• Level 1 (Ragnarok's Canyon): I could have saved a small amount of time head butting the first pig to the right instead of the left. Not sure why I didn't bother.

• Level 3 (Turbo Tunnel): The first section went well. Small mistakes result in an extra kick, and walking in one spot I should have dashed. I tried to keep the bike section interesting with some stunts.

• Level 4 (Arctic Caverns): The major change in my run is going through this level instead of surf city. I've been experimenting with some new strategies that would hopefully make it slightly faster (and not have to navigate the damn random mines). However, on this attempt I lose 6 seconds compared to a good run through surf city. That time could easily be made up if I hadn't made some dumb mistakes. Oh well, it still beats the hell out of the frustration I feel when I smack into one of those stupid random mines...

• Level 6 (Karnath's Lair): Nothing much to this level.

• Level 8 (Intruder Excluder): I used to really hate this level, but it's recently become my favourite. I blaze through it extremely well, pulling off several tough sections without any delay. I take a slight pause in two spots that tend to give me a lot of trouble, but it's a very minor loss compared to the risk. Robomanus goes down pretty quick, with only 1 death where I don't duck quite quick enough. I get a bit lucky not to get killed again when I made the final blow.

• Level 9 (Terra Tubes): This level is probably the nastiest for speedrunning this game. I include several risky tricks, and there's a few spots where you just have to roll the dice and hope to make it through without getting killed. Everything goes very well. I am pleased.

• Level 10 (Rat Race): The big moment. I time the rat boot pretty much perfectly. I am very pleased.

• Level 11 (Clinger-Winger): The first section is nice to take a deep breath, then start worrying about all the ways I might screw up now that that hardest parts are completed. I take a somewhat conservative strategy on the hypno orb, have pretty good luck with him not bouncing away too much, and he's dispatched of in very quick fashion.

• Level 12 (The Revolution): By this point I was very nervous... and it starts to show. There are a number of mistakes, although luckily I manage to avoid doing anything too horrible. This is capped off by a very, very near death experience at the final series of platforms, where I fall but manage to just barely land on a platform that hasn't quite scrolled off the screen. Scary, scary stuff. The dark Queen goes down pretty quickly, and the day is saved.

Overall: I really couldn't ask for much better. This game is a challenge, and making it through without a major mistake is a great accomplishment. I feel that I've stepped up the pace, and brought some new, challenging tricks to the plate. Of course, there's still plenty of room for improvement, so I look forward for someone to step up and challenge it. Especially anyone who may have vowed to never stop playing this game, and defending it to the death ;) ...

Feel free to post in the battletoads topic here.

Welcome to Battletoads with NO WARPING (the ONLY way to play) !!! Thanks go to SDA for having such an awesome site, and for ripping the video from DVD. I hope you enjoy the run! Below are comments.

• Level 1 (Ragnarok's Canyon):

  This is a very nice run through this stage. Believe it or not, each time I play I have to hit reset about 4 or 5 times in this level in order for things to go perfectly. Since it's the first level, I don't accept any kind of wasted time whatsoever.

• Level 2 (Wookie Hole):

  This level is a lot of fun to play when I'm not speedrunning, as I try to get as many lives as possible usually with bird juggling. Believe it or not, I think it's barely possible(?) to actually max out the score (read: 999999 points!) by the end of this level from all the bird-smacking that's possible....though not during a speed run of course. I have always wanted to do this, though the highest I've ever gotten is 860K or so. One day! Anyhow, back to the speedrun. I think I do a pretty solid job on this level, as the screen only stops scrolling at a few fixed parts that can't be avoided. I do manage to snag at least one life (just for fun) during the run, which is ok, but I've done better (3 at some points).

• Level 3 (Turbo Tunnel): I dispose of the first few rats (and waste about 4 seconds dicking around with the 6th Scuzz) before getting on the bikes, and playing the first Battletoads obstacle course. It goes smoothly, and there's nothing really to comment on as it's a fixed scrolling section that can't really be done fast or slow (as long as you don't die!).

• Level 4 (Arctic Caverns): This level has many things that can go wrong if one isn't careful, and requires a lot of memorization.

  I take a hit at 7:48 from the ice block as it's the fastest way to beat that part. Luckily, it is the only hit I ever take in this stage.

  I dispose of the snowmen at 8:03 pretty well, as this is the fastest pattern I've found. I end the level with a speed trick I learned from a TAS. It lets you skip the last upper section with the spiked ball, which probably saves you about 5 seconds and a risk of more if you screw up the speed trick there.

• Level 5 (Surf City): My favorite song!! Anyhow, the first section goes smoothly except somehow I miss the 1st extra life (BOO!). I again dick around with the second Tail Walker and lose about 2 or 3 seconds. In comes Big Blag, our first boss! I fight him perfectly and don't lose any time whatsoever. The last section of this level is the Mine section, which features the first random part of the game! Yes, if they generate just right (or wrong rather), you earn a high probability of losing a life and wasting precious time. Thankfully, all goes well, and the level's done!

• Level 6 (Karnath's Lair): As a side note, this is my girlfriend's favorite level! This is what I hate about warping runs, as you skip both Karnath's Lair and the next level (Volkmire's Inferno), two of my favorite stages. Anyhow, this level features memorization galore! Again, this stage is a fixed scrolling stage, so all you have to do is not die and you'll get a fast time (as long as you jump in the exit as early as possible each time). Somehow, I go through the snake's head in the first section and lose about 2-3 seconds. It's really annoying when things happen to you during a speed run that have NEVER happened to you in the past! On a side not, I try to make this level as entertaining as possible by "dancing" to the music throughout the whole stage. I hope it's a fun watch! On the fourth section, I use the only trick I learned from EmptyEye's run, but it is VERY useful, as you get to skip the last few (and hardest) parts of the snake section. It's too bad this trick exists, as the last few sections are rather cool to watch and fun to play through.

• Level 7 (Volkmire's Inferno): As a bit of trivia, this is the first level in the game where you have access to all the Battletoads super moves with just a single press of the punch button! This means enemies go down really fast! However, they make Scuzz meaner and faster this time around, so you have to be careful. After taking them on, I pull off the very awesome technique I came up with for getting past ALL of the logs without stopping OR dying! It's actually a lot harder than it looks, and I can't pull it off every single time, so this part made me really happy.

  Then, we finally reach the meat of the level, another obstacle course! Which means again, as long as you don't die, you beat it as fast as possible. This entire airplane section requires a TON of memorization. By the way, on the missile section, yes, you can just hang out on the bottom and not get touched by the ones that go up. Pretty slick eh? Also, the music in this section rules. As a side of trivia (and to show you how much I've played Battletoads), a few years ago I randomly closed my eyes during a run through of the very very last section (with the super fast blinking walls of fire) and managed to beat the entire thing without opening them. I didn't do that during this run however, as I'd probably have a heart attack if I messed up the level this far in the run for something unnecessary like that, and additionally, there'd be no proof that I actually did it, so what would be the point?

  Ok, I've incriminated myself enough, onwards to the next level...

• Level 8 (Intruder Excluder): This level is generally not that hard to beat, but it is very hard to speedrun. I make my only major mistake in this level (that doesn't include boss fights), and die for the very first time during the run at around 8:50 when I don't hold the jump button down enough. Thankfully, this was my only death during a level in the whole run, and it only costs me 7 seconds. I also get zapped by a Sentry-Drone during a failed attempt at doing something fast. This kills a second or two. The rest goes well, and in comes Robo-Manus!

  This dude is very hard to destroy without dying at all, but thankfully dying on bosses only wastes a few seconds (while you regenerate). I manage to take him down with only 1 death, and the fight goes pretty well otherwise.

• Level 9 (Terra Tubes): This level sucks. It's very long and very painful, and also requires a lof of memorization. This and the last level are probably the hardest levels of the entire game to do quickly, and one of the worst parts of this level is the fact that completely random events occur here that can kill you without warning. The first is at 22:01 (with the millions of Hammerfish, notice how they are very close to me as I exit that room), and the next is at 22:16 when the Electra-Eel's come spitting out at random moments. Both go very well. I do take a few scattered hits throughout the level, although I never die, which is good enough for me.

• Level 10 (Rat Race): One of the most creative levels of the game. Unfortunately, I did this run before I really practiced the Rat Race trick, and so I don't even try it. This is something I deeply regret, and probably the only weakness of this run, as it is about 2:10 not saved. For a demonstration on this trick, watch my other Battletoads run with warping, as I pull it off in all it's glory there. Well, on the plus side, in this run you now get to see the other two rat races in all their glory, as well as General Slaughter! The third rat race goes a bit bad, but not bad enough to lose, and I do lose a life on General Slaughter. Other than that, it goes pretty smooth.

• Level 11 (Clinger-Wingers): This level is a breeze to play through once you master it. After beating the hell out of the Buzzball, you get to fight him at the end! The fight doesn't go terribly well (as I do die twice), but I do hit him a lot of times when it counts.

• Level 12 (The Revolution): This level has ended many of my runs. It has a lot of difficult jumps, and this is especially true if you try to do it fast. I do the trampoline part pretty fast (the section starting at 31:35). I manage to essentially do this level flawlessly, which is amazing to me considering how nervous I was. The Dark Queen fight goes okay, although I do die one time. She does do some lengthy tornado moves, which delay the battle a little, but one can't control this is it's all due to luck. She goes down, and we get to see the crappiest ending ever, YAY!

Thanks for watching....
To Recap:
# of deaths: 6
Amount of kickass: lots!

Can it be improved? Hell yes! If you can do what I did, for starters, but throw in the rat race trick, you can get just over 32 minutes! If you play perfectly and don't die, you can probably get in the mid-to-low 31's, although I don't think offhand that it is possible to break 31 minutes. It may be barely possible though.

I hope one day to pull off a no-death run, however, it probably won't be a speedrun (unless we can have a Fastest Run with No Deaths category added for the occasion!)

Send any questions or comments to: djmikehaggar at google's precious gmail service.

Also, I warn whoever's out there. If you beat this run, I will retreat to the shadowy margins of the galaxy to recoup my losses....and strike when you least expect it!

Until the next time....