Review | Battletoads - guitar wildness

The situation that a player first listen the records and then he buy the game happens really rare. I can count on the one hand the number of soundtracks which convinced me to buy particular game. The year 2020 will be remembered as a year of AAA games. At the same time indie games which appeared on the market surprised us very positively at the end. Some of them even eclipsed triple-A games.

The game supposed to be the big comeback of the iconic brawler.

Battletoads unfortunately wasn’t one of them for certain. The game supposed to be the big comeback of the iconic brawler and in the end didn’t gain fair publicity. Well, you can’t win with gamers’ voice. Nevertheless I can’t fully agree with such review, especially when we talk about the music, which deserves your attention. Zitz, Rash and Pimple, three beefy frogs and the main characters in the sequel of the game released in 1991, were forced to deal with dangerous adversary one more time.

The music composed by David Housden truly reflects the original (Battletoads), and there are moments when it catch it even better. The original music was prepared many years ago by David Wise – the legend of electronic entertainment. Housden not only pay tribute to Wise by working the melody from the original Battletoads in the game, but he also wrote pieces which even Wise could respect. Battletoads’ soundtrack is both a guitar madness (Porkshank) and pastiche in one, thereby it refers to the music from the 80’s, when such bands as Van Halen, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe, Whitesnake and many others heated the audience.

This is why Battletoads’ music on each step of the gameplay holds elements of various music genre from the past (rock, hard rock, glam metal, speed metal etc.) together in a natural way. It was visible especially in sections when we rip through hordes of enemies with our bare fists (Khaos Mountains 2.0), or in the platform sections of the game. Most recently in this part we can hear very well tracks either guitar parts (Josh Locke) , or drums (Gary Tough), which were recorded live, have fast tempo and rock music compositions.

Recommend it especially for those old pros who loves stronger guitar sounds.

I’m the featured guitarist on the new #battletoads game! Thanks to @DavidJHousden for the great composing and the opportunity, and to producer @MattOGrady for making me sound good 😉 out now from @dlalastudios @RareLtd exclusively @Xbox #gaming #guitarist #XboxOne #videogames pic.twitter.com/CHZsn0QHNT
— Josh (@Lockerbillies) September 25, 2020

All that jumping over holes, omitting traps, solving environmental puzzles and pieces from beat’em ups with the music composed by David Housden in the background gives huge satisfaction from the game. Nevertheless I understand why composer didn’t choose this option – apparently he wanted to remain faithful to the original. Therefore this author’s decision didn’t affect my reception of the soundtrack. Because in my opinion this release is not only worth our attention but it is also worth buying vinyl. I recommend it especially for those old pros who loves stronger guitar sounds.