Skip to main content

Beloved Nintendo classic Battletoads seems primed for a return on… Xbox?

microsoft trademark hints battletoads revival
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Microsoft has filed a trademark for “Battletoads,” hinting at a possible revival for Rare’s early-’90s brawler, according to the eagle-eyed geeks of NeoGAF. The possibility of a Battletoads revival was hinted at earlier in 2014 with a card appearing in the background of a cut scene in Kinect Sports Rivals (which Rare developed). Xbox head Phil Spencer also mentioned his fondness for the franchise on Twitter back in 2013 when discussing which Rare franchises to look at next after the success of Killer Instinct.

Battletoads launched in 1991 to compete directly with the popular Ninja Turtles. The original game was a notoriously difficult beat ’em up for NES in the vein of Double Dragon. Rare would go on to earn great acclaim for ’90s classics like Donkey Kong Country and GoldenEye 007. The Battletoads franchise spun off into a few other games, including a Double Dragon crossover, as well as an aborted TV pilot.

The anthropomorphic, amphibious heroes of the series are Rash, Pimple, and Zitz. The first game came out in the same year as ToeJam & Earl when the video game industry was experimenting with crude humor and the boundaries of taste in a medium still ostensibly for children.

Despite its reputation for serving up a punishing challenge (particularly in the racing sections that demanded perfect reflexes or just brute-force memorization), the game is remembered fondly by fans, and has been featured in numerous lists in recent years of series that need reviving (including our own). This new filing hints at a long-anticipated return that ought to be well-received by gamers in their 20s and 30s.

Editors' Recommendations

Will Fulton
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…
Volgarr the Viking 2 will take you back to your Ghosts ‘n Goblins days
A viking slashes a tree in Volgarr the Viking 2.

Developer Digital Eclipse is working on a surprising project: Volgarr the Viking 2. The 2D retro sequel will launch on August 6 for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

The news is an out of left field reveal. The first Volgarr the Viking game released in 2013 and was made as an ode to 1080s classics like Ghosts 'n Goblins. Despite being a small release, it sold over 1 million copies over the past decade. As revealed during today's Guerrilla Collective stream, the series is coming back with a new sequel by Digital Eclipse, the team behind this year's Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.

Read more
3 Days of Play PS Plus games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Key art for Streets of Rage 4.

June 2024 is shaping up to be a pretty great month for PlayStation players. Not only are we coming off an entertaining State of Play showcase, but a new Days of Play initiative surrounding all the video game showcases this month is bringing a lot of new PS Plus additions with it. Many of those games hit PS Plus this week, and three in particular stand out to us.

For owners of Sony's oft-neglected PlayStation VR2, the first game is one of its rare exclusives that take full advantage of the headset's eye-tracking by seeing how often players blink. The next is a new PS Plus Essential game that's a revival of Sega's classic beat-'em-up series for the modern gaming era. Finally, the last title is an atmospheric and eerie fishing game that should entice fans of Lovecraftian horror.
Before Your Eyes

Read more
3 first-party Xbox Game Pass games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Gears 5 Kait Hero Close Up

Microsoft will hold an Xbox Games Showcase and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct. this Sunday. These shows will provide a much better idea of what to expect from Xbox over the course of the next year or two. That's really needed right now, as Microsoft has struggled to keep online discussions around Xbox positive as it went multiplatform with some games, laid off thousands of developers, and outright shut down the developers of Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall. Based on leaks and my personal expectations for the showcase, there are three games you can play on Xbox Game Pass this weekend to prepare for the event.

The first is the latest first-person shooter in a long-running series by id Software that might be getting a medieval-set spinoff. After that, we have the fifth entry in a sci-fi Xbox series that still looks fantastic on Xbox Series X/S even though it came out in 2019. Finally, you can prepare for Avowed with the latest RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, a satirical sci-fi game where player choice is critical.
Doom Eternal

Read more