Thirty years later, President Ronnie still needs your help
Data East’s Bad Dudes vs. DragonNinja, (or as everyone actually called it, DragonNinja) was a brawler that hit the arcades back in 1988, before being ported to every home computer under the sun. Now it will see its true calling, as it heads to Nintendo Switch next week.
The game stars two vigilantes, who, as we are informed in the game’s iconic intro, are called upon to rescue President Ronnie, who has been kidnapped by ninjas. The intro ends with video gaming’s greatest ever call-to-arms: “Are you a bad enough dude to rescue President Ronnie?”
It can’t be denied that the game has a deserved place in the annals of gaming history, what with its late ’80s aesthetic, hilarious setup, and “Vigilantes versus Punks” theme, which was used endlessly, for almost every brawler released in the glory days of the ’80s arcade.
But honestly, DragonNinja isn’t a great game, it’s clunky and lacks the slickness of similar titles such as Sega’s Shinobi. Although it does have a great roster of cool, fire-spitting, star-throwing enemies, like a lot of Data East’s classics, the memory is better than the reality.
But for those of you who may have missed it the first time around, or for whom nostalgia trumps quality, then Bad Dudes vs. DragonNinja launches on the North American Switch eShop on March 21, priced at $10.
