A prelude from Nerd Bacon founder and owner, Nerdberry:

Welcome Baconeers. You are about to witness gaming at its absolute finest, down to the very core. Marmar of Marmax Gaming is a rare breed of gamer who transcends rage-quitting in favor of persistence and completionism. But it’s not enough to just beat any game, Marmar’s inner workings drive him to beat the hardest games ever made, and often to beat them in remarkable fashion.

Today’s gem is Battletoads, a game that routinely sits atop nearly every “Hardest Games Ever” list… year after year. If you see a publication fail to include this game, that’s because, (1.) They haven’t played it. And/or (2.) They haven’t done their homework. As you will learn, while Battletoads is an insanely difficult game for one player, it is borderline impossible with two. You and your partner must be in-sync, and there is practically zero room for error. I won’t dive into any further detail as Marmar and guest player David Klingler will showcase the challenges in front of your very eyes. Without further ado, I present to you:

BATTLETOADS: A MARMAX GAMING SPECTACLE

“When it comes to classic gaming, notorious difficulty often goes hand-in-hand with the polarizing sensations of nostalgia. With dozens, if not hundreds, of stiff challenges present in the old-school libraries, there are certain titles where infamy reigns supreme. Battletoads on the original Nintendo is amongst the cream-of-the-crop when reminiscing on the most teeth-gnashing, controller-smashing, hair-pulling difficult games in existence.

Playing through Battletoads on single player is enough to have its place toward the top, if not the top, on dozens of Hardest Games of All Time lists. Playing through Battletoads on 2-player though? You would be shocked to realize that the game is over twice as hard.

Imagine playing through one of the most demanding games ever created, but now with a second player’s sprite running and jumping as distraction, along with the potent fact that if EITHER player dies in many of the game’s hardest moments, you are BOTH sent back to the last checkpoint. Friendly fire, as in, being able to one-hit kill the other player over the slightest miscommunication, is just another thing out there to punish less than perfect teamwork… but the worst of all is level cutoff. If one player jumps or runs ahead, the other player will die from the edge of the screen and you both are sent back to the last checkpoint.

Personally, beating Battletoads on 2-player has been on my bucket list for over 10 years. It took on-and-off practice for many months to beat it on single player. It was always a dream to not only meet somebody else that’s beaten the game, but most importantly, a player that had skills and an immense amount of patience capable of putting together a successful 2-player run. While I met somebody a few years older than me in UW-Eau Claire, nicknamed by me, “Battletoads Alex,” our few attempts over the span of a few weeks were ultimately in vain. With each new run, we advanced further until eventually succumbing to an all-too-familiar fate: a game over, but this time was a game over on Level 12. Then, finals were over, the school year ended, and we went our separate ways with this gaping hole in my heart knowing we got so far yet failed to reach the ultimate goal.

Little did I know that it would be over a decade later before Battletoads on 2-player would finally be vanquished, and little did I know that Level 12 on 2-player was going to become the single most putrid, horrendous, merciless, and disturbingly demanding challenge of all. A challenge that would keep me and my new Battletoads partner from glory for nearly three years of on-and-off play.

After moving from Wisconsin to North Carolina, the biggest question I had for myself was, “where in the world am I going to meet somebody that would be worthy of this unfinished conquest?” I never would have guessed that it would be a CEO, David Klingler, of a game development business, Solanimus Inc.  And I definitely never would have guessed I’d prove my gaming worth on a sales call to sell office supplies. Luckily for me, they had an XBOX controller in sight, which lead to my attempt of breaking the ice, as any trained salesman would do. This ice breaker of “working hard, or hardly working? What else do you have around here?” lead to Smash Bros Melee, and eventually NES discussion

Years later… the ultimate journey to defeat Battletoads on 2-player was born.”

• Jeff Marmar, founder, owner Marmax Gaming

VIDEO TAKES YOU TO MARMAX GAMING YOUTUBE