Nintendo has dropped four new games into the Nintendo Switch Online SNES catalog. It’s qui?te a surprising lineup, especially if you’re digging the Japanese games on the s?ervice.

The one that I assume the most people reading this will recognize is Battletoads and Double Dragon (or just Battletoads Double Dragon; the logo isn’t clear). It’s another early Rare game for the pile. As the name implies, it crosses over Technos�?Double Dragon with Rare’s Battletoads. It was developed by Rare with very little input from Technos, but they sort of tried to find a mid-point between the two series. I did a full write-up of it a while ago, but I think this summarizes it: “It’s not a great Battletoads title (if one happens to exist), and it’s not a very good Double Dragon game, but there are enough appreciable factors here to keep it from being a bad game.�?/p>

The other three games are Japan-only titles. There’s an SNES port of Big Run, a raster racing game that was originally released in arcades in 1989. It’s based on the Paris-Dakar Rally event. By many accounts, it’s not great, but I have a soft spot for raster racers. There’s also a falling block puzzle game called Cosmo Gang: The Puzzle. It’s a cute falling blocks-style? puzzle game It was also originally an arcade game (1992). I have less context? with this one, but the trailer makes it look cute.

Finally, there is Kunio-kun no Dodgeball da yo: Zen’in Shūgō! This is sort of one of Super Dodgeball’s sequels. As a Kunio/Nekketsu/River City/Downtown fan, I actually have the Super Famicom cartridge for this. It’s�?Like, it’s Super Dodgeball but on more powerful hardware. As such, it’s still fun, but the single-player is massively unbalanced. You assign skill points to you??r team, and it’s incredibly easy to overpower your team. On the plus side, it’s four-player, and if I remember correctly, you can play the main campaign coop.

The??se four gam?es are now available on the Nintendo Switch Online Super Nintendo app.

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If you’re unfamiliar with the Battletoads, it was a series of games tha??t Rare made before they started to make ?good games. Hey-oh!

I’ve probably already lost half of you, but it was worth it. For the rest of you who remain, I’m mostly kidding. Mostly. I think history is misremembering Battletoads as a landmark series, when most people only played the first two levels of the original title and never saw past the Turbo Tunnel. Let me tell you, it doesn’t get better from there. But befo??re anyone really had time to let the trauma set in, Rare had ported it to a myriad of platforms.

Battlemaniacs is weirdly derivative of the original title. But, hey, the 1994 arcade game is pretty?? good.

And then there was Battletoads and Double Dragon. The concept is just incredible, taking the grandfather franchise of the belt-scrolling beat-’em-up and combining it with the Battletoads. And it isn’t bad. It?? isn’t good, either. I feel like it’s just more interesting to talk ?about than it is to play.

Psychotronic!

I’m playing Battletoads and Double Dragon because it was part of my care package from Retro-Bit. The only game I’ve yet to cover from the shipment. They did a reprint of it, which is cool for a few reasons. They redid the cartridge label, colored it a semi-glossy green, and put it in a sort of box that I wish all SNES games came in. The box is sort of a harder cardboard ?and opens from the front. It’s not on the level of the Genesis/Mega Drive clamshells, but it’s enough that you’d want to keep it. ??Also, my favorite part of the label is that it has the modern Rare logo on it. I have absolutely no affection for modern-day Rare, but it’s just cool to see the update.

Weirdly, however, I already owned Battletoads and Double Dragon on SNES. I eve??n have the box, which I don’t often? collect.

Anyway, aside from that, the game is basically the same, aside from the copyright on the main scre?en. Well, I hit a bug twice during level 3 where I could no longer advance, but I feel like that might have been in the original game. I feel like I recall hitting it before, but I couldn't find anyone complaining about it online, so it might be a false memory. However, I don’t think Retro-Bit really changed enough that this one particular problem would occur.

So, Battletoads and Double Dragon are what it says on the ??box. It’s a game featuring the three toads, Zitz, Pimple, and Acne, as well as Jimmy and Bimmy. The plot is literally, “Oh no, bad guys are attacking. We’d better go pick up the Dragons.�?And then that happens, and the game starts. You select from one of the three toads because Jimmy and Bimmy are just a couple o??f dudes, and that's boring. The Toads, meanwhile, confidently strut around naked, which I’m always a fan of.

Vague recollections

The gameplay of Battletoads and Double Dragon is like one of the designers of the original Battletoads was finally medicated. I’d say it was a halfway point between the two games, but it’s really more of a Battletoads game that doesn’t hate you as much. There are still the sidescrolling sections, a slower version of the Turbo Tunnel, and the vertical rappelling parts. It also leans a lot wackier than Double Dragon typically did. I mean, maybe aside from the shared hallucination that was Double Dragon V.

Combat was also usually a bit better in, well, the good Double Dragon titles. In Battletoads it's mostly just trying to hit an enemy before they hit you, at which point they're stunlocked so you can just mash the attack button until your character does a more powerful attack. If they hit you first, you’re stunlocked instead and will take a bunch of damage. On top of that, there’s a dash attack that you will be using all the time, an uppercut in the sidescrolling stages, and every ?once in a blue moon, you get to use a weapon.

Meanwhile, the elements taken from the Double Dragon series, like some of the enemies and bosses, are extremely, uh, made up. The guy built up as the archenemy of the dragons is called “The Shadow Boss,�?and that’s not something that really exists. In the NES version of Double Dragon, you wer??e fighting someone known as “The Shadow Boss,�?but it turned out to just be Jimmy in a twist that only occurred in that port.

In a fairly recent interview, Paul Machacek actually said that he doesn’t recall getting “too much direction or feedback from the DD IP holders.�?So, a lot of what they took just?? seems to have come from instruction manuals and their vague recollections.

Check out this Rash

This may all sound like Battletoads and Double Dragon sucks, but as I said, it isn’t bad. For one thing, the art st?yle, animation, and sound are all on point. There are some great extra details, like when you push an enemy through the floor, or grab a woman by the hair and kick her in the butt. A lot of the levels that are just straight beat-’em-ups are good, if a bit shallow, and with a bit of memorizat??ion, the sidescroller parts can be fun.

The ??bosses, on the other hand, you need to learn to juggle against the edge of the screen or they’ll combo you into oblivion. ?A second player really helps that, but who has friends? That would mean interacting with humans, and have you ever met one?

Speaking of two players, you have three toa??ds to choose from, and they’re all the same aside from color. Forget that Pimple is the big one and Acne is the one with shades. They’re all the same size, and all lack any sort of headwear. Jimmy and Bimmy are likew?ise the same aside from color, but, as I mentioned earlier, they’re just two dudes. The Toads at least have different moves compared to the Dragons, but that’s where the variation ends.

Confidently naked

There are only seven stages of different lengths, but, as is standard for the series, there’s a limit on your conti??nues. Considering how inelegant the combat is and how necessary memorization is, it will probably take you quite a few runs to crack it. It’s easier with a second player who knows the ins and outs of retro games, but, in my experience, those don’t exist.

I’m aware that I’m being very negative about Battletoads and Double Dragon, but that’s because the only thing my teachers taught me to share is criticism. I feel that I must again walk things back and clarify that this is not a bad game. It’s not a great Battletoads title (if one happens to exist), and it’s not a very good Double Dragon game, but there are enough appreciable factors?? here to keep it from being a bad game. The music is good, and the designers knew how to hav?e fun with things, and even with all the clumsy parts, that attitude gets transmitted.

More importantly, however, it was cool to see two games crossover. Even if you weren’t a fan of one or the other, just the fact that these two sets of characters were important enough to be combined into one game made it seem like you were playing something incredible. Like quality is accumulative. It isn’t, obviously. Battletoads and Double Dragon is proof of that.

For other retro titles you may have missed, click right he??re!

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Double Trouble, Double Trouble, Double Double, Trouble Trouble...

Publisher Retro-Bit Gaming has lifted the lid on its recent Battletoads teaser to reveal that it is partnering with several retailers to produce a full NES reprint of Battletoads & Double Dragon.

Released to multiple platforms way back in 1993, the Rare-developed beat-'em-up saw the scaly team of Rash, Pimple, and Zitz team up with Double Dragon heroes Billy and Jimmy Lee to thwart another dastardly scheme from the voluptuous Dark Queen. The quintet of heroes jets off toward t?he ominous s??paceship Colossos on a fist-flinging adventure set in the far reaches of the galaxy.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcrUVOR5R-8

Much like the previous Battletoads releases, Battletoads & Double Dragon features non-stop face-smashing action, as well as a slightly more forgiving difficulty setting. Villains from both series put in an appearance, and the title sports a roster of five distinct characters, loaded for bear with body-breaking strikes, throws, and specials. I mean, it's not Streets of Rage 2, but it was a fun time for NES fans.

Retro-Bit Gaming's new edition of Battletoads & Double Dragon includes a fully-working NES cart in an exclusive transparent jade casing. The cart is housed in a hardcover box and comes with a full-color instruction manual as well as an acrylic stand with which owners can display the cartridge in all of its 8-bit glory. Battletoads & Double Dragon retails for $59.99 USD, not including shipping.

Pre-orders for the new NES cart are now live over at selected North American and European outlets, simply visit the official Retro-Bit Gaming website and?? follow the path to your retailer of c??hoice. The pre-order window will close on May 22, 2022, so be sure to get your name on the list before this date.

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Bimmy and Jimmy set to return?

Boutique publisher Retro-Bit Gaming has posted an image on Twitter teasing a Battletoads announcement for tomorrow, April 19. While the image does not explicitly name any franchise in question, it seems to quite clearly point to Rare's goofy brawler series Battletoads, and in particular classic crossover title Battletoads/Double Dragon.

The image, which you can check out for yourself in the tweet below, features the shades of scaly scrapper Rash and the belt of Pimple, also accompanied by a set of brass knuckles and a pair of nunchucks. A simple message reads "Get Ready for Double Trouble," along with branding from both Microsoft and Arc System Works, the latter of which currently owns the Kunio-kun and Double Dragon license.

What form will this new endeavor take? We'll have to wait and see, though Retro-Bit Gaming is known for its merchandising, soundtracks, hardware, and classic game re-releases. The teaser was also retweeted by Limited Run Games, so all signs point to a physical release of something �?be it a fresh pressing of the 1993 NES, SNES, Game Boy, and Sega Mega Drive releases of Battletoads/Double Dragon, or merely merchandise based on the old-school brawling franc??hise.

Either way, stay tuned, as we'll be su?re to keep you updated right he?re on Destructoid.

//twitte??r.com/RetroBitGaming/status/1516038880918659072?s=20&t=Vv7Mp2z6Xnn_jISAQLvQUw

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The least-picked character? Zitz

The 2020 revival of Battletoads is interesting on multiple fronts – not just as an out-of-nowhere reboot of the dormant beat-'em-up series, but also as a capital-n New take on Rash, Zitz,? and Pimple.

As Chris said in his review, it's a "polarizing" game, one that juggles a lot of different elements with varying degrees of success. Will Battletoads t??ravel further down this path, or is it a one-time deal? In the current Xbox Game Pass-fueled landscape, it feels like almost anything has green-light potenti?al.

For what it's worth, over a million players have checked out Battletoads.

As Battletoads bounces past a million players, we've swiped some staggering in-game stats since launch! Poor Chet and his turbo bikes, we'll be surprised if he's still in business. Read the post for the lowdown and take a swing at the game today: //t.co/ZNlGjdzGt0 pic.twitter.com/e1W3PHZGDW

— Rare Ltd. (@RareLtd) October 26, 2020

Rare tweeted out that figure and a few other silly statistics (you know the kind), including the number of ??Turbo Bike crashes (42.5 million) and how many collectibles players have picked up so far (8.6 million). Also worth noting: Rash is the crowd favori??te. Zitz, meanwhile, is the tragic dead-last choice.

Adding more context to the million-player milestone, in a recent interview with Kotaku, Xbox head Phil Spencer said the "response to Battletoads was nice" and "Dl?ala did a good job wi?th the game."

I don't feel strongly about the revival either way, but I'd like to see this team get another crack at Battletoads knowing what it now knows. I'm open to seeing the grand vision come to fruition beyond a single game, to say nothing of the potential to smooth out rough edges a??nd incorporate on??line co-op.

Sad news about Zitz, though.

@RareLtd [Twitter]

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Rash, Zitz and Pimple ride again...literally

Raise your hand if you still hold water for Battletoads outside of that Gam??eStop meme. I see...a few people in the horizon!

Wait, am I one of the only ones who played all seven games in the series, including the Tiger Electronics handheld release? Who is this 2020 version of Battletoads ??for? After playing it, I'm even more confused and delight??ed.

Battletoads (PC, Xbox One [reviewed])
Developer: Dlala Studios, Rare
Publisher: Microsoft
Released: August 20, 2020
MSRP: $19.99 (also part of Game Pass)

Battletoads is one of the most bizarre games I've played this year — possibly this generation. It's an absolute rol??ler-coaster in more ways than one.

Did you expect it to be a beat 'em up? Because it's not just a beat 'em up. It's part Mario Party, part shoot 'em up, part...Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes for a level? Yeah, it gets weird, and I respect the hell out of it for trying something ?different.

In order to make the toads relevant again, our heroes Pimple, Zitz, and Rash are shoved into the modern era (of a galactic sort) 26 years after they saved the galaxy from the Dark Queen. They're washed up, and the story isn't afraid to poke fun at the fact that they started out as bonafide stars but eventually became a failed attempt to capitalize on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle craze.

I was really worried at first when the game leaned heavily on cringe humor, but there's a small narrative reason for that early on and it eases up a bit from there. Onward, it morphs into a combination of a '90s cartoons (with beats of the DuckTales reboot) alongside of self-referential and occasionally macabre absurdity not unlike Rick and Morty. Nea??rly the entire game is fully voiced (with feeling!), and the cutscenes are plentiful and silly fun: almost like a limited-run TV series. It's part of the charm, as the development team nailed the premise of old hat "rad dudes" trying to adjust to a new? world that left them behind.

While the cartoons are a big part of the package, it is part-brawler though, with a character select screen available at the start. You'll pick one of three titular toads: Pimple (the slow bulky one), Zitz (the quick one), and Rash (the balanced one). The standard attack button serves as a dial-a-combo, but you'll also sport a launcher (that hits enemies upward), a special attack button (that works a lot like Dynasty Warriors' special system in ta?ndem with the s?tandard attack), and a stun.

Eventually you'll learn the ways of the toad tongue, which lets you stun enemies with gum projectiles, lick enemies closer, shoot elements of the environment, and grab onto foreground and background rings to zip around the arena. It's not the deepest brawler in recent memory?, but it gets the job don??e. The dash is extremely elegant and smooth, especially on the hyper-fast Zitz, who basically teleports when he dashes.

Slowly but surely I started to pick up the combat system, which is predicated on prioritizin??g high-impact enemies while darting around the small fries and errant projectiles. With support for up to three players, everyone can control their own toad; but you can also "tag-team" in the characters you aren't currently controlling in two-player or solo play. If any single toad dies you have a chance to revive them amid the chaos, lest they be subject to a cooldown timer.

But as I hinted at earlier, it's not just a brawler. I even counted: 18 out of 25 chapters are actually minigames, vehicle sections or interactive cutscenes. One entire act is basically a collective of puzzle-platforming stages (Celeste style) and shmup gauntlets. The Speeder Bike sections also return and can get pretty tough as the campaign progresses, requiring fast reaction times close to the original game, but with more forgiving checkpoints. The same goes for the 2D vehicle sections that take a page out of the chase sequences from Rayman Origins/Legends.

Didn't I tell you that Battletoads was kind of all ov??er the place? Not all of those diversions are given an equal amount ??of love and care.

At one point I had just come off of a minigame that was basically Pose Mii from Wii Play, as I transitioned into more minigames. This is fresh off of a fever dream of playing multiple rounds of an in-game version of rock paper scissors. You might find yourself thinking "What the hell am I even doing?" multiple times throughout the course of Battletoads. I even said it out loud when the aforementioned Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes bit popped up and my co-o?p partner had the strangest look on their face. It's best to just roll with it.

All of this madness takes place across four acts, which last around four and a half hours in total. You can play it again on one of three difficulties (with options to make this tougher like turning off enemy attack tells) or try and grab every collectible when you're done. There is no online play available for Battletoads: just local support for up to three people.

Battletoads is another one of 2020's infamous oddities. I?? suspect it's going to be highly polarizing (not only due to the adherence to retro style difficulty but the newness of the art and humor), but it somewhat won me over due to sheer force of will. I also can safely assume that I'm going to be on the higher-end of the spectrum of liking it: but if we never see these dudes again because this game was an absolute cacophony, I'll be a bit bummed.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Battletoads appeared first on Destructoid.

Missed opportunity

I wasted 92 seconds watching this animated interview, convinced that Zitz, Pimple, and Rash were gonna beat the living hell out of Xbox's Major Nelson. Through straight-faced questions (a missed opportunity to get weirder with it), Ma??jor Nelson asks them if their game is ??good.

I will spare you the suspense and tell you that Major Nelson does not get his ass kicked. Pimple does not bodyslam him for wondering what kind of game Battletoads is. Rash doesn't huge-foot kick?? him through the screen for the sheer audacity of asking whether they're worried about the competition from other now-revived franchises.

You, however, may be curious as to what kind of game Battletoads ended up as. It's not a straight beat-em-up like you may think. It's a bizarre collection of mini-games and brawler segments, almost like a bunch of non sequiturs stitched together. It's unexpected but it turned out fine! Check out Chris' review for some insight as to the new Battletoads, or just go pick it up as a part of Xbox Game P?ass.

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Thank goodness for Game Pass

Slowly but surely, Rare's old games and characters are getting more nods in Sea of Thieves. The latest cosmetic item, inspired by Battletoads, is a little different – it's a reward for playing the new game (which is out tomorrow, August 20, on Xbox One an??d PC with Xbox Game Pass support).

If you clear Act One of Battletoads, you'll unlock the Fightin' Frogs ship set in Sea of Thieves.

It looks great! The color choice brings back memories of the Donkey Kong Country 2 level Rattle Battle.

According to Rare, the offer is open "a??t any time," so there's no rush. Just use the same profile.

While you're sailing the high seas, you might also want to participate in the Summer of Sea of Thieves event. It's running in-ga???me until September 30, and you can pick up rewards for finishing challenges.

The post You can get this Sea of Thieves ship if you pl?ay a bit of Battletoad??s appeared first on Destructoid.

Get better friends

The Turbo Tunnel was the end of the road for most Battletoads players. The infamous bike stage -- only the third level in the game -- was so difficult tha??t most people never progressed past it. It was like ru?nning into a brick wall both literally and figuratively.

The Battletoads that launches this week probably won't have anything so notoriously punit?ive. Developers generally want players to finish their games nowadays. There's a bike level thoug?h because paying tribute is important. And there's an achievement tied to it that might ruin some friendships.

Xbox Wire released most of the Battletoads achievements today (save for five secret, probably story-spoiling ones) and "Live and Let Drive" sticks out like a sore thumb. You'll need everyone to stay alive on bikes for 5? straight minutes in three-player co-op. Jordan's input on this ??challenge is that he played the bike level at a show with another journalist and they "died a lot." However, Jordan did not have the familiarity, memorization, and practice that you and your friends will eventually have. I'm confident you can do it, even if it requires finding more talented friends.

Here are the Battletoads achievements. With some luck, skill, and perseve??rance, Pimple and Zitz won't be the only things poppin?'.

• Toads in a Hole -- Complete Feed the Fantasy. (10G)
• Road Rash -- Complete To the Queen. (10G)
• Parks & Recreational Violence -- Complete At the Carn-Evil. (10G)
• Enough Toying Around -- Complete So That's How That Works. (10G)
• Should Get the Pants First -- Complete Time for Plan B. (30G)
• Came, Sawed, Conquered -- Complete Stumped. (15G)
• Logged Out -- Complete A Hard Axe to Follow. (15G)
• A Test of Medal -- Complete The Trials of Pummel Horse. (15G)
• Jeff of a Sleighsman -- Complete Mis-treatied. (30G)
• We Were Provoked -- Complete Spacebrawls. (15G)
• Learning the Ropes -- Complete We Go High. (15G)
• STREET JUSTICE! -- Complete Street Justice! (15G)
• Hiking With Friends -- Complete Bigger Than It Looks. (15G)
• Galaxy's Most Wanted -- Complete Most Unwanted. (15G)
• A Mountain Sense of Unease -- Complete Reaching the Peak. (15G)
• With Friends Like These… -- Complete A Rock and a Hard Place. (20G)
• Rebooting Battletoads -- Complete Emergency Stations. (40G)
• Into the Third Dimension -- Use your tongue to reach a new plane. (5G)
• B-B-B-BLOCK BREAKER!! -- Smash through 50 enemy block attempts. (15G)
• You're Dead, You Ding-Dongs! -- Surrender to your arch-enemies. (20G)
• Season Two When? -- Complete the story on any difficulty. (20G)
• Battlemaniacs -- Defeat 100 enemies. (20G)
• Special Effects -- Use 200 'Toad abilities. (20G)
• Mighty Morphing -- Finish off 200 enemies with morph attacks. (20G)
• Thoroughly Tested -- Destroy 50 enemies in space combat. (20G)
• It Begins… -- Get your first collectable. (5G)
• Scratching an Itch -- Get all collectables in a level. (10G)
• Making Progress -- Get a total of 25 collectables. (15G)
• I’ve Started So I'll Finish -- Get a total of 75 collectables. (30G)
• Did You Use a Walkthrough? -- Get every collectable in the game! (60G)
• Three Is the Magic Number -- In 3P Co-Op, all three 'Toads attack the same enemy. (10G)
• Reviving a Classic -- Revive another 'Toad during Co-Op play. (10G)
• Not All Toads Are Equal -- Earn a participation award in Co-Op. (10G)
• Jeffortless -- In 3P Co-Op, all 'Toads grind a rail at the same time. (10G)
• Hack-Door Shenanigans -- Hack a door in Co-Op. (10G)
• Live and Let Drive -- In 3P Co-Op, stay alive on bikes together -- for 300 seconds! (20G)
• Can't Touch This -- In Co-Op, complete Time for Plan B without taking a hit. (20G)
• To Me, To You -- In Co-Op, build up a 100-Hit combo. (20G)
• Toad Cuddle! -- Finish the game on 'Battletoads' difficulty. (30G)
• Brawling… With Style! -- Earn your first 'S' Rank from an encounter. (15G)
• Straight-A Student -- Earn 20 'A' Ranks from encounters. (15G)
• Dodgebrawl Champion -- Finish a fight without taking damage. (5G)
• Hey, This Is a Rental! -- Score 75 near-misses while riding a rented turbo bike. (15G)
• Photobombed -- Take an enemy's photo when it's in warning distance. (15G)
• Be Tight -- Deal with your friends without any restarts. (20G)
• Take This, Axeman! -- Find a way to keep a Champion's weapon stuck. (5G)
• Toad It Off & On Again -- Repair your ship without any reboots. (10G)
• The Purge -- Escape from a Topian in less than 4 minutes. (20G)
• Mementoads -- Prop up the Jercurian tourism industry. (5G)
• Warped Sense of Humor -- Find the 'Warp Wall' while riding a turbo bike. (10G)
• Dealt a Lucky Hand -- Get a flawless victory in Toadshambo. (5G)
• Not Just for the Holidays -- Land a streak of 15 hits while destroying a totem. (15G)
• The Dlala Code -- Enter the Dlala Code. What could it be…? (5G)
• Blink and You'll Miss It -- Defeat 25 pink eyeballs during Time for Plan B. (10G)
• Hit the Drop -- Freefall more than 10 meters while escaping a Topian. (10G)
• Extra Credit -- Watch the credits! You know you want to. (5G)

Battletoads Achievements Revealed [Xbox Wire]

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If you're feeling froggy, leap

Time is running out to get a feel for Battletoads. It releases in eight days, and the pre-launch opinions seems to be evenly and passionately split. The ??release date trailer didn?'t do much to change that.

Maybe this slightly-in-depth commentary on the brawling will help you make a decision. Rare developers talk about the mindset behind this beat-em-up, all the attention paid to free-flowing combat and the use of space. There's also some detail given to what makes (two of the three) Battletoads unique; Pimple is a big slow gorilla-like l??ug, and Zitz is quick and has tech-focused attacks.

Battletoads launches on August 20 as part of Xbox Game Pass. Subscribers won't need to trust their gut and make a decision about it. That's the b??eauty of Xbox Game Pass in cases like this. 

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These guys need a dermatologist

This ??is bound to be divisive no matter which way you slice it.

Battletoads finally has a release date. Microsoft teased a revival for years before formally unveiling a new Battletoads at E3 2018. Jordan went hands-on with a demo at E3 2019 and reported back with the broad (but understandable) takeaw??ay? of "it's too early to call [it]."

We'll find out one way or another on August 20. That's when Battletoads launches on PC (v??ia Windows Store and Steam) and Xbox One.

It'll be love-it-or-hate-it and no one can really be blamed for whichever side of the fence they land on. The art direction is a major sticking point for most people. It just looks so, I don't know, sanitized compared to Battletoads of old.

Regardless of your opinion now, I'd implore you to watch this new release date trailer. It does a much better job selling the game than the E3 2019 trailer did. I'm not in love with the tone of the Cartoon Network-seeming cutsce?ne stuff but the gameplay looks on-point for a brawler. Dating back to the original, I can't get enough of their fists and fe??et getting big when there's a finishing blow. That's such a good effect. Also, if this trailer is properly representative, there seems to be a ton of variation in level types.

Anyway, most people don't really need to be "sold" on Battletoads per se because it's coming to Xbox G??ame Pass. Anyone with a subscription and even th??e slightest curiosity can just download it and see what's up. If it's your jam, that's another Game Pass success story. If you're not vibing with it, uninstall and move on. Nostalgia is king except for when it's not.

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Rash!

As Obsidian so poignantly points out, if you're waiting for the biggest game of the year, look no further than Cyberpunk 2077. Grounded, however, is the smallest.

This new trailer shows off a lot of the arachnophobic Honey, I Shrunk The Kids-like hijinks. That's what's to be expected. But, they take a second to play on a giant Battletoads action figure! That is very unexpected.

Grounded and Rash come to Xbox Game Previe??w and Steam Early Access on July 28. 

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Don't write it off completely if you aren't feeling the art style

Battletoads is alive and well in 2019 – or something like that. After a round of? cameo appearances, the cult-classic brawler series is set for a return on Xbox One with an unmistakable new look.

Microsoft lifted the lid during its press conference and, ahead of E3, we tried ? our hand at the upcoming title. I took down a bunch of rats, wailed on?? a pig boss, dodged barriers and dashed around drop-offs on a hoverbike, and confirmed that Pimple is, in fact, still my toad hero of choice. Love that big lug.

If you caught the debut trailer, you've more or less seen what I played. Rare and Dlala Studios brought a two-level demo to E3 – one section focused on the staple side-scrolling beat-'em-up action, complete with outlandish morph attacks, and another featured a forward-facing hoverbike sequence.

Let's just say I'm glad I had another player backing me up. (Battletoads has thre??e-player couch co-op, with drop-in, drop-out support.) Neither of us could survive the gauntlet the whole way through in one go, but collectively, we managed thanks to some good old pattern recognition and nail-bitting resp?awns. There's a bit of a cooldown on respawning, so you can't just brute force your way through.

As for?? the beat-'em-up level, it seemed... fine? Yeah, let's go with fine. It got t?he job done.

Pulling foes into reach with my extendable tongue, stringing together combos, trying not to get lost in the sheer amount of stuff happening on-screen – it was all sufficiently engaging. And actually, the art direction – divisive and arguably off-brand as it is for long-time fans – was maybe my favorite part of the demo. I loved how expressive the toads were, particularly their elaborate transforming attacks.

I think Battletoads is ultimately going to come down to how much variety there is from level to level, scene to scene, set piece to set piece. If the developers can get that part right, they should end up with a game worth seeking out with a friend or two. As is, it's too early to call from my limited time, but I am confident in saying it will at least clear the worth-trying-with-Xbox-Game-Pass hurdle. (The release date is TBD right now, but Battletoads will be included at launch.) Playing this at E3 brought me right back into the days of Xbox Live Arcade, for better or worse. Try to set your expectations accordingly.

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Git gud, gaijin

In the primordial days before your mom ??was on the internet, we grew up in fear of the other. In the '80s and '90s, we frequently spoke of the mist-shrouded land across the ocean that controlled most of the games we played. Whether we discussed the games that they so selfishly hoarded to themselves, permanently encrypted with their exotic language, or coveted the cutting-edge consoles they got months before we did, they were a mystery to us. Yet, if there's one thing we feared most about the other, it was their mad skills.

I remember a period in my life when I was convinced that I lived in the softest region in the world. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, for example, was said to be created by Square in the belief that Americans were too stupid to fully understand a true RPG, and the Euro Extreme difficulty was inserted into Metal Gear Solid 2 because vanilla Extreme just wasn't extreme enough for Europeans with their muscular thumbs. Neither statement is accu?rate, but I've heard them repeated more than once. It's a rather bizarre mindset to have; that video game skil??l has anything to do with heritage, but this opinion seems so pervasive.

In the '80s and '90s, the belief was in some way perpetuated by what has become a rare practice: publishers and developers would often ratchet up or tone down a game's difficulty when releasing in a new market. However, regardless of the self-deprecating belief that games had to be dumbed down for our under-developed thumbs, there was actually no consistency to which way the changes wen??t. Japanese games that have been localized to North America have varied between being more diff?icult or much easier, and the same has happened in reverse.

I'm not saying publishers have had difficulty committing to a particular br?and of prejudice. After all, our corporate overlords prefer to avoid viewing people as individuals and find it more efficient to just boil down entire countries of people into numbers and statistics. So that's... better?

The actual reasons for why these changes were made probably doe?sn't have anything to do with demographics, but rather a different approach to maximizin?g sales. I'll get to that, but first, to demonstrate my point, let’s take a look at some of the more notable instances:

Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)

It isn’t the same obscure piece of trivia that it used to be, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you knew this already, but the Super Mario Bros. 2 we got here in North America on the NES wasn’t the same Super Mario Bros. 2 people in Japan were playing on their Famicom Disk Systems. What the Japanese got was essentially a straight sequel to the original game, featuring much of the same art style, sound design, and mechanics, but with the difficulty dia??led up and then dialed up again. Like, a lot, and not in a good way. Ju?st try getting past World-2 and see how you feel about it.

So when Nintendo had the opportunity to localize it for the western market, they decided to pass. The story reported everywhere is that they were afraid the real Super Mario Bros 2. would be too difficult for the North American audience. Instead, they asked to be provided a friendlier sequel that people might actually, you know, have fun playing. The result was a version of Yume Koujou: Doki! Doki! Panic that had its' four playable protagonists redrawn as Mario char?acters. We definitely got the better?? end of the deal.

To be fair, this is more an example of the concept of difficulty tuning between regions, rather than the practice, since Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan) and Super Mario Bros. 2 (everywhere else) are two distinct games. We'd eventually get the real SMB2 in the form of The Lost Levels -- if you feel like you deserve some punishment -- while Japan would see our version of the sequel in the form of Super Mario USA.

Mega Man 2 (NES)

Among the NES Mega Man titles, Mega Man 2 has the distinction of being the only one with a difficulty option. There’s normal if you have weak and feeble thumbs, and difficult if you have hairy palms. Except, not really, because the Japanese version, Rock Man 2, has no difficulty select.

So that would make “normal” analogous with the Japanese version, with "Difficult" being a tuned up challenge for muscular Americans, correct? I mean, that’s why they call it “Normal.” Nope. “Difficult” is the challenge the developers intended, and it’s the one that has parity with Rock Man 2. On no?rmal mode, the damage you dish out is pretty extreme and it makes just about every enemy encount?er a cakewalk. The only leftover challenge is keeping yourself out of bottomless pits and other instant death hazards, which I'm sure you can handle. I believe in you.

I kind of felt cheated when I first discovered this deception. I'm not against an easier difficulty for people who don't have the chops or the time to topple a Mega Man title on the default, but labeling what is plainly a tweaked down the challenge as "Normal?" is misleading. It's like leaving the low-calorie version of ranch dressing unlabeled, while the regular recipe is referred to as "Fat Ranch."

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES)

A metric tonne of changes was made to Akumajou Densetsu when it was localized as Castlevania III. A lot of them were small, barely noticeable changes to the art, but the most well-known alteration was with Akumajou Densetsu’s soundtrack. The Famicom allowed access to additional sound channels, which were strip?ped from the NES. Therefore, the Japanese original had greater depth to its music.

A lesser known, but no less significant, change has to do with the difficulty. In Akumajou Densetsu, different enemies deal different damage; so, for example, a bat might do a small amount of damage but a knight will do much more. In Castlevania III, every enemy and projectile does the exact same amount of damage, and this gets increased as the game progresses. That makes things easier in the beginning and much, much more difficult towards the end. If we're? being charitable, this may have been done to create a? steadier difficult curve, but that’s got to be the laziest way to address the issue.

Whether or not you appreciate the greater challenge in Castlevania III or think that Akumajou Densetsu is the difficulty that nature intended, the result is that Castlevania III was made a lot more difficult in translation.

Battletoads (NES)

One of Rare’s most famous creations, Battletoads, is something of a ?divisive topic today. Some laud it?? as one of the most challenging games on the NES while others think it was a hate-filled slog through a variety of situations that gave you no time to adapt before it murdered you. Personally, I think it could be better if there wasn’t a limit on continues, but, whatever.

If you’re on the fence about it, maybe the Japanese version will be more your speed, since it tones down the difficulty substantially and makes it a more playable exper??ience for people who don’t have hours to spend cementing the Turbo Tunnel into their muscle memory.

For starters, the Japanese version ups your chances with five lives and five continues as opposed to North America’s three lives and three continues. That would have been a pretty token effort at softening the game's malice, but they went further. Significant changes were made to some of the game’s more challenging levels; slowing down the turbo tunnel, removing various pitfalls and traps, and ev??en reducing the health points of bosses.

None of this makes Battletoads an easy game by any means, but it does make the whole experience less B.S. If you ??think this is essentially playing the game with god mode on, consider that the changes made to the Japanese version ??were viewed as enough of an improvement that the Genesis port of the game carried over all the changes.

Dynamite Headdy (Genesis)

Dynamite Headdy was created by the folks at the mythical studio Treasure Co., developers of Gunstar Heroes, Ikaruga, and many other classic games. It was something of a st?aple on the Sega Gen??esis but is rarely spoken about these days. I feel this is likely the result of us getting screwed by difficulty changes in localization.

This time around, the title was made more difficult in North America. The change in difficulty centers around the continue system. The Japanese version started you off with two continues while the regional ver?sion gives you none. To make matters worse, gaining a new continue in the Japanese versions requires you to pick up 10 continue tokens after defeating a boss. In t??he NA version, you needed 13; which may sound like a small increase but it was just enough to make it immensely more difficult to gain an additional continue.

The pr??esence of continues in a game that is, effectively, a situation rush style platformer, is a cruel burden to place on the player. You're often not given enough time to adjust to a new challenge before you're battered, broken, and left to stare with defeated eyes at the game over screen. The Japanese version at least has the decency to allow you more time to practice.

THE RENTAL REPELLENT

So what does that say about the difficulty in these games? Not all that much really, because no publisher is going to just make changes to a game during localization simply to try and frustrate the player, it'??s all done for a reason, and there are many reasons for it.

For a game like Battletoads and Dynamite Headdy with limited continues, the reason likely comes down to the rental market. Masato Maegawa from Treasure even said as much when talking about Dynamite Headdy's difficulty. If your game could be completed comfortably in a weekend, you ran the risk of people renting it, completing it, then never making a purchase. In order to prevent sales from being affected by this, cheap tactics, like the limiting of continues, were used to ratchet up the difficulty and prevent players from actually finishing the game. Video game rentals were basically outlawed in Japan thanks to the 1984 Japanese Copyright Act, which means that Dynamite Headdy and Battletoads could ease up on the artificial challenge without the fear of it costing them sal????????????????????????????es.

That could also explain why Castlevania III was made to be more challenging in North America, but what about Mega Man 2 and Super Mario 2? After the video game market crashed in 1983 under the weight of a jillion unsold Atari 2600 cartridges, Nintendo was left with the task of rebuilding the goodwill of the North American consumer. Having otherwise marketable characters push them into the dirt and call them names wouldn't win any fans, so something had to be done about the cruel difficulty of Super Mario Bros. 2. Likewise, the original Mega Man only sold slightly bet??ter than a box of fingernail clippings in North America, so to invite new players in, the difficulty was tweaked down for the sequel to provide a more welcoming experience.

So the next time you're playing a game with regionally tailored difficulty, you have to think, "Am I playing the game as the designer intended, or the version that was made with the ex??plicit intent to make chil??dren miserable?"

The post A look at the early da??ys of regional difficulty changes appeared first on Destructoid.

(Probably no Double Dragon this time, though)

At today's Microsoft E3 press conference, news was announced that should send a shiver down the spine of '90s kids everywhere; the Battletoads are back!

Although no gameplay footage was shown, it can be considered pretty damn likely that Rash, Pimple and Zitz will return to la?y another tongue-lashing down on the Dark Queen. The game w??ill feature three-player couch co-op and hand-drawn 2.5D visuals.

Battletoads is in development for release later in 2019.

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New titles from Rare's record collection

Purveyors of vinyl soundtracks iam8bit are to release three new LPs of classic games from British studio Rare. These new releases are next in line after the company's previous records for Perfect Dark and the NES Battletoads title.

First up is a double LP for cheeky Nintendo 64 title Conker's Bad Fur Day, which features recognisable tracks such as "Sloprano" and "Rock Solid", as well as featuring unreleased tunes by composer Robin Beanland and co?lorful sleeve ar??t from Joey Spiotto.

Next on the hit-list is the music from the classic SNES brawler Battletoads in Battlemaniacs. Although only a single LP, it is f?ashioned in painfully 90's starburst colour vinyl, featuring the game's score by David Wise and stylised sleeve art by Dima D??rjuchin.

Finally, the jovial soundtrack to early Xbox 360 title Viva Pinata is being pressed onto double "Sweet &??amp; Sour" co?loured vinyl. This release features previously unreleased tracks by composer Grant Kirkhope. The sleeve art, by Ashton Dame, is a little more abstract, showing what appears to be an extreme close-up of the character's crepe paper design.

All three albums include a digital download of their respective contents and become available for pre-order at 00:01 PT tonight. The Viva Pinata and Conker vinyls are priced at $35, with Battlemaniacs coming in at $28. Visit iam8bit's website for further details.

Rare on vinyl pre-orders [iam8bit]

The post The music of Rare including Battletoads, Conker and Viva?? Pinata is coming to vinyl appeared first on Destructoid.

Grab thy shovel and get to toad smackin!

A little over a month ago, it was announced that the Xbox One exclusive extra level in Shovel Knight would be making its way to PC. I was super excited to play that, since I don't have an Xbox One or any desire to really buy a console version of Shovel Knight (despite it being super great!). When the level would be hitting was unkn?own, but you?? can now jump in and get to toad smashin!

The new update with everyone's childhood nightmares heroes is now live on Steam (and probably the Windows Store). Along with that comes a surprisingly large list of changes and tweaks to the Shovel Knight experience, including a Japanese language option. That is su?per neat and should make for a great way to replay the game.

3.3 - The Battletoads Drop In To Brawl! [Steam Community]

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I feel a rash coming on

When Shovel Knight made the jump to Sony and Microsoft's consoles, Yacht Club Games brought a bunch of exclusive extras along with it. Sony players got a battle with Kratos from God of War and Xbox One owners had a face-off with the Battletoads, which is just plain better even without the nostalgi??a. It was a loving homage to an infamous NES era classic that checked off all of the nostalgic boxes without being ??self-indulgent.

It never seemed likely that PC users would be receiving any bonus content, but somehow Yacht Club Games has charmed Microsoft into allowing the slimy trio of toads onto all PC (Steam, GOG, Humble) versions of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove.

Along with that, Shovel Knight will be heading to the Windows Store on August 24. That version won't feature cross-buy with Xbox On??e, but it does contain all of the features from previous versions of the game along with Xbox Live achievements.

Its honestly staggering how much extra content has come to Shovel Knight, so to see even more for free feels like we've entered some bizarro dimension where game publishers aren't constantly nickel and diming us. If only WB Games or Gearbox could take notes from Yacht Club Games, we'd have a lot less angry people on the internet...well, no we wouldn't, but the world would be slig??htly ??nicer.

Shovel Knight on Windows Store! Battletoads Encounter Coming to PC! [Yacht Club Games]

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Now, hear me out

I learned something this week. I learned that humanity is a giant dumpster just waiting to be tipped over by a reasonably sized spac??e rock. I learned that the only consolation for the insanity and the atrocities we have committed as a species is the fact that one day the sun will expand to such a point that the surface of our blue-green planet will boil all life out of existence creating a whole new, fresh start for life. Peopl??e are just too terrible to one another.

No wait, that&rsquo?;s not it, I already knew that.

I learned that I fucking despise Battletoads.

Yeah, I know, another contrarian post from a video game blogger who is way up his own ass. But hear me out here. Do most people really like Battletoads? Whenever I talk to anyone just about it, the pre-baked response i??s always, “I loved ??it. It’s one of the best video games on the NES. I could never get past that bike level though.”

Like, do you even realize what you’re saying? The infamous Turbo Tunnel, also known as “the bike level,” is the third fucking stage in a thirteen-level game. The first two levels are little more than a tutorial. No; that’s not even fair, because they aren’t preparing you for most of what the rest of the game is in the first place. You effectively experienced the intro to the game, were crushed by it,?? and gave up. How do you “love” it?

In the first two stages of Battletoads you are introduced to the basic mechanics in what is essentially a beat-'em-up style of gameplay akin to Streets of Rage or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.?? Th??ese are the stages everyone remembers playing with their siblings or friends.

After that, almost like a sick joke, the game does a complete 180. And from the Turbo Tunnel onward, it becomes a strict test of memory, patience, and reflex where almost every single screen requires the utmost awareness and precision to carry on. Even the stages which play closer to the first two are far more demanding, chock full of instant death spikes, off-sc??reen attacks, and tricky platforming. Though each stage is mechanically different from the last in some way, the Turbo Tunnel is far more reflective of what the levels afterward will be like. So much to the point that the first couple of stages feel like an almost completely different game.

That is pretty jarring. Imagine if you were playing a golf game and then it suddenly turned into Contra after two holes. (Actually, that might be pretty rad. Fuck golf games unless they’re called Neo Turfmasters.) Sometimes this works really well; watch the movie From Dusk ‘Til Dawn if you don’t believe me. This makes Battletoads pretty unique for the time. It’s also insanely impressive on a technical level. Th?e game is bloody gorgeous, and the sheer amount of stage variety is almost unprecedented for that time.

But fuck me if it’s not annoying.

I’m 31 years old. I can’t stress how depressing it is that I have been playing Battletoads every year for most of those years, and still can’t consistently get past the seventh or eighth stage. I watch people speedrun this game, master it, tell me “it’s not that hard.” And you know what? I believe them. I believe that if I really put in the time, sat down, and mastered it, I could get through the damn thing once and for all. I have mastered some pretty difficult games over the years. But this one eludes me, and so does its stripped down, fuck-you sequel, Battletoads in Battlemaniacs on the Super Nintendo.

Battlemaniacs is nothing more than a redux of the original in many ways, st??ripping the game of all the fat, leaving only the most brutal stages left in the mix. The first stage is one of the best beat-'em-up levels in all of gaming; tough as nails, tricky to master, beautiful to look at and ?listen too. But like before, after it’s over, it’s business as usual. The tree stage this time around is made tougher by spikes that jut out of the level, ending in a tense, fast-paced drop that has you navigating a windy, narrow trench with razor sharp pencils on either side of you that will quickly end your run and eat through your extra lives.

But then we get a breather; a bonus stage! And the graphics and? music are fabulous. The ?music rocks so hard that they use it again as the final boss theme, and it fits perfectly in both places.

Then, the Turbo Tunnel hits.

Holy shit.

People complain about the first one but this iteration is no-nonsense. Right away without any lead up, it tosses you on the bike, and your very first obstacle is a jump obstacle. The rest of the stage is relentless. You not only need to avoid all the shit coming your way, but make perfect jumps, and even know what ramps?? to avoid so you don’t slam frog-face first into a mid-air stone wall. It’s absolute brutality.

There are only three full levels after that, and they are a fucking nightmare. Like the Turbo Tunnel, they are amped-up versions of the NES Battletoads stages. You can play through the entire game in abou??t 25 minutes if you perfect ??every level. But I have spent years on the game, and have never made it past the snake level.

This is starting to sound more like an “I Suck at Battletoads” article, which is also true. But what pisses me off about Battletoads so much is not simply that it’s “hard,” but that it almost seems to be designed out of spite for its player -- which simultaneously is also where its genius lies. A game being easy or hard has no bearing on the quality of it, and we so often confuse difficult games these days as being “good.” That is why we have an entire genre now called “Souls-like” meant to emulate the pain of Dark Souls. Like the endless bloom of heavy metal sub-genres, we are further tearing games down to their basic differences within the broad categorizations of gameplay styles they fall into and cloning them beyond saturation to capture the original thrill that a somewhat unique title managed to endeavour. So for a game of the early nineties to effectively be mocking braggarts who had the free time and skill to conquer most other titles with ease, even if this was entirely unintentional on the part of Rare means that Battletoads stands out from the crowd despite perhaps not actually being all that fun to play for anyone but ??dour masochists.

Am I saying Battletoads is a bad game? No. I am not enough of a ponderous contrarian to make such a bold statement. Sometimes games are overrated. But I don’t think Battletoads is one of them, ultimately, despite how much it pisses me off. My relationship with Battletoads is love-hate. I don’t have much fun playing it. I throw my controller in frustration every single time I pick it up, and promise I’ll get rid of it, will never touch it again for my own sanity. But somehow, year after year, I keep getting dragged right back in despite knowing I will never have the patience t??o finally overcome its challenges.

I think it says something about me as a person. My whole life has been fraught with challenges, like anyone else, but I have always looked at myself as a failure despite facing most of them. It’s a terrible way to live. I get praise from people all the time -- “you’re a good dad,” “you work hard,” etc. And it has never registered with me as anything I’ve been able to accept. I find compliments uncomfortable. Life so often feels completely out of my control. Anytime things are going smoothly, I chalk it up as a lucky boon with the inevitable outcome of failure. In the grand scheme of things, I’m right; eventually, like in Battletoads, the game comes to an end. I have accomplished most of my major life goals, simple though they might be, but I am a simpleton after ??all. And there is something in my idiot reptile brain that makes me hammer my head against the wall on challenges that seem insurmountable until I get them right, just to be able to say I did, and not necessarily because I enjoy doing so.

I don’t like Battletoads. I think it’s brilliant, beautiful, one of the best games on both the NES and Super Nintendo, but I don’t find it very fun. It’s a brutal obligation. It’s reflective of my own insecurities as a human being who just can’t say “enough is enough.” It illuminates the obsessive determination and focus that I tend to apply to completel??y mundane and worthless endeavours, while the rest of the world seems so focused on getting rich, bettering themselves, learning new skills. Rapidly approaching middle age, I barely know how to do anything, still don’t have a “career,” still haven’t “made it.” But instead of buckling down and getting shit done, I choose to pick up a plastic controller and consistently fail at defeating a video game I barely have any? fun with.

I can’t stop playing brutally difficult game?s despite not enjoyi??ng them, likely out of stubbornness, out of a need to feel like I have some sense of control. And when I do eventually beat one, I’m not elated for more than a few seconds. It’s like the empty, lonely se??lf-awareness a lot of men feel after sex. It’s done. It’s over. The biological imperative has been fulfilled.

I never want to beat Battletoads because I know that it will be one less thing for me to focus on when I’m feeling down about life in general. I know that the thrill of sweet victory will be short-lived, that it will quickly be replaced with that vacant feeling of “what now?” The journey is more important?? than the destination. After Frodo throws the ring?? into Mount Doom, he still has to suffer the pain of his journey after. The relief does not outweigh the countless time spent struggling to reach the destination. It is the struggling that makes us grow. When there is victory, when we cease moving, we become stagnant. And even in the realm of entertainment that is video gaming, this stagnancy ultimately leads to dissatisfaction and apathy. Challenge is the backbone of video games.

So ultimately, what I’m trying to say is that Battletoads is a mean stupid poo poo game, a?nd it can kiss my big fat as??s.

The post Battletoads can kiss my ass appeared first on Destructoid.

While a new game may not currently be in the works, it's not out of the question

Back in November we ran a story on the head of Microsoft's Xbox division Phil Spencer's visit to Rare's offices where he tweeted about having a look at its latest project. This visit, coupled with the filing for the pseudo mark Battle Toads in relation to the company's Battletoads trademark sparked some wi?shful thinking and speculation among diehard fans of the pro??perty.

These incidents taken on their own don't add up to much. Most likely it's just the mundane day-to-day work that lawyers do in the background to safeguard their employer's intellectual property and a high-profile Microsoft executive doing what he does -- getting in f??ace time with his company's sub??sidiaries and publishing something intriguing on social media to spark interest.

However, in a recent Inner Circle podcast, creative director at Microsoft Studios Ken Lobb did mention the property specifically when he sat down for a short chat with the po?dcasters. When discussing Microsoft's enviable position of ownership of Rare's beloved IPs, Lobb had this to say about their potential future use:

"So will there ever be another Banjo, Viva, Blast Corps, Battletoads? Yeah, some day. And I think the reason you see things like Battletoads revi??ved is because we know there’s val?ue, so we renewed the trademark."

Making sure not to set expectations unrealistically high, he followed up by saying, "Does that mean it’s coming this year? No. Does that mea?n it’ll never come? Absolute?ly not. We have a lot of passion internally for each of these games that you mentioned and we have surprises in store in the near and long future, but understand that what it’s really about is, we want to build this suite of IP [so] that we can add to that list of 'let’s build some new things,' 'let’s build some recent sequels,' and 'let’s do some crazy stuff' like dig back into a portfolio of IP and build some games that people love."

Of course, all this should be taken with a sizable chunk of salt. H?e's gone on record to state that the company does recognize the inherent value of the properties Microsoft now owns, talked specifically about revisiting key Rare franchises but wisely stops well short of giving any sort of meaningful timeline of when any of this might happen.

Still, hearing that these series won't be left to rot on the vine under Microsoft's care is at least reassuring. While offering nothing concrete in regards to a Battletoads title that might be on the drawing board, Lobb reassures the listeners that "we love the old IP as much as you do," and requests for us to "please be pat??ient, because [we] can only build so much at a time."

Inner Circle podcast [YouTube via DualShockers, Image Credit: Brad Whitlam]

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