Rare is gearing up to deliver the most mechanically-rich game of all time. The forthcoming reboot, which was announced at E3 2018 and is being co-developed with DLala Studios, outfits the titular meathead amphibians with an SNK-ish number of combos, wrinkles, and synergies to their moveset. Yes, Rash, Pimple, and Zitz will once again beat up on an endless corridor of antagonistic woodland creatures, but this time they can do so while juggling them in the sky, by lining up frame-perfect finishing moves, and by combining the strengths and weaknesses of the trio into the most menacing force ever assembled on a dorm-room couch. A typical sequence had me initiating a three-punch combo on an enemy, uppercutting them in the air, before transforming one of the Toads into an anthropomorphic power drill to rain down chaos on anyone left in the hitbox. It felt like playing as Dante, or pre-fatherhood Kratos, and I mean that in a good way.To be clear: long-time BattleToads fans should have no fear that the franchise's 4K debut is a down-to-the-studs reinvention. The new BattleToads has no interest in apologizing for the gameplay of BattleToads past. Consider it a refinement; Rare studio head Craig Duncan says the design philosophy is to evoke the dreamy BattleToads that lives in your head, rather than the starker reality that exists on the NES cartridge.
Great memorable quotes and script exchanges from the Battletoads movie on Quotes.net.
So now, Zitz, Pimple, and Rash all have entirely distinct playstyles, (Rash and Zitz are lightweight with a ton of mobility, Pimple is the heavy who literally transforms into a gargantuan ape during his transform attacks) and together they clear the city, one brawl after another, with nothing more than their fists. The level I played took place in a magenta-hued cyberpunk dystopia - BattleToads gone Blade Runner - which seemed to ensure that this franchise has lost none of its B-movie camp as it’s grown up. Also: There's a Turbo Tunnel level, but more on that later. “The section I played was entirely combat-focused. There was none of the eccentric (some would say infuriating) platforming that helped earn BattleToads its legacy. The punching feels like a quarter-eating arcade brawler filtered through modern design habits.
It's still hard, and it still exists on a two-dimensional plane, but it's clear that Rare wanted to give players more options on these endlessly mean streets. I'll give you an example. The BattleToads can now use their elastic frog tongues to latch onto an enemy, where they can hookshot themselves up close, or pull the enemy towards them like Scorpion. You get the sense that even after hours of play, BattleToads will have a few lingering nuances to master. All of that refinement, of course, is thrown out during the motorcycle sequence.
The Turbo Tunnel sequence from the first BattleToads lived in infamy among the 8-bit generation - I'm not sure any video game level, before or since, is responsible for more hot, sputtering rage-tears. The new BattleToads understands that difficulty is part of the game's religion, and knew that they couldn't get away with releasing a new entry without some sort of interpretation on the game's flashbulb moment. So, I spent a ton of time falling into pitfalls and crashing into walls when I experienced the new Mode 7-ish take on the gauntlet. Clearly, Rare is in on the joke. The first time I died, the game put up a game-over message that read, simply, 'We believe in you!' “'You wouldn't believe how many discussions about this we've had with the team,' said Duncan, when I asked him about how they wanted to honor an iconic part of BattleToads while also making sure that it doesn't lead to the same number of broken controllers.
'We want it to be hard, but achievable. Even with the original BattleToads, one of the things it did really well is that it had patterns you could learn. Nobody wants to be punished for the sake of being punished.' Duncan tells me that BattleToads is a story-based experience. There is a narrative, with a beginning, middle, and end.
This game isn't being conceived as a live-service or an ephemeral platform. (There will not be lootboxes to unlock new Toad skins.) In that sense, the best comparison for BattleToads might be the heyday of Xbox Live Arcade, when studios delivered games that were happy to be short, succinct, and polished to a mirror shine. There's absolutely no insecurity that this version of BattleToads won't kick off a cinematic universe or a decade's worth of expansions.
Zitz won't have a talent tree. Let us rejoice.