Developed by little known Japanese company Data East the arcade game Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja was a comical 2D side scrolling beat ‘em up in the same vein as Double Dragon. It was released in 1988 and you could play alone or co-operatively with a friend to wade through a horde of ninjas before facing down a boss character at the end of each level.

Despite the almost identical poster with two eighties style badass guys posing on the cover just like Double Dragon there were several differences here. For a start you were fighting evil in order to rescue, not your cute girlfriend but U.S. president Ronald Reagan or President Ronnie as he was called in game. Somehow that scenario just isn’t as appealing although luckily Ronnie rewarded you with a burger rather than a sloppy kiss if you managed to make it to the end. The game kicked off with a secret service agent guy asking “Are you a bad enough dude to rescue Ronnie?”

You could play as the brilliantly named Blade or Striker. The co-operative play was a draw and for me any game in the arcade that you could play through with a friend was worth a go. The actual game-play was also quite different from Double Dragon. The maps were true 2D with platform mechanics so you could jump up and down levels, and use ladders. It wasn’t an isometric view the environment had no depth to it at all.

It was released as a stand up cabinet with an eight way joystick and two buttons. You could pull off kicks and punches and you could also pull off a spinning kick or charge up your punch before letting it go. There were cans of juice as health recharging pick ups and comically your character would say “Die!” before drinking them. You would also pose if you managed to complete a level and say the immortal line “I’m bad!”

There were a few weapon pick ups as well and the baddies were mostly ninjas in different colours. You also got the occasional lady ninja, ninjas that threw stars at you and sometimes a barking dog would attack. At the end of each level it was time to face a boss character like Karnov who basically looked like a big wrestler and could breathe fire at you. It was quite a tough game because the ninjas would attack in numbers and unlike the movies they didn’t wait their turn. Sometimes a truck would pull up alongside you and unload a big wave of crouching ninja enemies who would attack from both sides.

Graphically it was pretty basic stuff although the animations were quite nicely done, well ok they were passable. The sound effects were pretty funny and the music was a bad eighties action film synth disaster. It wasn’t the greatest game ever but it was quite action packed and fun and it did well enough to be ported to a load of home consoles and computers.