2 reviews liked by jckdvnprt
Memes used to work differently. We worked with what we had. The chunks of prescribed media that was made for us to repeat a few funny zingers and a game premise we would want to tell others about. Here comes Bad Dudes:
THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY NINJAS. ARE YOU A BAD ENOUGH DUDE TO RESCUE THE PRESIDENT?
Used to be that’s all a game had to be. Hilarious longline statement: President has been captured by ninjas. Prompt for action: Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?
10/10 premise and execution, you don’t even need a manual, as a picture of a military looking motherfucker gives us our excellent prompt. Then we choose between two bad dudes or get to have both of them in multiplayer: BLADE AND STRIKER.
Over seven stages you move through urban Washington DC environments, from the streets to a truck level, to the sewers, to an underground lair where President Ronnie is being kept.
President Ronnie. So it was made in ‘88, but you hardly need that additional detail to know that about it. Funny thing is it’s one of those peculiar “this is America” views from the outside, more aspirationally American than interested in it’s actual culture. Or it is our only culture.
There’s an arcade game and it has chunkier weightier sprites. One of the biggest arcade games of ‘88. I say avoid it. The way this is downsized is so much more appealing. It retains arcade simplicity and then miniaturizes the parts around it, only leaving what is essential.
You punch, jump, and jump-kick your way through these seven levels and it’s tough going. You’ve gotta be a bad enough dude to use save states to save the States.
Then you get a beautifully rendered, for NES, clip of a helicopter, the White House, and you get to eat burgers with the President. Not only does Bad Dudes have the best NES setup for a premise, it also has the best conclusion.
Stone cold classic. But the game also sucks. It’s hard. The sound isn’t designed well for the platform. It’s hard to read sometimes. The mechanics aren’t as compelling or hard-hitting as the badass two-line story. The parts where you’re playing it aren’t as cool as the bookends: it doesn’t have this hyper-Americana about it, in-game, that’s just window dressing.
Still, try and find a more immediate premise than this one has, and come to realize it’s a rare exception of preferring a slightly less standout NES version to its more meaty arcade counterpart. Bonus points for being hilarious.
THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY NINJAS. ARE YOU A BAD ENOUGH DUDE TO RESCUE THE PRESIDENT?
Used to be that’s all a game had to be. Hilarious longline statement: President has been captured by ninjas. Prompt for action: Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?
10/10 premise and execution, you don’t even need a manual, as a picture of a military looking motherfucker gives us our excellent prompt. Then we choose between two bad dudes or get to have both of them in multiplayer: BLADE AND STRIKER.
Over seven stages you move through urban Washington DC environments, from the streets to a truck level, to the sewers, to an underground lair where President Ronnie is being kept.
President Ronnie. So it was made in ‘88, but you hardly need that additional detail to know that about it. Funny thing is it’s one of those peculiar “this is America” views from the outside, more aspirationally American than interested in it’s actual culture. Or it is our only culture.
There’s an arcade game and it has chunkier weightier sprites. One of the biggest arcade games of ‘88. I say avoid it. The way this is downsized is so much more appealing. It retains arcade simplicity and then miniaturizes the parts around it, only leaving what is essential.
You punch, jump, and jump-kick your way through these seven levels and it’s tough going. You’ve gotta be a bad enough dude to use save states to save the States.
Then you get a beautifully rendered, for NES, clip of a helicopter, the White House, and you get to eat burgers with the President. Not only does Bad Dudes have the best NES setup for a premise, it also has the best conclusion.
Stone cold classic. But the game also sucks. It’s hard. The sound isn’t designed well for the platform. It’s hard to read sometimes. The mechanics aren’t as compelling or hard-hitting as the badass two-line story. The parts where you’re playing it aren’t as cool as the bookends: it doesn’t have this hyper-Americana about it, in-game, that’s just window dressing.
Still, try and find a more immediate premise than this one has, and come to realize it’s a rare exception of preferring a slightly less standout NES version to its more meaty arcade counterpart. Bonus points for being hilarious.
It starts generically, a decent enough guided experience that doesn’t really showcase why this is as good as it is. And then you have an open expanse and secrets to find. The exploration and discovery is the highlight here: strong level design and great manoeuvrability making this a blast.
It’s compulsively playable, always giving new a cool new thing or wonderful locations to uncover. It also has a brilliant 3D map — a rarity. Secrets are mostly pointless cosmetics but these are goofy fun and the act of discovery is the real joy.
It still could be tighter and there’s some feature bloat — though it’s so optional it can feel additive. Side characters are fun but the core narrative does very little. A perfunctory final twist is the definition of underbaked. Clearly, Respawn had a lot of gameplay ideas for a sequel, just not really any narrative ones.
It’s compulsively playable, always giving new a cool new thing or wonderful locations to uncover. It also has a brilliant 3D map — a rarity. Secrets are mostly pointless cosmetics but these are goofy fun and the act of discovery is the real joy.
It still could be tighter and there’s some feature bloat — though it’s so optional it can feel additive. Side characters are fun but the core narrative does very little. A perfunctory final twist is the definition of underbaked. Clearly, Respawn had a lot of gameplay ideas for a sequel, just not really any narrative ones.