Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Released: August 12, 1988 Genre: Action
The Adventures of Bayou Billy is one of the biggest gaming disappointments of my life. For months I saw advertisements for it in comic books and the numerous screenshots made it look like the greatest action game ever. It was from Konami who had yet to miss in their NES releases. It combined shooting and driving with fisticuffs. How could it not be great? Then I played it. This is truly one of the most frustrating games ever made, both because of its insane difficulty but because it was perfectly fine as is. Konami took a great game and ruined it with their adjustments.
My excitement for Bayou Billy is because it was essentially a video game version of Crocodile Dundee. The movies were generally comedies but the character himself was ripe for a video game. Konami weren’t fooling anyone; this is the same character without the license. In a time before Konami became famous for arcade beat ‘em ups Bayou Billy was their first. But that is only part of the story as the game is a multi-genre mashup featuring driving and shooting sections like Operation Wolf. But unless you use a game genie or buy the import version you will never see all of its content.
The majority of Bayou Billy is a beat ‘em up like Double Dragon. Billy’s moves are limited to a punch, kick, and jump kick. Although it may seem limited there are a large range of secondary items to spice up gameplay. Knives, bats, even guns are present although ammo is limited. My personal favorite is the whip which is an obvious nod to Castlevania. Weapons drop regularly and you can carry them through the entire stage with skill. This is a good thing as these stages are intolerable otherwise.
Within the first few seconds of the game its problems become evident. Every standard enemy takes entirely too long to kill. Even the simplest enemy will get up after being knocked down six or seven times. Even worse they attack in groups of three and have a quick recovery time. You will rarely walk away from any encounter without receiving damage. The stages are long and because Konami made the enemies stronger they become tedious. There is nothing worse than wailing on the same three bastards for close to five minutes only to realize there are twenty more before the level ends. Chicken drops regularly but your life drops so fast it doesn’t help. If this were the only part of the game that was ruined maybe it would be tolerable. But it gets even worse.
The driving stages should be straightforward. The goal is to reach the end before time runs out. Yet once again Konami made them insufferable. For some inexplicable reason they drastically cut down the amount of time you have in each stage. This means you have to drive at full speed the entire time and make no mistakes. Unfortunately everything makes your jeep explode, be it head on collisions with rival cars, the bombs dropped, or even simple rocks. Even a single misstep is enough to cause you to fail in the end. Once again the Japanese version is better balanced; you had a full life bar that allowed you to take a few hits. Replaying the entire stage after failure is not the slightest bit fun.
The first person shooting gallery stages might be the worst in the game. Each level scrolls left to right as enemies pop up in the environment like a shooting gallery. Sound simple enough but once again Konami ruined the game’s balance. Your bullet count is now a third, from 150 to 50. Ammo drops are rare and sadly if you run out it is an automatic death. Absolutely every shot counts and unless you are using the NES Zapper they are near impossible. It takes a near miracle to reach the end level bosses with enough ammo to survive.
If it sounds like I am being harsh it is because Bayou Billy in its original form is an amazing game. Konami struck the perfect balance in each of the game’s facets to create a thoroughly enjoyable adventure. The difficulty curve is near perfect in Mad City and while some aspects like the boss battles are still incredibly cheap the game still remains doable. But the unnecessary changes ruin it which is a shame since you cannot appreciate the game’s stellar production values.
In Closing
Konami were on fire on the NES and the Adventures of Bayou Billy represents a rare misstep. If they had simply localized Mad City as is it would have been one of the best games in the NES library. Instead Bayou Billy is awful and deserves every bit of ridicule it has received over the years. Stay the hell away from this game.
