Bad Street Brawler

aka: Bop' N Rumble, Street Hassle
Moby ID: 291
DOS Specs
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Description official description

In Bad Street Brawler, players take the role of the former punk rocker and current martial artist Duke Dunnegan, or alternatively the wrestler Gorgeous George (Bop N' Wrestle) or as a high school teacher pushed to far (Street Hassle) who finds he is the only one in the position to clean the mean streets from various thugs and loonies.

Gameplay involves walking through the streets and taking out any enemies that get in the way. Kicks and punches are your basic moves at first, but as the game progresses, new moves and attacks become available, and new enemy types to beat up as well.

Groups +

Screenshots

Credits (DOS version)

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 48% (based on 11 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.1 out of 5 (based on 36 ratings with 5 reviews)

Old folks beating up on more old folks! I swear!

The Good
I was able to shut this game off before dying from hysterical laughter. Maybe it's the fact that practically EVERY single character here looks like a bunch of old folks trying to cane and gum each other to death as opposed to freaks and weirdos trying to slice one another's throats has something to do with it.

Or is it the fact that your character walks with his arms so low to his sides that he faintly resembles a lowland gorilla? Or perhaps it's those old women who beat the bejeebies out of you when you hit them. Oh, sweet revenge....grin

Or maybe it could also be that goofy as hell music that played when you were fighting geriatric punks on the street (the NES version's music not much better)!

Whatever case, I was laughing way too much at this.

The Bad
If you laugh too hard at this game, you may cause severe problems to your health.

Plus, there's that one factor too: the gameplay, graphics, sounds, and a music are all pitiful. End of story.

The Bottom Line
Bad Street Brawler: friends do not let friends play BSB alone. Make sure two people are there so they can laugh themselves silly (and hopefully not too much). It's either that or they'll just drop dead on the spot from the horrible gameplay.

This game deserves to have its girly butt kicked out the door! It's a stinky, stinky, port (and game) that should be outlawed and shot in the back.

DOS · by Satoshi Kunsai (2020) · 2001

Ridiculous game. As in ridiculously bad.

The Good
This game is complete nonsense. It's a campy side-scrolling beat 'em-up in which you play a wrestler who has to clean the streets of the city, beating up large amounts of enemies (including psychotic old, blind men with canes) so grandma can cross the street safely. I'd rather have this concept than another game with Billy Lee clones.

There are five different levels (levels 6 to 10 are rehashes of the first five levels and after level 10 the game goes into infinite repeat mode; level 11 = level 6) and the moves available to you depend on the level you're playing. Besides the standard kick you also got two other attacks per level. Most of these attacks are ridiculously over-the-top, just take a look at the screenshots. Anyway, I thought it was a good idea to change the moves after each level as it adds some variety.

Yes the graphics are blocky, but I kind of liked them. They give the game a bit of a comic book look. Especially with the text bulbs that appear every now and then.

The Bad
A lot, let's see:

  • The ingame music is annoying.
  • The controls are somewhat sluggish & unresponsive.
  • Not much is done with the grandmother-concept. Enemies don't attack her so you really don't need to protect her, she enters and leaves the screen at will and she never reaches a destination. It would have made more sense if you had to escort her to her home or something. Now grandma is just annoying as she constantly gets in the way.
  • It's frustrating as you can suddenly get your ass kicked within seconds. In my opinion the game quickly becomes insanely difficult. I never got past level 5 until I started messing around with a hex editor.
  • The fact that the game goes into infinite repeat mode instead of having a decent ending (well I guess since they made the game so difficult, you're not supposed to get that far anyway).
  • In level 6 (which is just level 1 with more enemies) and every level after it you can't use your basic kick anymore. That's right, not only do you have to play the same levels again but you also can't perform your best attack anymore. How cheap!
  • In nearly all of these games you can move to the forefront or the background to evade enemies. Not in Bad Street Brawler (looking at the NES screenshots, I think this feature is available in the NES version). Also you can't pick up any weapons or garbage cans to throw at your enemies.


The Bottom Line
At first I wanted to write something like "it's so bad it's good" but that would be rubbish. It's just plain bad... bad, campy & silly with terrible gameplay. One of the worst games I've played.

DOS · by Roedie (5239) · 2003

Mismatched gameplay.

The Good
An initially cute concept--clean up the streets so that Grandma can walk safely home. The graphics are well suited to the purpose of being a comic book in motion (if a bit blocky--see below). The street locations are nicely varied for a game of that era.

The Bad
A minor problem for me was the graphics; the character sprites were drawn a 1/4th their actual size and are doubled in size when plotted to the screen. The end result is that they are--understandably--blocky.

The main problem with the game, though is the gameplay. Once you learn all of the moves you can do, the normal enemies are way too easy--and the end-level bossess remain very tough.

The Bottom Line
If you like simple games that can frustrate you just as you're doing well, try it.

DOS · by Trixter (8952) · 1999

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Amiga

Unlike the other versions, the Amiga version was not an official release by Beam Software & Melbourne House. It was instead made by the Polish company World Software, whose developers enjoyed Bad Street Brawler so much they decided to make their own version for the Amiga using, among others, sprites ripped from the ZX spectrum version.

NES version

In the NES version, some enemy sprites are changed: the blind man was changed to a thug, grandma is now a small Italian, the basketball player is white and the skull on a bomb was removed.

Power Glove

Bad Street Brawler was along with Super Glove Ball the only games designed to showcase the Power Glove that were released. Two other additional titles were scrapped.

Sprites

Bad Street Brawler uses sprites that are doubled in height and width before being displayed. This results in big sprites, but they look blocky.

Stages

After stage 10 Bad Street Brawler goes into infinite repeat mode; stage 11 is the same as stage 6. However even the stages 6 to 10 are nothing more but rehashes of the stages 1 to 5 with more & tougher enemies.

Information also contributed by Apogee IV and Roedie.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Tomer Gabel.

Commodore 64 added by B.L. Stryker. NES added by POMAH. ZX Spectrum added by Martin Smith. Antstream added by lights out party.

Additional contributors: Corn Popper, tbuteler, Martin Smith, Patrick Bregger.

Game added September 25, 1999. Last modified February 13, 2024.