Pro pixel-pushers at Retroware are bringing old-school arcade side-scrollers back to the forefront with Toxic Crusaders, a vibrant and nostalgic side-scrolling beat-’em-up revealed at The MIX Fall Online Showcase on Friday.
Toxic Crusaders brings high-octane, heart-thumping arcade combat directly to players — no tokens, no coins, no waits, no drifting arcade joysticks — without compromising nostalgic CRT-inspired visuals, classic side-scrolling, and a RAMPAGE-y cast of playable characters.
During Media Indie Exchange’s The MIX Fall Showcase on Friday, Retroware introduced Toxic Crusaders with a “festering 50-gallon drum of footage,” debuting a fresh gameplay trailer that showcases the game’s heartstring-tugging visuals, oh-so-familiar arcade mechanics, combat moves, stage design, and more.
Toxic Crusaders features awesome in-game elements like:
- Co-op Carnage. Relive the glory days of arcade beat-’em-ups and mop up Dr. Killemoff’s Radiation Rangers with up to four players simultaneously;
- Myriad Mutants: Take to the streets of Tromaville with seven playable pugilists, each with their own unique abilities, including Toxie, Nozone, Junkyard, Major Disaster, Headbanger, Yvonne, and Mrs. Junko;
- A Saturday Morning Slugfest: Punch, kick, and mop your way through an all-new story crafted to continue the narrative of the 1991 cartoon series, which only aired for one season.
- Intoxicating Visuals: Vibrant backgrounds and eye-popping character sprites combine to bring Toxic Crusaders’ Saturday morning cartoon world to life.
Retroware promises the retro-inspired brawler will come to home consoles and PCs soon, though the game has no tentative launch date at the time of this writing.
Toxic Crusaders harkens back to ‘the glory days of arcade beat-’em-ups’
“The Toxic Crusaders are back to defend Tromaville against the evil Dr. Killemoff and his army of Radiation Rangers. With local co-op, you can grab up to four friends and take on the forces of Smogula across a variety of vibrant pixel-art levels. Choose from seven playable characters and dive into an action-packed, pun-filled adventure that’ll drag you through the wonderful world of Troma!”
Toxic Crusaders will land on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch handhelds, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, XBOX One, and XBOX Series systems soon.
Are you impatient, too? Felt. Toxic Crusaders isn’t out just yet, but we can maladaptively daydream by adding the game to our Steam wishlists. These adds, though they seem inconsequential in the moment, can profoundly help game visibility within the Steam platform.
Even better, you can download the free Toxic Crusaders demo if you’re jonesin’ for some side-scrolling action. Time to get your hands dirty!
Find Retroware on social media to stay connected; the Toxic Crusaders studio is on Bluesky and Discord, as well as Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram.
Watch the Toxic Crusaders trailer from Media Indie Exchange’s latest seasonal MIX showcase, and don’t forget that you can still watch The MIX Fall Showcase 2026 in its entirety.
Watch the new Toxic Crusaders on the official Outrun Gaming YouTube channel:
Follow Outrun Gaming on MSN for more content you love.
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