Credit: Retroware

Because… you demanded it?

If there’s one thing I’ve come to learn about the entertainment industry over the years, it’s that there’s no such thing a horse too dead to beat, sometimes with genuine success. Case in point, following the critical success of 2022’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, the producers of other old 90s cartoons are apparently seeing an opportunity to revive their shows in the modern age as video games.

The latest game that will be receiving this treatment, however, is a deep cut, to say the least. Recently, it was announced that 90s cartoon Toxic Crusaders will be receiving its own game, set to release on PC via Steam some time this year, courtesy of indie developer and publisher Retroware.

What the Heck is Toxic Crusaders?

Credit: Retroware

Toxic Crusaders is an animated spin-off of 1984’s The Toxic Avenger, a horror/comedy movie about a nerdy guy who is transformed into a “hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength” (a descriptor they use more frequently than you’d think they could get away with) after a dip in toxic chemicals. Where the original film is rather violent and raunchy, Toxic Crusaders is a much more kid-friendly presentation of the concept, starring a team of mutants who fight against an alien overlord bent on polluting the Earth to the point of being inhabitable.

The Toxic Crusaders game will be a sidescrolling beat ’em up, in the same vein as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, where you can play as any member of the Crusaders and their allies as they pummel the minions of the Smogulan Empire in up to four-player co-op. The playable characters include:

• Toxie: Leader of the Toxic Crusaders and that same nerd who tumbled into toxic goop. He’s armed with a sapient mop that can stretch and capture bad guys.
• Nozone: A test pilot who was mutated after flying through a hole in the ozone layer and crashing into a silo full of radioactive pepper. His sneezes can produce miniature sonic booms.
• Major Disaster: A former soldier who gained the power to control plant life after falling into a radioactive swamp.
• Headbanger: A mad scientist and a surfer dude who were fused into a single body in an atom smasher accident. They were originally bad guys, but joined the Crusaders in the hopes that being good guys would make them popular with the ladies.
• Junkyard: The result of a homeless man and a junkyard dog being fused together when a bolt of lightning struck the dog’s irradiated kennel. He is a very good boy.
• Yvonne: Toxie’s tone-deaf and nearsighted girlfriend. She’s not a mutant, but her ability to produce ear-piercing melodies with her accordion is just as powerful.
• Mrs. Junko: Toxie’s overbearing mother, who still loves him despite his horrific transformation. Also a normal human, but has a mean left hook.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they were able to get the original voice actors for the game, but they’ve managed to secure the aid of prominent web content makers Team Four Star to fill in. Even if you know nothing about Toxic Crusaders, and the odds of that are fairly high, this game promises to be a wacky and fun time for any fans of 90s Saturday morning cartoons and classic beat ’em ups.

Toxic Crusaders will release some time in 2023, with a demo available to play at the PAX East convention. You can wishlist the game on Steam now.