Battletoads (Sega Mega Drive / Genesis review)

Developer: Arc System Works, Rare
Publisher: Tradewest
Released: 1993

Battletoads is an action game that was first released on the Nintendo NES in 1991.

+ Packs in an enormous amount of gameplay variety, which acts as an incentive to keep grinding to the next stage.

+ Fans of Super Meat Boy (2010, Xbox 360) will find lots to love thanks to the pixel-perfect precision that's often required.

+ Gameplay is tough, but has been toned down from the NES version to give you a fighting chance to succeed.

- Still relies too heavily on trial-and-error and mercilessly drops in new mechanics with no prior learning.

- Enemies have an annoying tendency to throw projectiles from off-screen, leading to a multitude of cheap hits.

- Camera doesn't scroll far enough ahead, and despite being a two-year-old game there's no additional content.

- Collision detection is dodgy and the atrocious, shrill music makes terrible use of the SMPS Z80 sound driver.