Battletoads on NES is one of those games that tricks you at first—it starts off like a standard beat 'em up, but then suddenly throws you into turbo-speed hoverbike chases, vertical climbing sections where one wrong move means instant death, and some of the most brutal difficulty spikes ever. The Dark Queen kidnapped your toad buddies, and honestly? She should’ve just left them alone.

What makes it stand out is how it keeps switching genres on you. One minute you’re punching rat mutants in a sewer, the next you’re dodging spinning pillars of doom while rappelling down a pit. The art style’s got that weird early ‘90s charm—everything’s exaggerated, from the toads’ ridiculous animations to the way enemies explode into goo when you land a super punch.

Fair warning: the two-player mode is chaos. Friendly fire is always on, so half the time you’ll accidentally uppercut your co-op partner into a bottomless pit. Still, there’s nothing quite like finally beating that hoverbike level after 50 tries. Just don’t throw your controller.