Umlaut optional.
one day, lucy was playing with her pets bin and pin in a beautiful flower garden.
then suddenly an evil black shadow appeared and changed into "achacha the great" while they were watching.
lucy startled and frightened was kept in a miracle ball and taken away to the achacha world by "achacha the great"!
therefore bin and pin rose up and ventured into the achacha world to rescue her.
Dynamite Dux is a Beat 'em Up game made by Sega for the arcades in 1988 and later ported to a handful of other systems.
Like many games in the genre, there isn't much in the way of story - an evil sorcerer named Achacha kidnaps a girl named Lucy, and her two pet ducks Bin and Pin step into a portal to rescue her. What follows is a five-stage romp through several different locales and several types of wacky enemies.
One of the most interesting parts of the game is the sheer cartooniness of it - the characters are designed in a Tex Avery-like style, and every enemy has a comical death animation (which is sadly missing from most ports).
The game is most well-known for being the inspiration behind obscure Sonic character Bean the Dynamite, who appeared in Sonic the Fighters and hasn't appeared since (outside of cameos and appearances in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)).
Unrelated to Dynamite Duke, a whole different game.
This game provides examples of:
- Action Bomb: One enemy in the Chicago stage is a living bomb that acts as a Smart Bomb when attacked.
- All Deserts Have Cacti: The Texas stage has some. To be fair, it's Texas.
- all lowercase letters: The original arcade version uses this for the intro text.
- Alternate Continuity: The Sega Master System version omits Pin entirely (as that version was only one-player) and showed Bin as a human-turned-duck thanks to Achaha.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Bin and Pin.
- American Kirby Is Hardcore: The Amiga cover
shows the two ducks with smirks as they pummel some enemies Atop a Mountain of Corpses. - Artistic License – Geography: There are penguins in Texas. Need I say more?
- Attack Its Weak Point: The only way to defeat the first form of the final boss is to punch the sphere that Achacha is riding.
- Big Bad: Achacha.
- Bonus Stage: In between the second and third stages, one occurs wherein Bin fights Pin in a boxing match. If two players are playing, it's a fight between them; otherwise, you fight against an AI-controlled Pin. This is reused in between the fourth and fifth stages.
- Boring, but Practical: The standard punch is the only melee weapon you have for most of the game (the other being the flamethrower, but that only comes about halfway through).
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: Every fire boss can only be damaged by water guns, of which there are always two found immediately before you face them.
- Bottomless Pits: There are a few, starting in the third stage. They cost a life, but thankfully there are signs warning you of their presence.
- Charged Attack: Your standard punch can be charged up into a more stronger one (shown by your duck's fist enlarging à la Battletoads).
- Clipped-Wing Angel: The third form of the final boss can't attack and merely runs around a lot. Though it takes off a third of your health through Collision Damage, this is nothing compared to his previous form.
- Color-Coded Multiplayer: Player 1 controls the blue duck Bin, and Player 2 controls the pink/red duck Pin.
- Degraded Boss: Inverted with the living fire Mini-Boss of the first stage, who shows up as the main boss of the fourth stage.
- Double-Meaning Title: The game's title can be read as either "ducks", referring to the protagonist being a duck, or as "dukes" (hence the umlaut), as in fists, referring to the protagonist's propensity for punching things.
- Easter Egg: Two of them in the Amiga port.
- The first one is done by typing in "NUDE" in bonus level causes the bunny cheerleaders in the foreground to be topless
- The second one was much more obscure and wasn't fully discovered until 30 years or so years after the Amiga port came out. Before it was actually discovered, the code to activate it that was floating around had been proven to be false. In 2017, however, it was discovered that in order to activate the Easter Egg, you have to go into a hex editor, look for the line "IF YOU WANT TO SEE SOMETHING DIRTY PUT CODE HERE >>>>....." and then replace the periods with "DIRTY", the Easter Egg is a much more crude, "dirty" version of the intro. Lucy's dress is swapped for lingerie, and she's kidnapped by a pimp to cover the ducks' gambling debts.
- Elemental Powers: The bosses display these. In order:
- Playing with Fire: The Mini-Boss of the Down Town stage and the main boss of the Jungle stage.
- Dishing Out Dirt: The main boss of the Down Town stage and the Mini-Boss of the Jungle stage.
- Shock and Awe: The main boss of the Japan stage.
- An Ice Person: The Mini-Boss of the Texas stage.
- Everything Is Big in Texas: The fifth stage is set there. It's very Wild Western and inexplicably has a penguin Mini-Boss.
- Excuse Plot: A wizard kidnapped your owner. Go rescue her.
- Fish Eyes: A kangaroo enemy has these.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Flamethrowers are available.
- Floating In A Miracle Ball: This is how Lucy is captured in the beginning of the game.
- Flunky Boss: The king penguin Mini-Boss in the fifth stage has his six normal penguin minions do most of the fighting while he hops in place.
- Forced Transformation: Implied in the Master System version, where Achacha turns Bin (who is initially a human) into duck form.
- Funny Animals: Pretty much every character (sans Lucy and maybe Achacha) is this.
- Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: The game's title is sometimes spelled with one.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: One enemy in the Japan stage is a red-colored dog ninja.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: Several foods are available, like hot dogs and hamburgers.
- Incredible Shrinking Woman: Lucy is shrunken when she is trapped in the miracle ball and grows to normal size once freed.
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests: They litter the streets and give point bonuses when obtained.
- Jungle Japes: The third stage.
- Mini-Boss: One in each stage.
- Nintendo Hard: There are a few cheap hits the game throws at you.
- No Punctuation Period: The intro text is oddly inconsistent with its punctuation. "Achacha the Great" is always referred to in quotes, but then the intro refers to "lucy(,) startled and frightened(,) was kept in a miracle ball..."
- Product Placement: A KFC restaurant and the Colonel himself appear early on in the first level.
- Punny Name: The game's title can be read as either "ducks", referring to the protagonist being a duck, or as "dukes" (hence the umlaut), as in fists, referring to the protagonist's propensity for punching things.
- Rainbow Speak: The intro text - "Lucy" is in pink, "Bin" and "Pin" are blue and red, respectively, and anything related to "Achacha" is colored orange.
- Save the Princess
- Shows Damage: The fire Mini-Boss shrinks as it takes damage. The star Mini-Boss makes it a bit more obvious - it shrinks with every hit it takes.
- The player characters get less enthusiastic-looking eyes when low on health.
- Spikes of Doom: In the Texas stage. They take a life away on the spot.
- "Wanted!" Poster: There are several of a cat-looking guy in the Texas stage.
- Water Guns and Balloons: Water guns are used to fight the fire Mini-Boss.
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Downplayed as Bin and Pin witness Lucy getting kidnapped.
- This also occurs upon death.
- Wingding Eyes: Certain bosses, near defeat, show X's on their eyes.
- A Winner Is You: The game ends with a "CONGRATULATIONS" screen where Lucy is freed.
- Written Sound Effect: Several, whenever you hit an enemy.
- The boxing gators spit giant "RARR!"s from their mouths.
- Wutai: The Japan level.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: The title is spelled with an X.
