Bad Street Brawler (NES)

Bad Street Brawler Power Glove Manual p32

Bad Street Brawler is a game title familiar to many for its celebrated place on “worst videogame ever” lists and its canonical status as one of only two games ever designed specifically for use with the infamous Mattel Power Glove for the NES.

The game is actually a version of Beam Softwares’s popular 1987 Street Hassle game for the Commodore 64. It’s origins lie in Street Hassle acting as test software for the companies reverse engineering of the Nintendo NES. The process of testing resulted in there being a partial conversion of Street Hassle existing for the NES. It was piece of software that was merely a by-product of the studio’s NES disassembly and testing.

Company director Alfred Milgrom, however, with an eye on the overheads, was not one to waste game code. He sold the game to publishers Mattel for use with their new Power Glove for the NES. Milgrom confident in the technical expertise of Beams’ Software engineers offered them not just the game but that it would be packaged with software which could be used as an interface to support other NES games compatibility with the Power Glove. This would save players from having to type in the codes for each game from the Power Glove manual.

When the NES dissambley was completed Street Hassle‘s designer programmer Andrew Davie was very happy to see the last of this ugly test NES version of Street Hassle whose sole purpose has been to help determine the functionality of developing for the NES. He found working blind on the NES with code optimised for the Commodore 64 neither fun nor pretty. Street Hassle was a game designed work with the strength of the Commodore 64 featuring cartoony characters with large sprites and comic violence but in conversion to the NES, the silly cartoony look of the games giants sprites and much of the feel of the ridiculousness of the violence was lost. When the game was released for the Power Glove there was nothing in the design of the side scrolling beat-em up that had been designed to engage with the potential of the Power Glove as peripheral.

Read Beam Software’s Andrew Davie story of the “Making of Bad Street Brawler” in the Play it Again Blog pages

Street Hassle was released in the USA as Bob’ N Rumble for the Commodore 64. Viewed today, it is rather politically incorrect. In contrast to the sterotype of a heroic game’s protagonist Street Hassle’s hero clad in his ‘budgie smugglers’ and wrestling boots comically battles elderly citizens, the handicapped, and other misfortunate stereotypes.

Version Information

Bad Street Brawler was the only game available at the launch of the Power Glove’s that was compatible out-of-the-box with the glove. There was, however, nothing about the game that showcased the Power Glove’s unique motion control and using the Glove to play was actually less responsive and less intuitive than the standard controller. This was true not just for Bad Street Brawler but for all NES games.

The 1989 movie Wizard (described by fans as the longest Nintendo add ever made) had sold the promise of the Power Glove as the ultimate gamer device. Unfortunately, the peripheral did not live up to the hype.

In October 1990 Super Glove Ball (Rare) was released for the Power Glove a game that was not only designed to showcase the strengths of the Power Glove as a peripheral but actually developed with access to a fully functioning Power Glove. In his web documentary on the Power Glove, Norman Caruso, online’s Gaming Historian, reflects on how this game, designed to work with the Gloves limitations and lean it to the unique capabilities demonstrated that there was potential for the peripheral. However, by the time Super Glove Ball was published Mattel had cancelled the Power Glove due to its negative reception. But not before, allegedly, generating 88 million dollars in sales for Mattel.

Bad Street Brawler game package included the following Games Glove Campatibility Codes: Joust, Sesame Street 1 2 3,Gunsmoke, Gyruss and Defender II