Speedrun Fast: Battletoads Co-op

Battletoads, one of the most difficult games in the entire world. At Awesome Games Done Quick 2015, two of the game’s best runners teamed up to take the game on in cooperative mode. JC583, ranked second, plays Rash, and TheMexicanRunner (also known as TMR), ranked third, takes player two’s Zitz. Unlike most games, Battletoads becomes more difficult with a wingman rather than easier, so expect lots of deaths. They play the US NES version of the game. Individually, they clocked in at less than fourteen minutes on the leaderboard, but this combined effort stretches the time to over half an hour due to some gameplay method alterations.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvnsZeDQ8GE[/embedyt]

But hold on. Isn’t Battletoads impossible to beat with a second player? Yes, it is. However, player two dies and drops out for the impossible level before jumping back in. He does this often, in fact, for strategic reasons. In stage five, they use a smash attack exploit only possible with a second player, taking advantage of number two’s low health to quickly destroy a mid-boss, making this one of the few instances co-op makes the going easier. Another case comes in the stage after the fireball run, where player one is able to carry player two through the latter half of the stage, allow him to survive with zero health, and juggle the boss until it dies. A similar thing happens in Rat Race, where player two can glitch through the entire stage by grabbing player one and jumping. Finally, in stage eleven, the moment everyone’s been waiting for: player two game-overs for the greater good, then comes back in stage twelve.

That’s the Battletoads co-op speedrun. Leave a comment and check out The Nerd Stash‘s other awesome gaming news stories. What’s that, you say? Not impressed until you see someone beat the game completely deathless? Wish granted.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K107a3zFHDs[/embedyt]

Matt Eschbach

Matt Eschbach is a PC, Mac and Android indie game developer and fiction writer. His works have won multiple monetary awards from various contests. Graduating college in 2012 with a major in Game Design, Matt spends his time making stuff up and then building it. His favorite hobby… is sleeping.