Battletoads/Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team
From Sega Retro
Battletoads/Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team is a 1993 action game developed by Rare and published by Tradewest on the Sega Mega Drive. It is a crossover game which combines characters and environments from and inspired by the Battletoads and Double Dragon series. In addition to the Mega Drive version, versions were also developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Game Boy.
Sony Electronic Publishing were set to publish a European version of this game, but backed away following poor review scores[2].
Contents
Story
After she was defeated by the Battletoads, the evil Dark Queen flees to the outer reaches of the universe. However, one day, the Earth's military is neutralized and the giant spaceship Colossus emerges from the moon. The Dark Queen is back with another plan to dominate the galaxy, and she has allied herself with the Shadow Warriors (from the Double Dragon series) to supplement her forces. Deciding to even the odds, the Battletoads contact Billy and Jimmy Lee for help. The brothers agree, and all five immediately take off for the Colossus in a mission to stop this two-pronged threat.
Gameplay
The game is a beat-'em-up that plays more similarly to the Battletoads games than Double Dragon. It can be played by one or two players simultaneously. 2 Player Game A mode allows the players to hit each other, while 2 Player Game B mode does not. Players fight enemies and travel on spaceships and turbo bikes to defeat the Shadow Boss and Dark Queen. For the first time in either series, players can select a character through a selection screen before starting the game. Players can choose from Rash, Zitz, and Pimple from Battletoads and Billy and Jimmy Lee from Double Dragon.
All of the toads are equipped with their usual "Smash Hit" attacks, such as big punches ("Kiss-My-Fist"), big kicks ("Big Bad Foot"), double-handed hits ("Nuclear Knuckles"), headbutt ("Battletoad Butt"), a wrecking-ball-like charge used while hanging on a cable ("BT Bashing Ball"), kicks while hanging on a rope ("Swingin' Size Thirteens"), a throw ("Take Out the Trash"), backward kicks while riding a speeder bike ("Bikin' Bash"), walker leg bashes ("No Way Back Thwack"), and enemy slamming ("Twin Side Slam"), with a new attack being a kick while hanging on a ledge named the "Back 'N' Front Punt." Likewise, the Lee brothers have their Dragon Force techniques, such as spin kick, knee drops, and elbow-drops. New abilities include hanging off of and moving across sides of platforms, and kicking off enemies while doing so, although the player can fall off and lose a life if other enemies step on his fingers.
The characters move in any direction using the D-Pad. They run with 
or 
. They jump with 
and attack with 
or 
. Multiple successive attacks chain into combos. There are several attack moves which are pulled off with either button combinations or automatically depending on the situation. Weapons dropped by enemies can be grabbed and used with an attack button. These weapons include a stick and sticks of dynamite. There are also capsules which contain various power-ups and point bonuses. Like Double Dragon, some stages contain ladders or fences that can be climbed with 
and 
.
Characters have six health segments and lose a life when they lose all of their health but revive in place. The game ends if the player runs out of lives but can be continued up to three times. In the two-player modes, if one player loses all lives, both players have to start the stage over. Players earn extra lives at 100,000 points and then every 200,000 points after that.
Characters
Items
| Bonus Pod | |
|---|---|
| Break open for an item or for bonus points. | |
| Energy | |
| Restores the character's health. | |
| Invincibility | |
| Grants the character temporarily invincibility. | |
| 1-Up | |
| Gives the player an extra life. |
Stages
As usual with Battletoads games, there are side-scrolling action stages, rope-repelling stages, and vehicle stages. Stages alternate with between themes of both games and contain enemies and bosses inspired by both. The standard action stages involve running from the start point to the finish, fighting enemies along the way. The repel stages involve going down some sort of shaft and moving the character to avoid obstacles while also fighting enemies that are in the way. The vehicle stages involve dodging obstacles. Unlike previous games, characters can kick enemies in the bike stages.
| Tail of the Ratship | |
|---|---|
| Blag Alley | |
| Ropes 'n' Roper | |
| Characters can summon a rope for the repelling portions with or .
| |
| Ratship Rumble | |
| This stage plays similarly to Asteroids with the characters piloting spaceships. The spaceships attack with or . In the first segment, the spaceships activate their propulsion to move by holding , with the D-Pad rotating the ships in any direction. In the second segment, they can move freely with the D-Pad and always face in the same direction.
| |
| Missile Mayhem | |
| Shadow Boss Showdown | |
| Armageddon II: The Rematch | |
Versions
Differences from the SNES version
The graphics on the Mega Drive version are less detailed, more colorful, and has poorer sound quality. Plus, the SNES version runs smoother. However, the Mega Drive version features more music tracks (akin to the original NES game), more sound effects, sharper sprites for the Battletoads and certain enemies (although the SNES version usually has the edge with sprite detail overall), more comical reactions from defeated opponents, color transitions on certain stages and more developed intro/intermission/ending scenes (also akin to the original NES game).
Magazine articles
Promotional material
Physical scans
| Sega Retro Average | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
 |
51 |
|---|---|
| Based on 8 reviews | |
| Mega Drive, US |
|---|
 Cover
|
 Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, US (Cardboard) |
|---|
   Cover
|
 Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, BR |
|---|
 Cover
|
  Cart |
Technical information
References
- ↑ GamePro, "December 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 253
- ↑ Sega Power, "July 1994" (UK; 1994-05-05), page 8
- ↑ Game Players, "Vol. 6 No. 12 December 1993" (US; 1993-1x-xx), page 64
- ↑ GamePro, "January 1994" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 232
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 31
- ↑ Cool Gamer, "9" (RU; 2002-10-13), page 30
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 294
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 5, "" (RU; 200x-xx-xx), page 112
- ↑ Mega, "February 1994" (UK; 1994-01-20), page 45
- ↑ Sega Power, "February 1994" (UK; 1994-01-06), page 58
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 23
- ↑ VideoGames, "January 1994" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 56
| Battletoads/Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team | |
|---|---|
|
Main page | Comparisons | Maps | Hidden content | Magazine articles | Video coverage | Reception | Region coding | Technical information | Bootlegs | |
| Double Dragon games for Sega systems | |
|---|---|
 |
Double Dragon (1988) |
|
Double Dragon II: The Revenge (1991) | Double Dragon (1992) | Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone (1992/1993) | Battletoads/Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team (1993) | Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls (1994) |
 |
Double Dragon (1993) |
| Battletoads games for Sega systems | |
|---|---|
|
Battletoads (1993) | Battletoads/Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team (1993) |
|
Battletoads (1993) | Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (Cancelled) |
|
Battletoads (Cancelled) | Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (1996) |