Battletoads.

The Backstory and my love for the Toads:
I received the game on christmas morning when i was 5 years old. I loved this game. Everything about it,  the characters, the colors, the box, the artwork, the rocking music as soon as the game starts, everything. I was obsessed with TMNT at the time so it really fit my taste as a kid.  I played the game alot, more so then most of my other games. But I had never made it any further then level 3.  Needless to say this game is not intended for 5 year olds lol. I have great memories of sitting around our old kitchen table and drawing the characters from the pictures in the manual, just wondering what they looked like in the game, and how cool it would be to actually get to the snow level, and see that awesome looking evil snowman, and how awesome looking all the characters where that were hand sketched in the manual. We never had a game genie growing up so for years the rest of this game was a mystery to me. 

So there it set for years and years being neglected and in time later sold in a yard sale with my NES during the SNES era. I had got into collecting NES when i was around 18 and finally got this game back. I remember it was such a nostalgia rush just to have it in my hands again after so many years. Well I tried to get through it again, and of course, stuck again ........level 3. So there i was again....... just in mystery of this title, and so confused of why they made this game so hard, it was so difficult that it finally became that "stupid game thats too hard". And the game that me and my buddies would say is impossible to beat.  I think i may have finally got through the speeder bikes in my teens, but then got annihilated in level 4. And then back to the shelf it went to never be played again.

So Fast forward 20 years later after getting this game on christmas morning and wouldnt you know it, i finally beat it after 2 decades !!!.  This morning i succeeded, i finally beat Battletoads! YESSSS !!! 



The day i started this thread i did use 1 warp. (the one in the middle of the snake stage that skips level 7) And used the extra 2 toads at beginning of each continue. I said i "may" try and beat it without that stuff but wasnt sure yet. Well weeks went by and i kept getting the urge to keep playing this game. Its very addiciting, also after you learn all the odds and ends about the game it gets easier and funner. So by the end of this thread i am actually able to beat this game going through all 13 levels and using no continues. thats my best thus far.

UPDATE:

First off: Dont get discouraged and remember practice makes perfect. This game is designed for the player to log in endless hours of memorizing and figuring out all the little maneuvers that will help you not lose lives, and it's kinda like knowing whats gonna happen,  before it happens to even have a chance. Do yourself a favor and get a game genie and just try and beat this game with the infinite lives code first. For one it will help you practice, and if you cant get through it with infinite lives, then you need to keep practicing. I started this thread after beating this game with extra lives code, continues, and warps. After a couple weeks of playing off and on in the evenings i am now able to beat this game using no continues, all 13 levels, no extra lives codes. Once you learn all the tricks of this game it becomes pretty easy. And i have tried to include every little tip i found out about this game below and some of them will really help you, if you decide you want to finally beat Battletoads.

• Level 1- Simple Not much to say here. There is a warp at the beginning but i suggest not taking it because level 2 you can rack up some extra 1 ups by hitting the birds. Head butt most of the enemies and its easy sailing.
• Level 2 Wookie Hole- Try and hit the birds and keep them in the air by repeatedly hitting them. I wasnt ever good at this and so far can only rack up a couple lives, but i did read that someone could get 20+ lives in this stage. Which im sure would help you to the end. 
• Level 3 Turbo Tunnel- Ugh the dreaded speeder bikes. First off i wanna say one thing i never knew about this game until recently. YOU DONT HAVE TO PRESS THE JUMP BUTTON ON THE RAMPS. Just let your toad hit the ramps and it will jump automatically. LOL For me receiving this game at such a young age, I always thought you had to hit the jump button everytime i hit a ramp. And after figuring out you dont have to in my 20s i think thats why i had such a hard time with this freaking stage all my life lol. This honestly just takes some mad practice. And i started out not being able to get through it at all, but after tons of practice, i could get through it without losing any lives. Just make sure you pay attention and try and memorize where the walls are, and try to avoid moving while your in the air. I noticed sometimes you could lose yourself in between the long jumps and just miss your landing all together and plummet to your death.One spot i had alot of trouble with was towards the end when you see the exclamation point in the sky and you have to jump all the little islands with no ramps. My strategy here was everytime i jumped i would push forward just a little bit and stay completely centered. So jump, push forward,  jump, push forward, jump, push forward, etc. Now im sure there are other ways, but this is what worked for me. And then at the last checkpoint get ready for the insanely fast walls. Here i noticed its more of a rhythm then anything. Listen to the sounds and get in a groove. Try to stay near the center, up, down, up down, up, down etc. There are 2 little obstacle to jump and avoid after the walls, i just jumped them. Now there is a warp on the "tenth" wall on the bottom. Slam into that and warp to level 5. I didnt take the warp, in hopes of trying to get more lives in level 4. (you will need as many lives as you can get towards the end of this game.)
• Level 4 Arctice Cavern - Eh ....this level has its challenges, but is more annoying then anything. Watch the snowmen, duck etc. Watch the spikes, make sure to get good at making "half jumps" and just being easy on the control pad jump button. Hit your jump button real quick and easy to make little jumps to avoid the spikes.  Alot of tricky jumps in the level. Practice this stage alot and see what works for you.
• Level 5 Surf City - Not too hard of a stage with lots of practice. Make sure to snag the 2 -ups in this level. Avoid the obstacles and you will be through it before you know it. When you fight the rat, make sure to approach him slowly so you can snag the flies to give you some more life before you have to fight him. If you have the weapon, then he's pretty easy if you can corner him against the side of the screen, and then "in a timely routine" beat him to death trying to keep him off the ground. 
• Level 6 Snake Pit - Not much i can say here either. Ive beat this level, but man its tough. Its much easier to hit the warp on the second snake area and just be done with it. But if you want to try and make it through here you need to memorize all the snake patterns, the obstacles, the spikes, and get ready for loads and loads of practice to get through this thing. It can be done with enough practice. UPDATE - I can pretty easily get through thsi level without losing a life. Its not hard at all. Once you knw the patterns its quite easy. Just remember when the snakes go really fast and you have to jump between spike balls. Just make sure to jump through them quick. If your toad stands on the snake too long while its moving fast you will almost always get ripped into the spikes. When i jump between the spike balls, i would jump and jump again as soon as your toad lands on the fast moving snake. Makes it really easy. 
• Level 7 Inferno - Pretty tough stage. I beat it after memorizing the electric patterns towards the end of the stage. Its pretty hard though. It worked for me to stay towards the bottom of the screen trying to avoid the rockets in the bottome left corner. The rockets only hit you when they launch up or are falling, so as long as they havent launched you can still touch them. Also the fire ball pattern changes every try, so for those wanting to hang on the bottom the whole time it wont happen. Trust me i tried lol. But you can hang there for a little bit every now and then but it will catch on and send a fireball your way. Make sure to grab the 1up in the center of the screen every chance you get, so it keeps giving you an extra try incase you mess up. 
• Level 8 Intruder Excluder - No big secret here. Just get good and beat it lol, Try not to lose your weapon or it makes the course much tougher. If you have the weapon (which you simply just pick off the wall when you see it) You can pretty much smash anything. Even the deadly gas nozzles, and the fan blades, you can head butt them. For some reason i dont think you can head butt the fan blades when you dont have the weapon, at least with my many attempts i couldnt seem to do it. Make it to the top and fight the boss. Boss isnt too hard with some practice. What worked for me is i would duck, let him shoot, then head butt. repeat repeat repeat. Sometimes if your good you can squeeze in a few head butts while he's in the air. But be careful if he lands on you,  it costs you a life.
• Level 9 Terra Tubes- This stage was really hard for me, but after lots of attempts, and troubleshooting i can now get through it without losing a life. These following tips may be of some value to you. First off duck the robots rays and either head butt them (careful ....if you dont execute right you will be dead if you run into them.. Or beat them down by punching them. When you get to the point where the wheel chases ya, just practice practice and see what works good for you. I noticed to jump through the water really speeds you up and gives you some breathing room to avoid it. Also when you jump up or fall, youll notice they give you a little bit of open space to the right or left of the water. Fall and jump outside of the water whenever you can,  as this will speed you up and give you more distance between the wheel. Of course you need to learn which way to fall (left or right) to avoid spikes, but through trial and error you should get it. Then you get to another checkpoint before you have to start swimming. For me this is where it gets pretty tough. Try and avoid the spikes and beat down the eels. Depending on where the eels are you can either avoid them, or beat em down. Im not really sure what worked best for me, as i just tried to stay alive. After many more attempts at Battletoads i have now noticed if you smash the punch button like crazy you will normally take care of the eels rather easily. Even if it looks like they will shock you, if you are in the middle of punching it doesnt seem to hurt you most of the time. Avoid the spikes (your toad can touch the spikes a little (more so then ya think) and this will come in handy in the future. Just test it out and see what you can, and "can't" get away with. The grey eels gave me a ton of trouble until i finally figured out its just easier to punch the crap out of them when you see them. If you see the grey eel just start punching as fast as you can and you will normally kill them. Then you advance to some more spikes to dodge, watch the piranhas and sharks. Again same with the eels, i know some might want to avoid these, or some might beat them down. Ive tried both ways numerous times and cant decide what i like best. For the sharks its great when you can kill them but it takes like 4 or 5 hits. So just try it and see what you like. Next you get to the second wheel chase. This ones pretty tough. Mainly just gonna take practice to get through it, memorize which ways you have to go and it will buy you time. You have to get good at knowing how close you can get to the spikes like i mentioned earlier, and it will make things easier. One HUGE tip i picked up is when you have to sink under the wheel and hover above the spikes, just start punching. Yea i set there forever trying to keep my toad afloat and avoid the spikes while staying under the wheel and its much tougher that way. Then i just realized if you start punching your toad just stands there in the water and you can simply let the wheel pass by. WOW simple lol, and something i didnt pick up right away and will make this so much easier. If you can get through all this mayhem your close! Get another checkpoint which is right by an extra life fortunately! So now you can get in some practice and not have to lose lives if you keep getting the extra 1-up at the checkpoint. At this part i would jump the first 2 ducks, (these things are crazy and i wouldn't reccomend trying to fight them) and then on the thrid duck i figured out if you ran at it full speed, punch it once it turns the other direction. When it gets far enough away you can just jump it and be on your way. Get through some more tough spike obstacles, try and kill this particular shark if you can. Make it to the top, avoid 4th duck, and then copter your way down through the last set of spikes. left right left right left right and so on. Pull hard to the right on the last set of spikes and you made it!
• Level 10 Rat Race - I started this level saying its impossible, but after applying the following tips i figured out, its actually quite easy. Simply beat the rat in a race. Your toad will automatically run when its in race mode, so you dont have to double tap. The first 2 races are easy, get good at going fast, think of ricky bobby and the cougar, you got it you got! Then the dreaded third rat race. What works for me is start high tailing it as fast as you can. On the long straight platforms let the rat get in line with you. Head Butt him and he will fly forward over the gap, hit the wall, and go back the other way. This buys you very valuable seconds and will help you defeat him. I have defeated him without doing this, but it does make it easier. I figured this out without the help of youtube and you can too if you play him enough and it becomes easier the more you do it. Then you fight general slaughter. I had some hard time with this guy too, i didnt watch any youtube videos so there may be easier ways to beat him. But what i found worked best for me was to jump him and hit him in the back. Starting with headbutts, but when he gets really fast, start to resort to punches. Just avoid him as he flys in the air. Study his pattern a bit and you got it! I can honestly beat this stage easier then some of the other stages in this game. So once you learn it, its much easier then you think.
• Level 11 Clinger Winger - 1. GET THE RIGHT CONTROLLER. If you read through this whole thread you will see that it took me like 100 trys to get through clinger winger all because i was using a controller that wasnt the best fit for this stage. I was using a "barely used" new old stock controller that was sealed in a NES action set never used until 2008.  My D pad was very stiff and wouldnt hit the turns real quick. I ended up finally figuring out that a more "broken in" used controller works alot better. If you look on the second page of this thread i go into detail of my discovery on this matter. Here's how the original thread read when i first discovered this crazy level before i found the perfect fit controller>>>> Disregard all the kids on youtube and everyone else out in internet land that say they beat this on their first try. If i had to take a guess, they are lying lol. This is hard, very hard, infact i died about 13 times on the run without my genie when i beat the game. And had practiced this level for hours with a game genie on multiple occasions. And after playing through the whole game in one shot,  and then getting thrown into this level, your skills and rhythm are off so bad, that it makes it tough to just get into this level and start rocking it. So try and allow yourself many lives to take this on. Because with me, it takes a few trys to even get back in the mind set of getting through this. There's not much to say in the tips department except be quick on the turns and practice. Make sure you have a good D pad that responds well to your turns. I noticed on the real quick turns to try and be light on the d pad. Dont be pressing hard on the controller cause it just seemed to slow me down. So be light on your thumb when taking the turns and just keep cool. Frustration will send you into a "i hate this game im gonna give up mentality" lol. Trust me had been there many many times with this level. The wheel that chases you is faster then you are but you can gain some distance from the wheel on the real sharp turns. The wheel seems to gain on you on straight aways. So if you can take the real fast and intricate turns well, you can really gain on the wheel in the real twisty parts. Anyways if you get good enough at it, memorize the patterns, know which way to go, and make it to the boss you pretty much made it. The boss isnt that hard, just head butt it and be careful as it will zap ya. I havent figured him out completely but keep your distance and head butt when ya can and you'll get em. As mentioned above THE RIGHT CONTROLLER will go a long way in this stage, experiment with what works best for you. 
• Level 12 The Revolution - Now after practicing this level and learning it,  i didnt think it was as hard as some have said. Just get in a good rhythm on your jumps, avoid the stupid ramming guys. I would keep my distance and get good timing on swatting them with the weapon. Make it through the platform jumps, and watch out for the ram guys that try and suck you into them. Again keep your distance, watch their timing. When they close their mouths swat them, but dont get too close or they will eat you. Watch the red clouds as they spit the poison gas. Head butt them from behind if you can, i avoided the two that were running together and just dodged their gas. When you get to the point where you see the rods sticking out of the wall. Jump on them and hang on (u dont have to do anything to hang btw). But just stay on until the faces get done blowing wind at you. Get through all this and some more timely jumps and you will make it to the top. I dont think you can kill the yellow clouds at the top, but if you just avoid him and hit all the jumps he doesnt get in the way much. First set of jumps jump all the way to the left. Then the second set start left and turn back right. Get to the top and its time for some Dark Queen!
• Level 13 - Dark Queen Battle - I havent played her a lot so im sure there are probably some secrets to defeating her, but i didnt think she was very hard. I just head butted her when she was low enough, avoided her tornado morph, and before i knew it she was defeated.

ZAXAALAA        Start on level 2 -- Wookie Hole
LAXAALAA        Start on level 3 -- Turbo Tunnel
GAXAALAA        Start on level 4 -- Arctic Cavern
IAXAALAA        Start on level 5 -- Surf City
TAXAALAA        Start on level 6 -- Karnath's Lair
YAXAALAA        Start on level 7 -- Volkmire's Inferno
AAXAALAE        Start on level 8 -- Intruder Excluder
PAXAALAE        Start on level 9 -- Terra Tubes
ZAXAALAE        Start on level 10 -- Rat Race
LAXAALAE        Start on level 11 -- Clinger Winger
GAXAALAE        Start on level 12 -- The Revolution