It was over two years ago, at E3 2018, that Microsoft promised a new Battletoads was on the way for XBox One. The game dropped off the map since, and we wondered if we were ever going to see it…but fortunately, today, it hopped back up with a release date less than a month away — and an outrageous new trailer.
The original Battletoads was the first American hit for British developer Rare. It switches up gameplay styles on every single level, an ambitious idea for 1991 that didn’t quite pay off — some are much stronger than others and when you’re playing a segment that doesn’t work, all you can think about is playing one that does.
It’s the beat-em-up brawler segments of Battletoads that gamers remember the most fondly, and the Turbo Tunnel segments they remember with the most pain. The NES game starts you out on a brawler stage, and hits you with the Tunnel in Stage 3 — and for most, the game stopped there.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the new Battletoads is primarily a brawler. Up to three players can control Zitz, Pimple and Rash and throw around rats and other minions of the Dark Queen’s army in sweet crazy chaos. And yes, the Turbo Tunnel is back, but this time it’s from a 3-D perspective and you have a little more time to react to a wall before you smack into it.
There have been a lot of complaints about the cartoony look of this game, as if these giant trash-talking frogs in sunglasses would look better if rendered realistically. The whiners are wrong. Battletoads has always been an over-the-top cartoon world full of wild takes and falling heavy objects, where fists grow to giant size whenever they punch someone. A dark and gritty edgelord Battletoads with no humor directed by Zack Snyder would be far worse.
Dude, I’m ready for a game that toadally kicks butt. Battletoads comes out for XBox One and PC August 20.
