Rare Replay has plenty for Battletoads fans to be excited about. “We got the NES version [of Battletoads], but we also have an arcade version that was never released on consoles before. It was released quite widely in the arcades in Europe, but very limited in the US. It’s a virtually unseen game,” said Drew Quakenbush, Studio Operations Director, in an interview with Siliconera. Unfortunately, Battletoads in Battlemaniacs and Battletoads & Double Dragon, a crossover game developed with Billy and Jimmy Lee, are not included.
The NES version of Battletoads has a couple of tweaks in Rare Replay. Quakenbush showed us a rewind feature that rewinds the game back seven seconds or so with a VCR-like effect. This should make some of Battletoads most difficult parts such as the dreaded Turbo Tunnel easier to complete. “For these older games, they’re really difficult,” Quakenbush added. “You forget how difficult these games are to play. Your reactions have to be so quick, so we put in the rewind feature in some of the older games so you can rewind and have a go again.” Battletoads also has options for a faux CRT display or uprezzed sprites. Moving the right analog stick up or down toggles between these modes.
“We also created snapshots, what we think are the best moments of the earlier games. For Battletoads we made a snapshot of the Turbo Tunnel, so it’s an infinite turbo tunnel, a turbo tunnel that never ends. We made 64 of those. It’s good for one refreshing your memory on how to play these games and two to challenge yourself.”
Another Rare classic included in the collection is Conker’s Bad Fur Day, a Nintendo 64 title with a fluffy squirrel mascot character and The Great Mighty Poo. Quakenbush confirmed the version in Rare Replay is uncensored and they did not take out anything from the original release. Conker: Live & Reloaded, a remake for the original Xbox, is not included.
Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie are included in Rare Replay. Players will be able to choose to play the original Nintendo 64 releases or the remastered versions made for Xbox 360. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts which Rare made for Xbox 360 is also in Rare Replay.
Rare Replay also has a DVD-like extra with an hour of behind the scenes video footage with past and present developers. This featurette has never before seen artwork and a look at some prototypes Rare developed. Some videos are unlocked right away and others are unlocked later on.
Rare Replay is scheduled to come out on August 4 for Xbox One.
