Battletoads is short. short. short.
I know it’s not expensive – not comparatively, anyway. I know many of us will be able to play for “free” courtesy of Xbox Game Pass. I’ll shortly launch into all the reasons why Battletoads amuses and frustrates me in equal measure, but it all comes with that giant, glowing, angry caveat. Yes, it’s pretty great, but this sequel – which some have been waiting for for 26 years, don’t forget – barely clocks in at five hours long on normal difficulty. Free or not, that’s not much of a run-time, is it?
Battletoads reviewDeveloper: Dlala Studios/RarePublisher: MicrosoftPlatform: Reviewed on Xbox OneAvailability: Out now on PC and Xbox One
Well, I say five hours, but I wasted exactly 1 hour and 9 minutes of that playtime, wandering around a peculiarly vexing environmental puzzle in the middle of a Metroidvania segment partway through. Oh, yeah, did I not say? There are Ori-esque sequences in Battletoads. And some twin-stick space invaders sections. A little Turbo Tunnel-ling. Hacking minigames. Quicktime events. Rock-paper-scissors. Occasionally, there’s even beat-’em-up action, too.
Let’s Play Battletoads (2020) – TOADALLY RIBBETING BATTLETOADS GAMEPLAY! Watch on YouTube
There are plenty of people who are going to hate that, by the way. The four acts take in a smorgasbord of mini-games and genres beyond the beat-’em-up mould. For me, however, I was grateful for the interruptions – if only to get a break from the physically exhausting combat, particularly after a prolonged boss battle, and break up the monotony of the by-rote brawls.