Rare won't be releasing the Rare Replay as-is. The company will actually go back and fix some key problems with some of the titles featured in the 30-game bundle, including a nasty bug in the original NES rendition of Battletoads that seeped into the game, affecting the second player in a really bad way.
Polygon did an interesting write-up on Rare's take on the new Rare Replay due out for the Xbox One on August 4th next month. Catching up with Rare's studio head Craig Duncan, he mentioned to Polygon that...
We're aware of the bug […] It's part of Battletoads legend. We have a way of fixing it, so it is something that's on our final bug list.
The bug starts at level 11 and features player two getting stuck and losing the ability to control their character. This means that the second player just has to die and can't continue on in the game. It's one of those heart-wrenching bugs, especially if you were one of those rare players actually good enough to be able to make to the 11th stage. I mean, you get there and you have to tell your partner “Sorry, yo, this is the end of the line for ya. Drop the controller and let your Battle Toad bite the dust”.
According to Duncan, though, even though Rare wants to maintain as much authenticity to the original game as possible they do admit that the game-breaking bug is something they will need to address in the original Battletoads.
Nintendo tried hard back in the day to ensure that quality control was a major factor in games released back during the 1980s following the great game industry crash. They had a series of rules and regulations in place for third-party developers so that quality control was a top priority to avoid instances like E.T., which managed to find itself in a landfill.
Despite some of Nintendo's strict regulations on quality assurance, there were still times where games like Battletoads would ship with a game breaking bug that would occur under specific conditions. However, bugs like the one in Battletoads were rare... compared to games released these days. For instance, Batman: Arkham Knight never would have been allowed to ship in the state that it did if it were made back in the 1980s and 1990s. That was a Nintendo-Don't.
A lot of gamers have been interested in Rare making a resurgence on the Xbox One with something Battletoads related. We did get a brief Shovel Knight crossover with the angry green amphibians, but I think many gamers were hoping for something a bit meatier. I imagine that Rare might pull out something if the game sells well this August.
Another Battletoads beat-'em-up title would be awesome since we just don't seem to get beat-'em-up games all that often. In the meantime gamers can settle for playing the classic Battletoad games this August and they get the pleasure of doing so without worrying about a game-breaking bug from 30 years ago.
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