Battletoads (2020) Review

Microsoft has owned Rare for almost 18 years, and during that entire time, one of the big questions on everyone’s mind was, “Are they ever going to make another Battletoads game?”. I thought the series was going to remain in the past. Rare is a shadow of its former self, and other developers have gone on to develop new games for some of their classic IPs. We are finally getting a new Battletoads game all these years later, courtesy of Dlala Studios. Battletoads (2020) is a bit of a different style for the series but retains the original’s charm and humor. 

A Reimagined Experience

Let’s get this out of the way: Battletoads 2020 is essentially everything that the original is not. This game isn’t going to punish you over and over again unless you up the difficulty to the highest setting. I settled on the middle setting because I’ve never been exceptionally skilled at beat ’em ups, and it gave me a nice challenge without feeling too overwhelmed. I’d die here and there, but the checkpoints are generous enough that it never feels like you have to replay vast parts of the game each time you die. This isn’t the frustrating experience that made the original one of the most challenging games to play. 

Story & Presentation

The art style in Battletoads is incredible to look at. It feels like you’re living out a Saturday morning cartoon. The vibrant colors and crisp graphics look as good as any animated game. The three original Battletoads (Rash, Zitz, and Pimple) are back and have been trapped in a VR world, living like heroes for years. The nice thing is that these characters are not just aesthetically different. They each have distinct personalities. Pimple is the muscle but also super-sensitive, Rash is the cool one who’s always wearing sunglasses, and Zitz is the leader and the most logical of the bunch. The goal of the bunch is simple: they want to regain fame after experiencing that reality in the VR world. The story is full of laughs throughout, and I loved the addition of little cutscenes that break up different areas of the game and pull everything together.

Combat

Combat is pretty basic in Battletoads. There’s a simple melee attack with X, launch enemies into the air with Y, and then A to jump. You can also do special and charged attacks with B to break through an enemy holding a shield. You can also quickly dodge away if an enemy is shooting a projectile at you. Each character can shoot gum at enemies to lock them in place for about 5 seconds or use their tongue to pull an enemy close to them. There are a lot of different moves you can do in quick succession that keep the combat fresh. Each toad plays a little differently, with Pimple being the strongest and one that can wipe out enemies the fastest. Zitz is the quickest, but his attacks are generally weaker, while Rash is the balanced toad. I preferred taking out everyone with Pimple, but I used all of the toads. 

Enemies

My one big gripe about Battletoads is that, while the enemies may look different, there are only 4-5 types of enemies in the game. There’s the basic melee attacker, the one that blocks, the one that has a ranged attack, and the one that requires you to dodge before it can be attacked. There may be a couple of other types, but that’s pretty much it, and it does get tiresome to fight those same enemies repeatedly, with the only challenge being adding more on-screen. It can get pretty hectic out there, but enemies tell you when they’re about to attack, and they drop flies that you can grab with your tongue to regain some health, so it never feels too daunting. 

Boss Battles & Side Activities

There are some boss battles in Battletoads, but they’re all generally the same: you’re fighting off enemies they summon while dodging and attacking them. They’re fun, but nothing we haven’t seen before. There are, however, several mini-games that end levels, providing a nice change of pace from the regular gameplay. There’s an ode to the speeder section in the original game, but this one is a lot easier to deal with due to its third-person perspective and the generous checkpoints. There are also elements like Paper, Rock, Scissors, a twin-stick shooter, some platforming, and a few simple puzzles to unlock doors. I’m glad these portions were there; otherwise, I would have become burned out on the game in short order.

Multiplayer

It means a lot to me for a game in 2020 to embrace drop-in, drop-out couch co-op like Battletoads does. I’ve said for years that there aren’t enough couch co-op games, so it was nice to see it available here. This game is much more fun with friends than it is alone. There’s even a revival feature to keep your buddies alive if they’re downed. My one issue is that there is ONLY couch co-op. I can’t just jump into a game with somebody random and have fun online if there’s nobody available to play with locally. This feels like a huge oversight, especially when the recently released Streets of Rage 4 did that so well. I’m hoping for an update to add that, as I think the game would benefit from it. 

Final Thoughts

I fully expected Battletoads (2020) to be the nail in the coffin for this franchise, but instead, I feel like it has breathed new life into it. This game was a lot of fun to play and even better with friends. I’m hoping we see more from this franchise soon.