Introduction
Today we are going to look at a game that has received a lot of mixed reviews due to some reviewers not knowing the original game, in my honest opinions you need to know the background to successfully rate the evolution of the game. We are talking about the new Battletoads game, is it a game that you can enjoy if you played the original Battletoads game? Luckily, this game had co-op and the original Battletoads are playable! However, we did not know before playing how events would play out in this game, let us hope that they kept the original looks and do change the core mechanics of the original Battletoads! Time to beat up the Evil Queen!
What did I think before playing Battletoads?
I was very enthusiastic when a new Battletoads game was announced. My wife and I both wondered how this game would play out despite beat em up games not being in our comfort zone, my wife and I did have a lot of fun with the old-school Battletoads, pure action, getting beaten up by a lot of enemies, awesome music! And a good villain with fun humor! For more information, I went to the Microsoft store page.
The Microsoft store page
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/battletoads/9n7gcf5sgcxc
I was shocked, not by how good it looks, but rather, how bad the game looks like a failed Nickelodeon Cartoon for some reason. Not that Nickelodeon cartoons are bad, but it not something that would benefit a Battletoads game. The toads look silly, the epic atmosphere is just gone. All I could hope for that it was a fluke that exists in one level, but the reviews of other people had me reeling with a nasty gut feeling that we were about to go down in the rabbit hole of a butchered game. The good reviews screamed to me that they were paid off to give a good rating, which unfortunately happens a lot these days to boost sales.
Rating
I rate Battletoads with a 5.5 before playing.
I wanted to give this game a fair chance, but my gut feeling said that both my wife and I would be satisfied with this game.
Story
The story is whacked up, I even had trouble following it, but I will do my best to give a general non spoiler inside of the story.
It seems that the Battletoads had been locked in a virtual simulator for the last 26 years, this brings up a lot of questions. Were the Battletoads really famous? Did the previous three games really happen? However, the Battletoads now start working mundane jobs but eventually set out to stop the dark queen, but she is not even the main villain, and they team up to take down two celestial gods.
Rating
I rate the story of Battletoads with a 1.0
I cannot fathom who ever thought it was a good idea to even question the idea of the previous adventures of the Battletoads being in a simulator. This is such a kick in the guts for the old gamers, this just destroys the whole franchise! If you decide to do it, do it without leaving this many plot holes!
Gameplay
The gameplay of Battletoads is very bad, while there are multiple elements in the game, only 20% of the game is the beat em genre as the developers present the whole game to be. Other times you will be driving, even platforming or puzzling, or hacking while walking through a level. At some part, you need to do their mundane jobs, which I do not want to do when I am not doing my own job. The bosses are not even rememberable and too easy to beat. The difficulty spikes are all over the place, going from way to easy, the way to hard without ever achieving the desired balance of the early Battletoads games.
While the co-op aspects in a game are always good, this game feels like it is more made for single-player where you can freely switch between the Battletoads, whereas being in co-op it somehow feels forced. While the original Battletoads had the appeal of simple controls and making the game easy to control and very hard to master, this game has so many mechanics and tidbits, even someone with a photographic memory can have trouble recollecting them all!
The attacks can be charged to attack enemies, you can lick them, you can bash them, you also need to block attacks, then you need to switch to the other side of the room, you also need to avoid incoming ranged attacks and the electric floor. It is just plain chaos with no method to the madness. All in all, this was a horrible experience, but we finished the game to see if there would be a change, asides from difficulty spikes there was none.
Rating
I rate the gameplay of Battletoads with a 1.0
Whoever thinks that this is the same as the original Battletoads or even better, probably has been paid to review or never played the original Battletoads at all. The developers claimed to rebuild the original formula, but the simple elegance of a hard game with beat em up elements is nowhere to be found. Instead, they added all the tidbits and doodads they could think of, meshed it together in a blender without putting the lid on it, did not care for the story or characters and called it a day. Even the sound and graphics are horrible, When did the Battletoads learn to speak? we will get to that in the next section.
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics of this game, come nowhere close to the original, while the original games are old they still look better than this cartoon show. It would have been better if they had tried to follow the graphics of the original game instead of taking such a huge leap away from it and then claiming to fans it is the same. The new villains are also weird, they should have stuck with the Dark Queen as the big bad villain. The path that they choose makes no sense!
Sound
While there is some good music in this game, it is mostly hidden in Rash’s combo when he pulls out an arcade and starts playing the original Battletoads theme. The worst part is that the Battletoads talk, and they do not sound at all like I thought how they would, this is a recurring problem in video games, if your characters are silent, let them be silent or do a slow transition into making your video game character talk, with intense moments that would incite that response.
We can also take a look back at when they did try to make the Battletoads talk in the SNES era. Does anyone remember the Battletoads Television series? Neither do I since they canceled it after one episode of fans claiming it was the most horrible decision ever. Maybe they should have stuck to this advice in this new game? Or at least googled Battletoads.
Rating
I rate the sound and graphics of Battletoads with a 5.2
While the graphics could be okay if you are new to the franchise, for old-school players it just feels wrong. You cannot claim to create a game that the fans want and then create the exact opposite.
What did I think after playing Battletoads
My wife and I both disliked this game, not because it is a bad game per se, but because the mechanics in the game are too complicated. The game also strays far away from the original game while trying to do the same, which ends in a very bad result. It seems that the developers did not know what they were even trying to accomplish and just threw every idea they had in the game and hoped for the best
We did finish the game but mostly because of the review, otherwise we would have quitted the game very soon, especially when the peaceful platforming levels began, or the space invader levels that keep coming back. We barely even got to beat up baddies in this game!
Rating
I rate Battletoads with a 3.7 after playing.
While there were some fun segments, most of the game felt like a drag, we both felt that it would have been better if it ended faster.
What are my personal thoughts about Battletoads?
While there were some good, while unpolished ideas, if it did not have the Battletoads in it, this could have been a great but fun game. I do not think that a lot of people would enjoy seeing their iconic characters from the past get dragged through the mud and beaten up with all these silly gimmicks.
Rating
My personal Rating of Battletoads is a 1.0
Last Words
Pros
- A new beat em up game to play starring the Battletoads
- Many different genres in this game
Cons
- Surpsigly little beat em up segments for a beat em up game
- This game drags the Battletoads through the mud and destroys their legacy
- Weird difficulty spikes but not challenging
- The Battletoads talk but it does not sound right
- The graphics are not in the same style as the original Battletoads
- Co-op feels very forced in this game
- The Dark Queen gets her name muddied as well as she loses her powers
- The new villains are developed poorly
- There is a lot of unnecesery fourth wall breaking
This game would have been better if it would have never seen the light of day. I hope this game gets retconned as a big bad dream and the Battletoads get a real game!
Final Rating
3.3
Let me know what you think of Battletoads in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
If you liked reading this review, maybe you would like to share this review with your friends!
Silentrets
Thanks for the review. I won't play it 😀
Halil KAPLAN
Looks like a cool frog 😀
DonCarlos
To say this was a disappointment was an understatement.
supersven
That is indeed an understatement.
long shade
Remove the dot between 1 and 0 and this game is a solid 10:))
Roman
I don't think the game is that bad.
Delicious Bacon
Meh, I agree on the graphics part. It just goes against the gameplay. I'll do a hard pass on this one.
supersven
I hope a real game will come soon!
Jaromir Krzyszczak
easy pass.. thanks for the review!
Halil KAPLAN
This frog is very charismatic.
fano23
Even with its bad things still look fun to play for some time
Ronin
Well, ít´s included in gamepass so I recommend to try it if you have the chance. I dont´t think it´s that bad (I´ve certainly played worse).
supersven
It all depends on your taste and if you have played the original game!
Riddler
I will try it in gamepass
megusuri
Needs improvement, not deterioration.
From_alan
Thanks for this review. I'll not give this game any playing time.
supersven
Sad to hear that but I can understand that, this game was very bad!
jett cameron
"Surpsigly little beat em up segments for a beat em up game"
i believe that's a good thing
rotie
A simple cashgrab that game is. No wonder you had a bad time.
SilentNight
From someone who didnt know anything about battletoads before i don't mind the cartoonish visuals, but the game doesn't seem challenging at all. So thanks for sharing your review and a short gameplay clip.
supersven
You are welcome!
jon doe
i don't like fogs/toads so fine with me
supersven
What did frogs ever do to you?
Javier del Ríos
So basically no proper Battletoads gameplay in a Battletoads game. Way to go devs! They maust have worked on Battlefield 2042 too.
supersven
Is that game also a disaster?
Steven Bodenstab
While I never played the original 'Battletoads', I don't think I'll be missing anything if I steer clear of this one.
supersven
If you want to try a Battletoads game, you should try the original one!
krutarthxo
Oof that was painful to read.. so sad you had to go through this game sven hahah
supersven
Welp, my wife also disliked but nonetheless, we reviewed it!
Vercinger
The art design looks fine to me.
supersven
The art design is not per se bad, however it is not the art design that is correct for this game!
eFe
When I heard about this new battletoad and saw the trailer I thought it could be a good beat 'em up to play in co-op, but I see that it has little or nothing of that, what a disappointment.
Maybe if in the future it has a big discount I may give it a try, in any case thanks for suffering to bring us this review :p
supersven
You should get gamepass for the PC!