Battletoads

Despite its mistakes, I enjoyed both of my games from start to finish. If you have Game Pass, you need to give it a try, whether on Xbox One or PC, you won't regret it.

Battletoads is a stunning return for both the toads and Rare, a team that hasn't had much output recently. While it can become a little tedious to play alone, this is an excellent game to try with a small group of friends on a Friday night. Humour, variety of gameplay, and local co-op make this a great addition to anyone's library.

The greatest success of Battletoads is to have understood what it means to revive a franchise like this, which dates back so long: each of the elements were reviewed, polished and recreated with a lot of heart, encouraging new and unknown ideas, always faithful to the original game.

Battletoads revives what was thought to be a long-dead franchise without missing a step. The game benefits from modernized game mechanics but maintains the overall gameplay feel of the original titles. If you have fond memories of the earlier titles, it’s a no brainer that this is a title worth playing. The game does rely on nostalgia, but this is one of the better reboots around. Battletoads succeeds at making a game look and feel modern while maintaining the essence of what made it good so many years ago. Battletoads does offer a variety of different modes in addition to primarily being a beat ’em up title. It’s a truly ridiculous game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it’s good to see that after such a long break the ‘Toads are still on top of their game.

The new Battletoads is almost as beefy as its musclebound heroes, serving up a substantial 5-to-7-hour campaign as well as additional collectibles and high-score challenges. Not bad for $20. Battletoads 2020 probably won’t be quite as durable as the NES original, but you may find yourself hopping back into the game more often than you expect.

Battletoads is fun to play but far from perfect.

If the developers had focused more on the beat'em-up sections, we would have had in our hands one of the best exponents of the genre of modern times. As it stands, however, it is just a compilation of well-made half games.

Don’t get me wrong – Battletoads is a good co-op game for an evening or two. But you can’t help feeling that the developers didn’t give it their best. [Issue#248, p.40]

Battletoads tries to do a lot in a short amount of time, and mostly succeeds. The core beat ‘em up stages drag on a little too long and the comedy is hit or miss, but there are enough other ideas mixed in to break up the pace and keep things interesting. It may not be the most triumphant comeback, but it’s a decent homecoming for Rare’s irreverent heroes.

Battletoads contains elements that will entertain players who love the beat 'em up genre. It could be a much better game if some of its shortcomings were corrected and the opportunity to play online.

Battletoads is pretty much uneven by intentional design, but it remains recommended as a worthy throwback to a seemingly forgotten series that still marches to the beat of its own drum.

Without wishing to damn it with faint praise, Battletoads is pretty much exactly what you’d think it would be. Taking clear influence from the 90s classics whilst adding in some welcome modern approaches, there is plenty here to enjoy while it lasts. An ideal perfect Game Pass title, this is well worth checking out, warts and all.

I suspect that fans of the original will find a good dose of nostalgia here that may well make it worth the price of admission. For everyone else… well, if you grew up in the 80’s and 90’s you might get a touch of nostalgia as well, unless you were more a Turtles fan like me, in which case this will simply continue making the Battletoads look like also-rans.

Battletoads isn't bad, but it is boring. It starts off relatively strong and quickly devolves into uninteresting minigames. When the title returns to beat-'em-up gameplay, it shows the potential to be something more, but then you're forced to play "rock paper scissors" or mash buttons for a few minutes, and it all fades away. The concept, characters and visuals are excellent updates of the original, so it's a shame that the gameplay isn't.

With a new face and tone, Battletoads manages to reinvent itself a little bit. It produces a beat 'em up that makes all kinds of forays into other genres with a sense of humor. Just like the jokes in the story, that is not always successful. The Battletoads shine as animated stars, but the lack of co-op, the very simple gameplay, and the sometimes very stretched areas do not make them look that great as video game heroes.

Most of the game's foundation is solid. The beat-'em-up combat, the art, and a lot of secondary gameplay is surprising and fun. Though its blend of gameplay variations feels unbalanced at times, and it isn't always the laugh-riot it tries to be, Battletoads is an entertaining little romp.

Battletoads is a reboot of the classic Rare franchise, but fails to recapture the excitement and fun of the originals.

"It's a shame" is probably the phrase that will stay in your mind after finishing Battletoads. Because the title advances at the start all the arguments worthy of a varied, crazy and solid game (not to mention the animated cinematics with the writing and the very successful rhythm). But we get disillusioned when the most engaging phases (beat 'em up and shoot' em up) cease to be renewed, and Battletoads tries to save the ship with very small game sequences, sometimes good but sometimes totally failed.

Ultimately, I completed Battletoads in 3 hours and 45 minutes and have no intention of ever going back.

A blast from the past, Battletoads doesn't have much going for it once the nostalgia wears off. The newest series entry has solid brawling action, but its frustrating mini-games and other genre-blending challenges quickly overstay their welcome.

Different drawing style and monk-like garments of the main villain, which caused a stir among fans before the game’s release, are actually the least of its problems.