Battletoads/Double Dragon (fully titled Battletoads & Double Dragon – The Ultimate Team) is a 1993 beat ’em up developed by Rare and published by Tradewest. It was originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System and later ported to the Mega Drive/Genesis, Super NES, and Game Boy. Retro-bit Publishing (under license from ARC System Works and Rare) has re-released the 8-bit NES version in early 2022 with plans to release the 16-bit versions later this year.
The Ultimate Team is a crossover of both Technos Japan‘s Double Dragon and Rare’s Battletoads game franchises, although Technos had little or no credited involvement in production beyond the Double Dragon license. The game features the characters from the Double Dragon series, Billy and Jimmy Lee, two young martial arts experts; also included are the three humanoid toad protagonists from the Battletoads game. It is also the first Battletoads game to feature all three toads as playable characters. The game’s engine and design are directly based upon the Battletoads series.
Gameplay
The Super NES version has the Battletoad Pimple fighting against the Double Dragon boss character Roper (Willy).
Battletoads/Double Dragon is a beat ’em up video game where the players, as either one of the three Battletoads or Jimmy and Bimmy, attack enemies, swing ropes, go on spaceships, and turbo bike to defeat the Shadow Boss and Dark Queen.[11] It has three play modes: a single-player, a “2 Players A” mode where the players can hit each other, and a “2 Players B” that doesn’t have that.[12] Its engine and gameplay is from the original Battletoads,[13] and less like Double Dragon.[14] Like the prior Battletoads installment, there are only three continues and no password system,[15] and in the two-player modes, if one player loses all lives, both players have to start a level over.[16] The 16-bit versions have identical gameplay to their NES counterparts, attacks and jumping are triggered by only two buttons.[17]
The player has a choice of five playable characters: Billy and Jimmy Lee from Double Dragon, and Zitz, Pimple, and Rash from Battletoads. All of the toads are equipped with their usual “Smash Hit” attacks, such as big punches (“Kiss-My-Fist”), big kicks (“Big Bad Foot”), double-handed hits (“Nuclear Knuckles”), headbutt (“Battletoad Butt”), a wrecking-ball-like charge used while hanging on a cable (“BT Bashing Ball”), kicks while hanging on a rope (“Swingin’ Size Thirteens”), a pick-up and throwing of enemies (“Take Out the Trash”), backward kicks while riding a speeder bike (“Bikin’ Bash”), walker leg bashes (“No Way Back Thwack”), and enemy slamming (“Twin Side Slam”), with a new attack being a kick while hanging on a ledge named “Back ‘N Front Punt.”[18] Likewise, the Lee twins’ Dragon Force techniques are playable, such as spin kick, knee drops, and elbow-drops.[19] New abilities include hanging off of and moving across sides of platforms, and kicking off enemies while doing so, although the player can fall off and lose a life if other enemies step on his fingers.[8]
