[2] Apparently, the Dark Queen is back with another plan to dominate the galaxy,[2] and she has allied herself with the Shadow Warriors (from the Double Dragon series) to supplement her forces.

[8] The fourth level is where the beat 'em up game turns into a shooter,[9] and the Dark Queen throws asteroids, mines, and UFOs at the spacecraft controlled by the player.

[10] Although the ship is successfully destroyed, the Dark Queen and the Shadow Boss survive by escaping in a missile hull, thus making the fifth level's goal to board it.

[11] Battletoads/Double Dragon is a beat 'em up video game where the players, as either one of the three Battletoads or Jimmy and Billy, attack enemies, swing ropes, go on spaceships, and turbo bike to defeat the Shadow Boss and Dark Queen.

[18] The player has a choice of five playable characters: Billy and Jimmy Lee from Double Dragon, and Zitz, Pimple, and Rash from Battletoads.

[22] Nintendo Power asserted that the game has confusing depth perception, but "great action, graphics and theme make this one of the strongest titles this year", and is better than Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (1993).

[40] The NES version was nominated for Nintendo Power Awards 1993 in the categories "Graphics & Sound", "Theme & Fun", "Play Control", "Villain" (The Dark Queen), and "The Best Overall Game".

[9] Sushi-X, however, brought up unfair elements to the difficulty, such as "enormously cheap kills in many areas, like being knocked into pits and unblock-able attacks".

Reviews of the Game Boy version frequently critiqued the graphics and music; Mega Fan criticized the small sprites for not giving the player a clear perspective of what is going on sometimes,[29] and Michael Koczy of the German edition of Total!

[42] Hull appreciated its more forgiving difficulty in comparison to the originalBattletoads,[14] Thornburg stated it was still unfair at times, noting "unbalanced fights", "moving down a rope too fast for the screen and being killed by seemingly nothing or being overcrowded by enemies at the most frustrated moments".

[17] The combination of the Battletoads and Double Dragon properties were well-received,[14] with Skyler Miller of AllGame opining that "Rare does a fine job at connecting the two universes without making it seem forced or arbitrary.

[43] An AllGame critic, Brett Alan Weiss, was harsh on the SNES version, calling it "an unnecessary creation, except to line the pockets of the companies involved", and too similar in looks and gameplay to its 8-bit counterpart, thus not taking enough advantage of the 16-bit console's capabilities.