The game is broken down into five acts, with any number of levels within them. Yet, describing both the acts and the levels is a much more awesome task than most will realize. For instance, with a measly total game time of 4 hours and 30 minutes, only half is dedicated to the exact beat-em-up style and epic platforming in which Battletoads is known for. The other is split into a plethora of mini-games, arcade-style space shooters, simplistic puzzle games. In retrospect, it’s an interesting strategy, and it certainly helps to alleviate some of the tedium in repeatedly beating up bad guys with mundane combos and monotonous tactics. Nonetheless, all the different game modes only equate to a ‘full’ game that never really accomplishes any of these styles exceptionally. The combat is tiresome, and the platforming has its moments, though it feels unfinished and somewhat repetitive. Lastly, the racing obstacle courses are extremely mentally taxing (try not itching your face for 10 minutes straight while a small part of your brain says, turn left, turn right, jump). The only part of the game that was truly immersive and hard to put down was the Arcade Space shooter (think Galactica). To be honest, it’s a bit of a rip off from the other thousand arcade space games out there.
That being said, though everything isn’t done to the standards of the original series or modern gaming in general, it is not a bad game. The characters are somewhat engaging, and Zitz, Pimple, and Rash have small character arcs that allow for some feigned sense of interest on the players’ part. The music, at first screamingly repetitive (think simple hair metal), becomes quite engaging as the player progresses through the acts (think 80’s Metallica). Lastly, the three toads still have that goofy, fun-loving chemistry, reminding us of more simple times, discounting of course, those speeder bikes from the original.
On that note, a final few words on Battletoads difficulty. Within the four and a half hours of playtime are a reasonable, consistent hour of failed attempts and hard realities. Most of the time, the game becomes so monotonous that your attention wavers and you make a simple mistake costing minutes of repetition. Other times, a lack of understanding of the brand new controls—halfway through the game, mind you—is your main cause of awkward deaths and artificially induced difficulties. Yet, a somewhat small portion of the game is actually quite difficult in the richest sense. There’s a fair bit of opportunity to become very skillful at Battletoads, which suggests that it’s not all artificial difficulty. If you refuse to learn the proper combos and get your live combat scores to at least an A, you’ll inevitably run into a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering. And for those previously mentioned moments, Battletoads has intelligently implemented a help feature. Suppose you’ve died a certain number of times in a specific area. In that case, you can press up on the D-Pad and provide yourself with limited invincibility (be sure to turn it on in the settings first).
At the end of the day, some will enjoy Battletoads, and some will not. It really depends on what the player is looking for, and whether or not they find it. Battletoads isn’t breaking any records by any means, but there is a fair amount of structure to be built upon in the future. For those who enjoy beat-em-ups, it probably won’t satiate your appetite, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Battletoads was played on PC, with an Xbox Controller. Thank you to Microsoft Game Studios for the chance to review it.
When I was young, I never imagined that my love for reading, writing and video games could so easily coalesce into such an interesting and unique profession. Come find me on steam @Coke581, or on Origin, where I primarily play Apex and BF4/5 @S0ape.
1 Comment
other thank the utterly horrendous art? I’ve seen art better from the smashed stuff on my windshield. And the woman behind at least part of the nightmarish art (loukia) kyriakidou, doesn’t seem to have played the classics. Or even know why this blockey cog-swallows. Fit’s a high energy side scrolling game, just about as well as a size 40 suit does on a toothpick of a man.
Their are numerous examples of vastly, vastly better art. And that she went some incoherent tirade about body image, and some completely loony bat crazy utterly mental rant about, how she had to take a a Villon, that’s been with the series since forever. And make the DarkQueen look like a mutatan thumb reject splottered into a turd. All because of her dilluded sense of what that’s a fantastic idea. When, in fact, it is not.
Their is a reason why iconic games from Zelda, to Mario, or Sam and Max, or the many many games from double fine have aged wonderfully, the art style, and the game all fell into place
This mess will be lucky to still be remembered in 2 weeks before it hits the ass end of the bargain basement bins.