Battletoads

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.