Battletoads (NES)

Battletoads is a super-challenging action game with various styles of gameplay (fighting, platforming, racing, etc.) and excellent graphics. Oh, and there's a massive bug in two-player mode.

Both this game and its arcade sequel were resurrected in Rare Replay for the Xbox One, nearly 25 years later.

Sub-Pages#

Prerelease Info

Regional DifferencesStarring a beatable Turbo Tunnel!

Unused Music#

Track #8 on the NSF. Unknown purpose, though probably for Level 5 (Surf City) or Level 9 (Terra Tubes) since they're the only two stages that share background music.

(Source: FlyingOmelette)

While not entirely unused, you normally only hear about half (or less) of the post-level theme during normal gameplay. The second half of the song is not present in any other version of the game.

Revisional Differences#

This needs some investigation.
Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.
Specifically: The game was also available on the iOS/Android retro game subscription service PicoPico in 2020, albeit region-locked to Japan despite the app otherwise being downloadable worldwide. What differences does that build have?

Columbus Circle cartridge#

In late 2021, a Japanese company named Columbus Circle re-released the Japanese version of Battletoads. Only a couple of things were changed, however.

Original	Columbus Circle

The Masaya Games logo was updated to match its current design.

Original	Columbus Circle

A line of copyright text for Extreme (Which acquired the rights to the Masaya Games catalog in 2014⁸) and Columbus Circle was added to the title screen, resulting in the rest of the text (minus the options) being moved up a bit.

This needs some investigation.
Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.
Specifically: Figure out what this is/does?

Lastly, what appears to be an English character map located at $031BC0 was shifted and changed slightly. Characters in red denote the ones changed between versions.

Contents of **$031BC0** (hexadecimal numbers)
Original	Columbus Circle
`42 51 50 52 53 54 54 0C 05 3C 00` `2C` `00 00 00 00` `00 00 00 00 00 00` `2D 2E 2F` `00` `30 31 32 33 34 35` `36 37 38 39 3A 3B 3C 3D 3E 3F 40 41 42 43 44 45` `46 47 48 49 4A 4B 4C 4D 4E 4F 00 00 00 00` `00` `00` `00` `00` `00` `50` `00` `00` `0A 03 9E` `51` `09 06 02 3F 3F 84`	`42 51 50 52 53 54 54 0C 05 3C 00` `00` `00 00 00 00` `00 00 00 00 00 00` `2C 2D 2E` `00` `00 00 00 2F 30 31` `32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 3A 3B 3C 3D 3E 3F 40 41` `42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 4A 4B 4C 4D 4E 4F` `00` `50` `00` `51` `00` `52` `00` `53` `0A 03 9E` `54` `09 06 02 3F 3F 84`

Contents of **$031BC0** (ASCII characters)
Original	Columbus Circle
`BQPRSTT..<.,....` `......-./.012345` `6789:;<=>?@ABCDE` `FGHIJKLMNO......` `...P.....Q...??.`	`BQPRSTT..<......` `......,-...../01` `23456789:;<=>?@A` `BCDEFGHIJKLMNO.P` `.Q.R.S...T...??.`

Rare Replay/iam8bit "Legacy Cartridge Collection"#

The west also received its own cartridge reprint in 2020, though it uses a more-or-less identical ROM to the version included in Rare Replay.

Original	Rare Replay

Original	Rare Replay

Same copyright scrubbing on the title screen; seems Microsoft wasn't interested in slapping their name on there.

v · t · e The Battletoads series
NES	Battletoads • Battletoads Double Dragon
Game Boy	Battletoads • Battletoads in Ragnarok's World • ‎Battletoads Double Dragon
Genesis	Battletoads • Battletoads Double Dragon
SNES	Battletoads in Battlemaniacs • Battletoads Double Dragon
Game Gear	Battletoads
Arcade	Battletoads
Sega Master System	Battlemaniacs
Game Boy Advance	Battletoads
Windows, Xbox One	Battletoads

Sub-Pages#

Unused Music#

Revisional Differences#

Columbus Circle cartridge#

Rare Replay/iam8bit "Legacy Cartridge Collection"#

References#