1:1 Replica of Battletoads NES Mechanics
I replicated levels "Ragnarok's Canyon" and "Turbo Tunnel" of this game in January 2024.
*I almost completed "Karnath's Lair" as well, but unfortunately lost this data the following week, overwriting it with the wrong backup.
Ragnarok's Canyon Notes
Battletoads on the NES is very cleverly designed.
All of the isometric gameplay is totally faked; the entire first level is a regular flat 2D board, and the movement mechanics trick you into believing the sprites are both navigating atop ('up' and 'down'), and fully switching between 'real' isometric planes.
The biggest flaw this creates is map limitations from the 'rules' of the diagonals. In order for the illusion to work, all 'lower planes' must expand outwards from a 'higher plane', and all 'lower planes' must have their 'top grass' continue 'inwards' indefinitely, until hitting a higher plane's 'bottom wall'.
If you play around with the level textures as a spritesheet and attempt to create a stage, you'll very quickly run into problems as levels simply cannot exist as you may think possible. Try to make a 'gap' surrounded by lower planes; it's impossible!
Gameplay Videos
Isometric Mechanics
Hoverbike Mechanics
What is this game?
"Toads" is a 'fake'-isometric platformer & racer. It aims to be near 1:1 to Battletoads [NES].
Turbo Tunnel Notes
The Turbo Tunnel's design is effectively a much simpler variant of the isometric mechanics within Ragnarok's Canyon.
The main thing of note is, due to there only being a singular flat 'plane', the developers got away with flipping the diagonal ends of each platform. Here, the top level of the platform expires before the bottom level, which is the polar opposite of Ragnarok's Canyon.
This makes it impossible for the same isometric elevation trick to be present, as even if there was another plane drawn higher, there's no longer any 'walls' that can correctly exist 'behind' you, for you to then climb 'up' onto the new plane.
