9. Terra Tubes (Battletoads)
Riding on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze came Rares first massively successful IP- Battletoads. Like most games during the NES era, the beat em up had a light plot that served only as an excuse for the game to have fighting anthropomorphic amphibians. And for the most part, the game is highly entertaining. Until you reach the inevitable underwater section.
So, why is it infuriating? Battletoads was an obscenely difficult game; one that helped to define the term Nintendo Hard. So, the one thing it absolutely didnt need was a water level in which the characters are as difficult to control as forklift in Narnia. A level thats chock full of insta-kill spikes and psychotic marine life. Oh whats that Rare: you did include such a level? And with races against giant wheels of death, which can only be beaten through luck or prior knowledge? Why I oughta Special mention has to go to the rubber ducks: managing to capture all the destructive ferocity of Charybdis and putting it into a form that sits cutely on the side of the bath. Dont believe me? Check any number of Lets Play videos and youll see them for the harbingers of death they actually are.