Battletoads: all version differences

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Version differences

• DifficultyNES (JP)Genesis

  The Japanese Famicom version is much easier: it starts with 5 lives and 5 continues instead of 3 and 3, and from the Turbo Tunnel onward most stages have slower hazards, fewer enemies and traps, and weaker bosses. The Genesis/Mega Drive port is based on this easier version.¹

• Bug fixNES (JP)NES (EU)Rare Replay

  In the US NES release, a bug in stage 11 (Clinger-Winger) leaves Player 2 unable to move, so a two-player game cannot be finished. The Japanese and European versions fix it, as does Rare Replay.¹

• GameplayNES (JP)

  The Japanese version adds a title-screen menu for choosing one or two players; in the Western versions Player 2 joins by pressing Start on the map screen.¹

• GraphicsNES (EU)

  The PAL release moves the status bar up and makes it thinner to fit the smaller PAL overscan, and swaps the moving logs of stage 7 for solid platforms as in the Japanese version. The other stages keep the US layouts.¹

• AudioNES (JP)

  The short drum beat that plays during pause in the Western versions was removed from the Japanese version.¹

• ContentGame Gear

  The Game Gear version has scaled-down graphics, three fewer levels and no two-player mode.²

• ContentGame Boy (Ragnarok's World)

  Battletoads in Ragnarok's World for Game Boy is a single-player port of the NES game with several levels cut.²

• GraphicsGenesis

  The Mega Drive/Genesis version has more colorful, higher-resolution graphics, although critics felt its presentation was not much better than the NES game.²

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