Way back in February of 1993 there was a movie released called Falling Down. It was certainly touching close to many that watched it, like someone finally got the frustration many feel in life. The premise is, well, everyday life. Literally a movie full of someone doing what we all think we would do, or wish we could do, in all those little annoying situations of life. Billy’s Bad Day is a homage to Falling Down, from locales to characters in your way, prepare for nostalgia to hit you harder than a baseball bat to the face. That is if you own a TurboGrafx-16 console.
The movie adaptation we never knew we needed
Falling Down is one of those movies that is squarely in the “right place, right time” when it released. It has only earned more fans each passing year.
Many of us identify deeply with William Foster.
I can easily see why Falling Down was never given the game treatment. What genre would you make it? One on One fighting is not exactly my first choice, if I am being honest here.
I would have expected a brawler myself.
Judging by the videos, it seems One on One fighting is a perfectly fine genre for this game. Especially when you factor in scenes such as the Korean store owner, or the scene where gang members attack him while he is just resting.
Before Waffle House we had another fast-food incident
There is a scene where Foster is trying to order breakfast, but the restaurant has changed to the lunch menu. This obviously cannot be good and Foster opens fire with his gun that he picked up along the way.
There are lots of shooting elements in the movie so I would have loved to have seen a Lethal Enforcers style level or two. Sadly, as far as I know, that is not in the game. Talk about a missed opportunity.
Billy’s Bad Day is a homage, it does not feature any license from the movie. The characters and locales are quite familiar to fans of the movie though.
You can check out a demo ROM and play in your browser at BillysBadDay.com. If you want a digital only copy, it is $15 (50 cents on sale as of this writing). Physical editions come in various flavors depending on what you want.
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