Dark Queen (Battletoads)

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Dark Queen
Battletoads character

Dark Queen in Super Battletoads
First game Battletoads (1991)[1]
Voiced by Lalainia Lindbjerg (cartoon)[2]

The Dark Queen is a fictional character in the Battletoads video game series by Rare introduced in the original Battletoads in 1991. She is a mysterious ruler of evil and the supreme commander of a renegade space army consisting primarily of anthropomorphic pigs and rats, who is bent on galactic conquest. The character has received considerable attention due to her sex appeal, particularly during the early years of video gaming, as well as for being one of the first major female villains in video games.[3]

Character

The Dark Queen is the ultimate enemy to the Battletoads, as she has repeatedly attempted to eliminate the 'Toads and Professor T. Bird in order to stop them from hindering her evil plans. Throughout the series she usually appears to taunt the 'Toads during the cutscenes; despite her royal stature, she prefers to be no more cultured than the Battletoads themselves, due to the crude nature of her speech which consists primarily of surfer slang and offensive puns (such as calling them "cattle-loads" and "wartfeatures"). She is usually fought as the end boss of the game.

The Dark Queen is a sultry human woman with black big hair and skin-tight skimpy black (or dark blue) outfit with matching long gloves and above-knee high heeled boots. Throughout the games there have been several inconsistencies regarding her actual size: although her height is stated to be six-feet tall on her profile screen in the arcade game (which would mean she is actually smaller than the Battletoads), she normally appears to be of a tremendous size in the games, usually roughly four times the height of the 'Toads.

Appearances

The Dark Queen is introduced in the first Battletoads game. In it, following her defeat by the Galactic Corporation at the Battle of Canis Major, she and her remaining forces have escaped to hide in the planet Ragnarok's World "in dark spaces between the stars." As Professor T. Bird and the Battletoads – Rash, Zitz and Pimple – are escorting the Princess Angelica, daughter of the Terran Emperor, the Dark Queen strikes and captures the Princess along with Pimple (in the Game Boy version, the Dark Queen pretends to be a Thallian Thorax Dancer to capture Rash and Pimple and take them away in the enormous spaceship Gargantua to the planet Armagedda). The other two Battletoads go to the Ragnarok's World and manage to rescue the captives and confront the Dark Queen at her Tower of Shadows. During the final boss fight, she only has one special move besides basic kicks, spinning until turning into a tornado and then attempting to hit the player (how much damage is done to the player is based on how fast she is spinning). After her defeat, she flees into space, "retreating into to the shadowy margins of the galaxy to recoup her losses."

In Battletoads in Battlemaniacs, she has partnered with the vengeful computer engineer Silas Volkmire to kidnap Zitz and Michiko Tashoku, the daughter of the President of the Psicone Corporation, creators of the computer-generated portal Gamescape, intending to transform the entire world into Gamescape Kingdom over which they would rule together.[4] In this game, she is wearing a red cape and wielding a snake-themed staff (with "more hex appeal than ever", according to GamePro[4]). The other two 'Toads showdown with the Dark Queen again, this time at her Dark Tower, During the boss fight, she teleports and attacks the players with magical projectiles from staff. After her defat, she flees again "to the outer reaches of the Universe," vowing revenge.

In the crossover game Battletoads & Double Dragon, the Dark Queen teams up with the Shadow Boss. Together, they use a mysterious energy beam from outer space to render Earth's military might powerless and use a giant spaceship called the Colossus to take over the Earth. The Battletoads join up with Billy and Jimmy Lee, otherwise known as the Double Dragons, to once again foil her plans. In this game, she is capable of transforming into a flame and moving across the floor, remaining untouchable by doing so, and can also attack by emerging from the flame and tossing fireballs. When beaten, she teleports away.

The Dark Queen also return to antagonize the Battletoads in the largely plot-less arcade game Super Battletoads. In it, she was "sexed up a bit for the allegedly more mature arcade crowd,"[5] having her erect nipples visible through her outfit and a breast bounce effect.[6] An in-game portrait also shows her hair spread out in a fashion much like Medusa's. During the gameplay parts, she only appears as a holographic projection in the third stage, where she is watching the boss fight between the 'Toads and Scuzz's Robo-Rat.

Reception

Female villains were quite rare in the early days of video games, with the fairer sex usually reserved as kidnapped princesses in another castle. Not only was the Dark Queen revolutionary, she was also dead sexy – possibly the hottest babe of the 8-bit era, with her Veronica Lake hair and huge bazooms.[7]

K. Thor Jensen, UGO.com

There’s no shortage of leather-clad bad girls in videogames these days, but they all owe a little something to this enterprising villainess. She paved the way for the women of the future. Like a suffragette... except that comparison is grossly inappropriate.[8]

Jim Sterling, GamesRadar

The Dark Queen was well received by critics upon her introduction, having been twice nominated by Nintendo Power for the Nintendo Power Awards in the category villain of the year for 1991 and 1993.[9][10] Dark Queen was included on UGO.com's 2008 list of the top 50 evil women in all media,[7] and on Geek World list of the greatest villains of the 8-bit era.[11] In 2011, Complex ranked her as tenth on the list of "most diabolical video game she-villains", calling her "as hot as Jessica Rabbit"[12] That same year, Universo Online ranked her ninth on the list of ten most beautiful and deadly game villainesses.[13]

Both Seanbaby and Geek World declared her the sexiest NES game character.[11][14] In 2008, Ripten ranked this "one of the original hotties of the digital screen" as the seventh "nicest ass" in video games,[15] In 2010, Dark Queen placed ninth on machinima.com's list of the gaming's top "cleavagey" characters;[16] Jason F.C. Clarke of Topless Robot stated she "rivals Sin's Elexis Sinclaire and Soulcalibur's Ivy for sheer cleavage."[17] GamesRadar featured her in a 2011 retrospective article featuring the sexy video game women of the sprite era,[8] also noting her to be "hot looking for a 2D sprite."[18] Luke McKinney and Matthew Moffitt of Cracked.com wrote she "helped [the young gamers] manipulate themselves, and was just as physically mutated as the giant talking animals."[19]

Alex Langley of Arcade Sushi called the Dark Queen the "breakdown character" of the series, noting that "in a time where princesses and queens were there to be kidnapped, the Dark Queen turned the depiction of video game matriarchy on its head and boldly declared that she’d be the one doing the kidnapping."[20] UGO editors commented that the Battletoads series is "notorious for its insanely high difficulty, juvenile sense of humor and big-boobed antagonist"[21] and adding that "the anger we felt at losing was only compounded by how hot and unattainable the Dark Queen was."[22] Complex commenting that "where the TMNT had April O'Neil to flirt with, the most bodacious chick in the Battletoad universe is ironically the final boss who wants them all dead."[23] Gawker commented on the short-lived Battletoads cartoon how "Shredder had nothing on the Toads' sexy nemesis, The Dark Queen."[24] According to Charmaine Williams of WhatCulture, actually "the only thing Battletoads [cartoon] had going for it was the sexy Dark Queen. I guess if you think your show won’t live to see a full season, might has well have a character with big boobs that lives in a penis shaped castle."[25]

The original game's ending where the Battletoads "simply just allow her to escape" was included on the 2010 list of ten biggest ending letdowns in video game history by Danny Gallagher of SPIKE.[26] Lead designer of 2012's Double Dragon remake Double Dragon Neon, Sean Velasco from WayForward Technologies, said: "I wanna high five Zitz and punch the Dark Queen in the gut!"[27] Requesting an 'awesome remake" of Battletoads, Brian Cullen of Maxim wrote that "we would rain hot, repressed justice all over our consoles, just for a chance to hate-fight the foxy, infuriating Dark Queen."[28] Gaming Nexus' Cyril Lachel stated: "Forget reviving the Battletoads, all I want is a game based on the Dark Queen!"[29]

References

  1. ↑ "Dark Queen". Uk.ign.com. Retrieved 2013-08-01. 
  2. ↑ "Battletoads – Voice Of Dark Queen". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 2013-08-01. 
  3. ↑ Steven A. Schwartz, Janet Schwartz, The Parent's Guide to Video Games, Prima Pub., 1994 (p.8).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Batletoads Preview", GamePro July 1993, p.24.
  5. ↑ "Battletoads Retrospective – IGN". M.uk.ign.com. Retrieved 2012-12-26. 
  6. ↑ "The Forgotten: Battletoads on the go and in the arcades". Destructoid. Retrieved 2012-12-26. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 K. Thor Jensen (2008-11-19). "The Dark Queen". UGO.com. Retrieved 2012-12-26. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "The sexiest sprites of all time". GamesRadar. 2011-03-02. Retrieved 2012-12-26. 
  9. ↑ Nintendo Power #34 (March 1992).
  10. ↑ Nintendo Power #60 (March 1994).
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Najwięksi dranie ośmiu bitów, cz. II – Dark Queen – Geek World". Geek-world.pl. Retrieved 2013-08-01.  (Polish)
  12. ↑ "10. Dark Queen, Battletoads Series – Bad Girls Club: The 25 Most Diabolical Video Game She-Villains". Complex. Retrieved 2012-12-26. 
  13. ↑ "Top 10 – Vilãs dos Games – Lindas e Mortais « GameHall Network". Gamehall.uol.com.br. 2011-03-29. Retrieved 2012-12-26.  (Portuguese)
  14. ↑ ""Congratulation! Award for Sexiest Game Character" by Seanbaby". Digitpress.com. Retrieved 2013-08-01. 
  15. ↑ "Top 10 Nicest Asses in Videogames – #7 Dark Queen". Ripten.com. 2008-12-07. Retrieved 2013-08-01. 
  16. ↑ Top 10 Cleavagey Characters, machinima, May 29, 2010.
  17. ↑ Jason F.C. Clarke, Ten Video Games that Should Have Gotten Toys, Topless Robot, December 3, 2012.
  18. ↑ "Game characters that time forgot". GamesRadar. 2008-09-11. Retrieved 2012-12-26. 
  19. ↑ O'Brien, Jack. "7 Dick Moves Everyone Pulled in Classic Video Games". Cracked.com. Retrieved 2013-12-20. 
  20. ↑ "Battletoads vs. Double Dragon: Whose Fight Has the Most Might?". Arcadesushi.com. 2013-02-25. Retrieved 2013-12-20. 
  21. ↑ K. Thor Jensen (2010-11-23). "25 Games That Need Sequels". UGO.com. Retrieved 2012-12-26. 
  22. ↑ Meli, Marissa (2011-05-24). "Super-Hard Video Games You Never Finished". UGO.com. Retrieved 2012-12-26. 
  23. ↑ "Rash, Zitz and Pimple – Battletoads – 10 Really Ugly Good Guys". Complex. 2011-09-21. Retrieved 2012-12-26. 
  24. ↑ "Television News, Video and Gossip – Gawker". Tv.gawker.com. Retrieved 2012-12-26. 
  25. ↑ "8 Awful TV Shows That Were Clearly Doomed To Fail". Whatculture.com. 2013-11-12. Retrieved 2013-12-20. 
  26. ↑ "The 10 Biggest Letdowns in Video Game Endings". SPIKE. 2010-05-24. Retrieved 2013-11-13. 
  27. ↑ "WayForward Wants Battletoads DLC in Double Dragon Neon – IGN". Uk.ps3.ign.com. Retrieved 2012-12-26. 
  28. ↑ "5 Classic Video Games That Deserve Awesome Remakes". Maxim. 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-12-20. 
  29. ↑ "Battletoads in Battlemaniacs: Slippery Puck Ride". Defunct Games. Retrieved 2012-12-26. 

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