Originally released in the second quarter of 1988, Bad Dudes by Data East was an interesting take on the action genre. I am hesitant to call this a brawler though, sure you use your fists but you cannot grab your enemy and throw them. Well, whether you agree with me on the genre, Bad Dudes Burger Edition is coming to the Neo Geo console. What is “Burger Edition”? Double meta levels of improvements and cheese mostly.
May Be Your Cup of Tea
The original Bad Dudes, titled Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja (I had no clue honestly), was one of those games I played a couple of times in the arcade while waiting for Beast Busters or Strider to open. It was never my go to arcade machine of choice.
Years later I borrowed it from a friend on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and played through it there. It never got elevated to must play, or in my case must buy, but I could respect the fact it was a good game.
My friends were huge Bad Dudes fans – I stuck with Contra and Super C at home myself. I was into brawlers but not Double Dragon, it was just archaic to me and Battletoads had not been released yet.
Improving a Classic
Over on the Neogeo-system.com forums tons of information is being delivered to fans.
It seems the whole game has been reworked with the Neo Geo in mind from gameplay to graphics and sounds. This is great news, this is not going to be an asset conversion using some engine to power the entertainment.
One key part of their improvements for this port that caught my eye was the fact that sprites are being reworked with the Neo Geo color palette in mind. This is good news and should result in much better looking graphics.
No word on a physical edition, nor a demo, at this time but for now, enjoy the gameplay video embedded above.