Toadally Worth A Play – A ‘Battletoads’ Review
Battletoads is back after a 26-year hiatus, a fact that the game hammered into my head through constant fourth-wall breaks. Featuring a new art style and tone, Battletoads harkens back to a ‘cool’ ‘90s attitude and pulls it off well. A wide variety of gameplay genres are tied loosely together by a nonsensical plot that jumps all over the place. Yet, that is where Battletoads shines brightest: It never takes itself seriously and has a bounty of hilarious moments. For its sheer variety alone, Battletoads is worth a look, and has enough of a mechanical foundation to keep me wanting more.
Admittedly, I never completed the original Battletoads. I own a cartridge but only ever managed to get to around the halfway point before running out of lives. Perhaps I would have fared better if it had a more modern save system. Battletoads was a purposely unfair game, featuring twitch-reaction motorbike levels and precision platforming. Because of this, Battletoads has reached a cult-level status due to its sheer difficulty and startling gameplay variety, even by today’s standards. The series went on to have an arcade game and a crossover with Double Dragon before fading into obscurity.
The core gameplay is a classic beat ‘em up, reminiscent more of the Battletoads arcade games than the NES original. Most of the stages consist of traveling through lengthy corridors until an enemy ambush shows up. To combat these, there are three playable and distinct characters. Rash is the all-rounder, dealing decent damage while also being the best at clearing the area with his weird fish swing. Zitz focuses on speed, being able to zip around the field at a faster pace and stay in the air longer than the other toads. Finally, Pimple is the brute of the group, dealing massive damage but being more on the sluggish side. I found myself constantly switching toads to suit the task at hand.
No matter which character I was playing as, the movesets were similar enough that swapping between the three never felt too jarring. Every toad has the same basic controls, including normal attacks, a launching move, a tongue grab, and a quick dash. Despite these similarities, the differences really stand out when chaining attacks together. For example, Zitz’ launcher move sends him into the air, allowing him to continue attacking his now airborne opponent. There is a pretty big emphasis on these combos, noted by a meter near the toad’s health bar and a combo counter on the side of the screen. Performing well enough earns a higher rank, though it is never very important outside of some achievements and bragging rights.
The dynamic of the three playstyles encouraged flexibility in a way that is balanced for both single and multiplayer. When one toad is defeated, a respawn timer starts counting down for that toad. In single player, I automatically swapped to another character and continued fighting, only triggering a game over when all three were down simultaneously. There were intense moments where I was dashing around, struggling to survive just long enough for the timer to end. Zitz in particular was very useful due to his faster dashes and combo potential to keep enemies in check. When in multiplayer, the benefit of increased damage to opponents has a higher risk factor since it’s easier for everyone to go down.
It may be easy for toads to go down, but Battletoads is surprisingly lenient. There are three difficulty options, but all they change are enemy health, enemy damage output, and the toad’s respawn timer. The most significant change compared to the NES era, however, is the game’s use of modern checkpoint systems. After every segment, there is a checkpoint that is automatically reverted back to in the case of a game over. Without a lives system, there is never any danger of losing much progress. Additionally, it has an actual save feature, something that was sorely lacking in the past. Thus, Battletoads feels much more fair and achievable than its predecessors. Perhaps Battletoads purists would have rather had the ball-busting difficulty remain intact, but I found it a welcome change.
While a majority of the first half of Battletoads is composed of these beat ‘em up stages, that’s not exactly a good thing. The movesets don’t expand as the game progresses, leading to a lot of combat sequences that feel simultaneously overwhelming and monotonous. There are a variety of enemies that require different tactics, such as the tanky beasts that need to be baited into attacking first, and lightbulbs that create a zone of electricity around them. Battletoads is more than willing to throw a diverse group of enemies at once, and does so quite often. It doesn’t help that these stages also tend to overstay their welcome, dragging on just a bit too long. They were fun initially, but by the end of the first act, I was already tired of them.
Thankfully, Battletoads has plenty of other gameplay styles to keep things interesting. Right off the bat after the opening stage is a hilarious section that is entirely quick-time events as the toads perform dreary tasks for their new jobs. This is quickly thrown out the window in favor of a classic turbo bike stage right after. Platforming, shoot ‘em up, even rock-paper-scissors – Battletoads has it all.
Battletoads is at its best when jumping from genre to genre, never giving a gameplay type enough time to become tedious. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen as often as I would have liked. During the first and third acts, I would end up playing the same genre for multiple levels in a row. This wouldn’t be an issue if each type of gameplay didn’t get repetitive, but there simply isn’t enough variety within each archetype to avoid getting stale. While the first shoot ‘em up stage was perfectly enjoyable, each subsequent variation only added a single additional bullet pattern. To keep things fresh, it would have been better to spread them out rather than have them so close together. The final act did this well, where every part of it was a different genre. I just wish it was that varied throughout the whole game.
The controls on each of these new gameplay types were nearly always well-implemented, feeling right at home in another game of the genre. The shoot ‘em up sections controlled surprisingly similar to NieR: Automata, and the platforming bits had a Donkey Kong Country-style roll that felt satisfying to chain together for increased speed. However, there was one moment where I was effectively soft-locked until I got lucky due to not using a controller with analog triggers. It only took me a few tries to get past it, but that is a significant issue worth noting for those looking to dive into the game on PC.
The boss fights were all a lot of fun in their own ways. The first boss, a pair of Porkshanks, each had a simple attack pattern similar to Cuphead bosses that made it satisfying to break down. The 2nd boss, the Guardian, took place in a 2D arena where the goal was to pull out the eyes using the tongue. Later on during the shoot ‘em up segments, there was a hillbilly spacecraft that ejected an insane bullet hell pattern to contend with. Every encounter ended up being enjoyable with no duds in the mix.
Aesthetically, Battletoads looks and feels like a ‘90s era cartoon. The art style may have been a bit off putting at first, but quickly grew on me as the story progressed. The exaggerated movements pop out, showcasing just how absurd all of the characters are. The gameplay really takes advantage of the unique visuals, expanding the toads’ bodies in strange ways to emphasize their attacks.. Behind the art is some fantastic music, completing the ‘90s feel with some classic hard rock. I was a tad disappointed by the lack of pause music, a staple of the original NES Battletoads, but otherwise the soundtrack excels.
The fun narrative was perhaps the most surprising part of Battletoads. After a throwback opening of the toads’ walking down the red carpet of fame, they are suddenly thrust into a future where they aren’t well-known at all. It’s a fun allegory for how they are perceived in today’s world. To survive in this new era, they are forced to do menial labor for a small amount of pay. Later on, there is a segment where the toads take a comatose man and use him as a sled to escape from angry lumberjacks. These types of off-the-wall turns continue throughout the whole game, and I enjoyed every second of it.
The three toads also have fantastic personalities that shine through their voice work. Rash is the ‘cool’ one, sporting sunglasses and always looking for action. Zitz takes the role of leader and struggles internally with trying to take control of situations. Pimple, despite being the big guy, has a sensitive side and wrestles with his anger issues. There is also a new addition to the group in the prior-villain, the so-called “Dark Queen” who is weirdly never given any other name. At first, I was skeptical of her complete redesign, but she still has the same evil personality and even goes so far as to face the redesign criticism herself later on in the story. By the end of the game, I loved what she had become.
While the final act was a fantastic return to form, Battletoads ended on a weirdly anticlimactic note. The final boss was disappointingly easier than I expected from a Battletoads game, so much so that I expected a cliche twist that the Dark Queen was actually behind everything, prompting a true final challenge. Instead, the Dark Queen is heralded as a hero and the toads leave to go after a new unknown threat. This does leave the world open for a sequel, however – one that I would gladly partake in should it come.
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