Battletoads is a new game that’s a spiritual reboot of the franchise that last saw light in 1994’s Battletoads Arcade. This beat-em-up takes players across a realm of fantastical landscapes where action comes from all angles and never stops. There will be bosses in this game, that sometimes will take up the whole screen. The Guardian is such a boss and this guide will focus on showing how to take him down.
Being locked up in a virtual environment for over 26 years, the Battletoads are suddenly released into the real world and realize that nobody remembers who they are. They are sent out on a quest to re-establish their reputation and usher in a new era of the beat-em-up genre for a new breed of gamers. Launched on August 20, 2020, by Dlala Studios and Rare, Battletoads brings back the same crazy formula that made the original 1991 IP so popular and gives everything a massive upgrade. There are variations in gameplay that switches from side-scrolling platforming to Galaga-like shooting scenarios to freshen things up a bit. The toads are famous for having morphing abilities in which they can change their hands and feet into various punishing objects. This game still follows that sentiment and there are combos in an almost infinite capacity that players can experiment with, especially when all three toads on on-screen while playing co-op.
The enemies in Battletoads are rich and varied. They can flood the screen and surround the players while attacking from every which way possible. Players will be button-mashing their way to victory with every side-scrolling beat-em-up level this game offers. The levels are comprised of acts which are broken up into several stages. There are enemies that will come after players with brute force while others will simply hang back and fire projectiles. There’s definitely enough to allow players to think strategically with their methods of fighting, this is especially true with the option of using their tongues to pull enemies closer. There are bosses and mini-bosses that players will need a breakthrough in order to complete levels. Although some are fairly straightforward with their patterns, others are a little more tricky with their signaling. With that said, there are bosses that can be overwhelmingly huge and it leaves players wondering how beating them could ever be achievable. Well, ‘The Guardian’ is that type of boss and there’s indeed a step-by-step process of taking him out.
Beating The Guardian in Battletoads
This boss fight happens at ‘Act 1, Stage 7: Time For Plan B’. Now, the first thing that will happen is that the game will give a prompt to ‘grab the eye with your tongue’. So, go ahead and snatch it up. It will fall down onto the stage and once it does, beat the mess out of it. Subsequently, more eyes will be summoned and they will need to be dealt with in the same fashion. When this is going on, The Guardian will be punching down onto the stage with its fists. Just keep an eye on top of the screen because a good telegraph to watch out for is the ceiling bursting open for a split second before the fists come crashing down.
Among all the chaos, a cylinder that’s full of green liquid will fall down onto the ground. This is the player’s cue to damage the boss. To do this, simply hit the cylinder about three times and it’ll ricochet off the walls of the stage and smash into The Guardian’s face. After the boss is hurt, the cycle will start again. This time, two eyes will appear in the center of the screen and they’ll need to be slurped up. Just punch and kick them around while other eyes show up to help out their optical cousins. Be aware that the eyes fight dirty and they will ‘rush attack’ from behind. It’ll get annoying pretty quick, so it’s advised to keep turning around and lay in a few combos, then repeat. Just keep doing this back and forth and cancel their chances of attacking from behind until they’re gone. Meanwhile, just remember that there will be giant purple fists slamming down from on top. Situational awareness is key in this fight, for sure.
After half of The Guardian’s life bar is chipped away, the last phase will consist of three eyeballs showing up. Just repeat the routine of whipping them out of their position with a tongue and commence pummeling them. Keep eating flies that are looming on both edges of the screen and watch out for those ‘back attacks’. The eyes are extra dangerous at this point in the fight because there’s simply more of them. If possible. try and cluster them all together and corner them until they’re all beaten into mush. Be sure to make quick work with the main eyeballs because they will go back to their original position and regenerate. If they do that, just tongue them out of there and keep beating them.
Eventually, the last container with the green liquid will fall from the ceiling. Smack it into The Guardians visage and he will come tumbling down. The main thing that players need to worry about is the fists. They can nearly one-shot players and will ultimately cause the entire fight to become very frustrating. So, keep moving and avoid rear attacks from the eyes and keep watching the ceiling to see where The Guardian is telegraphing its next punch. After three phases, The Guardian will be finished and players will see what comes next with the Battletoads newest outing.
Battletoads is available on Xbox One and Microsoft Windows