One of the more welcome events of 2020 is the raucous return of 16-bit era side-scrolling beat ’em ups. Minuscule mercies I realise, but the superlative Streets of Rage 4 has been joined by the return of Battletoads, Rare’s caustic riposte to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that caused the crunching of several game controllers in the early 90s.
Extraordinarily, it’s been 26 years since we last saw a new Battletoads. Some familiar with the exploits of Zitz, Rash and Pimple may feel they never went away as they have been appearing in Rare collections and on the t-shirts of Xbox executives since 2013. Soon, they promised, to an admittedly niche group of Battletoad die-hards.
But Rare’s revival, driven by Essex studio Dlala, brings the toads into the 2020s with a delightful sense of modern style and irreverent nostalgia. Streets of Rage 4 did similar earlier this year and while Battletoads can’t match that game’s beat ’em up excellence, Dlala’s game garnishes its snappy combat with a plethora of genre-bending distractions.
This is occasionally to the game’s detriment -not all mini-games are built equal- but plays into Battletoads gambit as a knowingly low-brow Saturday morning cartoon. The toads have been locked in a virtual reality bunker for the past three decades, believing themselves to be planetary saviours adored by all. When stumbled upon by a maintenance crew, they are released into a world where they have been all but forgotten. They then embark on a mission to become relevant again, seeking out their missing nemesis the Dark Queen and causing a ruckus along the way.
Co-op brawling rests at the heart of the game, with the three different toads packing different abilities. Leader Zitz is the fast one, dashing out quick-fire combos, Pimple the powerful tank and Rash the inbetweener. As in their original guise, the toads gimmick is that they can morph their limbs to aid their attack. Rash grows a giant fist to punch bad guys in the face, Zitz can pack a laser gun, Pimple turns into a rampaging baboon. Different players can pick each toad and in single-player you can switch between each (with their own lifebar) with the squeeze of a trigger.