Toxic Crusaders, Retroware’s pixel-art beat ’em up based on the 1991 cartoon, got a new gameplay trailer during Friday’s MIX Fall Game Showcase 2026. The trailer runs just over a minute and is almost all gameplay. It shows all seven playable heroes, a long run of stages, and six boss fights, then ends on a “COMING SOON / WISHLIST TODAY!” card rather than a date.
Quick answer: Toxic Crusaders has no release date yet. It’s coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC, and a free demo is live on Steam now.
What kind of game Toxic Crusaders is
This is a side-scrolling brawler built in the mold of ’90s arcade cabinets. You walk right, a crowd of enemies shows up, and you punch, kick, and mop your way through them. The art is full-color pixel sprites over busy, cartoon-bright backgrounds. The footage never stays in one place for long, with fights in a crypt, a factory, a high school, a mall, and a suburban street.
The game also tells a new story. Retroware wrote it as a continuation of the Toxic Crusaders cartoon, which ended after a single season in 1991. Dr. Killemoff and his Radiation Rangers are still the villains, Tromaville is still the setting, and the forces of Smogula are behind the trouble. Story scenes are told through voiced motion-comic cutscenes. TeamFourStar, the group behind Dragon Ball Z Abridged, handles much of the voice work, alongside veteran voice actors and actors from Troma’s films.
Toxic Crusaders playable characters
You can pick from seven characters, and each one has its own moves and powers. Every one of them shows up in the trailer’s top-of-screen HUD at some point.
| Character | Look in the trailer | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Toxie | Green mutant, orange top, jeans, mop | Series lead |
| Nozone | Mutant team member | Original cartoon cast |
| Junkyard | Bulky canine humanoid | Original cartoon cast |
| Major Disaster | Military camo, leafy plant features | Original cartoon cast |
| Headbanger | Two-headed mutant | Original cartoon cast |
| Yvonne | Blonde hair, pink outfit | Playable for the first time |
| Mrs. Junko | Floral dress, oversized purse | Playable for the first time |
Yvonne is Toxie’s girlfriend, and Mrs. Junko is his mom. Neither was a fighter in the cartoon. Here, both are full members of the roster, and Mrs. Junko turns up in several of the trailer’s four-player fights.
Four-player co-op and the combat HUD
Nearly every shot in the trailer has four heroes on screen at once. The game supports up to four players in local co-op, and a “PRESS TO JOIN” prompt shows up in an empty HUD slot so a second, third, or fourth player can drop in. Online play isn’t mentioned anywhere.
Each player gets a panel across the top of the screen. The footage shows what each panel tracks:
- A character portrait and name
- A health bar
- A special attack meter for super moves
- A tag indicator for tag-team play
- A “HITS” combo counter
Bosses get their own health bar along the bottom with a portrait attached. Basic enemies have name tags too, so you can tell a Speed Ranger from a Flame Ranger in a crowd. The stages also have objects you can use. In one suburban fight, the team pulls up mailboxes and traffic cones and throws them at enemies.
Stages and enemies in the Toxic Crusaders trailer
The finished game has seven stages, starting on the streets of Tromaville and ending up on Planet Smogula and beyond. The trailer cuts between a lot of locations without saying which stage each one belongs to:
- A city street at night and a shopfront sidewalk
- A purple crypt with chemical vats
- A factory with a radiation blast door, elevators, and catwalks
- The Tromaville Landfill & Recycling yard
- A high school with hallways, a cafeteria, an indoor pool, and a gym
- A neon mall with escalators and a gym storefront
- A residential street and an alley full of spilled sludge
- A cemetery gate at night
Dr. Killemoff’s Radiation Rangers make up most of the enemies, with Speed Ranger and Flame Ranger variants mixed in. The rest of the lineup pulls from Troma’s movies. There are Chicken Zombies and a heavier Chicken Zombie Heavy, which point back to Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. There are also Cretin Punks, Mutated Cretins, Heavy Cretins, and a Psycho. Retroware has also promised cameos from Class of Nuke ‘Em High and Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D., redrawn in the cartoon’s style.
Toxic Crusaders bosses shown in the trailer
The back half of the trailer is a quick tour of the boss fights, one after another. Six bosses are named in their health bars.
| Boss | Arena |
|---|---|
| Polluto | Junkyard / scrapyard |
| Bonehead | Indoor pool and splash zone |
| Muffey | School cafeteria |
| Mike | Elevated industrial bridge |
| Spike | Gymnasium basketball court |
| Dr. Killemoff | Control room with toxic vats |
Polluto is a huge monster made of garbage, and the junkyard arena fits him. Mike glows green, and the team hits him with super moves on a high ledge. Spike brings a group of Cretin Punks with him onto a sludge-covered basketball court.
Dr. Killemoff is the last fight in the trailer. He sits in a control room full of vats and “DANGER” warnings, the most fitting place for a villain whose whole plan is to pollute the planet.
Toxic Crusaders platforms, release date, and demo
Toxic Crusaders is coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, and PC through Steam. Retroware still lists the game as “coming soon.” No release date has been announced, and the trailer doesn’t add one.
You don’t need to wait for launch to try it, though. A free demo is up now on the Toxic Crusaders Steam page, and you can wishlist the full game from the same page. A wishlist won’t lock in a price or a launch day, but Steam will let you know once the game goes on sale.
