Battletoads and Double Dragon on the SNES feels like being part of something special

destructoid.com:

If you’re unfamiliar with the Battletoads, it was a series of games that Rare made before they started to make good games. Hey-oh!

I’ve probably already lost half of you, but it was worth it. For the rest of you who remain, I’m mostly kidding. Mostly. I think history is misremembering Battletoads as a landmark series, when most people only played the first two levels of the original title and never saw past the Turbo Tunnel. Let me tell you, it doesn’t get better from there. But before anyone really had time to let the trauma set in, Rare had ported it to a myriad of platforms.

Battlemaniacs is weirdly derivative of the original title. But, hey, the 1994 arcade game is pretty good.

And then there was Battletoads and Double Dragon. The concept is just incredible, taking the grandfather franchise of the belt-scrolling beat-’em-up and combining it with the Battletoads. And it isn’t bad. It isn’t good, either. I feel like it’s just more interesting to talk about than it is to play.

I’m playing Battletoads and Double Dragon because it was part of my care package from Retro-Bit. The only game I’ve yet to cover from the shipment. They did a reprint of it, which is cool for a few reasons. They redid the cartridge label, colored it a semi-glossy green, and put it in a sort of box that I wish all SNES games came in. The box is sort of a harder cardboard and opens from the front. It’s not on the level of the Genesis/Mega Drive clamshells, but it’s enough that you’d want to keep it. Also, my favorite part of the label is that it has the modern Rare logo on it. I have absolutely no affection for modern-day Rare, but it’s just cool to see the update.

Weirdly, however, I already owned Battletoads and Double Dragon on SNES. I even have