Bad Dudes

aka: Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja, Bad Dudes Vs DragonNinja, Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja, Dragon Ninja, Dragon-Ninja, DragonNinja, Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Bad Dudes, Retro Classix: Bad Dudes
Moby ID: 1299
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/27 9:27 PM )

Description official descriptions

Bad Dudes is a six-level action game originating in the arcades. The gameplay involving beating a succession of guys to complete the level, then an end-of-level bad guy. The action takes place on two different levels of the screen, which can be jumped across or navigated using ladders. Moves such as punches and kicks are on offer. The control method makes jumping sideways quite tricky.

Spellings

  • ドラゴンニンジャ - Japanese spelling
  • 龙之忍者 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 배드 듀즈 - Korean spelling (Hangul)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Amiga version)

11 People

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 63% (based on 34 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 91 ratings with 4 reviews)

Bad Dudes, Good Game!

The Good
Bright and breezy gameplay. Lots of dudes to kick.

The Bad
A relatively short experience.

The Bottom Line
It's very good. Play It.

Amiga · by Sagebirt · 2024

It is so good, that it wraps around, and gets bad

The Good
The arcade original is an action filled macho game, inspired by movies of the time with their cheesy martial arts tropes. You beat up hordes of ninjas to save the president. All kind of coolness is packed into, it like fighting on the top of moving trucks and trains among others. The backgrounds/environments are pretty distinguishable on each level.

Ocean handled the home computer conversions and released it under the Imagine label. That makes me automatically think of quality stuff (even if there are numerous examples to the contrary). Technically it's a good conversion. Graphics are up to their standards, with colorful high-resolution sprites, 50FPS smoothness, and the various environments are intact. Jonathan Dunn delivers awesome music, and there is also jamming tune along with sound effects simultaneously during gameplay. It captures the essence of the arcade game. It looks like there is everything given for a good action game.

The Bad
THEN WHY IS IT STILL BORING!?

It's dull, very dull to play! It's kind of a chore to kick/punch every foe. Your attack is short ranged while the enemies move very fast. Get close and kick them, they get stunned for a millisecond and continue running around, repeat twice and they die. But then immediately spawns another one. There is at least a million of them!

As the game progresses, it doesn't really get harder, and the gameplay doesn't change much either. The bosses just take more hits. Winning the game isn't a matter of skill, more like patience, how long are you willing to sit and do this repetitive task.

Beside all these, is also something off with the hit detection's functionality. I can't put my finger on it. It's not effecting much, but it always looms there to annoy my senses.

Bad "Dudes"... and the 2 player mode has been left out.

The Bottom Line
A good conversion. Too bad the arcade original appears to be just as mind-numbingly dull to begin with.

Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja. More like Bad Game Vs Oriental Cliches!

Commodore 64 · by 1xWertzui (1135) · 2018

I'm BAD! Infact This is so Bad that it's GOOD!

The Good
In this game your two dudes. The plot is equally hilarious as Duke Nukem comes in with two sentences. The President has been kidnapped by Ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president? The dudes after that get their sweat pants and go on a path to beat down many ninjas. What other story said so much in two short sentences? It's so simple that you can literally make a Hollywood movie about this game.

The graphics are pretty good for being ported from a 16 bit arcade machine to a 8 bit console

The voices while bad and disoriented manages to become one of the best spoken lines in video game history right there with WISE FRWOM YOUR GWAVE

The music is pretty memorable and fits with the loads of beatdown your about to dish out to ninjas

The Ending is hilarious and totally out there.

The Bad
The game's inferior compared to it's arcade counterpart

The game's walking is not smooth like it's arcade

The fighting system is shallow compared to other games of it's time such as Final Fight and Double Dragon.

The boss with the stick is a damn cheater

Why do the ninjas go down so easily? I guess the standard for ninja toughness went down a few notches.

The Bottom Line
I'd give this game a solid 7/10 because the cheese is so good that you actually do enjoy this game. I mean you go around beating ninjas then drinking sodas and the environments are diverse enough. Though for the life of me why do they go through the sewer? So a Solid 7/10 is what this game gets. Give it a chance and the cheese will overwhelm and give you enjoyment!

NES · by Mr. Huh (105) · 2004

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

President

The NES port of the game changed "President Ronnie" to simply "the President," possibly due to Nintendo's censorship protocol which restricted political content.

References

  • The guy that does the two sentence mission looks an awful lot like Duke Nukem doesn't he?
  • The first boss is actually Karnov, who was one of Data East's most popular characters.

Amstrad CPC 128k perks

In 128k machines the game will load in one instance, and will also play some sampled speech as a bonus.

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • December 1989 (Issue 5) - Wimpiest Hostage in a Video Game (President Bush)

Information also contributed by Apogee IV and Dracula Marth.

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Bad Mojo: Redux
Released 2004 on Windows, Macintosh
Bad Toys
Released 1995 on Windows 3.x
Bad Piggies
Released 2012 on Windows, Macintosh, iPhone...
Bad Rats
Released 2009 on Windows
American McGee presents Bad Day LA
Released 2006 on Windows
Bad Sector: High-Density Disk Edition
Released 2016 on Windows
Street Cat
Released 1987 on Atari ST, DOS, Amiga...
Bad North
Released 2018 on Windows, 2019 on Android, iPhone...
Garage
Released 2018 on Nintendo Switch, Windows, Macintosh

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1299
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by SebastianLi.

NES added by PCGamer77. Windows added by Rik Hideto. Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. Zeebo, Arcade added by chirinea. Apple II added by KnockStump. Antstream, iiRcade added by firefang9212. ZX Spectrum, Atari ST added by Martin Smith. MSX added by LepricahnsGold. Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Amiga added by Katakis | カタキス. PlayStation 4 added by jon marsh.

Additional contributors: Macintrash, Katakis | カタキス, Foxhack, Alaka, Martin Smith, Mr. Huh, Dan K, formercontrib, CesarMFM, Neville, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, mailmanppa, Rik Hideto, Kam1Kaz3NL77.

Game added April 12, 2000. Last modified March 17, 2024.