Battletoads

Baby's First Battletoads
This is the game you show your kids before you show them the real stuff. Then they tell you they liked the new one better, and you have to disown your kid because they have no culture.

This game NEEDS online co-op.
Split screen/couch co-op is just not enough.
Besides we're living during a pandemic, we aren't supposed to have friends over.
But it is a lot of fun. Steam Remote Play works. But we end up having to play on everyone's stream so they get the achievements. (if you care about those things)
It mixes different game modes like the original games had.
Challenging, but not too hard. I like that they have different difficulties so you can challenge yourself.

This is the nuts and bolts of battletoads. The style is completely different from the originals that it's no wonder why people hate this game so much. But as a standalone game it's actually pretty good, the issue seems to be that people were waiting for a sequel of sorts in a modern style, but they rebooted it completely instead to the point of angering a lot of classic fans, however it's actually a good game on it's own just like how nuts and bolts would have been if it wasn't a banjo game.
tldr: it's not what people expected, however it's still pretty good.

When the E3 2018 trailer for this game dropped I took the opportunity to play the original 4 games and eventually beat all of them individually without using continues. While I don't have the pleasure of growing up with these games I still became a big fan of each title, boss, personality, and it's characters. One of the main reasons why these games are still remembered to this day is their notorious difficulty. Throughout the experience it's up to the player to play each level near-perfectly with limited lives & continues as a Game-Over . An often overlooked but critical aspect is that most of the difficulty is memory based and not skill based. In most circumstances, a skilled player that has no experience won't perform as well as a moderately skilled player that has memorized the game. This is largely the result of many beginners traps like objects / projectiles quickly reaching the player with no room for reaction time and off-screen obstacles being completely unknown until the player either or collides into them or gets lucky enough to avoid one of many. The games demand accuracy and perfection but the aforementioned issues mar the experience as many retro games suffer from. Aside from difficulty the Battletoads is also known for the gameplay variety, satisfying "smash-hits" where the toads transform their limbs into comically large objects with freak-out animations to match, and attitude which is heavily inspired by the 90's era it was born into. The games were well aware of what the experience was and constantly mocks the player throughout. While characteristically insulting, they offer light-hearted humor and encourage the player to prove themselves capable despite the insults. Even the game's guide "Professor T Bird" berates and belittles players when only congratulating you once at the ending. The game's bosses were quite a unique bunch with gross-out greats such as Big Blag who gets bigger in each game and Robo-Manus with a downright terrifying character design which writing matches. Rare did an excellent job with the Dark Queen in that she's equal parts hated as she is intimidating. This design principle would eventually influence other great characters like Gruntilda from Banjo Kazooie. Overall I really enjoyed my time with the originals and they leave this new entry with a lot of room for creativity in smash-hits and the genre-swapping gameplay approach.
When the game was revealed in E3 2019 it was met with a lot of criticism for it's tone, art direction, and gameplay speed. While they've made the game feel very fast and fluid the tone and art direction were too integral to change so late into development. People will oftentimes point to other commercial producuts like the Sonic The Hedgehog movie and ask the Battletoads team to do the same. I believe these people fail to realize how in Sonic's case it was gripes with a model whereas with Battletoads the "issue" is with something so inherently fundamental that you'd have to scrap thousands of hours of progress to properly remedy (not impossible but CONSIDERABLY more difficult and wasteful).
I played the game on singleplayer with Battletoad difficulty. If I could sum up my experience with one word it'd be chaotic, both in a good and bad sense. Inspired by Battletoads Arcade the game's combat is fast and fluid and you can repeatedly attack enemies even when they've fallen onto the ground. There's a variety of ways to attack them and it's welcoming to fans of the original's more simplistic gameplay with button-mashing being completely legitimate tactic aside from the occasional charge attack to break an enemy block. It also allows a skilled player to dash around the arena with the tap of a button, use their tongue to grab or dash to enemies, and juggle enemies midair with a variety of different options with each toad. My only issue is that some combat encounters from the singleplayer experience felt unbalanced. For the most part this isn't a huge issue but sections with several projectiles makes it quite difficult as enemies no longer stop when you're in the middle of attacking. This is partially remedied by dashing which intuitively cancels any of your current attacks and being able to stun enemies from a distance but can still prove overwhelming on your first playthrough. Overall though it feels incredibly satisfying to attack enemies which is a big reason why people enjoy the series and I'm sure fans will enjoy it. The music is stellar and you'll hear a variety of re-creations of classic tracks like the original theme and turbo tunnel plus brand new tracks that fit the glove perfectly. David Housden hit the ball out of the park on this one and it was one of my favorite features by far. The only caveat being that the classic pause theme from the original game only makes a brief return at the beginning and isn't present when pausing. I do hope they consider adding it in as an optional setting. The game feels more reaction based than the originals which is a much more enjoyable difficulty in my opinion but I hope they're also able to implement a continue / life / game over system that's unlocked after finishing the game.
Battletoads (2020) also takes inspiration from Battletoads (1991) and Battlemaniacs in it's genre-swapping gameplay. None of it feels ridiculously jarring with short tutorials for the more radical shifts. They all control well and save for two sections I was able to pick up and enjoy them rather quickly. It helps accompany the comedic tone, story, and makes gameplay exciting as you never know what the next level has in store for you. The writing feels very self-aware taking the toad's 26 year absence as a major plot point while occasionally breaking the 4th wall like mocking the game's age rating. If you're a fan of cartoons you'll find a good number of laughs with it's crazed cast of characters, they don't all land but there are some winners. I was surprised to find how short the experience ended up being as I reached the game's credit screen saying I took 4hr 45m of in-game time to complete. There's still plenty of achievements and collectibles left to unlock for replayability but those only interested in one / two playthroughs may feel a bit underwhelmed given the game's price tag. The game's A rank challenge for 100% completion is particularly challenging on Battletoad difficulty but also incredibly fun when you use your full knowledge to finish each combat encounter flawlessly and achieve S ranks in various arenas. For Ranking, you're required to use a variety of different attacks with the toad mugshots at the top of the screen corresponding to a stylish combo or not. My only complaint is how there's no way of telling how long a particular arena will last as some feature multiple waves of enemies and if you finish with a low Rank there's no way to retry the fight instead of restarting the entire stage entirely.
While the tone, art direction, and lack of returning characters is a huge departure from the original games there's still plenty of features that harken back to the series' past while providing a brand new experience that remains faithful gameplay-wise. While I would've loved to see a more faithful reboot, the Rare & Dlala team have done the best with the card they decided to play and I hope to see more of the Battletoads + other classic Rare franchises in the future!

Battletoads is a fun game. I've beat it solo and look forward to trying it on the hardest difficulty as well as playing co-op (which, if anything like its predecessors, should make the game harder.) I own Battletoads (NES), Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (SNES), Battletoads and Double Dragon (SNES) and the arcade game. I've beaten the SNES titles and arcade game, but not the NES game, which I think is the hardest of the bunch in a series that is defined by being difficult, muscle-memory based games.
I say this to establish some credibility; I've enjoyed this series for a long time, but until I beat Battlemaniacs, I never really knew what this series was. See, most people never made it past level 3, the Turbo Tunnel, in the NES and main SNES game. If I had to guess, I'd say at least 95% of people who have played Battletoads have only ever experienced the first 3 levels of the game unless they used a game genie, which is kind of missing out on the real experience anyway.
What I'm trying to get at is this: most reviewers who are trying to make some appeal to nostalgia should face some scrutiny; how many have experienced the original games in their entirety, or even close to their entirety? The series has always been an absurdist Saw-like meat grinder with an obnoxious difficulty level, and Rare made a new Battletoads game that sports an obnoxious (but wonderful) sense of humor. This game is most everything you ought to expect from a Battletoads sequel in 2020 and does a pretty good job honoring its past.
Battletoads 2020 is arguably the most beat-em-up oriented the series has ever been (not counting the arcade and Double Dragon spin-off) and it's still not a beat-em-up. Battletoads has always been a variety game that offers a buffet of different level types. This entry includes side-scroller levels with several races like the old Turbo Tunnel and Intruder Excluder levels, and new additions, like bullet hell and platforming levels. There are also a bunch of fun and silly mini-games.
The story never takes itself seriously, but the games have never had much of a story until now, so the cut scenes and dialogue are suitably ridiculous. The controls are solid and the graphics are crisp and clean, obviously taking note from current cartoon art styles. It can feel a little bit of a stimulus overload, but so much of the older games were built around stimulus overloads anyway that I think it is keeping with its heritage. Plus, it works artistically and the player gets the hang of it after the first or second level.
My only minor criticisms actually revolve around the difficulty level and some characterization. A game that has the type of difficulty Battletoads featured on the NES just isn't going to sell super well anymore, but this game is a shade easier than the old titles. It gets pretty difficult in the later stages, which is good because. well, most players in the 90's only ever experienced 15 minutes of Battletoads content. A more gradual increase in difficulty is better. But I wish it spiked a little harder at the end.
And as for the characterization issue, it's really just an art choice. Battlemaniacs (SNES) and the arcade game developed unique style for all the Toads' signature smash moves that you can see in the trailer. Zitz transformed his body into machinery, Pimple into blunt force objects like hammers and bricks, and Rash into more elegant bladed and medieval weapons. Zitz and Pimple are pretty spot on, but Rash now uses rubber chickens and fish and unkempt feet. It doesn't feel like it has the same unifying theme, and I miss that. Plus his old axe kick was rad. Oh, and they need to bring back the ability to smash enemies literally into the ground.
Anyway, that's my meandering gate-keeper review. Battletoads 2020 is a fun and silly game. I think it has a particular audience, maybe one that is capable of laughing at how damn hard it is trying at such a silly game, but if you're in that group, hopefully with a buddy or two, then this is a good one.

A lot of people are complaining about Battletoads not involving enough combat, I feel they almost didn't play the original Battletoads. This game is filled with mini games and lots of different ways the game plays, which plays more homage to the original game than most people think.
Looking at the original Battletoads, you had things like the bike race, the climbing snake level, descending through a pit on a rope, riding a surf board, and so on. Often, you had more of a puzzle game than an actual beat 'em up.
However, some of the minigames in this one do outstay their welcome towards the end of the game. After you're hit with your third SHMUP you do tend to tire a little. Which is odd, as the other mini games before aren't used as often or don't last as long. Also some of the fix the ship minigames, if you have to do them on your own can be a little difficult to get them done in the time limit. I completed the game on toad difficulty and the fixing ship mini game was the only one where I was slightly tearing my hair out.
Overall, if you enjoy the old games for what they are and like some comedy injected into your game, then you'll enjoy it. If you just want a beat 'em up, you're better off looking at Streets of Rage 4 or similar.

I really had a lot of fun with this game! This is a bit of a "variety" game, with lots of different types of levels. From the classic combat and turbo bike levels Battletoads is known for, to some brand new puzzle platforming areas, a space shooter, and even a few minigames thrown in for comedic effect.
I actually liked the art style, too. The original Battletoads was more of a 90s cartoon inspired romp, so it makes sense for the reboot to take inspiration from newer cartoons. The animation on the moves were pretty fun. It reminded me of how the original would do cartoony transformations as attacks, but going even further with it, a lot of the moves transforming the frogs into sharks, vehicles, weapons, and more.
The sense of humour and story of this game is probably it's most polarizing aspect, but I would not say it's like anything on Cartoon Network. This game has swearing, violence, and references to cults. It's really not meant to be a kids' game at all. The meta humour really is a "your mileage may very" situation, but it didn't bother me at all. I also don't think the message of the game was that the Battletoads "suck", as the only characters who say this are some random gossipers by a water cooler who we aren't supposed to care for in a job Zitz is miserable at, and the game's main villains. I see the story of the game as a few heroes who are down on their luck, struggling to find their place in the world, then getting back on their feet and being awesome again!
If there's one major issue I had with this game, it's the lack of a proper online multiplayer mode. I hope this could be added in a future update, as it was teased that there will be more content in the future. That being said, the Battletoads 2020 reboot is surprisingly fun, and if you give it a chance you might like it!