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
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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)

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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)

Nostalgia

The Good
At the time when it came out for the NES, I must have been about nine or ten. I was just glad to see it come out for my Nintendo. I'd moved away from the city and couldn't get to the pool hall anymore. The graphics were okay (for their day) and the same goes for the sound. There is even some audio saying: "I'm Bad." But it's poor quality, even for back then. I had fun playing it, despite what it lacks compared to its arcade predecessor.

The Bad
The movement of the enemy, along with the controls in general. It's easy to get killed, because it's choppy. The NES version is also not two players simultaneous, where the arcade is. You also get three lives and that's it.

The Bottom Line
II remember this game. I first played it in 1987: in the arcade, I think it was around that time. It seems like a long time ago now.

I used to live down the street from a pool hall called: The Cadillac. I had a friend who used to take me there to play arcade games, whenever I got good marks in school. We would spend hours playing games. There were times when we would spend upwards of 30 dollars. Out of all the arcade games I used to play, Bad Dudes is one of my all time favourites. It's really a classic (in my opinion) and came out right in the middle of the whole martial arts fascination that carried over from the 70's.

The plot of the game is a simple one:

The Dragon Ninja Clan has kidnapped the President of the United States, and it's your job to rescue him. The game is a fairly simple side-scroller fighting game, where you just kick and punch ninjas. That's pretty much it. The NES version of the game can't hold a candle to the arcade version. At the time that I played it, I found it more difficult the one in the arcade. The game has 6 levels. (I think it does anyway, it's been a while.)

DOS · by Robert C (6) · 2003

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

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

[ 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.

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  • MobyGames ID: 1299
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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.