Battletoads

TOADALLY RADICAL

»[Xbox » One] You can rack up some seriously impressive combos, even on your own – we’ve surpassed 100.

INFORMATION

» FORMAT REVIEWED XBOX ONE

» ALSO ON: PC

» RELEASED: OUT NOW

» PRICE: £14.99

» PUBLISHER: XBOX GAME STUDIOS

» DEVELOPER: DLALA STUDIOS/RARE

» PLAYERS: 1-3

»[Xbox » One] Hopping on the turbo bikes might give you nightmare flashbacks, but these sections are actually reasonable.

If you’re like us, you probably look back fondly at bizarre, absurd cartoons of the Nineties – the kind that would frequently sneak adult-level humour into family-friendly time slots, and frequently went beyond parody into self-parody. The good news is that this spirit lives on with the return of the quintessentially Nineties Battletoads. As we meet Pimple, Rash and Zitz in this game, we learn that they’ve all been living an externally induced delusion for the past 26 years. Nobody knows who they are any more, and all they want to do is become famous again.

The Saturday morning aesth tic can be seen everywhere in Battletoads. Just as every extreme, edgy character needed rock music in the Nineties, our handful of would‐be heroes have it here.

» »[Xbox One] Difficulty spikes depend on your skill in each genre – we love shooters, so we breezed through those stages.

Cartoon cutscenes contain some genuinely funny writing and some appealingly chunky character design, and that look continues into the game itself. The characters are great to watch as they stretch and morph, transforming into trains, circular saws, jackhammers and more. The enemies have received just as much love too, and it’s great to see them looking absolutely crazy as they electrify the ground or charge across the stage.

Normally, the look of the game isn’t the first thing we’d concentrate on, of course, but it’s really that cartoon theme that ties everything together. From one-off minigames to recurring themes such as standard platforming, twin-stick shooter stages and even a 3D obstacle course that brings to mind the terrifying Turbo Tunnel of old, Battletoads is a game that never sticks to a single genre for too long. The game is constantly throwing new situations at you and they’re usually delightful, with each offering enough fresh material to sustain its screen time. Only a couple drag on too long, but we would like to have seen slightly better pacing – platform and shoot-’em-up stages are all pretty clumped together.