It doesn't make money like KOBS (Kill Or Be Slaughtered) so there's "no market for it" and how do you put that on mobile and then charge for lots of microtransactions?

>> how do you put that on mobile and then charge for lots of microtransactions?

Easy. Have an ad-supported cooldown timer after every death. Offer players something like, "50 ToadCoin Replays" for .99, and you'd make millions off the speedbike level alone!

Battletoads was basically the console market's version of the kill-the-player-eat-his-quarters arcade game, and arcade games are what freemium games ultimately aspire to be.

I had to google "kill or be slaughtered" and that is a weird reference to make. I hope people aren't trying to make that a "thing."

KOBS is Bonestorm for the sort of people who watch Reefer Madness unironically.

Actually, i think they are making a new Battletoads, and it's going to be a big xbone exclusive. look for an announcement this fall, from what i've heard. This is part of the marketing strategy.

If it's an Xbone exclusive, then they'll probably release it in "seasons", with one level and only Zits playable to start. Each new character, level, and costume will cost apiece.

The ToadCoin currency will still be in effect.

It is, I think. The gameplay is a fun take on the good 8-bit games like Castlevania and Megaman, and its not so self-referential that you feel like you are playing Stick of Truth or Broforce

Shovel Knight mostly avoids the typical indie humor pitfalls of excessive self-reference and genre awareness by leaping headlong into the more universally acceptable pitfall of having puns everywhere. They're like a point of pride. If that's not your thing, the game's still really fun, the music is excellent, and it's hard but not sadistically so (you don't have lives, but you lose some money on death that you can recover Dark Souls-style, and you can break checkpoints for more money if you're feeling gutsy).

That's cool. I really hope kids who probably can't remember anything before polygons being the norm play this and experience it the way I'd seek out music from before I was born, like Television and Velvet Underground. Like those bands, true 2D 8-bit platforming will never ever get old and by the looks of it won't show its age either.

Also it would be fun to play that jetski level again without as much frustration. It's about the quickest a game has gone from "holy shit this just got so much more awesome than it already was" to "I HATE THIS GAME FOREVER!"

Shovel Knight itself is definitely worth . If you want the Battletoads level, though, you have to get it on the XBox.

exactly. the turbo tunnel was pretty easy because it goes by quickly and has an obvious rhythm and pastern development. So, once you get the memorization down, it's not an issue. I haven't played the game in at least 10 years, but i still recognize that the tunnel in this is the exact same pastern as the original. The snakes sucked ass though. The turbo tunnel was just there to weed out the normies.

and i didn't get auto-corrected (and i did it twice for some reason)because a pastern is apparently the top of a horse's foot, above the hoof.

Yeah once you got it down, you got it down. In a way, I kind of miss that in games these days. Years ago over Christmas I was having a conversation with my father-in-law about how the kids wanted a Nintendo so much, so they got one, along with Contra. This was way before the code was well-known, and dad would not sleep until they beat the game that very night, keeping the kids up until like 4AM or something. As much as I sort of hate their family, I'll still love that story.

It wasn't just turbo tunnel though. EVERY level beyond the first two ditched the fun brawler gameplay and replaced it with bullshit rote memorization platforming/racing levels. It might have been tolerable with unlimited continues, but it also killed any chance of having fun in 2 player mode once you hit level 3.

What I never understood is why they never made a Battletoads game that was just the fun and variety of the first two levels.

I think that's what the arcade one was.. I only saw it at one arcade ever though. It was pretty awesome 3-player action. Pretty bloody too!