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Declining the existance of the arcade version, this game is pretty good."

There's not much I can say about the arcade version of this game, except that there is one. I've never played the arcade version. However, Data East had a history of porting games from the arcade onto the Nintendo Entertainment System. Some of the ports are unforgiving, like Rampage, for inferior overall Gameplay, but with this game, there's really no way to determine that since I have never played the arcade version. Forget it though, because this game is not bad at all.


The president gets kidnapped, and it's up to you and possibly one other person to save the day, by marching your dudes through several interesting and mind-blowing levels. It's an interesting plot, but it doesn't mention what president it was. Probably the current one at the time.


Some of the decisions made in this game were a bit bad. When you get to the first title screen, you try pressing a whole bunch of buttons to try to get to the next screen, only to find out that select is the button you have to press to exit the screen. So you select how many players you prefer, either one of two, then you pick what player you want to use, which there's only two players to pick from, and then realize that hitting select is the only way to exist out of the story mumbo jumbo. When reaching the gameplay, you will realize that regardless of what player you pick from, both look the same and play exactly the same. What's the point of that? That would be like in Super Mario Bros. if you pick between Mario and Luigi. Luigi is instantly the second player, but imagine if you could pick between the two in one player mode. They both do the same thing. The main problem with the game is the characters' moving speed. They move like slugs. Yet, when jumping, they can move fast. So basically, I have to jump my way through levels. What fun is that? The game is extremely hard. You do get a decent life bar, but it tends to drain quickly. There's always a whole school of ninjas everywhere, from every corner. There's the blue ninjas that can be taken down with one hit, then the red ninjas that take two hits, and usually leave behind a power-up, and the gray ninjas are the worst of them all. The gray ninjas always throw stars at you, and the problem with that it since you can barely jump at all, it's hard to avoid them, so you lose more from your life bar. You can do a "super jump" by hitting up and jump at the same time, but most of the time, you either end up hitting an enemy and defeating the purpose of super jumping, or you get hit anyway by jumping too early or too late. Your attacks are only affective half of the time. Sometimes it just doesn't work. Rather then you hitting them, they get to have a hit , while your hit completely misses. However when the enemy is airborne, that is a nice time to get your hit, because they are completely vulnerable at those times. Most of the walking levels are pretty easy, using my method of jumping to the end to complete the level at the fastest time possible, while using the jump kick maneuver once in a while, hitting A and B at the same time. There is also the moving stages, where you're on a train or some kind of moving vehicle (it varies), and those stages move by themselves. Those stages are a nice time to lose a few lives, because most of them carry a handful of ninjas and other enemies. Some levels are confusing. Sometimes in levels, the screen will start to scroll down, so you can see what it under. the problem is that it scrolls so slow, that it really defeats the purpose of existing. Why not just keep everything in one spot instead of having to wait for the screen to scroll to see what's below? It's too minor to go into detail about.


The game is frustrating, but also enjoyable. It's fun to beat up the bosses so easily with a little practice, and run through each levels. It's admitting fun. Even beating up the ninjas is a pretty nice experience. The best thing about this game is that when you complete a level, you instantly gain one free live, regardless of how bad you did in the level. You will be depending on these extra lives in some of the harder levels, because while some bosses may by easy, some are nowhere close to easy. There's also a super punch feature, where you hold in the punch button for a while. Your character starts flashing, and when used, it can knock off a bunch of ninjas on the screen. It's neat and useful in hard parts where there's an overflow of ninjas. It's cool how they pop out of random areas. It's not like they enter the screen from the left and right like a usual fighting game, but it's kind of like the Ninja Turtles, where those enemies in purple suits exit trucks, jump off of horses, and hide in areas until the turtles come close. In this game, the bad guys come out of trucks, and attack you from interesting areas.


The graphics are not bad at all. It matches the game perfectly, and are very colorful. Some levels are in daylight, but others are in the dark. Even some of the bosses look detailed, despite that sprites are only capable of holding four colors. another thing is that the two characters you can pick look exactly the same. The only difference is their hair color. Even then, the two hair colors are barely different from each other.


The music and sound are quite limited. They're not bad at all, but there's not enough of it. Most of the things sound the same, and there is only two songs in the whole game; one song in the walking levels, and another on the train scrolling levels. It's not a big problem, so don't let that distract this good game. there's also a really bad voice in this game that tries to say "I'm bad!" That's probably the worst thing in this game.


Of course, the average gamer will want to come back to this game, even after beating it. It's not a masterpiece, but it's worth playing again with another player. It adds to the fun. Before even thinking about replay ability, first think about enjoying and attempting to actually beat the game, because sometimes it just doesn't happen, due to the high difficulty.


Yes, I do recommend this game to gamers who still play the NES. It's a nice game to have in your collection. Maybe Rampage didn't turn out so well, but this game is not bad at all. Regardless of how much superior the arcade version may be, don't be distracted by it, because then you would be missing out on this game. It's like three dollars anyway, so if you don't like it, you only wasted three dollars. So overall, it's a good game, only a few minor things that make it frustrating.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/08

Game Release: Bad Dudes (US, July 1990)