Battletoads is a humorous side-scrolling beat ’em up, developed by Rare Coin Games and distributed into arcades by Electronic Arts in 1994. It satirises the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters, turning them into muscular toads, called Zitz, Rash and Pimple.

The arcade version of Battletoads can be played by three players simultaneously and is more of a straightforward fighting game than the NES game it is based upon. There is the occasional shooting level and also a vertical descent level, as seen in the NES original.

The aim is to punch, kick, throw and smash your way through waves of enemies and bosses, in order to defeat the evil Dark Queen at the end of the game.

The Battletoads can deliver piledriver punches, just like in the NES game, and they can also kick enemies out of the screen, which is new to this game. They can pick up and throw enemies, perform jump kicks, and also pick up and use large metal sticks with concrete lumps in them to flatten enemies with powerful hits.

Health is replenished by eating flies, and each toad has their own special move that can be activated a certain way, and has its own unique animation.

There are boss battles at the end of each stage, and when they’re beaten players are shown a “Korpse Kount“, which awards a bonus for the total number of enemies defeated.

Battletoads Arcade is much more violent than the original console game. There are blood splats when particularly devastating moves are made, and Zitz will even drill into the faces of enemies – with his special power drill arm move – when they’re knocked-out on the ground!

Battletoads was a commercial failure in arcades when it was first released, and this led to the series being mothballed until it was rebooted in 2020. It’s still a fun game to play now, though. Especially with two other players.

More: Battletoads Arcade on Wikipedia