Battletoads Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team (NES)

Battletoads Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team
Developer: Rare Publisher: Tradewest Platform: NES Released in US: June 1993 Released in EU: 1993 This game has unused enemies. This game has unused music. This game has a hidden level select. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prerelease article This game has a notes page This game has a bugs page This game has a Data Crystal page

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: Finish unused enemy types. And add info on stage 3-1's unused area.

Just a Battletoads game (essentially Battletoads 3) with the Double Dragon cast tossed in. And many frustrations removed...

Sub-Pages

Prerelease Info

Notes

Bugs

Level Selects

This game has not one, but two such menus:

Enter B, A, Down, B, Up, Down at the player select and listen for a sound. Then, select a character. This will also start the game with 5 lives.

Or, enter Down, Up, Up, Down, A, B, B, A for all seven levels available and 10 lives.

Be warned, completing the game after using these codes will result in a "bad" ending.

Unused Music

To do: It wouldn't hurt if this was moved to its own subpage

Like its predecessor, the music data for this game hides some unused tracks. Most of them are variations of existing tracks with different speeds, for some reason.

Track #11 of the common NSF. A fast version of the Game Over track. It doesn't seem to fit anywhere in the game.

Track #12. Possibly a variation on the siren that plays at the end of Level 3-3 when falling down the garbage chute.

Interestingly, this track was used as background noise on the Warp Zone screens of the Genesis version, much like the normal siren noise is used in this one.

Track #18. A slower version of Stage 2 theme.

Track #19. A fast version of the Boss theme #1. It sounds a little off sync in some parts. Notice that this doesn't seem to be the same version that plays during the fight against Shadow Boss.

Track #20. Fast version of the title screen theme.

Track #21. A slow variation of the Cutscene track (that plays when Professor T. Bird is talking to the previously beaten boss). Possibly was going to be used for the ending, but it uses the normal speed cutscene track instead.

Track #22. There is also a fast version of the cutscene track mentioned previously.

Track #23. Fast version of Stage 4 theme.

Track #25. Another fast version of the Game Over track, but with different instruments. Also, it lacks the bass and the drums. This one is interesting, because is the only unused song that doesn't have a normal speed counterpart. It also sounds off sync in some parts.

Track #26. Slow version of Boss theme #2.

Track #27. Fast version of the pre-level track.

Track #28. Fast version of the character bios theme.

Track #29. Fast version of Stage 6 theme.

Track #30. Fast version of the bike race theme in Stage 2. In game, the bike race theme speeds up every now and then, but the stage doesn't last enough to hear it at this speed. Even if you could make the stage last forever, the intro of the song will never be heard at this speed because it doesn't repeat when the track loops.

Track #33. Fast version of the Level clear jingle.

The fact that most of the music has an unused slow or fast version could mean that maybe the game was going to change the speed of the music in some events, such as a timer running out (if there was one), like in Super Mario Bros. A similar type of behavior is actually used in the game in Stage 2 (when you fight Big Blag); Stage 5 (when you fight General Slaughter) and Stage 6 (when you fight Shadow Boss). The music speeds up during these fights. However this doesn't explain why some music (Like the title theme or the cutscene themes) have a fast version.

Unused Enemy Types

To do: Replace these GIFs with better ones (or preferably videos, due to their sheer size). Also, how can these behaviors be seen in-game?

Linda Lash

A much more aggressive Linda Lash variant than the one normally seen in-game. It is nearly impossible to defeat without taking damage.

Bikers

Normally, landing a combo on the bike-riding enemies will send them flying offscreen for good. However, if their health is increased, they will instead launch straight up into the air and slowly drift back down. (It's entirely possible that this behavior is not intentional, due to how goofy it looks.)

Revisional Differences

Battletoads/Double Dragon was re-released by Retro-Bit Publishing in 2022. Various changes were made from the original NES version.

To do: Dump the ROM so that screenshots can be provided.

• When booting up the game, a new screen appears with an option to select between regions (NORTH AMERICA NTSC or EUROPE PAL).
  • If the player waits on this screen before making a selection, various songs are cycled through this screen. Any music that normally contains drums lacks them on this screen.
• Once the player chooses their region, the original intro appears, but there are various changes in the copyright info to reflect the licensing changes.
  • All mentions of Tradewest were removed, including the logo, and the text saying that the game was licensed to Tradewest by Rare Coin-It.
  • Because the Tradewest logo was removed, the Rare logo appears and disappears sooner.
  • The Double Dragon trademark was changed from Technos Japan to Arc System Works.
  • The Licensed by Nintendo text was changed to Licensed by Retro-Bit.
  • On the title screen, the copyright date was changed from 1993 to 2022. In addition, references to Rare (including Rare Coin-It) were replaced with Microsoft Corp and Arc System Works. With the text changes, the text is off-center in the 2022 version, compared to the 1993 version.
• For some reason, the garbage chute in 3-3 no longer plays music, and only sound effects (e.g. from the falling hazards) can be heard until the player(s) encounter Roper. This also affects the hidden level select screens above, which use the same music. It is unknown if this change is a bug or not.