: TomKane

Title: Battletoads in Battlemaniacs
Reviewer: Draemus

Quick Information:
CONSOLE: SNES
SIZE: 1.00mb
BIT: 16Mbit
TESTED ON: SNES9x (Windows)
CHECKSUM: OK
TYPE: Side-Scrolling Beat-'em Up/Action
PLAYERS: Two
PUBLISHER: Capcom



Ok, you may or may not have seen the old show called "Battletoads", and that's cool, because it has nothing to do with the game, but made a cool introduction. Anyway, the story behind the game is something like this: Three normal kids, through some freak accident, ended up turned into toads with very strange powers (Anyone see the tie to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?"). So one day, as they're all sitting around doing absolutely nothing, their secret hideout is attacked, and some old lady runs off with their best friend (Again, like Ninja Turtles, only this time their "Splinter" is human), as well as one of the toads, and heads off through some magic portal or something. The other two decide to follow. One thing you should keep in mind when playing: Although the game tries to be funny (by naming the toads zits and stuff like that), it's really not that funny. Don't be tricked into thinking it is.

The graphics for this game are pretty good, considering when it was made (not sure of a year, but definitely one of the older games because I have owned it for ages), and some of the animations look really good. The backgrounds are mostly plain, although every now and then you get a big surprise from the game and they look kinda cool. But again, nothing to wet your pants about.



The music for the game isn't that bad either, considering how SNES sound is. It changes from level to level, but tends to stick around to rock-type music that's been turned into a MIDI. It sounds kind of cool, and fits the game quite well. Mind you, I only remember music from the first couple of levels. As for sound effects, they're pretty plain for the most part, although some sound kinda cool. It all fits in with the rock-type style of the music... or something like that.

The game isn't really that hard, save for one or two levels where it moves really fast and you have to have good reflexes to keep up with the obstacles (ie: The third or fourth level). At first, it'll take you about a minute to get used to the controls, and then from there you just pound the crap out of people, robots, giant bugs, space ships... whatever. The only real problem with the controls is that the game gives you no explanation at all as to how it works (it doesn't take a genius to figure out that you hit one of the four buttons to kick or punch or jump, but still, it'd be nice). As well, there are special moves you can do, but good luck remembering them. For example, the brown toad can make a massive hammer out of his fist, and the green guy can make his foot grow big, with spikes on the end, and trip people. All you can do is the age-old technique of button-mashing.

The game system isn't anything special. If you've played one side-scroller, you've played them all, really. Once you clear out all the guys, you get to move on to the next screen. Once you get into some of the later levels, though, you'll be able to pick up weapons and do some cool combos on them (like with the stick, you can stab a guy, lift him up, throw him, and hit him like a baseball). The two-player mode is basically the same as the single-player, but you have two toads instead of one (player 1 is green, player 2 is brown). This does make the game easier, unless friendly fire is on (I forget what they actually call it, but you know what I mean). Without friendly fire, though, two-player mode would get lame and boring, because hitting each other with sticks is the best.

The game can be fun, but more so to younger people who may find it sort of difficult. Mind you, in today's world kids are video game prodigies. Oh well.


Overall Score: 68/100
Good Points:
-Good graphics
-Cool music
-Some cool sound effects
-Fun to beat people with sticks
-Cool special moves
-Fun to hit each other with sticks (2-player mode)

Bad Points:
-Plain backgrounds
-Special moves are hard to do
-Lame story
-System has 0 originality
-Humour is lame and often makes no sense


Good for: I'd say up to 15 hours, but that's sort of a stretch. It depends more on how much fun you have beating people with sticks, and whether you make it that far.
Overall Score: