![\"Battletoads\"](\"https:\/\/www.theaureview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/toad-shamboad_feature-703x395.jpg\")
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There’s a lot I like about Dlala Games’ take on Battletoads<\/em>, but there’s just as much that I don’t.<\/p>\n The latest Battletoads<\/em> arrives almost 20 years after the NES original. It’s a side-scrolling beat-em-up in the same vein as the original, but it makes several changes to the series’ formula that may not sit well with fans.<\/p>\n First, it introduces a storyline complete with fully voiced dialogue and truly obnoxious “jokes” designed to please … I’m honestly not sure who these things are supposed to please. The toads have been trapped in some kind of simulation (it’s never clearly explained) for around 26 years. Now freed, the toads find that any celebrity they might have had dried up long ago. They’ve had to get day jobs to get by, jobs they promptly quit when they decide to simply go back to their old ways.<\/p>\n When the rebooted Battletoads<\/em> loads up for the first time, it hits players with a screen they may have dreaded: a difficulty select. For older fans, the enduring appeal of Battletoads<\/em> was always its bone-crushing difficulty. It was created, in part, to be a kind of antidote to the glut of games in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras that were being produced for the video store rental market. The equation was simple: games that could be completed in a weekend didn’t sell well, and games that took longer to finish often sold better.<\/p>\n Additionally, Rare programmer Mark Betteridge was a skilled player in his own right. Mistakenly thinking his own rather high-level skillset was on a par with a fairly normal player, he built much of the game around what he could complete. This resulted in a game that wasn’t merely difficult for the average punter, it felt mean. It was blindingly fast, wildly unbalanced, and often downright unfair. There was no difficulty selection in Battletoads<\/em>. It was what it was, and you either rose to the challenge or you washed out.<\/p>\n There was a great interview piece from the Rare Replay Collection<\/em><\/a> in 2016 that went into detail on this. Check that out below.<\/p>\nNostalgia for fun and profit<\/h4>\n