View source for Bad Dudes Vs. Dragon Ninja

[[Image:Bad Dudes - ARC - Ad.jpg|thumb|256x256px|Arcade cabinet ad.]]

'''''Bad Dudes Vs. Dragon Ninja''''' is a platform beat-em-up developed and published by [[Data East]] and original released in the [[arcade]] in April of 1988. It was later ported to about ten other platforms. In the game, US President Ronald Reagan has been kidnapped by ninjas, and only a bad dude like yourself is up to the challenge of rescuing him.

I first saw Bad Dudes in the arcade room at Lakeland Arena around 1989. Although I never had any quarters to play it, I loved watching other people play the game and thought it was really cool. Later, after my brother and I bought our [[NES]], Bad Dudes was the very first game I got for the system. It was a Christmas present around 1990. My brother got ''[[Double Dragon (NES)|Double Dragon]]''. I found the dichotomy between the publishers, Data East for ''Bad Dudes'', [[Tradewest]] for ''Double Dragon'', to be interesting.

==Review==
{{Video Game Review|6|4|7|6|4|54%|Windows}}

{{Spoilers}}

===Good===
* The graphics are great for the time. The arcade's art is particularly well-drawn and the [[Amiga]], [[Atari ST]], and [[NES]] ports are decent as well.
* The concept is utterly ridiculous, but in a good way.
* Allowing two-player simultaneous play really makes the game more interesting.
* The soundtrack is a bit short, but the songs by [[Azusa Hara]] and [[Hiroaki Yoshida]] are good.
* The various stages give the game a lot of nice scenery and riding on the semi truck and train were especially cool.
* The enemies are very inventive and interesting. Flaming ninjas, dwarfs with claws, hopping sword men, giants out of ''[[Mad Max: The Road Warrior]]'', a fire-spitting Russian, etc.
* Having several digital speech recordings like "Got it!" and "I'm Bad!" made the game seem more cool.
* The flaming charged attack is a nice addition.
* The [[boss rush]] is kind of cool with some of the bosses being zombies of their former selves.
* The Famicom port added some introduction cut scenes to the bosses.

===Bad===
* The controls aren't very good on any of the platforms. You can only move, attack, and jump, so your options are pretty limited, and none of them feel very smooth.
* The game a really hard. Like most games originally designed for the arcade, it's meant to be beaten only after several dollars in quarters have been spent.

===Ugly===
* The ports to the weaker machines ([[Amstrad CPC]], [[Apple II]], [[Commodore 64]], [[MS-DOS]], [[MSX]], and [[ZX Spectrum]]) are really terrible.
* Most of the home ports removed the ability to play two-players at the same time.

==Media==
===Box Art===
<gallery>
Bad Dudes - ARC - Marquee - USA.jpg|Arcade marquee.
Bad Dudes - ARC - Bezel - USA.jpg|Arcade bezel.
Bad Dudes - FC - Japan.jpg|This box was used only on the Japanese Famicom release. The art is wonderful, showing off a couple of the bosses, and the player's character. My only gripe is the ugly white border.
Bad Dudes - NES - USA.jpg|This art was used on all American releases. This is my favorite box art. It clearly depicts what the game is about, is well-painted, and has great lettering.
Bad Dudes - CPC - EU.jpg|This art was used for all European releases. It uses the arcade bezel artwork with a new painting of the two bad dudes. Their body art is good, but their faces are seriously jacked up.
</gallery>

===Documentation===
<gallery>
Bad Dudes - ARC - Manual.pdf|Arcade manual.
Bad Dudes - NES - Manual.pdf|NES manual.
Bad Dudes - ARC - Ad.jpg|Arcade ad.
Bad Dudes - USA - Ad.jpg|Ad comparing ''Bad Dudes'' to ''[[Double Dragon]]''.
Bad Dudes - Imagine - Ad - English.jpg|Imagine ad (English).
Bad Dudes - Imagine - Ad - French.jpg|Imagine ad (French).
</gallery>

===Maps===
<gallery>
Bad Dudes - ARC - Map - Stage 1.png|Arcade - Stage 1 - Slum.
Bad Dudes - ARC - Map - Stage 2.png|Arcade - Stage 2 - Semi.
Bad Dudes - ARC - Map - Stage 3.png|Arcade - Stage 3 - Sewer.
Bad Dudes - ARC - Map - Stage 4.png|Arcade - Stage 4 - Forest.
Bad Dudes - ARC - Map - Stage 5.png|Arcade - Stage 5 - Train.
Bad Dudes - ARC - Map - Stage 6.png|Arcade - Stage 6 - Cave.
Bad Dudes - ARC - Map - Stage 7.png|Arcade - Stage 7 - Dragon-Ninja HQ.
</gallery>

===Screenshots===
<gallery>
Bad Dudes - ARC - Screenshot - Title.png|Arcade - Title.
Bad Dudes - FC - Screenshot - Title.png|Famicom - Title.
Bad Dudes - NES - Screenshot - Title.png|NES - Title.
Bad Dudes - ARC - Screenshot - Are You a Bad Enough Dude.png|Arcade - Are You a Bad Enough Dude?
Bad Dudes - NES - Screenshot - Are You a Bad Enough Dude.png|NES - Are You a Bad Enough Dude?
Bad Dudes - FC - Screenshot - Boss Intro.png|Famicom - Boss introduction.
Bad Dudes - DOS - Screenshot - Intro.png|The far less interesting DOS intro.
</gallery>

===Fan Art===
<gallery>
Zac Gorman - Bad Dudes.gif|Zac Gorman's fan art.
Bad Dudes - ARC - Fan Art - Collage.jpg|Collage of arcade sprites.
</gallery>

==Titles==
{| class="wikitable"
! Language !! Native !! Transliteration !! Translation
|-
| English (Arcade) || Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja || || 
|-
| English (American Home Releases) || Bad Dudes || || 
|-
| English (Europe) || Bad Dudes vs. Dragonninja || || 
|-
| Japanese || ドラゴンニンジャ || Doragon Ninja || Dragon Ninja
|}

==Links==
{{Link|MobyGames|https://www.mobygames.com/game/bad-dudes}}
{{Link|Wikipedia|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Dudes_Vs._DragonNinja}}
{{Link|StrategyWiki|https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Bad_Dudes}}
{{Link|VGMPF|2=http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Bad_Dudes}}
{{Link|NESHacker|2=http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Games/Hacking/Wiki/index.php?title=Bad_Dudes}}
{{Link|TCRF|https://tcrf.net/Bad_Dudes_vs_Dragonninja}}

* [https://tcrf.net/Bad_Dudes tcrf.net/Bad_Dudes] - The Cutting Room Floor (NES).


[[Category: Games]]
[[Category: Video Games]]
[[Category: Amiga Games]]
[[Category: Amstrad CPC Games]]
[[Category: Apple II Games]]
[[Category: Arcade Games]]
[[Category: Atari ST Games]]
[[Category: Commodore 64 Games]]
[[Category: DOS Games]]
[[Category: MSX Games]]
[[Category: NES Games]]
[[Category: ZX Spectrum Games]]
[[Category: Action]]
[[Category: Video Game Genre - Beat-Em-Up]]
[[Category: Multi-Player]]
[[Category: Multi-Player Co-op]]
[[Category: Ninjas]]
[[Category: 4-bit Color Graphics]]