Battletoads is an interesting property in that while there hasn’t been a main series game in some 26 years, it still has a fairly loyal following. Being hailed as one of the most difficult games ever made, not to mention a property initially designed to compete with the popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Rash, Pimple, and Zitz haven’t exactly been given their due. While we saw a more mature and detailed Rash make an appearance during season 3 of Killer Instinct, this newest version of the Battletoads comes off as a beat’em-up brawler version of a show you would see on Cartoon Network. While much of the game works extremely well, its focus on providing too many types of gameplay novelties wears thin and is the poster child for tonal whiplash.
Told across a short 3-4 hour campaign, spawning four acts, Battletoads is a self-referential narrative that likes to poke fun at itself, the industry, and several types of gameplay conceits. The animation style is often superb, with incredibly well-made cutscenes that gives us a look at what an actual Battletoads cartoon would look like. This wonderful aesthetic carries the game much more than I had initially thought it would, a style I also wasn’t too keen on when the game was first shown off. After getting my hands on the game through Game Pass, seeing how well this style works here, I certainly warmed up to it greatly. While I understand the frustration many gamers have with this new direction, the game is still a blast to play, well, for the most part.
The story of Battletoads is actually pretty fun with the three heroes discovering that for the past 26 years, they have been trapped in a simulator, a world where they are famous and beloved. As they now find themselves back in the real world, that isn’t the case at all. After getting frustrated at working a standard 9-5 job, they all set out to make a name for themselves yet again, tracking down the Dark Queen and other threats across the galaxy. While the game is solid for the first two acts and the rather short fourth and final act, it’s the entirety of act three where the game just lost me, less from a narrative standpoint but more so from its vastly disappointing gameplay.
While the older Battletoads series has been a bit of a genre hopper, most of its gameplay changes still had you in command of the Battletoads and often worked well enough to remain enjoyable. Here, act three consists of a bland and unexciting bullet hell shooter, and a series of platforming levels that feel like the worst levels of the least impressive side-scrolling Rayman game, featuring two alien creatures you won’t care about unless of course you are playing in three-player co-op and one of you gets to at least pick a Battletoad. At first, I assumed these little distractions would be just that, little, but then they just kept happening and these levels are not anywhere as engaging as the rest of the game. While act four gives us back the best parts of why this game can be so enjoyable, it is almost over by that point and its last set of levels are nowhere as impressive as its first two acts.
The best parts of Battletoads is when its focus is on being a fun brawler and its set of driving/racing levels, one of which has you collectively riding on the back of an unconscious body, pressing different commands as you jump from platform to platform. The first two acts have the best level design, often turning combat into a puzzle as you try to determine if taking out the ranged fighters are a bigger priority than that of those that can electrify the floor. This is also where you’ll fight some enjoyable bosses, who honestly do lack a bit of depth as they tend to only have just a few overall patterned attacks to avoid. That said, they largely succeed in still remaining enjoyable due to their fantastic animations, especially that of Porkshank, the game’s first boss.
Battletoads can be played with up to three players, but there is only an option for local co-op at this point unless you use a few programs on PC to simulate that everyone is there on the couch beside you. The lack of online co-op is going to make any conversation about this game fade quickly as much of the world is still working through a pretty wide-spread pandemic and an era where social distancing is key. It’s also rather odd to not see this game have some sort of online functionality due to Microsoft consistently pushing for online experiences between its collection of first-party games. While it’s unclear exactly why online co-op isn’t a feature here, it still comes across as something that will fundamentally hurt the lifespan of this game.
From a combat perspective, the game can feel very different when playing solo or with at least one other person. When playing solo, you can freely swap to each Battletoad providing they are not defeated or in need of a quick revive. While there are no team attacks or special moves to speak of, each Battletoad does at least feel and play somewhat differently. Pimple is the slower but more powerful one, Zitz is lightning quick and a bit weaker, and Rash ends up being a nice in-between, feeling a bit more balanced overall. Each character has a wackiness to their attacks, morphing and stretching their limbs and bodies into all sorts of objects, matching the aesthetic and direction the game is shooting for.
Alongside your attacks, you can jump, evade, launch enemies into the air, and perform a morphing attack that operates like a charged heavy strike, breaking through the few enemies that have some sort of guard up. There is also a taunt, but honestly, you’ll perform it once and likely leave it alone. Each Battletoad can also use their tongue to lash out and pull enemies towards them or leave them struggling in their spit. You’ll use your tongue to collect flies for health, collectibles, hit out-of-reach puzzle switches, and swing from hooks to access other platforms.
Spread throughout its combat is a series of various mini-game that either are part of the brawling levels or entire levels all their own. As you fight your way through each stage, you’ll have to hack terminals or provide a path for electricity to travel. These brief moments are not terribly exciting, and depending on your level of skill, can kill some of the pacing. The mini-games that make up their own levels have you performing their 9-5 jobs, or partaking in some sort of sporting event, each with varying results. The best mini-game on offer isn’t initially one I enjoyed at first, as you’ll take part in a Battletoads themed version of rock-paper-scissors called Toadshambo. While it is mostly funny the first time it happens, it is absolutely hysterical the second time, making for likely the biggest laugh of the entire game and a joke that pays off tremendously.
While most of the mini-games are short and quick to move past, there is one in particular that just wasn’t fun, and less so in full three-player co-op. During act three, you’ll have to perform a series of mini-games to reconnect power and get your ship back in working order. These games randomly switch from game to game, each with their own controls. The problem is that in co-op, there isn’t an indicator, that we could see anyway, that communicated whose turn it was, wasting precious seconds as the clock ticked down. While solving a few of these puzzles would have been ok, it repeats these series of four to five mini-games again and again and again, driving them into the ground to point where we all collectively sighed when it would have us do it again with nothing to break up this onslaught of mediocrity.
Battletoads certainly entertains for most of its 3-4 hour campaign with some solid combat and a charming cartoonish aesthetic. However; I’m not impressed with many of its choices, especially that third act and how disengaged I felt through almost all of its provided mini-games. Now, that said, this is a solid attempt at creating something new, even if it didn’t fully pan out. Battletoads may not be for everyone, but its addition to Game Pass at least allows you to try it out, see if it clicks, and if it doesn’t, then you can move on to the next game on the service. If and when Microsoft decides to patch in online play, then maybe I could see myself playing through it again, but there just isn’t a compelling reason to really dive back in and that is a Toad’al shame.
Battletoads was downloaded via Game Pass by the reviewer and played on an Xbox One X.
All screenshots were taken on an Xbox One X.