Battletoads Arcade

Battletoads Arcade is a coin-operated, scrolling beat 'em up arcade game. Up to three players, as the Battletoads (Rash, Pimple, and Zitz), punch and kick oncoming enemies through six levels to save their alternate universe from the Dark Queen. Arcade was the first Battletoads game to feature three-player cooperative multiplayer. Players control their characters with eight-directional joysticks and two buttons (attack and jump).

Characters can run if the player pushes the joystick twice in the same direction. The Toads vary in fighting style: Rash is nimble, Pimple is burly, and Zitz is a balance of the two. As customary for the series, the Toads can knock enemies off-screen such that they appear to fly towards the players, breaking the fourth wall. The Toads can also eat flies to regenerate health.

The game was developed by Rare, published by Electronic Arts, and released in 1994 as the fifth game in the Battletoads series. Rare founders Tim and Chris Stamper created the series in response to interest in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Battletoads series—especially the 1991 original Battletoads for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)—became popular in its own right and led to a series of sequels. Since this sequel was in development for arcades rather than consoles, Rare took greater liberties in its depiction of violence, unlike their obligations in the rest of the series.

While the original NES Battletoads censored blood, Battletoads Arcade showed gore and decapitation (although this could be turned off in the game's DIP switches). The Dark Queen was also depicted in a more lascivious style. Rare had begun to experiment with 3D graphics around this time, and went with PowerAnimator (later Autodesk Maya). Battletoads Arcade was the first Rare game to use PowerAnimator, well before it was implemented in Killer Instinct and Donkey Kong Country.

Battletoads Arcade "bombed badly" with mediocre sales. Christopher Michael Baker (AllGame) wrote that the arcade release rode the success of its console game predecessor when the order is usually reversed. He found the two games similar in brawling style with simple controls, but felt that the arcade game had better graphics. He noted how both included the effect of knocking enemies towards the players off-screen.

Baker felt that the signature attacks were interesting and added replay value. Overall, he was somewhat let down by the arcade game, having expected something more, but rated Battletoads Arcade four of five stars. AllGame compared Battletoads Arcade to Turtles in Time and The Simpsons Arcade Game.

The franchise went on hiatus following Battletoads Arcade's poor performance. Its next release would be 26 years later, with the 2020 series reboot. In the mid-2000s, Rare began to plan a possible sequel but ultimately decided that there was no original direction for the game apart from its past and did not want to repeat the failed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot. The arcade game's failure also led Rare to set low expectations for future arcade releases. Battletoads Arcade later influenced the cooperative play mode in the 2011 Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and Kotaku recognized Battletoads Arcade among the 16-bit era beat 'em ups with the best graphics.