😡 Battletoads 2020 - How To Ruin A Franchise 😡 

I suspect the reason the Dark Queen is not an enemy in the game is because they didn't have the balls to create a game where the male protagonists punch a woman in the face.

One of the biggest disappointments about this game for me was the lack of returning characters and bosses. Where's Professor T. Bird? Robo-Manus? Big Blag? General Slaughter? Characters that any fan of the original run of games would recognize?

The thing that turned me off was it didn't look like a follow-up in the world of Battletoads, but looked like the Battletoads were guest characters in some weird Adult Swim game. All of the enemies looked like they were from a Cartoon Network-style series and nothing at all from ANY of the previous games. So I could never get into it, because it didn't feel "right".

The Dark Queen's sex appeal was what made her look so damn intimidating. The way she looks in the new game is just looking like they took like they took inspiration from Fairly OddParents.

Why they decided to give Battletoads the Teen Titans Go treatment is beyond me.

I love Battletoads Arcade. It's a shame the reboot took such a massive disrespectful dump on its legacy.

Every revived classic looks like a mobile flash game these days. I haaaaaaaate it.

I HATE how they changed up the Dark Queen and got them teaming up together and it was way too cartoony

They Nerfed the Dark Queen, that's why.

The toads deserve better than this, the dark queen looks like she came from Kim Possible...smh

One of the funniest things in the old games was when your character sees a boss their mouth opens as wide as their body. A small detail like that makes all the difference.

I like to call this 'Battletoads Go', or 'Battletoads Roar' where an old property comes back in the form of a post modern one that ridicules it's long time fans.

Battletoads on NES is the perfect example of love-hate relationship - i love the art, levels, characters, sound and gameplay; but i hate the difficulty spikes, no 2 player B mode (when you can't attack each other) and too few continues. I actually almost broke my controller on that race part, almost near the boss fight, my controller disconnected and i lost my last 1up, most frustrating moment of my life probably. Then Battletoads & Double Dragon came and it was miles better, we spent countless days playing it with friends, so much fun. Now, this version is... soulless, i guess? There's nothing interesting, it's the most average and boring game i've played. I do not like the art style (especially what they did with Dark Queen) but that's subjective, fights feel very chaotic when some attack take like 50% of the screen. When i was playing with friends, i often lose my character among the chaos. I had some issues hitting enemies sometimes (like they were on slightly different "height" but it didn't look that way). Fighting was meh, driving was meh, story was meh, locations were too bright and colorful. And probably the worst thing, the whole game was easy enough, i didn't feel like i was progressing in the game or improving, there was no «ugh, that was hard, but fun», it was just «... ok». I played for 2-3 hours and never finished it. That's another thing, i could've beat original Battletoads and Battletoads & Double Dragon in those 2-3 hours. I don't think Battletoads were supposed to be in this game, like the developers were pitching some other game and then someone at Microsoft said «Hey, that would make a perfect Battletoads game! Just add those -turtles- frogs there»

My brother absolutely hates this game he says it's the worst thing he has ever played

They basically gave Battletoads the 'Thundercats Roar!' treatment.

To think 2 different Battletoads games can ruin a franchise 26 years apart (at least the 1994 game was actually good and easy on the eyes to look at.) Killer Instinct and Shovel Knight did the franchise significantly better than DLaLa did.

I absolutely hate this art style. I can't even give the game a chance because of it.

What really hurt Battletoads was Streets of Rage 4 coming out around the same and being a far more effective sequel that subtly evolved series elements while being very affectionate to the games that came before it. The Rare game's misguided humor and inconsistent gameplay in comparison to that title simply did it no favors.

AVGN should add this to his list of shitty games

I hate the art style of the new battletoads 🤮

That was such a confusing mess. Lampooning your main characters is such a bad idea. People just wanna punch and stomp.

The moment I saw the Dark Queen's new design, I was out. This new version is visually unattractive compared to the original just so feminists wouldn't sperg out like when Musk bought twitter.

I played this for a bit. There's a level where you're riding on a track and have to do jumps and I kept failing over and over so I quit the game and never went back.

You can always tell when people who didn't play video games as a kid, grow up and makes video games as an activist.

So Rare was only "overseeing and supervising" development of this game? Wow, was Rare even in the same building? I don't think anyone at Dlala Studios had ever played, or even seen a Battletoads game. Rare should be ashamed. I wouldn't want my logo on that "product". After reading about how angry people were about the art direction, I purposely didn't look at any screenshots before buying. I don't think anything could have prepared me for what these people shat out.

So, just going on the explanation for the changes you provided, I'm going to assume the Dark Queen created the simulation the Toads were stuck in? If so... that's a catfish and a half to get out of the simulation she created and find out she's not this tall, leggy amazonesque dominatrix, but this tiny little dumpling of a human who can't see herself for what she is? It's self insert fanfiction trying to pass off the OG as the fanfiction... that's weirdly meta.

Nice review as usual. The Heel promo really fits in with the style. If anyone is wondering why this game failed, despite it being decent; that's because no matter how you good you make something, if you piss off the buyers, they won't buy from you. I followed the development of this game, and Top-Hat was right-- at 1st it was the hardcore old-timers telling people it was gonna be bad. Most waved them off despite good reasons, then it was revealed that the creators wasn't taking the directors' position like it was originally announced. This caused a big stir. It was lead to believe that Rare was taking control, until the reveal of Dlala Studios. This rightly caused concern 'cause the IP is going from their creators who just made a banger with KI, to a literal app- game company [a small one]. The crazy thing is that most fans was still arguing with the slowly growing support of the old-timers [this maybe largely due to the Rare Plays and Rash for KI advertisement]. Then it was announced that the creators were overseers, this is when "all out war" broke and support went downhill. I'm not talking about the fact that the creators wasn't technically involved, but what Dlala or X-Box was doing (which was actively antagonize the buyers). The thing about the art style is that not only is it cheap [and lazy], but it has become a hallmark [a calling card] of a certain agenda in Hollywood Animation. This agenda are starch believers of "Post-Modern" art and it shows. Most (if not all) don't know how to scope, shape, nor develop space, characters, and meaning; so their products come off as half'ed-ass'ed or just bad [this is also due to them being really f'ing lazy]. When Dlala/ X-Box started posting images of the game and character design, there was legit questions about the vision used; and Dlala/ X-Box started attacking. This is when the shit hit the fan[s]. Either you be of one political group or another, no one cares when the topic is about giant Frog-People pugilistic murdering a Mutant Rat, made in a lab by a 6ft tall woman. So when lefty views and agenda points of misogyny, and male gaze, and etc. started to surface, a lot of people knew what was up. It was the same thing that happened to the animation sphere in America and now the fans [the ones that just went through seeing their fantasy characters destroyed by this same agenda] don't want it. So, they lost the old-timers (30 somethings) and now they lost the prized money pool-- the people that actually liberally buy things-- the 20 somethings. And when the Dark Queen was released that was the nail. It isn't about the Queen herself or the lack of boobies; it was about seeing a staple of the agenda that was warned (at this time) like 2 years ago. These people [agenda loons] have a certain belief, but they are too lazy to actually learn how to convey this into art, so they half-ass it and it looks horrible. Now the Cal-arts can work if you put work into it [that's true of any animation media], but they didn't. Dark Queen looks like a Kim-Possible knock-off "do not steal O.C." character. Her face don't match her head, her proportions keep changing, the dynamic of hair is an afterthought, and many many more. Seeing the Dark Queen like that was a banner displaying their purpose, and later it became a gaiden. At this point, they pissed off everyone: the old-timers by not sticking, or paying homage, or not trying to capture the same ideology of the Battletoads, the people that would try out anything new if it looks fun to play, the people that needs a reason to play a game and not just mash button [story crowd], and the ones with moral will. That leaves only the child market, which they said they thought the Battletoads wasn't suited for [the 90's version]. Now you got the real money looking at you strange [the parents]. If it (by their standards) wasn't for kids then, why would it be for kids now? Really sus' things. So, they killed their entire market. The only people that played the game were journalist and people that wanted to judge on experience (which isn't a lot). This is a lesson in business. I won't say "Go woke; go broke"; I will say that when you start to view people as "consumers", then you get entitled real fast 'cause you keep telling yourself that the product doesn't matter and people like pigs will guzzle down anything with the right coating. It is better to view people as "costumers", then you are reminded that people can always say no and go elsewhere. The best way to make money is to give the best (or most convenient) service. And if this service is married to art, then learn your art and respect the ideology of that art. If you are given a base to something then go with it, and don't try to pull the roots out; it is better to do your own than to usurp another's. Fuck Battletoads 2020.

As I'm watching this, I'm completely overwhelmed by the gameplay screens, there is just TOO MUCH going on at one time to even see everything.

Dark Queen was inspired by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Team at Rare wanted a female that can leave a presence. They did her dirty now. This would be the same as if they would make new TMNT, but Shredder is a little kid. In any case, I love Battletoads but hate the last entry. The artwork is hideous to me.

I knew this game was up sh*ts creek when they had that fugly version of the Black Queen.

I saw a lot of people praising this game. I'm 40 y o and a hardcore fan of the old ones. I gave it a chance in a friend's house who owned it. AND I F..... HATE IT. Hearing your words was like nectar to my ears Mr Top Hat, I really appreciate it. KUDOS!

The biggest problem with the Dark Queen isn't the outfit It's the flatscreen-tv head

Just chill guys,in 20 years or so we will have another one.maybe..

This game is a poster child for why you don't allow nu males and feminists make a reboot of a classic macho franchise, it literally makes no sense at all. It's too obvious that the devs didn't find the original game appealing, and thus why they wanted to alter it so drastically.

This game really should’ve stayed as a beat ‘em up with platforming, turbo tunnel and maybe shooter sections mixed in along the way. I respect what they tried to do, one of the things Rare did in their games a lot back the. was mix in a bunch of different gameplay styles in one game to try and keep things fresh, we’d see this in Battletoads and this even carried over all the way into the N64 era with games like Banjo Tooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day, but with Battletoads 2020, it’s clear that the beat ‘em up gameplay was the most developed part so it probably would’ve been better if they just stuck with that and build on top of it however else they could. People still would’ve been upset over the artstyle and other thematic differences between this and the older Battletoads games but it at least the gameplay would’ve been more focused.

This game made me lose interest in calling GameStop and asking for it

I see exactly why this game wasn't recieved well, it looks horrible and the source material has been altered so yes this version of the franchise is horrible 👎.

Didn’t bother once I saw they changed the dark queen to some math blaster extra

Another example of how to ruin a Franchise is Banjo Kazooie Nuts N BoltZ

Epitome of current media, yeah it can be competent... but when you try to appeal to everyone with everything you do; it never resonates for long.

The new designs were disappointing! It felt like it was made for children but also not? Like they had a character give the middle finger and have adult jokes. Yet the script was filled with kiddie humor and basic dialogue.

Adding the SOR4 as a comparison was great. Never got in to any of them but I can tell it is SOR.

My main issue with the game was the inclusion too many mini games which were not even fun to play. The beat em up sections while looking funny , functional and beautifully animated lacked the flexiblity of even newly released Asterix game. New Battletoads wasn't a bad game but a disappointing one.

Battletoads didn't start out good at all, contrary to what the internet thinks now. It was a "hit" because of marketing and it looked good, but most kids put it down pretty quick. All the technical achievements were ruined by the difficulty curve which kept most kids from getting very far. It's very similar to Bayou Billy in that way. That game was also everywhere because it looked good and because of heavy marketing, but you got real tired of playing the first part and dying. In both cases, the games used arcade style beat 'em up difficulty for the gameplay without the ability to stick more quarters in to keep playing. The high difficulty curve creates the kind of challenge many modern gamers like to go back to, but for most kids who wanted a full game experience without the frustration, it would be better to go back to TMNT2 or similar.

why does dark queen look like a teen titan

Alternate opinion: “Battletoad fandom” was always vastly overstated by retro gaming “journalists.” So it couldn’t be ruined

This game looks like trash. And I totally caught that dig at Will Smith 😅

Battletoads should have gotten a N64 game, the entire genre took a huge hit in the 32/64 bit era with only really Die Hard Arcade being noteworthy while the N64 and PS1 had to do with lesser titles like Fighting Force and Nightmare Creatures.

The franchise was dead and dormant for nearly 20 years, Battletoads 2020 was great for how took the literal whiz out of what came before.

Rather than thinking of NES Battletoads as offering brutal but rewarding difficulty, I think of it as offering brutal and unfair difficulty. While it would become infamous for its high difficulty, I feel that difficulty did make the game itself a worse experience. It is understandable that any attempt at a modern sequel would try to address that issue, though a better solution would probably have been to build it around a selectable difficulty option, offering a reasonable game experience for the majority and a pointlessly cheap and completely unfair hard mode for the "true gamers" that have to be able to (at least pretend to) prove their "real gamer cred."

My favorite game on nes and arcade. 26 years later, and they look like dang happy tree friends or something...

The artstyle is giving me ed edd eddy and also madgascar vibes

Funny enough, for a TMNT plagiarist, Battletoads 2020 also came out during "Rise of TMNT," a similarity criticized reimagining. (Also, I said it to n Twitter, but the gameplay's animation was like Rise, but the cutscenes felt like "Kid Danger.")

I myself enjoyed this reboot of the Battletoads. The backlash wasn't as brutal as say the 2016 female Ghostbusters movie lol...but I like that after 26 years I was treated with a game that both me and my son enjoyed. The original will always hold a soft spot in my heart and I still enjoy on my Sega Genesis and Rare Replay game. This has introduced the Battletoads to a newer generation and watching my son enjoy and laugh with this game had me enjoying even more.

the art style is absolutely horrendous... wtf?! it looks like all the cal-art garbage coming out in recent years, like that thundercats roar atrocity

Streets of Rage 4: 7/10 Battletoads 2020: 8/10 -IGN 🤦‍♂️

Problem is that no one of the original Rare staff except Greg Mayles is still at Rare. This is why Killer Instinct was handled by another studio, and it's also why Battletoads was handled by another studio.

These days, all you have to do to ruin a beloved franchise is be one that doesn't star humans.

For those who wish to see an example of a classic franchise getting a more cartoon-like redesign and having a subplot involving the main character teaming up with their female enemy that got an updated look and did that right, look up Wario Land: Shake-It.

I was instantly turned off by the artstyle. Whish it would look more gritty/edgy and not like a cartoon network show.

well, ArcSys wasn't exactly a fighting game giant until they made Guilty Gear. lol

it's sad I was so excited when I heard it...then I read Saturday morning cartoon, the ugly Toad designs, the unsexy Dark Queen and the attempt to use the game to mock the old fans for criticizing it and went yeah screw Rare

The Pokémon Company: Mind if I copy your homework, Rare?

I got the Sega Genesis version of BattleToads. A very awesome version of the NES release. Got to love that Sega Genesis soundtrack and graphics.

The artstyle instantly killed any excitement I had for this reveal back then. I absolutely loathe this kind of "art" and this modern "Saturday Morning Cartoon" humor. And the story sounds like a classic case of deconstruction of established characters. Which is one of the worst sins modern media loves to commit.

Mr Top Hat speaks to my soul with his content.

Played this with my kids, who absolutely loved it. I wonder if, with the bright art style and dumb humour, they were the target audience...rather than grumpy old blokes with rose tinted glasses.

One of the ugliest games I’ve ever seen in my life. Makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a spork just looking at it.

I really wanted to like this game. I didn't mind the art style, I kinda liked it. I didn't even mind that they made the Dark Queen look "frumpy." My problems were the same that you listed: the gameplay just didn't feel right and overall the game lacked the authenticity you mentioned. It should've been done in the same style that we saw when they appeared in Shovel Knight. That game got it more right than this one.

I really hate the art style of that recent game. Not only is it ugly, it's not at all suited for a fast action game. Makes my eyes hurt looking at it.

This game was terribly lame. I had to stop playing. The jokes were lame. The graphics were bad. The game was so Uninteresting.

I don't know why exactly. The battletoads has a vibe that would allow it to fit into the rick and Morty universe. As an alternate reality. Sci Fi and brutal violence sprinkled with humor.

Microsoft..........That is all I have to say.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YPOU PLAY THINGS SAFE AND GO ALL PC. YOU DESERVE EVERYTHING YOU GET AND IL STICK WITH THE PAST GAMES WHICH ARE ALOT MORE FUN

The art style is weird but it's smoothly animated

I played this game on gamepass and was immediately not a fan of the art style or the characterizing of the toads themselves and the defiling of Dark Queen!!!! I personally thought the story was bad, the jokes not funny and stopped playing it after I completed the 1st act. Haven't played it in over a year. Great video like always sir! \m/

Add in the really bad writing/comedy elements and the characterization (or lack there of) and you see a game made by people who have absolutely no connection to the series. Not made by rare, not made by fans, not made by anyone that actually cares about the franchise

I can say this is a case of IP abuse, specifically (name recognition push), that is they tried to use the pre-existing franchise to push something totally new that they had low hopes would survive on its own. Basically just slapping the names and basic appearance of the main characters into a completely unrelated game with minor tweeks to the story to accommodate this.

The thing with Battletoads is that it always sucked.

The cutscenes in this game reminds of when The Fairly Oddparents went to flash animation during their final season. Meh

What they did to the Dark Queen resume how they didn't understand the game, the characters, the style, the core, the lore and the public.

battletoads reboot makes me so sad due to the amount of potential it had. there was a real fanbase if they could have satisfied would have made this game one of the best reboots of all time..the character model design of Rash in Killer Instinct had me so excited for what was to come..

I like the art style, but I must say, about the gameplay... What the HELL does the game want to be? A brawler? A platformer? An arcade shooter?

Yeah I have to say that the writing in this game was hilarious. I might be one if the few that loves the art style since the 3 brothers really have distinct personalities and one of the parts of the game have them play a toads version of rock paper scissors. The ONLY thing I can even complain about is how they dressed up the dominatrix queen. They should have kept that in and added the previous entries bosses. Otherwise this game is a banger.

Damn I didn't even know a thing about this reboot until now

Still today, I occasionally do some runs in SoR4. Battletoads? I had forgotten it. And even when you'r video reminded me about it, before I saw its gameplay's clips I wouldn't be able to say how the 95% of the game was. And it's also sad that the minigames are more memorable than the beat'em up parts, but because of how frustrating they were instead of fun.

This game in my mind doesn't even exist and I'm still waiting for Rare to get off their ass and give us a proper Battletoads game.

I think if they stuck to the art style of Battletoads in Battlemaniacs and let the Dark Queen be the sexualized villianess she was meant to be the game would have been fine. As it stands, not gonna buy it.

I knew this was going to be garbage, but why does Pimple look like Powdered-ToastMan??

Meh, the story was horrible. Juvenile humor, Rash acting like a jerk who wants to be a hero, it feels like something I'd see in an episode of Teen Titans Go.

Yo what they did to the Dark Queen was an insult. It wasn’t subtle, it implies the OG design was wrong hence you were wrong if you liked it. And chances are if you were into Battle Toads you did like it. Nobody wants watered down sloppy seconds. They want a cool idea to be a relevant again with fresh new games that build on the old.

When it was announced it killed the Battletoads Gamestop Pre Order Meme. Little did we know it would end the series.

This was 1 of my favorites on Genesis EVEN KNOWING we'd only be getting to a certain level(most of u can prob guess)try a few times,then move on. Even my cousin who'd play all nighters(in a house where everyone was asleep by 11) to finish games like RE2(ps1) w/out a mem card, gave up on this 1! We'd be so excited just to see a new obstacle after a death thinking we gotta be close to the end! After watching playthroughs yrs later, we weren't even close to the worst of it yet! Lol

The original Battletoads on NES was BRUTAL! I never could have finished it without infinite lives! And the whole need to memorize so much, and be brutally precise with everything was just absolute HELL! But bringing down the Dark Queen at the very end was an epic payoff! Battletoads for Arcade was awesome, but it feels like an entire level was cut before the cabinet was released! I was hoping for a final level where we'd get to go 1-1 with the Dark Queen herself, and not her minions! The SNES game was fun, though buttons needed to be tweaked... Still good. Battletoads 2020? I never got to really play it, but I saw a longplay of it. The story was dull as crap, like... 4Kids level of dull cringe. The de-sexualization of the Dark Queen was just a betrayal to the fans. Part of the reason we liked Battletoads was the stark differences between Princess Angellica whom was wholesome and adorable but also beautiful and gentle, and the Dark Queen whom was visibly hyper-sexual but ruthlessly commanding. One could say the line between the kind of man you are could be dependent on which of the two human monarchal figures you were more fond of. The more traditional Princess Angellica? Or the more commanding and sexual Dark Queen? Battletoads 2020 has the same identity problem as Ghostbusters 2016, but a lot less political. Battletoads 2020 could have been better if they didn't change the Dark Queen's design. Keep her sexy, make the art style more serious, boost the gore, make blood fly! Take for formula of the console versions, add the violence of the arcade game, and the visual of the more serious games. Don't cop out and go full California CN style for the characters, make the story more apocalyptic! Hell, I'd be fine with the concept of the Utopians as reality-sapping parasites that want to force all realities into their cookie-cutter design of boring and bland rhetoric where there is no such thing as fun, no culture, and no hope! Forcing the Battletoads to align with the Dark Queen, and we see a whole expansion of the lore of the Rareverse! Do crossovers with Banjo-Kazooie as a gag, maybe a cameo by Joanna Dark sniping bad guys for you? I mean, the way Battletoads 2020 was, it felt hollow, or shallow, a shallow hollowed out husk of what we knew Battletoads to be. An unlikely alliance between the toads and the Dark Queen could have been great, like adding the Dark Queen's minions to the mix as playable characters like General Slaughter, and Big Blaig to flesh out a total of 6 playable characters! At this point, I think Microsoft should just sell the Battletoads IP to Nintendo. Nintendo should buy out Capcom, Konami, Square Enix, and so many more older developers. Microsoft has been trying to phase out the Xbox hardware for years now. And Sony is just dying.

The only thing I see that held it back was that, well, it held itself back in the general tone of the series. While it was originally marketed as an edgier TMNT back in the day, it had a more cheesy, risky feeling to it with its themes and character design. What I don't understand is that they toned things down in general for that Saturday Morning Cartoon feel, but then you'd have "adult" moments like the Dark Queen swearing or flipping the toads off. That, and the minigame sections at the end felt more like padding rather than something that enhanced the story or at least provided a nice change of pace. While the previous games also had minigames for variety, they still made sense for the world and were fun and frantic, while most minigames here felt weak and half-baked. The animations are gorgeous though and I personally like the new art style, except for the Dark Queen which they totally butchered. I have a lot more to say on this, but this is getting pretty long already so I'll stop it here. I look forward to a sequel that focuses more on the beat 'em up aspect and a fewer but more developed and fun minigames.

this let me down, I couldn't even complete it

If heaven doesn't have battletoads, I ain't goin'.

The art style is horrible. Insanely ögly. I do not know how much longer I'll live, but there's so many games I could be playing that it seems like a waste to play this one.

I wonder have Top Hat ever covered Capcom's Power Stone and aldo Def Jam Vendetta and Def Jam Fight For NYC before??

We don't talk about this "game". The Battletoads Arcade game is the last and final Battletoads game ever developed. Ever.