Battletoads might be making a comeback, if composer David Wise's website is to be believed. This information has not been confirmed by developer Rare or publisher Microsoft, so it is best to treat it as a rumor for now.
Wise has worked as a composer for several recent games, including Snake Pass, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Yooka-Laylee. His website lists these games under the "Portfolio" section, along with Battletoads. Clicking on Battletoads brings you to a page with little information, but a promise that music is coming soon. There's also a line about how the Battletoads characters can be seen in the recent movie Ready Player One.
The last time Battletoads characters made an appearance in a game was 2015's Season Three of the fighting game Killer Instinct. Rash is a downloadable bonus character who fights alongside characters like Arbiter from the Halo franchise and General RAAM from the first Gears of War. The last Battletoads-specific game was 1994's Battletoads Arcade.
If Wise isn't playing some weird prank, he seems like the perfect composer for the job based on his previous work. Wise has been tapped to compose for many 90s-influenced games recently, so capturing that atmosphere for a modern Battletoads project seems like the perfect fit. If developer Rare is trying to tap into that 90s design nostalgia, this should also mean the company isn't going to try and make some gritty modern Battletoads.
Assuming this information is legitimate, a new Battletoads game would come from Rare and would be published by Microsoft, as Rare owns the rights to the franchise and Microsoft owns Rare. This means a hypothetical Battletoads would likely be a console exclusive to Xbox One, and a PC version would release for Windows 10.
When would this potential Battletoads game be announced? A likely possibility is at Microsoft's E3 press briefing in June. This also lines up with Wise's comment about how music from the project will be posted "soon."
So what do you think? Are you interested in seeing a new Battletoads game? Would you rather see a different retro franchise rebooted instead? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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