Cousin of the nanardesque cinematographic saga The Toxic Avengerof which a reboot is in preparation, Toxic Crusaders featured a group of mutants determined to protect Tromaville (named after the production house Troma Entertainment) from the misdeeds of villains such as Doctor Killemoff, a filthy alien who dumps tons of toxic waste on the city and who lives thanks to a respirator blowing polluted air into his lungs. At the center of the group is Toxie, a nerd former janitor who has become a deformed superhero in contact with an anything but natural substance and whose favorite weapon is none other than a mop.
“They’re gross, but they still get girls”
Retroware’s beat’em up, however, will feature no less than seven playable characters, including other mutant heroes like No-Zone, Junkyard, Major Disaster and Headbanger, but also Toxie’s fiancée and mom. Seven is also the number of levels that we will cross in the game, alone or up to four in local cooperation. Fans of Lloyd Kaufman’s Troma Cinematic Universe will even be treated to character appearances from the unfairly overlooked masterpieces that are assuredly Class of Nuke ‘Em High, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead And Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD
Toxic Crusaders will be released at the end of the year on all consoles and PCs at a price of 25 euros. Note that this cartoon has already been adapted into a video game in the early 90s on NES (by Tôse), Game Boy (by Realtime Associates) and Mega Drive (by Infogrames), each game being radically different. Like the cartoon, which only had one season of 13 episodes, these games are however far from having made an impression as the mutant turtles were able to do.