Battletoads Review (Win 10/Xbox One)

by Jim Smale · August 20, 2020

The wait is over! Rash, Zitz, and Pimple are returning, at last, to smash-hit their way through an all-new action-packed adventure of choreographed chaos, and couch co-op may never be the same again.

Pros:

Cartoon graphics.
10.59gb Download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
Controller support on win 10.
Graphics-fullscreen/borderless/Windowed, resolution, v-sync, gameplay Hud, and screen shake.
Can rebind controls. They advise doing it in the main menu as it has spoilers but you can change them in the pause menu.
Game settings-enemy attack tells invincibility availability, constant player markers, and tutorials.
3 save slots.
Arcade beat-em-up gameplay.
3 difficulties-Tadpole/Toad/Battletoad. Each one affects–enemy health, enemy strength and respawn time.
3 characters to choose from-Zitz, pimple, and rash.
1-3 player local co-op.
Combo system.
Tag-when in single player you can swap between each Battletoad whenever you want.
Fully voiced characters.
Humor throughout.
Five collectibles in each level.
Each combat section has its own performance rank.
End of level breakdown shows-time taken, score, collectibles, and a recap of all combat ranks.
Flies-eat to regain health.
Cartoon cutscenes.
Subtitles-on/off.
Mini-games in between games.
Four acts in the story with levels in each.
Drop on/out co-op.
Can rewatch cutscenes.
Does support mouse and keyboard.
Hacking mini game-it’s a case of getting from one side to the other without getting hit. It plays out on a single bar and you are an icon.
Callbacks to the original game.
The story took 2 and a half hours to finish.
If you get stuck on sections you can use invincibility.
Different genres mixed into the game like side-scrolling platforming and shmups.
Revive each other.
Puzzle sections involving circuits. After a few tries, you can use a skip switch without penalty.
Has shout outs and mentions of other Rare titles.

Cons:

Tutorial pop-ups are far apart.
Momentum is stop-start constantly.
Can be hard to see enemies when bystanders are around.
No online co-op.
Just the one mode.
Can’t have options for hitting/not hitting teammates.
Controls are fiddly with hold LT the press or hold a button being the norm here.
Replayability is just getting collectibles.
Use invincibility and lower difficulty with no remorse.
The camera can zoom out and make it hard to see what’s going on.
Only a handful of enemy types and even then they reuse an enemy’s attack pattern but reskin them later on.
Throughout the game, the music will lower and go kinda flat and suck all the energy from the game.
Mini-games easily outstay there welcome.
Underwhelming end of the game boss fight.
No way to block or counter moves just a dash but that doesn’t always work with some attacks.

7/10
Graphics - 7/10
6/10
Sound - 6/10
6/10
Accessibility - 6/10
6/10
Length - 6/10
6/10
Fun Factor - 6/10

6.2/10

Summary

Battletoads is a game that was huge back on the original NES, it divided gamers with its difficulty as it would ramp up to absolute bonkers levels of insanity. Enter the new game in the series and with it a new lick of paint. For whatever happens here today, the new art style is a welcome change, and one that makes sense, the animations of the toads as they do attacks are smooth and look really good. The gameplay is a mix of genres, for the bulk of it, the gameplay is a side scroller beat em up as you take on various enemy types and do boss fights. On top of that, they get Shmup levels in there, many mini-games, and side-scrolling platformers. It’s a weird thing to say but in the pacing of the game, it works quite well all though some of the mini-games are all lick based and do drag on for a long time. Boss fights go old school with a simple avoid attacks and hit the boss when exposed, do it 3 times then that’s it. Talking of old school, the humor is so 90s and cheesy 90s humor with predictable punch lines, bad jokes, poor deliveries and so much more, it’s like the graphics advanced but the content and story slash humor stayed rooted in the past. Combat is very mashy and on easy it’s a breeze except for the one enemy type that blocks every attack but your charged attack, the thing is the charged attack takes long enough that you can get knocked out of it by another enemy and it just really grinds. Talking of enemies, there is like 4 or 5 different enemy types in terms of attacks, later in the game its the same enemy types but with a different skin, it’s obvious with it aswel. The combat, however, can be good and it’s fast and full of combos with a complying combo counter but then they cut off the action instantly by having the next section after a fight being a tedious hacking mini-game or a logic puzzle where you must get a charge from one side to another, luckily they add a skip button layer on but it’s still a fun killer. The story is very predictable, bad guy screws over the last games bad guy so you team up with the old bad guy and take on the new bad guy the end. The story is presented as a cartoon and I really liked that but it’s the content that wasn’t there. Battletoads just had a real pacing issue, it was stop-start, at any point the action and fun would be sucked out of it with it being the puzzles or even the music! The music would build then just level out and drone on as the combat gets dragged along one block of an attack at a time. I clocked the game in under 3 hours easily with the final boss fight being the most boring yet simple boss fight to the point I thought it was a prequel to the last fight. At the end of the day, you can make Battletoads what you want in a way, you can play any difficulty from the off, you can even turn on invincibility at any time with no consequences. It’s just a weird game for a variety of reasons and seems to struggle with its identity. I came away from Battletoads not liking it, hating all the combat but loving the twin-stick shmup they put into the game. Battletoads never shrugs off its 90s roots and refuses to grow up and act like an adult.