New Battletoads game inspires lazy headline
Frogs are still better.
The new Battletoads has finally reared its (very) ugly head, after its detail-free reveal trailer last E3. So it's been a long wait, and I can't help but feel somewhat let down by what's been shown.
It sort of smells like Battletoads, to a degree, but doesn't really look like it. Aesthetically they seem to have gone for a "2001 Newgrounds" look, though the enemies and toads appear heavily over-animated to a point that it's difficult to imagine the combat feeling tight. Just these short clips give off a janky vibe to me, and that's not ideal. Battletoads on NES had this problem to an extent, but the belt-scrolling combat was limited to the first stage and I usually warped to the Turbo Tunnel anyway.
Speaking of the Turbo Tunnel, there's an into-the-screen variant on it shown here, that rather reminds me of one of those games you used to get on Saturday morning kids' shows like Live & Kicking (Hey, Americans, how's that for a reference?). You know, the kind you'd see a kid playing over the telephone screaming "Left, left, LEFT!!" then dying and not winning a chemistry set.
Still, the full game promises all sorts of "epic" things. Platforming, punching, etc. Like we got in the original. There are whispers of the genre-hopping Battletoads excellence in there, but I'm not quite enamoured with what we've been shown so far. No doubt there'll be more coverage of this warts-and-all (hah) throwback in the months to come, so keep it Nauty! I'm trying to make "keep it Nauty" a thing. (This must stop at once. - Ed)
