After being announced at Xbox E3 2018, fans have been left high and dry about the state of the revived franchise. Getting information about Battletoads proved to be harder than pulling water from a rock. This year, however, Microsoft finally gave us all the fix we needed: a Battletoads gameplay trailer!

Rare and Microsoft finally revealed what the rebooted Battletoads will look like, once it releases. In a quick Battletoads gameplay trailer, fans are met with a cool beat while new and returning characters are shown off with a new and modern aesthetic.

As you can undoubtedly see, this is definitely not Battletoads of yore. Characters have received major reworks from what they originally looked like, and are more inline with the way cartoons look today. The Dark Queen is not the same sexy animated lady that gave Jessica Rabbit a run for her money. Now she is a cool, almost Star Wars-style villain, with a dark coat and streaky grey hair. Similarly, the toads themselves look nowhere near as brutish as they once were. Considering this series is primarily for children, however, I do not mind the changes at all. Judging solely on the Battletoads gameplay trailer, it still looks like one heck of fun beat ‘em up!

Rare originally released Battletoads on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This 1991 title hit the world by storm and received quick ports to the Amiga, the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, and Sega Game Gear. The game also reached the Game Boy! Most notably for me, however, was the Battletoads animated special. While only 22-minutes in length, I remember seeing it on a now defunct channel, back when we first got DStv in South Africa. It was then that I immediately crushed on the Dark Queen. In the years since, the animation has found its way onto streaming services such as YouTube (video embedded below).

With a bunch more spin-offs and ports coming Battletoads’ way, the series ultimately fell to the wayside following its final 1994 released into arcades. Now, however, the game has finally been reworked from the ground up for the Xbox One.

Developers Dlala Studios promise that there will still be three-player couch co-op, just like in the original, and that it will feature a vast number of playable levels. As with the original, and seen in the Battletoads gameplay trailer, the new title will keep the same 2D perspective and will retain the 90s era attitude. The only difference comes in the art style, and even that seems to keep the colours nice and bold.

According to Rare, Battletoads will launch day one on Microsoft Game Pass for Xbox as well as Windows 10. When exactly it will release, however, remains a mystery for now.

[Sources: PC Gamer, The Verge, VG247, YouTube(1)(2)]

View Author Profile

Junior Editor at Vamers. From Superman to Ironman; Bill Rizer to Sam Fisher and everything in-between, Edward loves it all. He is a Bachelor of Arts student and English Major specialising in Language and Literature. He is an avid writer and casual social networker with a flare for all things tech related.