What list of ridiculous achievements wouldn't be complete without including beating the classic NES beat 'em up, Battletoads. Largely the talk of this button masher has become a circlejerk, but admiration and respect must be commended for those who have actually sat down and completed a game that is as painful as it is overused as a joke to prank pawn shops with. A game set to compete with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for a very short time in the early 90's it actually spawned its own franchise, which included a Saturday morning cartoon of the same name and a crossover that featured fellow button mashers Billy and Jimmy Lee of Double Dragon. But fame has a price as these tubular, totally not copyright infringing characters were about to find out. The years have not been kind to our heroes Rash, Zitz and Pimple, (this was the early 90's remember, everything was extreme). While in recent years it has become the butt of many jokes, the Battletoad's recognition in gaming has largely been forgotten. Once a pioneer of the beat 'em up genre, their intellectual property now sits dormant, an epic begging to be retold or in the very least, re released in HD for future generations to cherish. A tough game on its own, having a second player join in on the fun just made gameplay that much more difficult. Why would a toad be able to take the form of a wrecking ball? And why would said wrecking ball be able to uncontrollably demolish everything in it's path, including the other player? And finally why, oh why if one player dies is the other player forced to start over from the beginning of the level? A classic riddled with flaws, most will not have the patience to get passed the first few levels. If you do decide to take on Battletoads, heed this warning. Bring an extra controller for a friend and don't forget to jump over those barriers in the surfing scene in level three. It was the nineties, of course there would be a surfing scene.
