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"Bad Street Brawler was designed to be used with the Nintendo Power Glove, and they go well together since neither of them work."

Bad Street Brawler is a Beat 'em Up released in 1987. While it's been on other systems like Commodore 64 and DOS (under the names Bop'N Rumble and Street Hassle, depending on where you live), the game is best known for its infamous Nintendo Entertainment System version, released in 1989.

In the NES version, you play as Duke Davis, "A former punk rocker and the world's coolest martial arts vigilante." In each level, you'll face off against circus midgets, gorillas, skateboarders, and other odd foes to save the city with a variety of moves, ranging from basic punches and kicks to strange ones like a trip where he uses his bare hands or twisting someone's ear. Before each level, you can practice your moves on a punching bag, along with some odd attempts at philosophical quotes. The original home computer versions of the game aren't much different, and have you control the mustachioed speedo-wearing wrestler Gorgeous Greg, who is out to clear the streets of scum and villainy so the defenseless grannies can walk peacefully. It plays similarly to its later NES port, though it lacks the before-level training segments and cutscenes, and is an endless game.

The game itself flopped hard due to its clunky controls and uninspired — often frustrating — gameplay, and it's a frequent sight on various "worst games of all time" lists. It was also one of two games to utilize the failed Power Glove accessory, the other being Super Glove Ball. The Power Glove had some special attacks that could only be used with its motion controls.


This game contains the following examples:

  • Alliterative Name: Duke Davis. Also applies to the home computer versions, where the protagonist is named Gorgeous Greg.
  • A Winner Is You: Duke relaxes in the backseat of the car as confetti falls. There's no credits montage either.
  • Bottomless Magazines: All enemies that use guns. The final boss also has an unlimited supply of bazooka shells.
  • Captain Ersatz: Gorgeous Greg seems to be trying to ape the look of Hulk Hogan, most notably with his blonde handlebar mustache and yellow wrestling speedo.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Duke Davis restricts himself to three moves each level, discards weapons by chucking them into dumpsters and has odd thoughts between levels.
  • Cool Shades: Duke Davis wears shades and he is certainly meant to be a cool character in a near-90s kind of way.
  • Copy-and-Paste Environments: See Rule of Three below.
  • Degraded Boss: The motorcycle boss of Stage 6 appears as a mini boss in a later level. Other "boss" characters like the skateboarder show up as regular enemies.
  • Does Not Like Guns: Duke confiscates guns from enemies but never uses them, even when up against a guy with a bazooka.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Duke's trip move uses both hands, and can pet dogs with it (He even says "Good boy!"). However, using it on other enemies may give you a different idea...
    "Damn it, Bad Street Brawler, stop molesting that dog!"
  • Edible Ammunition: The bananas the gorillas throw.
  • Endless Game: The non-NES versions of the game have this trope in effect. After the fifth level, they repeat, only with harder enemies.
  • Every 10,000 Points: You get an extra life.
  • Excuse Plot: "The city is under attack and needs a hero!" is the most story you'll get from this game.
  • Fat Bastard: Fat men appear as extra-strong foes you'll have to contend with in later stages.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: While you can use the Bull Ram to attack while in motion, actually doing so and allowing the screen to scroll in the process will make the graphics start to glitch up, or can even crash the game if you go too far.
  • Hammerspace: The midgets, female thugs, and basketball players have an unlimited amount of ball and chains, knives and basketballs, not to mention gorillas always have more bananas to throw.
  • Ice-Cream Koan: Most of the pre-battle quotes are very strange, to say the least - at least a few seem to be intentional mutations of actual quotes, this said.
  • Improbable Weapon User: The gorillas throw bananas at you as one of their attacks.
    • The basketball players throw basketballs at you.
  • Mooks: The circus midgets.
  • Manly Facial Hair: The title screen of Bop'N Rumble shows Greg with a familiar-looking handlebar mustache.
  • Numerical Theme Naming: The streets are basically the level names. The 15th and final level is an exception, being called End of the Road instead.
  • Pet the Dog: "Nice Boy!"
  • Public Domain Soundtrack: If you beat the game, you're treated to a 15 second snippet of Les Toreadors by Georges Bizet.
  • Rule of Three: Besides the three lives, the following apply to this trope:
    • You use a pre-determined set of three of Duke's possible moves per stage, and the set is always a different set of three moves.
    • You also face three boss fights per level: Two mid-boss encounters, and a boss encounter. There's also a maximum of three enemies you need to defeat during a boss encounter.
    • Every third level you face a unique boss at the end.
    • A small cinema plays after each third level.
    • There are a total of five backgrounds in the game, and they're all used three times total in the game.
  • Spin Attack:
    • Duke's Aeroplane Spin and Arm Spin moves.
    • The breakdancers who damage Duke by spinning on their backs.
  • Sunglasses at Night: Duke.
  • Timed Mission: And it's a tight time limit, to the point where you can't actually stop to fight non-boss enemies beyond the second or third stage or else you're at serious risk of running out of time. To make it worse, some of the more powerful enemies might decide to stick around before a boss encounter to drain even more of it unless you hit them to force them to actually go away.
  • Troubled Fetal Position: Duke's crouch move appears to look like this.

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