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.
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