You may know Psychostick from songs about food or the American pasttime of renting movies, making the heaviest metalcore song in H-flat, writing video game parodies, or simply adulting. The band has been known to have the finger on the pulse on internet and nerd culture. Even frontman Rawrb has even been known to dabble in game and web development, and it turns out they have been cooking up something awesome for the last two years and change: the Chicago band has been writing music for Troma's surprisingly family-friendly Toxic Avenger spin-off Toxic Crusaders video game.
Admittedly, outside of a few statements and a preview of some tracks at the Pennsylvania gaming convention Too Many Games, only co-composer Sam Beddoe's portion of the tracks has been released publicly on Digital Music Store's Bandcamp.
However, back in May, Rawrb released an update on the band's blog:
"Some of you might remember that we've been working on a soundtrack for Toxic Crusaders, an arcade-style beat 'em up that coming out sometime in 2025. Well... Josh just put the finishing touches on the main soundtrack and turned it into Retroware, thus completing our crazy journey for Toxic Crusaders! This is the largest project we've ever worked on and it contains about three albums worth of music, which is mind-blowing. To us, at least. Maybe to you, you're not impressed and are sniffin' your own flatulence, huh? Sniff away, jerkbag! Anyway, we can't wait for you nerds to nerd out over this nerdy nerd-stuff. We've been nerdin' pretty hard over it."
Based on the children's spin-off of Unlike, the 1992 NES game based on the same property. Publishers Retroware promise new, more fair yet still challenging side-scrolling beat-em-up gameplay with a 16-bit art-style.
Retroware have listed the following for the game's description:
"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!"
I'm hopeful that this game will finally successfully launch despite multiple delays, as the Toxic Avenger and Troma Empire has been really nostalgic for me as a filmmaker.
Toxic Crusaders comes out on all platforms on December 4th, 2025.
You can catch Psychostick supporting multiple acts on select fall dates.
8/14/2025 - Record Bar - Kansas City, MO
8/15/2025 - Beer City Music Hall - Oklahoma City, OK
8/16/2025 - Come and Take It Live - Austin. TX
8/17/2025 - The Rail - Fort Worth, TX
8/19/2025 - Scout Bar - Houston, TX
8/20/2025 - Southport Music Hall - New Orleans, LA
8/22/2025 - The Masquerade (Purgatory) - Atlanta, GA
8/23/2025 - Cannery Hall (The Mil) - Nashville, TN
10/9/2025 - Theatre Fairmount - Montreal, QC, Canada
10/10/2025 - Wally's - Hampton, NH
10/11/2025 - Empire Live - Albany, NY
10/12/2025 - Palladium Upstairs - Worcester, MA
10/14/2025 - The Webster Underground, Hartford, CT
10/15/2025 - Anthology Live - Rochester, NY
10/17/2025 - House of Independents - Asbury Park, NJ
10/18/2025 - Reverb - Reading, PA
10/19/2025 - Tally Ho - Leesburg, VA
10/21/2025 - Preserving Underground - Pittsburgh, PA
10/22/2025 - Bogart's - Cincinnati, OH
10/24/2025 - The Rave - Milwaukee, WI
10/25/2025 - EPIC Event Center - Green Bay, WI
10/26/2025 - The Forge - Joliet, IL
10/28/2025 - The Vixen - McHenry, IL
10/29/2025 - Elevation @ The Intersection - Grand Rapids, MI
10/30/2025 - The Machine Shop - Flint, MI
10/31/2025 - The King of Clubs - Columbus, OH (Halloween Show)
11/1/2025 - Agora Theater - Cleveland, OH
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