Rare’s Battletoads is easily one of the greatest NES games ever made. But it’s also one of the toughest. And one of the levels that sends a lot of players into overdrive is the turbo tunnel in stage 3’s airbike stage, in which you have to dodge a collage of walls in order to get to the finish line.
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A lot of folks can’t beat this stage as it requires extreme split-second timing in order to get through. But during a recent livestream, one player has managed to conquer it…blindfolded. Yeah, we’re stunned too.
Piotr Delgado Kusielczuk, also known as TheMexicanRunner (you may recall his amazing Cuphead speedrun during Summer Games Done Quick a few weeks ago), performed the feat during the ongoing European Speedrunner Assembly marathon, which you can learn more about here. It’s similar in nature to Games Done Quick, raising money for charity with a group of speedrunners. But, honestly, it’s going to take a lot to top what Piotr has done here.
He was able to complete the tunnel in one run, and, again, without the ability to see what was coming. A fellow commentator placed a bag over his head to assure he couldn’t see anything. And he still did it.
According to Kotaku, Piotr put a lot of practice into the feat. “There’s one problem with the turbo tunnel blindfolded,” he explained. “I cannot know how high or low I am. So, that’s a big problem because it’s not as simple as pressing up and down.”
But he managed to use audio cues in order to successfully beat the stage on the first try. And it left a lot of people in awe. “You must be fucking kidding me,” he yelled when he beat the stage, with the crowd applauding wildly shortly thereafter.
You can see the video of the run above which starts about 2:00 in. The crowd is awfully quiet during the segment, but this allows Piotr to focus on his cues and beat the stage handily.
So if you haven’t beaten the tunnel stage yet, git gud, players. It is beatable, you just need to put in a lot of practice. A lot.
Battletoads is available for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Don’t have an old-school set-up? Grab Rare Replay for the Xbox One as it includes a perfect port of the game.
Oh, and don’t forget to tune in to the European Speedrunner Assembly. Still some great speedruns happening there and it’s for a good cause!
