Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja

A BAD ENOUGH DUDE






Proprietor of one of the most hilarious titles of videogame history, DataEast's 1988 effort Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja emerges as a statement of solid rivalry towards the era's flamboyant Beat'em Up traditions. While our present subject matter isn't afraid to borrow its basic gameplay mechanics from the 1984 classic Kung-Fu Master and its direct descendant Vigilante from 1988, the output's primal agenda is to ride with the well defined modal waves established by Double Dragon one year earlier.

A copycat then? Far from it. This retroid delicacy possesses both a tremendous global charm AND the most memorable Mission Briefing you'll ever see in a Beat'em Up. Got doubts? You are about to lose those utterly ma'man, as the Bad Dudes, Blade and Striker are Back in Town - and they are about to dominate hostile ninja assets of the midsection character as they make their way to save the President of the United States from the Gruesome Clutch of the Dragonninja! Are! You! a! Bad! Enough! Dude! to present their amazing skillset with intact convince power?

Enjoy and Read on!




Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja is more complex than the good old first glance will probably suggest. Controls are simple, yet are supported by firm context sensitivity, meaning certain moves are available only in case particular conditions are fulfilled. We will see into this matter later. Your basic arsenal is seemingly - even practically - limited to an Attack and a Jump button, yet the aforementioned context sensitivity and some variations with the basic tools will give you a more flamboyant palette of maneuvers to rely on. Let us see into these in relation with the basic pace- and character of the gameplay.



The Ideal Place to settle a Conflict.

To put is simply, Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja is about: Bad Dudes and Ninjas, AND a Dragonninja. More precisely: it is about Bad Dudes and a BEEP!load of Ninjas to be found-, and to be dismissed by demonstration of an amazing skill set of martial arts. The screen is ruthlessly, fervently frequented by massive packs of the generic enemies, yet each of them exhibit a different method to punish you. Thus, learning, then preparing for the attacks you will most likely be subjected to in a given moment is one major chunk of the fun here, while, naturally enough, the second portion forms merely by the casual fact that you are not only supposed to defend your butt(s) - you are definitely supposed to punish all others that are fool enough to present themselves with the Bad Dude(s) around.

Your basic punch seems rather scarce. You know why that is? Because it IS scarce. Once there are enemies in front of you though - an occurrence to consort with relative frequency in this here game - you can start a semi-coarse combo of three-four consecutive hits, though being stationary is a risky stance to rely on, for most of the time. Notice that we have just seen an example of context sensitivity. To put is simply: do the combo when you are not approached from different directions. Let us see the other tricks that are waiting to be unleashed.

Charge up the Attack button by pressing on it, invoking the Long Forgotten, and Even Forbidden Technique of The Electrified Fist of Gruesome Atomic Shattering!, even: !!. As results of the firm amount of time it takes to spend in a stationary position to invoke the move, be aware that this particular Special is rather risky to rely on, not to mention that most of the generic baddies will be knocked out cold by a single attack you connect with. Not all, though: more advanced enemies at the later stages will ask for more of the quality punishment, to them, it is a logical method to introduce the Charge Special - you will need excellent timing and an excellent screen position to state it successfully, nevertheless.



NOBODY! Steals our PRES'! - and LIVES!

Try and smash the respective Direction buttons supported by each Actions, inlcuding a combined press of Attack + Jump. Some rather interesting maneuvers will occur, including an unorthodox "jumping lowkick" that comes in handy against the doggies, - in this here game, they are a PITA, no doubt. Your most frequently used weapon will be the Hurricane Kick though, the move quite similar to Ryu's Trademark (?) Special. In Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja, you invoke the maneuver by Jumping either towards Left or Right, then you want to push Attack immediately. It does not work if you simply Jump up. This is a nice, trusty method to connect on multiple enemies while keeping your movement consistent.

Jumping up remains an integral part of the game, as well: Player Characters are able to demonstrate a Jump of Definite Bean Overdose, something which comes rather handy when you plan to evade a massive swarm of baddies you would prefer to loose their usually tight formations up. The High Jump is simple to rely on, just press Up while you press the Jump button, as well. It is also worth mentioning that this is partly the way you switch between the upper-and lower sections of a stage, granted you are on one that has multiple stories to wage war on. To get to the lower section from a higher one, press Down + Jump.

Extras are present, too: knives, nunchakus, and Hate, the Weapon of Mass Destruction. Surely, one of them is absent, or at least I did not notice its evident presence yet. While knives and nunchakus have a different attack range, they will make your Bad Dude turn much more swiftly. Other extras are coming to you in forms of Time bonuses and Coke to re-supply health. Yeah baby, this, even ZIS! is the Coke way. The exact method of picking Extras up is a Riddle begging to be solved by the Dearest Visitor. As for the context sensitivity we touched upon earlier, a further example for this is neutralizing the shurikens on the floor: approach them superclose, then unleash a combination of Down + Attack to get rid of the thing. You can't execute this amazingly satisfying kick though without a shuriken in front of your feet. Yet, in case you CAN: then you are a Badderer Dude than I Is.



Each of the game's seven stages is concluded by a classic Boss Fight, with a Final Showdown coming to you via a surprisingly clever dramaturgical buildup. Like most Beat'em Up titles, Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja is particularly grateful once you decide to play it rigorously, meaning: you refuse to get kicked around, and choose to exploit weaknesses and gaps in the opposition's lines instead. With its now-supercoarse, though timelessly intact presentational values and memorable gestures/lines placed throughout its mere fabric, Bad Dudes VS Dragonninja weighs in as a piece that delivers the hilarious modal cheesiness of the original, One-and-Only Ninjamania of the late '80s. A definite retroid delicacy.



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DoDonPachi

MIND THE GAP(s)!






DoDonPachi, or, what this Japanese title roughly and playfully translates to: Angry Boss Bee - you know from this point on that you have to play this effort - is a manic sci-fi shooter developed by the Atlus and Cave corporations, also is the direct descendant of Don Pachi, a game that hit arcades and grew quite popular two years prior our delicate subject matter would have had claim rigorous shoot' em up dominance in 1996. This game knows no jokes at all, and has 0 intention pretending it does, hence the consensus decision to regard similar outputs as manic shooters. Bid farewell for relief and pleasant moments of inhalation upon mission completion, and set all your cybernetic reflex-enhancing neurocircuits to the "Temporal Overdrive" position instead, as DoDonPachi is quite the grouchy and elegant game, deeply dedicated to the delicate art of dodging enemy projectiles while still trying to deconstruct hostile alien formations. An immensely demanding title, DoDonPachi guarantees that it will keep your senses and reflexes steadily occupied via a pace optimized for living beings with two pairs of eyes. At least, that is.

Enjoy and Read on!




The game is composed of six levels, delivering an increased difficulty with each section you freshly fly on. Respecting rigorous, yet nice and clean traditions, every level will put you against a Boss fight as a conclusion, though you will need to perform superbly in order to emerge worthy enough to gain the interest of the True Final Boss.

Gameplay is both very fluent and intact, and - this is the bizarre case, folks - wonderfully masochistic, as well. While DoDonPachi is kind enough to let you render relatively peaceful sessions of destruction - great source is the world of videogames if you plan to find exquisite oxymorons - on the first and second levels, those portions are but to get you and your trigger fingers in the mood. Target practice with immense stakes, that is all. From the third level on though, the game gets quite serious: constant survival becomes extremely demanding, yet constant survival is the thing you are looking for and try to master.

You have three selectable ships at your disposal, each with slightly different speed and firing capabilities. Considering the number of enemies you will face on the maps, it is always good to know that the player ships are capable to destruct matter filling out space not just in front of them, but around them, as well. Greet the two little mechagizmos beside the hull: those are called "Option"s, and you can set them either to represent double punishment power, or you can select them to be indestructible against smaller enemy classes.



In this here game, firing occurs in a relatively frequent manner: tapping the attack button will start a burst that can be maintained fluently if you keep on tapping, there is not even need to go Metal Slug Psyhotic this time around, either. Pressing and holding the attack button will unleash the lasers: this is Pure Mayhem Potential baby, never subject your staggering haircut to THIS stream of ruthless devastation. Though relying on the lasers is great fun for the whole family, there are drawbacks you got to deal with. First and foremost, delivering this constant attackfoam slows your ship down, and you won't have too much of a chance - because 0 is exactly THAT much, too - to take out your surroundings at the sides. Surely, the lasers represent impressive punishment power, but you need to introduce the enemy to them in the frontal manner so your cannons can recite a truly warm welcoming.

Bombs are offered and usable, too: use your alternate fire to unleash one of those. Bombs are little helpers you can rely on in case the DoDonPachi experience would prove to be way too much to handle. Whether this will happen or not - you must find out on your own. Suffice it to say that Bombs do clear the screen pretty much 100%, including enemy projectiles that will get converted to collectible Bonuses upon Bomb contact. You can store a maximum of six Bombs at a time. Or you cheat, or you hallucinate. Or both. The Bombs- and five levels of Power-Ups can be obtained by collecting the letters you see flying around: once you reach the maximum Power-Up and/or Bomb level/number, consecutive letters will get you Bonuses.

We have a little no! no! here, as the individual Power-Up states are not represented visually, or at least I did not notice. I am not sure which of the latter two possibilities is the more catastrophic. Either way, once you are on a higher Power rank, your ship deals more damage. A nice minigame is kindly, subtly offered as far as collection of Extras go: they have a tendency to fly around in an easygoing, bohemian way, one that is quite funny to watch, but making it a definite pain in the definite butt to collect them. Simply put: DoDonPachi invites you to take risks if to go for the Extras - and you WANT to go for the Extras, trust me. And now, for something completely different: the game has a truly brilliant soundtrack. Nuclear guitar warfare with pretty solid, complex, catchy compositions - an evident classic.



DoDonPachi will keep your senses relatively occupied, indeed.

A nice Hit system is implemented in the game, quite similar to a combo method: once you deliver a kill, a little meter fills up hastily, starting to count down in an abrupt manner. In case you manage to deliver yet another kill before the meter empties: a Hit combo occurs. You want to keep this meter immensely entertained, as doing that will give you both massive Bonuses and optional means to reach the True Final Monster. Hit Bonuses do not conclude the Extras you can go for. Throughout the game, you will see Bees lying around. It is a nice Bonus subsystem: the more Bees you collect without a death, the more they will worth in points to the maximum of 13 Bees. This subsystem also is an optional method to gain the attention of the Final Boss, for example. For all the other means, please consult the great Guide I link you to at the bottom.



Now is the time to account on the very core- and very grouchy kinna' fun DoDonPachi delivers. This is the Gap Seeker kind of fun. From the third level on, the title will subject you to pretty much obscene enemy onslaughts, there are times when laying down yet another hostile projectile would be near impossible without intersecting an existing one. These immensely vicious waves are results of multiple projectile patterns. Your only way out is through nevertheless, so you are either to find the gap(s), - thus, MIND THE GAP(s)! - or you could always use a Bomb in case you have some yet. But, to be honest with you, I have the impression that the game could be beat without using a single Bomb, though I realize that you either need Superhumanic abilities or a blatant Fortune Boost - or, granted: both of the latter - to accomplish this. I would urge you anyway to try and go for survival without Bombs. You can always use one when you are absolutely sure that otherwise your butt would be dead meat. Dead meat butts are not very efficient here - avoid ending up as one at all costs.

The necessity and inherent-, though vicious fun of finding gaps in enemy patterns is an aspect of the game that - sorry 'bout that, Ladies - simply loves to break a man's balls. Waves have a pretty decent length to them, so surviving those is not just a matter of dancing skillfully around with your ship, now that you can do that so elegantly, the game will kindly invite you to demonstrate your readiness for 8-10 hellish seconds in the company of Mr. Death - Imminent. It is also worth mentioning that firing your weapons naturally will intersect with incoming hostile projectiles, making it pretty much impossible to see what is going on - so you will need to balance out efficient aggression and efficient evasion with rock solid skills. I don't know about you, but there were times when I died by the VERY LAST projectile of a wave. Oh, you got to LUV those vibes, baby. And there is little if any doubts that you got to love this game, being one which is not afraid to push your abilities to the limit - and beyond.



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Metal Slug

TRIUMPH OF THE (S)KILL






A supreme representative of the run and gun genre, Metal Slug elegantly assumes you to be a weapon-crazed maniac, thus, you should have no problem whatsoever that this 1996 überclassic lacks autofire. In fact: you should be grateful!

Metal Slug is the kind of game that lacks autofire with a purpose, indeed: if you play this title in the Well Defined Chest Hair Fashion - meaning you focus as much on staying alive as you do on delivering good old destruction - then you will indeed find yourself completely changed into the very specie the game keenly invites you to be from the very start: come, feel the Metal Slug! Give in to the Weapon Psycho you secretly (?) keep around in your gaming psyche! Oh, what do I babble about - you WILL give in to it, otherwise you won't survive here for TWO nanoseconds, trust me.

Enjoy and Read on!




This classic output is a result of an integral collaboration between the D4, Nasca and SNK Corporations, taking you to an alternate universe with an - surprisingly 'nuff - alternate future. An alternate universe you may witness and play in indeed, yet, it is pretty much impossible to miss upon the evident, hilarious WW2-cartoon character the game unleashes with high octane.

The main attractions here are the superbly balanced gameplay mechanics, coming to you on demandingly steep difficulty which though always gives you the means, the paths to rely on- and to take in order to survive: surely, you could be a crazy-ass bionic mobile siege tower of mild efficiency, giving in the consecutive credit after each 5th kill you accomplish - yet the main appeal of the output is the experience it delivers when you put massive focus into your survival abilities.

Essentially, Metal Slug is a long-long foam of subtly presented, pattern-driven minigames that demand pretty much flawless, constant awareness of your surroundings if you are about to present a truly (s)killful session. Yet, mastering these patterns of course is a continuous result of being subjected to the intense assaults the Metal Slug armies and Bosses do unleash on you. Solution is evident: rely on the BESTEST Defense, which naturally is the BESTEST Offense. Finding THAT at each and every section of the game is one immense half of the even more immense global fun the title brings to the table, also it keeps our delicate gray matter and reflexes steadily occupied. As such, do yourself two favors in advance: first and foremost, definitely give Metal Slug a try, and, secondly: when you do that, be sure to play a rigorous game, refusing to get your butt kicked as often as the title invites you to do that.



- III!! WOON'T!! DIIE!!
- AHHAHAHAHAHAA!!

Now, this is really the main charm of the game: as hinted, Metal Slug will give players continuous, though direly strait means to stay alive, yet, spotting and exploiting those are the frequent peak moments by which the piece exhibits furious attacks, casually asking you if you happen to have a conception of staying integral by the very next moment. Be it either way, know that Metal Slug never poses situations that doom you to inescapable death. It just likes to shock you with the impression. Use it to fuel your anger instead, Young Anakin, and deliver your final verdict to the Bosses supported by the Muhaha! of Eradication, that you are to perfect yet.

You will have nice extras at your disposal: a massive chunk of the levels is destructible, revealing instruments of amazing stopping power, yet ammunition for those is rigorously, wisely constrained. You will obtain Heavy Machine Guns, Rocket Launchers and - oh ye! oh ye! - good, old fashioned Shotguns, while the trusty butt-savers you will frequently rely on do come in the form of classic frag grenades: splash damage potential with mild amnesia as possible side effects. Grenades are offered in a similar fashion as weapons are: be sure to keep an eye on the surroundings, since elements you destruct will surely reveal stuff you will be interested in.

The game's title refers to the small vehicles scattered around the levels: these are the Metal Slugs: cute, little, yet quite usable tank-like instruments of destruction. You can occupy them, then fire two kinds of shots of considerable potential, yet Slugs are not indestructible: in fact, three immense direct shots will find the vehicle bidding farewell - you are free to drive the desperate Metal Slug into the enemy, though. To do that, just push your two main attack buttons simultaneously when the vehicle's energy is low. It is also worth noting that the Metal Slug is capable to jump/duck and fire in multiple directions, even better: you are free to offer grenades from beyond the cover of the trusty thing. Directions are of note in one particular regard yet: your hero can shoot downward at the highest steep of a jump, not from a stationary position, though. This gives a fervent visual appeal to the pace, making your protagonist look totally psyched up jumping around madly, punishing All Below.



Metal Slug delivers POWs, as well. They are the Prisoners of War, you can, and, in fact, should release them to obtain the extras they give you. These are weapons or bombs, let alone the Score they weigh in with. A nice trait of Metal Slug is the destructible hostile projectiles: you can stop almost all kinds of anti-blessings with amazing precision aiming, with some exceptions that make rigorous and rather unpleasant sense: some Bosses will deliver Plasma, for example. Not healthy for your butt at all. Not stoppable by your arsenal, either.

As it might have just occurred to you, let me deliver confirmation power: naturally, all levels - there are six of them - conclude with a Boss Face-off. These are encounters of inventive and memorable moments, while their character is heavily dependent on the status you arrive to them by clearing the level of the generic enemies. So, it is important whether you arrive to the Boss with a fully packed Rocket Launcher in hand, OR with two shells remaining in your trusty Shotgun. Indeed, the game definitely recognizes tactics and skills even in this particular regard, making it safe to say that the title is capable to offer different experiences, depending on the arsenal you choose to mainly go for- and rely on on any given stage.



The effective run and gun language the game speaks in is rather straightforward and intense. Staggeringly enough, you have a Fire button with as steep of an effectiveness as your Amazing Cosmic Trigger Finger has, meaning if you can press the button 5000 times/sec as Yngwie J. Malmsteen picks 5000 notes on his guitar by the same amount of time: THEN you will have an Advantage, and the Metal Slug baddies will fear your wrath from the very start. Let me tell you though that you only just imagined that: sad fact is that your Amazing Cosmic Trigger Finger will scream for some relief at the most dire of times, giving you the eternal Metal Slug dilemma of:

How In Hell Will I Survive THIS With Only THIRD Of My Finger Remaining?

And this is the question every player answers for herself/himself, making the game weighing in as evidently timeless run and gun classic. A definite, safe go-for it was, remaining as such with its intense snarl ever since.



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