So I've been playing Battletoads on NES for a little bit now, and I just cleared the infamous hovercraft section. I made it to the third checkpoint on one life, and was thinking, "People are crazy! This is a cake walk!"...
The next twenty minutes of my life were a living hell. I had to put in the Gamegenie infinite lives code in, and even then I probably died twenty plus times. It was ridiculous! A challenge is fine, but how do they expect you to only use a few lives learning those patterns?! That was just insane.
So I made it out of that section and got to the ice level, which I just realized I had never seen before, most likely because of that bitch of a hovercraft level. This was more platforming than the first beat em up level of the game, and I have to say that I wish the mechanics were a little more solid. Don't get me wrong, the game is brilliant, especially for its time. Four different types of levels in the first four levels alone is pretty innovative stuff for its time, but with the hit detection being as bad as it is and the fact that you can jump right through platforms that you are trying to land on, really make it difficult to enjoy certain areas.
This game will always give me fond nostalgic memories, and thanks to save states, I fully intend to finish it today, but I'm not sure its as good as I remember it being. It is a fun game, but even for an NES title, the fundamental gameplay issues are a bit unforgivable.
*Edit: Found this Battletoads retrospective that some people may find interesting. It's definitely cool if you are planning on playing Together Retro this month.
http://retro.ign.com/articles/944/944561p1.html