Bad Street Brawler (NES) - part 2

Previously, Duke Davis former punk rocker and (probably) sunglasses aficionado, clean his hometown from gorilla, tiger, midget with iron ball n chain, thugs with sports equipment, crazed gun man, and punk lady with knife. He does the vigilant act with various move that consist of punches/"trip his enemy down" move (by pressing "B" button), kicks (by pressing "A" button), and various contact/grapple move (by pressing both "A" and "B" buttons). What kind of evil thing/person that Duke will encounter next? We shall see soon! 

But, let's take practice, first! I think the game advises specifically to me with those words. I'm the man with over-cautiousness to practically anything, for example NES game. I'm afraid to venture deeper into NES territory as i have heard many its games are very tedious, limited continues, or can't be finished without cheat. That's why i comfortable with arcade emulator that allow me to have unlimited continue. Just a bit fact about myself there.

 

I thought the enemies only have expression when hitting or getting hit. But that baseball player proves the otherwise. He look at jumping Duke as if saying "It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's crazy vigilante jumping around to other side. The absolute madman!"

 

One of the thing that annoy me well is the skateboarder...as regular thug. Why? Because he's stubborn to leave me alone if i reach the sub-boss/boss section while other are sportive enough to let the sub-boss/boss come to beat me. I think the breakdancing punk also have same behaviour. So you need to convince them with a hit or two and hoping they will go away immediately for the sake of time limit.

 

Oh , would you look at that! The boss is two skateboarders. Lovely! I just keep kicking their head in the corner and pray they don't either charge at me or jump above me.

 

That wise words seems true. They have same relation with quote: beauty is relative but ugly is absolute. I heard the quote in Indonesia, by the way.

Oh and the trip move returns. Great! I can tickle the fat man's butt feet untill he's dead.  

 

I can also message the basketball players to the comfort zone of death. Awesome!

 

The trip move can trap any enemy over and over again but not the punk. But the screenshot prove that the move is quite effective to take him down but you still have to stay away from him everytime you succeed doing it.   

 

The stage boss is different! It's big mean boxer. He will immediately counter every move except the big Grapple move: Aeroplane spin. Just repeatedly do the move and he's K.O'ed easily. Too bad that Duke doesn't have ear biting move. I believe the boxer is very vulnerable to it.

 

You just defeated (presumably) former boxing champion that gone rogue and you called "It was nothing"? Such modesty from justice hero.

 

I don't understand the first sentence. But i understand the second ones because it's relatable to me. Back when i was in colleague, whenever i get bad score on test, i will revenge to get better score in revision. That's positive revenge, you see.   

 

As much as the basketball player hates someone shorter than him. He (reluctantly) cooperate with the midget to take down Duke Davis together. Even though, both of the are capable of shooting ball projectile. They're still no match for him especially when he can do "Body Fling" move.  

 

The boss fight for this stage: the deadly combination of the midget and the punk. Actually the most dangerous one is the punk as you have to keep on eye very closely on him to get clean hit. But if you're only focused only to him, the midget will throws his iron ball at the back of your head. So it's trickier than it seems.  

I just realized that "High Kick" move is similar to "Drop Kick" move only higher. I think this is my another significant complaint about the game: Duke doesn't have middle kick or any standing kick that is fast enough to execute and deals decent damage.

 

Either high kick or drop kick, it's appropriate to deal with the racing biker. Everytime he's defeated, he will crash outside of the screen and leaving these tires bounce here. The tires is -of, course- lethal to touch so you have to avoid them everytime you have successfully dispatch the biker. By the way, in this sub-boss section there's 2 bikers that come at you one after the other instead come all at once. Thank God!

 

The stage boss this time: the pair of gun and knife, Attila and Sgt. Crazy. Both of them have underbite so i assume them as married couple. Also, both of them ranged attacker but in different range. The assassin will throw knives rapidly in short range while the crazed gunman will shoot a bullet in long period from afar. The combination is pretty deadly. If you get careless for a moment, you will done for.

[Insert joke about Avengers: Infinity War's ending meme here]

The sub-boss this time: double Attila. I headbutted one of them. Right in her jaw! That's gonna hurt really bad. Remember the time when you're still in school  and have sport activity with your fellow? There's a chance that a ball flies to your face. That's hurt, right? Multiply that pain by 10 or so and you know the pain inflicted by Duke there. 

 

And then i meet the pair of The Skinny and The Fat. You can probably guess that the fatman can clobber you with his portly belly. But turns out he can also swipe a handgun and shoot you. So that's the mystery of him carries gun answered. But unlike the mad soldier, you can duck fatman's bullet harmlessly.  

 

At the end of this stage, a punk boss appears! He's keen on hopping kick. That's him retracted his leg after extending it for a while to do his hopping kick. He's not attacking me by doing "cannonball" move, mind you! It's not hard to defeat him. Wait till he lands then grabs him. Simple and easy.

Forget about Rocky! I'm very eager to see movie about this most stylish vigilant to beat criminals and rogue sport athletes, especially by twist their ears off. It will be the most remarkable action-comedy film of the year!

 

I think those words are true especially in job seeking reality.     

 

The boss is just another combination of common enemy: The Sgt Gun and The bald shorty.

 

Plot twist! There's another enemy in this boss section and she manages to throw knife at my back, the un-sportive sod.

 

You hold your own hand? That's quite awkward. If i'm in this scenario, i will clench my fists really hard instead hold my own hand.

 

As you can see from my health bar, this sub-boss section really gives me trouble. Basically any team-up with the punk is deadly.

Oh, look! Pair of the bastard as Boss stage. Great! Actually this is bit easier than last team because none of them here can shoot my face or back.

This is it, ladies and gentlemen! The final stage. The moveset is same with the first level but the "Ear Twister" move with "Pile Driver" move. Both of them deal 3 bars damage. Here's the difference: Ear Twister has fast execution on first part, you can hold the buttons to increase the damage up to 3 bars or you can release them to inflict less damage but to avoid getting interrupted by other enemy. Also the overall move takes longer time than Pile Driver. While "Pile Driver" inflicts flat 3 bars of damage, is slightly faster than "Ear Twister" with maximum damage output, and nails enemy down to the ground. Overall, i like "Pile Driver" move more

 

Before reach the Final boss i have to fight the mohawk cousin: the assassin and the breakdancer. I really hate the latter ones so he deserve to be pinned down to the ground like this.

 

You probably expecting something different then another pairs of common enemy as Final Boss and you're right. Who's the fool who put once-encountered foes as final boss, anyway?  The final boss is most likely cartoonish and evil version of Rambo judging by his headband and bazzooka that he's carrying. Beside able to shoot rockets, he has some of Duke's moves like drop kick and bull ram. But he's not so difficult to deal with.

 

After the enemy is pinned down to the ground, Duke pisses on his face. No, that's not happening. Nintendo won't approves this game on NES if that happened, even though the fake Rambo probably deserves that treatment. Real hero mustn't shows obnoxious behavior like that, you see. It's Bad Street Brawler not the infamous Postal 2.

 

For liberating his hometown from any evil men (and animals), Duke Davis is being paraded. With luxury car, dozens of confetti, and such. His mother must be proud of him. Happy end! I like to point out that he's way different than in manual's cover. He looks more handsome like Ken from Barbie's. Here's the picture.

 

That's it for Beam Software's Bad Street Brawler (1989). Is it bad? Surprisingly (to me): no. It's decent and fun 2D Beat 'em up. Although the game has such cruelty like tight time limit, only 3 live to finish the game with no password of save/load point, no in-game pause! Even though you can get extra live by collecting enough score, that's still not nice design. I only manage to get one in my playthrough there. For game with limited live/continue, it feels too long to have 15 levels. Luckily you can run away from unnecessary battle relatively easy and fast. The variety of moveset and enemy pads the game's longevity well. But i wonder why tiger only appears once. Maybe because the devs know that there's flaw on its design that they decide it only appear once. The musics are fairly good for NES chip. The graphics is very good for its time. Duke's moves are well-varied in esthetic and functionality although some of them have loose hit-detection.

Bad Street Brawler ain't Capcom's Final Fight but it's fairly well designed 2D brawler game and it's quite fun to play. But should you want to finish it, i suggest you do so via emulation for save/load state and pause. The game will be more fairer although it's not very difficult to beat originally. Also mind those breakdancing and skateboarding bastards.

Bad Street Brawler (NES) - part 1

Yes, it's another Beat 'em up (or i like to call it Fighting Action) game. But for today, i pick the one that i skeptic with: 2D genre. I found most of 2D Beat 'em up games are tedious and not fun especially due to short range of protagonist's attacks. Is Beam Software's Bad Street Brawler (1989) better than them? We shall see!

We can see at the title screen, the protagonist with Skyscrapers background. His name is Duke Davis, former punk rocker and the world coolest martial arts vigilante. I don't make that up, it's written in the manual. According to it, the story: lawbreaking crooks, thugs, and circus renegades roam the mean streets. The city is unsafe and good citizens live in constant fear. It's up to Davis to send the bad guys reeling with furious fist and foot bashing action. By judging Davis's face, he looks very serious to clean the city from evildoers. Just look at his overall expression! But don't look at his sunglasses that has hypnotic reflection of the building. Too late! You already see it, don't you?

 

The main menu only consist of "1-player start" and "2-players start". As soon as i hit the "1-player start", the game takes me to this training stage. Nice tongue-twister quote there! The control is simple: direction button to walk/jump/crouch, "A" button to punch, "B" button to low-kick, and pressing both "A" and "B" buttons to execute Ear Twist. As the name suggests, Davis will grab opponent's ear and then twist it. Sounds tacky but also powerful. Pressing "start" button will immediately go to the action.

 

First enemy that i encounter: bulldogs. I know that many games (e.g. Wolfenstein 3D) makes you fight against aggressive evil canine and BSB is one of them. If you're dog lover this game is certainly not for you. But you can just ignore them and keep move right, and i suggest you do so. As it's very important to conserve the time limit.

 

The building icons on top screen indicate your progress in the stage. The lit one is the portion that you have gone through while the unlit one is the opposite. Sometime the screen stop scrolling indicating you are in either sub-boss section or boss section. In this case the sub-boss is Baseball Player (according to manual) that carry a baseball bat and try to clobber you. Luckily Davis's attack has slightly more range than his. As long as you hit him in right time you'll be fine.

 

The boss is a Gorilla! Here, Davis snatch his ears and twist them really good. This move drain enemy's health by a big chunk so it's worthy. Do note that you mustn't do this technique on Gorilla in real life because: 1) Violate animal rights 2) Gorilla is mean animal if it's disturbed and also much stronger than average human.

At the end of the stage, Davis throw items that he confiscated into the large garbage dump. Defeated enemy will drop item that they have (except for the bulldogs) that you can get for points in assessment section here. "Drop" probably isn't accurate term as the item will grows wings and flies as soon as it's away from its master's possession. So every so often, you have to jump to grab it.  

 

On next stage there's twist! Duke Davis's moveset changes from before. The low kick becomes hopping kick here while punch becomes...

 

...becomes this move called "Trip". Yes, it looks Duke give his opponent quick erotic massage but this move actually saps enemy's health well. Not only it can inflict damage by 2 health bar per execution, you can trap enemy with this move constantly. You probably think it's very ludicrous for the enemies to get damaged by massage. To be honest, i can't enjoy being massaged only pain that i feel. That's why i probably pile up lots of back problems, because i reluctant to get massaged.  

 

And Duke will say "Nice boy" if he successfully trips the bulldog. It's petting/rubbing with pain!

 

The second stage boss: another gorilla but with bald midget. The midget (or Punk according to manual) is actually common grunt before this point but this one has bigger health bar. The midgets are armed with iron ball and chain that they can use to throw at you or flying around like mini chopper.

 

Yes enemies accumulate...unless you kill them until none of them alive in this world! This time Duke has tremendous grapple move: Arm Spin. It's not about giving his opponent friendly warm hug. He spin his opponent really hard. It's like "big swing" move but with his opponent standing. We shall see it in action.  

 

So, Davis grabs his enemy by the neck and spin him around. Yeah, that looks awesome. Sadly you can't make the enemy bump into his comrade with this move. But the huge damage you can inflict with it can makes you satisfied.  

 

There's small man with trench coat and bowler hat. The manual call it Spy. He appears after sub-boss section. He swipe his coat to reveal either heart and bomb. Grab the heart to replenish your health. If you slow enough it will flies away, so you most likely grab it in mid-air. The bomb will explodes (obviously) that can heavily damage you or enemy. You can either kick it (provided the kick move can hit it) away or just keep running right.    

 

The boss is a guy with skateboard named Skateboarder [Hah!]. The schmuck will to either run over you or jump over you! He can jump 8 meters above the ground. Not even Radical Rex can do that! You can guess that he's difficult to hit. If you wait in the middle of the screen  he will jump. So i wait him in the corner where he will come from. There's chance that he will run over me, instead. But i reckon this is the only way to hit, he doesn't have enough time to jump me.

 

That's good, Duke! Don't ever forget the fair lady that gave birth to you! I hope you have good relation with your maternal parent, reader.  By the way, Duke looks like Duke Nukem's cousin here.

Oh the "Ear Twist" move is back. Watch out for your ears, no-gooders!

 

Here i can "Bull Ram" every enemy that i encounter. It deals only 1 bar damage but you can send anyone flung with this move. Which is nice to see.

 

Or you can thrust your knee to enemy's gut. By the way, the boss this time: Atilla the Honey and she can stab you with knife. But i happen to stab her more with my knee. Good guy prevails!   

 

Hoo, boy! I love this contact/grapple move. Even though it looks cartoon-y (which is appropriate with this game presentation), it also look powerful and mean.

 

Now there's enemy that fires handgun and his name is Sgt. Crazy. I made that one up as he isn't in manual for some reason. The basic reaction to enemy that shoot projectile is to dodge said projectile by crouching, right? That's written in stone table of Platformer game's rule. Surprise! Surprise! It didn't work here. Duke can crouch below passing banana (that's thrown by Gorilla) or iron ball and chain just fine. But regarding this bullet: it will hit Duke's forehead should he crouched. So you have to jump over it. Need some time to get used to it, i know.

 

The boss for this stage: Skateboarder again but with Baseball player. Here Davis perform roundhouse kick that has quite long startup but can inflict moderate damage.

 

That's very obvious wise word of training section. You probably get really excited that Duke can execute pile driver move! But he don't do the common or proper way of pile driver that you can see in wrestling show or what Street Fighter's Zangief do. Duke pile driver: aeroplane spin minus spinning his opponent overhead and he slam it very hard instead of throw it away.     

 

This stage has sub-boss: basketball player. According to manual he doesn't like anyone under 7 feet tall, including Duke. But i have pile driver him so hard that he submerged to the ground. Not feeling taller than me anymore, huh bastard?

 

And the game throws me another new type enemy as sub-boss: Tiger. I'll be honest the game has quite loose hit-detection. And it's getting more apparent in this fight. The oversized wild cat can only be harmed in the head but he can only harm you if it spring at you and hit its head to you. What should be brutal duel between man and tiger become more slapstick comedy on zoo live show.

 

And for the boss: a biker. I was expecting fight against brute with Harley Davidson motorbike instead of proper racing biker like this. But he can run over you faster than the skateboarder and -you can guess it- he's much harder to hit. The only way to harm him: jump kick at him at the right time like Chuck Norris/Jackie Chan/Jet Li/Jean Claude van Damme /other martial arts actor you know. You only need to kick him once despite his big health bar which is reasonable. Momentum can be deadly weapon for both biker and his opponent, you see.

 

For dispatching evil biker, Duke Davis get on top of podium in front of City Hall. I assume hamburger he said: refer to homemade ones (that presumably made by his mother) instead of fast food ones. The latter ones is most likely unhealthy as we all know.

 

Another stage another moveset. This time Duke can jump fairly high and later strike his enemy with his elbow. This move is useful against the shooter, right?

 

Yes, indeed. Two crazy gunman are no match against Duke's Jumping elbow smash. Sniper_specialcompleted20.wav  

 

Oh, there's fat man as sub-boss. He barely can do anything thanks to this awesome move. And he carries handgun, hmm.

 

I assume the boss is male punker according to manual. He's much dangerous than any enemy in this stage. He does breakdance move where he spinning around on his back. While doing so, he's invincible plus can give you thorough beating. You can say he's like Tekken's Eddy Gordo but without much extending his leg. The solution to this fight is wait he stop rolling to punch you and give him heavier beating of yours. It's not easy but doable.  

So what other no-good person/thing that Duke Davis have to face next in order to purify his own hometown from evil presence? Wait for second part roughly next week, dear reader! In the mean time don't fight any gorilla or tiger that you found unless you're professional animal-handler.