The Adventures of Bayou Billy

aka: Mad City
Moby ID: 8760
NES Specs
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Description official descriptions

Your best girl Annabelle has been kidnapped by the evil Gordon, the "gangster king of Bourbon Street", and as Bayou Billy it is your job to get her back! Bayou Billy is an arcade action game with three different types of gameplay: fighting, shooting, and driving. The fighting sections take place in both swamps and cities, where you can punch, kick, and jump kick the numerous enemies (and swamp creatures!) you will encounter. The shooting section can be played with either the NES Zapper or the controller. You have a limited amount of ammo to get through the level, and if you run out of it you lose a life. In the driving section your jeep is armed with machine guns and grenades to help get past the many enemy vehicles on the way to your destination. There is a total of nine levels, or you can play in the practice mode which lets you choose to play a fighting, shooting, or driving round individually.

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Credits (NES version)

39 People (38 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Original Writer
  • Mr.Konami
Game Planner
Program
Character Design
Music and Sound
Title Design
Graphic Design
Visual Design
Director
Manager
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 51% (based on 13 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.7 out of 5 (based on 36 ratings with 1 reviews)

Versatile action game set against a Louisiana backdrop

The Good
The Louisiana theme had to grow on me, I admit. But I really enjoy this game. It's not often you see a game with as many different styles of gameplay as this. You can fight bare-fisted (or with any weapons your enemies happen to drop); you can go into first-person shooting mode (with a light zapper if you happen to have one handy); and you can get behind the wheel of a jeep. 9 levels of primo 8-bit action.

I think my very favorite thing about this game is the music, particularly the ending music. Look up the sound test code for this game and rock out.

The Bad
If I were a snooty literary critic, I would have to question why the big New Orleans crime boss saw fit to provoke Billy by swiping his girlfriend. But this is a classic NES games, so plot setup is not exactly essential.

A crazy thing about this game: Rigged road posts. So I'm speeding along the highway from the bayou to New Orleans, I get knocked around by some other cars, and I manage to stop just short of one of the wooden posts at the side of the road. So I creep ever so gingerly back onto the road. However, my front bumper touches the goal post and the whole vehicle goes up in flames. The wooden post is fine, though.

The Bottom Line
You get to fight, shoot, and drive really fast. What more could you want in an action game?

NES · by Multimedia Mike (20664) · 2005

Trivia

Version differences

In Japan, Bayou Billy was originally Mad City, which was the same basic core game, but with several differences:

Gameplay * Easier difficulty (enemies required less hits to die)

  • Better control during the shooting stages. The cross-hair in the shooting stages (when using the control pad) is square-shaped in the Famicom version and circular on the NES.

  • The final boss, Gordon, was slower but a bit stronger

  • In the driving stages, Billy's truck threw dynamites instead of grenades in the Famicom version, the roads were wider and palm trees and street lights can be seen on the side of the road (instead of the generic-looking poles in the localized release). On the other hand, the NES version had no black bar on the top of the screen and a progress meter was added (in turn, the driving stages also became longer).

Graphics * Better graphical detail (check out the swamp stages especially)

  • Different graphic effects on the title screen (the Japanese logo slides in from the side as opposed to the "wavering" effect of the U.S. version)

  • Annabelle's outfit was changed to enhance her "sex appeal". In the original Famicom version, she wore a long red dress and was barefooted, whereas in the NES version she wore a midriff-revealing t-shirt with daisy dukes and high heels.

  • Billy's face during the opening intro has an older look in the Japanese version.

  • Some of the color palettes were changed. For example, the bad guys in the first stage wore green instead of blue in the Famicom version and the final stage had differently colored wallpaper for it's background.

Misc * Japanese dialogue (strangely written entirely in katakana)

  • A few digitized voice samples were added to the localized version including Gordon's laugh between stages. The Famicom version had no voice samples, but Gordon's expression changed between stages (in the later levels, he has a more concerned look).

  • The Japanese version feature an alternate ending where the player dumps Annabelle in the end by avoiding her when she tries to approach you. Moreover, the game penalize you for using any of the power-ups gained from the game's training mode by not giving you any ending at all.

Names

*With the exception of Billy (who's full name is Billy West in both versions), the characters are given different names with different titles in some of them (the "heir to Gordon's Underworld Throne" are listed only as "twin brothers" in the Japanese version and the "whipmaster" was actually a "whipwoman) in the game's ending. Here's a list of name changes ordered from their title followed by the localized name in the NES version and their original name in the Japanese version.

Title - Localized Name - Japanese Name

Annabelle - Annabelle Lane - Annabelle Luna

Bad Guy A - Thugs McGraw - Bren Wrestler

Bad Guy B - Kid Creole - Steven Barone

Bad Guy C - Tolouse L'Attack - Ray Harris

Frogman - Jacque Killstow - Diverman

Fatman - Hurricane Hank - William Deve

Punk - Cajun Cut Throat - George Snyman

Chainman - Migraine Mike - Vernon Taylor

Whipwoman - A.L. Hurt - Thousand Bird

Dogmaster - Swamp Gas Charlie - Tom Ogawa

Ironman - Blackie Blue - Carlos Olsen

Twin Brother A - Rocky - John Martin

Twin Brother B - Rocko - Grant Martin

Boss A - Louis Tor-ture - Matthew Birch

Boss B - Godfather Gordon - Richard Gordon

Information also provided by Johnny Undaunted

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 8760
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Servo.

Wii U added by Michael Cassidy.

Additional contributors: Satoshi Kunsai, Patrick Bregger.

Game added March 30, 2003. Last modified August 30, 2023.