For years, the Battletoads have become cherished retro video game characters. Their debut adventure on the NES remains one of the most challenging — and entertaining — old-school titles out there; and they’ve made a little comeback as of late, between two games on the Rare Replay compilation for Xbox One and a cameo appearance in the film adaptation of Ready Player One. (Oh, and that stint in KIller Instinct.)
But what if we’re getting more than that? What if Microsoft could be lining up a return for the tongue-slingin’, head-bashin’ heroes? There’s a possibility.
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David Wise, who serves as a composer for various games including Donkey Kong Country and the 3D platformer Yooka-Laylee, has a web page talking about the projects he’s worked on or is working on currently. Among them is Battletoads, which as we mentioned, may fans appreciate.
But then something interesting came up. A friend of ours managed to capture some images hinting at something in his video game soundtrack lineup: something called Battletoads 20/20. You can see the images below.
As you can see, Battletoads 20/20 is in plain view in both shots. However, when you go back to David’s page, you’ll see that it’s changed, with just 20/20 listed and titled (New Music Project).
More than likely, this could just be an error — it happens. But it got us thinking — what if a new Battletoads did get introduced? Rare is currently keeping busy with Sea of Thieves, with three teams working on new content for the open-world pirate adventure. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have assigned possible sequel duty to someone else.
For instance, Yacht Club Games. The team responsible for Shovel Knight has messed around with the Battletoads before, adding them in an 8-bit style boss battle for the Xbox One and Windows PC/Steam versions of the game. So what if they lent their talents to a new Battletoads game? They are currently busy finishing up their King of Cards expansion for Shovel Knight, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be working on something else on the side.
Then again there’s also Iron Galaxy, who implemented some Battletoads love into its third season of Killer Instinct with a playable character. They haven’t announced what they’re working on next…so that’s kind of a slight possibility too.
Granted, this could all just be wishful thinking. Again, it could just be an error on David’s part (again, it happens) and nothing could be happening. But Microsoft did promise some surprises at E3, so…you never know.
In the meantime, if you want to see the Battletoads at their best (and battletoad-iest — yes, that’s a word), you can check out Rare Replay on Xbox One now.
(Thanks to our buddy Resurrect Fortesque for the tip!)
