About the Nintendo Entertainment System Battletoads Pre-Owned Cartidge Only

The game is a platform scrolling beat 'em up, with varying elements of racing, climbing and vehicle-based obstacle courses. Players start with three lives each time the game is started, which get replenished every time the player continues after getting defeated. The game contains no saving system or password features. The player has a maximum of six hit points that can be replenished by eating flies. While the levels of Battletoads vary greatly in gameplay style, the game is generally presented as a "beat'em up", in which players progress by defeating enemies while avoiding the hazards in the environment.

Most of the attacks in the game have a "Smash Hit" variant, which triggers after a series of hits, or as the final hit to the enemy, and delivers a powerful blow to the enemy, often enlarging the body part delivering the blow.

The Toads's regular hit is a regular punch, with its Smash Hit variant, "Kiss-My-Fist". Also, while running, which is done by tapping left or right on the D-pad twice in a row, the toads can deliver a head-butt. The head-butt's Smash Hit has the toads delivering a headbutt with giant ram horns, named the "Battletoad Butt". In addition, by standing close to them, most enemies can be picked up and thrown overhead.

Due to the variety of gameplay styles between stages, many of the attacks are only usable in certain levels. For example, while hanging on the Turbo Cable in the second level, the toads gain access to a kick, with its Smash Hit variant called "Swingin' Size Thirteens", a giant punch similar to Kiss-My-Fist, named the "Turbo Thwack", and "BT Bashing Ball" in which the character shape-shifts into a wrecking ball when hanging next to a wall. In 2D levels, the toads can perform an uppercut, and its Smash Hit variation, called "Jawbuster". Also, in certain levels, a move is available in which the toads clasp both hands to bash an enemy into the ground, named "Nuclear Knuckles". After an enemy is buried by Nuclear Knuckles, the toads can use "the Punt" which involves repeatedly kicking their head, ending with its Smash Hit version, named the "Big Bad Boot".

Certain objects can also be used as weapons, such as legs from defeated Walkers, beaks from ravens, pipes on the walls of Intruder Excluder, and flagpoles from the Dark Queen's tower.

Side-scrolling stages are generally presented as having an isometric perspective, while platforming stages that feature vertical progression are presented in 2D, which allows the player characters to crouch by pressing down. Several levels in the game feature sections in the form of an obstacle course, where the players must dodge a series of obstacles with speed increasing as the level progresses. Other types of level include two "tower climb" levels, a descent to a chasm while hanging from a rope, a level with underwater sections, a maze chase riding a unicycle-style vehicle, a platforming "snake maze", and a race level in which the players have to fall as quickly as possible through countless platforms to reach the bottom of a tower before an enemy does. Hidden in four of the levels are "mega warp" points, which, when reached, allow the players to automatically advance by two levels.