One of the big obstacles in my NES completion project was replaying through Battletoads, a notorious platformer that is often cited as the most difficult NES game. In the process I was hoping to polish my old Battletoads FAQ, written in 2001 (written without the benefit of an emulator and save states). Though oddly enough, for this run I didn't use an emulator either. After about a week of practice, I was able to defeat the game without using any extra life codes or any warps (for Marc's benefit, my "final" run through took 47 minutes). I was regularly able to get to the Dark Queen but was forced to continue there in my official run, though opening up the game on an emulator after the fact let me figure out a good pattern to finish her without too much trouble. Just getting to her without continuing isn't too difficult but it requires a ton of memorization.
So is Battletoads as difficult as some say it is? It's certainly has a great mix of reflex oriented stages along with a lot of memorization, but I'd say the challenge is fair. There are lots of opportunities to earn free lives and the level designs almost always put a 1-UP in sections where you may have to repeat tricky spots. The first time you reach certain stages, you'll be wiped out for certain but with enough practice, it becomes almost second nature to clear them. It's tough but I think there are harder games out there, such as Rad Racer and TMNT (though Battletoads is considerably more difficult than its partner in NES difficulty lore, Ghosts N' Goblins).
Here's my final thoughts and some stats:
1 - On normal games, I can regularly get through the first 4 stages without losing a life. And in most cases, I can clear stages 5 and 6 without dying as well but in my run through I somehow got pounded by Blarg, the giant mutant rat mid-boss of level 5. It was the first time in my practice it had happened but that's where I lost the most lives in any stage.
2 - In my opinion the hardest stage is Volkmyre's Inferno, since you'll die quite a bit figuring out the electrical patterns of the fences. The "keystone" stage is stage 9, Terra Tubes. If you get everything lined up right, a no-death run is a regular occurrence. However, the orange fish and ducks are the most unpredictable enemies in the game and can make for some real headaches.
3 - Most bosses are pretty easy, notably Robomanus and General Steerhorns, who both have simple patterns. The one exception is the Hypo-Orb, who I still have no idea how it administers or receives damage (the same is sort of true for the Dark Queen too). And man, is the ending lame!
Overall, it's still an exceptional game--one might believe the later stages and ending were added as an afterthought. And since Marc is probably the only person who will appreciate this post, I'll just say that Battletoads is a fine NES game that is amongst the elite platformers for the humble 8-bit system.
