183 · The Adventures of Bayou Billy

• You’re a ragin’ Cajun on the tail of a swamp rat
• NES Longplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUZcbojyLBs
• Introductions
  • This game seems to be leaning into the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee. A move I cannot figure out.
• The Characters
  • Billy West
    • Bayou Billy, is a Crocodile Dundee-like survivalist, vigilante, and former U.S. soldier from New Orleans
  • Godfather Gordon
    • Local Crime Boss
    • kidnaps Billy's girlfriend Annabelle Lane
• Gameplay
  • beat 'em up
    • Closely mirrors Double Dragon style
    • Boss fights
  • light gun shooting
    • On-Rails Shooter
    • a standard controller or with an NES Zapper, depending on the mode chosen by the player before the start of the game.
    • Another game where you lose by running out of bullets
    • This game is made by Konami...Op Wolf was made by Taito so it seems like Nintendo could’ve played a role in the release of these games next to each other to revitalize Zapper interest?
  • Racing levels
    • launch grenades at airborne enemy vehicles and shoot at other cars m
    • Get to the finish before time runs out
      • But really might just be that you run out of gas?
    • One hit kills
• Thoughts
  • Dying results in the loss of your weapon and bulletproof vest, if you have either or both. This also counts in levels where they have no effect
  • Gordon’s laugh in the cutscenes
  • Avoiding damage during the light gun boss fight directly before Gordon's manor is impossible. If you reach the machine gunman and his knife throwing partner without enough health to weather the former's assault, you're already dead.
• Practice Mode
  • In addition to the main game mode, there's also a practice mode featuring shorter versions of select stages in order to help players familiarize themselves with the controls for each gameplay style. Completing a practice stage will award the player with a power-up that can be used in the main game.
• Sequels and Spinoffs
  • Famicom game Mad City
    • The NES version is harder than the Famicom version; enemies in the beat-'em-up stages are more aggressive and have more health, the player starts the shooting stages with less ammunition, and the driving stages have narrower roads.
    • The Famicom version has four possible endings, whereas the NES version only has one.
      • The normal ending
      • The ending that only once the game is over informs you that you CHEATED by using the power ups and refuses to show the ending
      • After beating the last boss, Annabelle comes out of a door and walks over to you. In Mad City, you can move around during this. If you stay away from her long enough, you'll get an alternate ending where Annabelle decides that Billy no longer wants her.
      • If you hold up+Select during the ending they change Japanese dialects in the middle of the cutscene and Billy asks Anabelle for a kiss to which she implies the player is watching.
  • Archie Comics published a comic book series based on The Adventures of Bayou Billy
  • Captain N: The Game Master, where Bayou Billy appears in an episode titled "How's Bayou"
    • Playing on the difficulty of its real world counterpart, Bayou Billy was said to be the one game even Captain N was unable to conquer yet.
    • Mother Brain had Dr. Wily build a robot cat to have Duke lead Captain N to Bayou Billy's world. Captain N ended up meeting Bayou Billy where he learned some tricks from him.
• EGL
• Next week -

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 Adventures of Bayou Billy, you're a raging Cajun on the tail of a swamp rat.

00:21 And welcome to NEStalgia, chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. This game seems to be leaning into the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee. You know, just a move. I'm not talking about the movie itself, but just a move. Strategically, marketing, Konami, Nintendo. I just can't figure out, like, why would you target Crocodile Dundee like that? I mean, okay, I guess like, yeah, the hat and the knife, but everything else is way too New Orleans based for me to make that assessment.

01:03 Yeah. They're like in the city at some point in this game, right? Yeah. And Crocodile Dundee is like, that's just Australia, which is probably the farthest from New Orleans I can think. But there's something about like even just the cover of the game and the poster for the movie. If you put them side by side, it feels like somebody plagiarized. Yeah. It's like they just, maybe they like airlifted them out of Australia and into New Orleans.

01:27 Right, right. So I'm not saying like, I agree. Like, yeah, they are two separate plots and everything like that. But I don't know, like, why would you be like, you know, we should, we should seek inspiration from Crocodile Dundee for our Japanese video game set in New Orleans. It's a fun adventure, right? I never saw Crocodile Dundee.

01:48 Yeah, I think that that's pretty much all that you can say about its aesthetic is just fun adventure. And it is a fun adventure, right? I mean, you play as Billy West, otherwise known as Bayou Billy.

02:00 They alternated on that in the manual. I can't tell if like Bayou Billy is like a known nickname for him or if they just like, well, we put that on the title of the game. So we should also call him Bayou Billy at some point in the manual. So it's clear. They also do this thing where they make it seem like there are like actors playing these characters, especially in the end credits. Like they gave each character like a real name. Well, that's a Konami thing, right? Yeah, we've had games like that before. Yeah, they seem to do that a lot where it's like, oh, it was all a movie. Like nobody really got hurt. It was all a movie. They pulled that twist on us in Castlevania.

02:36 Yeah, that's right. You're out about that. And then, okay, so it's Bayou Billy and then also Godfather Gordon, the local crime boss who kidnaps Billy's girlfriend, Annabelle.

02:50 And, you know, that's really all you need to know about the plot. But what does that say about like how close that is to – and I'm not saying this game is like Super Mario Brothers. But, you know, how close it is to Super Mario Brothers that like – is that just like a known video game thing at this time that like it's just simple enough? If you don't have a plot, just default to the villain capturing the girlfriend or the princess or something. I think that's just a storytelling thing in general. It doesn't matter if it's a video game or an action movie. I think this is one of just those boilerplate plots that you can slap on anything.

03:25 Would you argue that that's still true though, Sean? You know, whereas like now it seems like when movies do that trope, it's taken to almost like parody levels of, you know – not that Taken is a parody. But, you know, like that's a hyper-extreme movie where like, you know, they're clearly going off of the trope of like, you know, his daughter has been taken and now he's going to stop at nothing. And he – you know, the action scenes are over the top. I think that you just answered your question.

03:51 I think that – I mean, yeah, Taken is one of the most basic versions of this. But I think if you expanded the scope of this to like, oh, it's just a kidnapping plus this and that, then I think that a lot more movies and TV shows would probably fall into it. I don't know. I also think like particularly with early video games right now, like think of how many times we've had this trope just on this podcast so far.

04:22 And I think back then, you know, not always, but a lot of the time people were – you know, developers were not like we need to make the best story in this video game. Story was just one little checkmark in a list of things they were trying to make with like gameplay and graphics probably being more important to a lot of these developers. So they probably just picked the most generic like, oh, yeah, there's a story.

04:41 Okay. Well, maybe we can make a fun adventure out of this classic thing. Yeah. And while you move through the game through like, you know, different places and locations and even different genres of gameplay, it just seems like at the end of every level, it's just a reminder that Godfather Gordon has Annabelle. And I don't even know if we like really needed that. Like also, how is he communicating with Bayou Billy between stages? Does he call him on a phone? No, no, no. It's just a scene. It's a scene change. At least the audience knows.

05:13 But he's speaking directly to Billy. Like, oh, you got through that. You know? Stepping away for a second from like the story itself, like I – sorry, but like this manual is probably my favorite of all the ones that we've read so far.

05:34 Because in addition to this ridiculous story that is really just, you know, different decorations on the same archetypical plot that we keep seeing, it's colorfully written. It's not – there's no like huge grammatical errors.

05:51 It seems to be having fun. So I just wanted to point that out. Yeah, I chuckled a few times while reading that. It's funny. They're pouring a lot of love into it for sure. But I guess that's what I'm saying is it's like it seems to be that like the plot is or, you know, at least the characters they've designed have a lot more like – they have more of a vision for it. But then the actual game like never does anything with it. I guess like when you look at like Ninja Gaiden, right, you could say that that's kind of similar, right? Like when you boil it down, it is the same trope.

06:22 But like there's actual like plot turns and like, you know, oh, like your father's dead now. And like, no, it's turned out that he's been turned into this evil enemy that, you know, is revealed to you. It's like those things all sound great. And it seems like Konami has a vision of that but then just decided like but we don't really need to like show that in the game. Like we'll just keep reminding you that Annabelle is captured.

06:48 I don't see Bowser telling you like at the end of every level like, hey, just a reminder. I'm really close to beating the shit out of Peach. But also going back to kind of what you were saying before, not using the taken example but just the fact that this trope now in movies is a lot of times used in parody as well.

07:06 Like in like where things are over the top ridiculous because it's like, oh, this trope's been done a million times. I almost feel like that's what they're doing here. They're like they're making it over the top because they're like, ah, like another, you know, another like guy kidnapped, you know, bad guy kidnaps your girlfriend. Like you got to save her. And they have this like, I don't know, this goofy story that revolves around it that kind of pokes fun at itself. Yeah. What's the Keanu movie with the dogs where the dog, you know, his dog is kidnapped?

07:34 John Wick. Oh, yeah. Like where is the John Wick video game? Like the hyper, like, you know, Bowser steals Peach again. And this time Mario's taking everything like to the next level of like stylization and, you know, just stunting on everybody. Like a Shadow the Hedgehog but in the Mario world. You know what? There was a Shadow the Hedgehog game and maybe that is the plot. Maybe somebody took like he had a scientist he loved in Sonic Adventure 2. Maybe they took her and Marie was her name. I would love to see a, like a misanthropic emo Mario. I think that would be pretty cool. People always wanted an M-rated Mario. I don't understand why. I don't seem to feel there at all.

08:14 Maybe, you know, they're like, well, we grew up with Mario so Mario should grow up with us. I want a Mario with a face tattoo. Yeah. I want a sleeping dogs Mario. Yeah, I agree. Open world GTA-like but, you know, set in that feudal Japan Super Mario Odyssey level that's all Bowser's Kingdom.

08:34 What show is this again? Yeah, we're getting close to talking about the game. Bye, you, Billy. Notable more so than anything for the fact that it is one-third beat-em-up, one-third light gun, one-third racing game. And racing, I think, is like a weird term. I took that from the wiki, but I wouldn't describe these as racing levels. They're like Mach Rider-esque. Where did we fall on like what you would call these kinds of like stages, you know? I mean, they're driving levels.

09:02 I wouldn't go so far to say it's a race because, I mean, I guess it's a race against time, but it's just a driving level with a timer. But is it even, is there a timer in this? Yeah, I mean, like it's, the timer is your fuel, but it acts as a timer. Oh, right, right. And what do you think about like, you know, we've been praising games incorporating two genres. This is now like, hey, you guys love that shit. It seems like Konami served this up on a platter. They're like, oh, I heard you guys like games inside games. So here's three.

09:32 You know, I appreciated it. I get a vibe that maybe I won't be fully agreed with, but I think that they did a great job of making a well-rounded game. While that might have meant sometimes it was like a jack-of-all-trades, master of none, I thought it was a good, you know, every time like a change in play style came, it was welcome. Because it was like right when I was like probably would have started to get bored with the last one. And it kept it fresh for me. And I thought that they were each at least passable, but at best, okay, pretty good in some cases. Wow. All right. I guess you're going to have to start explaining yourself in these more in-depth sections now.

10:12 Yeah. Go ahead. Before we get it too in-depth, though, I would say one thing, Joe. You know, if you're saying that like it's great that they switched it up more often and gave you the variety in it, like things didn't get too stale, right? I'd say you had me until you said things didn't get too stale because I would argue that these levels, which seem short if you look at them on like a strategy wiki website or something like that, right? If you look at like the maps, you're like, oh, it's not that long. But the actual levels themselves, I felt like all overstayed their welcome no matter which one it was.

10:45 If it was the beat-em-up stages, I was like, okay, don't really need like another round of fighters here. Like I feel like these fights go on forever. If it's the light gun thing, I'm like, you know, I'm getting shot at a lot. It's going to be hard to survive. If it's the driving levels, I'm like, wow, that's a really long way to the finish. Like it's going to take me a while to drive through all of this. So they just seem like I would cycle through them more often.

11:08 See, I – well, I mean I disagree with what you just said with everything except for the beat-em-up stages. I completely was like by the end of every beat-em-up stage like just get me out of this stage because I do think – but I think that was more because of the mechanics of the beat-em-up stage were the ones that weren't perfect. Or like I think it was not even necessarily that the stage itself was – I think the reason that the stage was too long was because they just made the enemies like take too long to kill.

11:33 So like they made each little thing you have to do take too long. And I thought that that got a little annoying. But as far as the driving stage and the – especially the light gun stage, I thought that those were engaging straight through for me. I mean I never thought that – first of all, I thought the light gun stages were kind of short. Like I could have gone for a little longer on those. And I didn't use a light gun.

11:56 I used the controller, which surprisingly worked really well, which I wouldn't have thought would happen because I don't think I've played one of these light gun games without a light gun yet.

12:05 Yeah, you weren't on our Operation Wolf episode last week where that was also one that you could use a controller on. But yeah, so I guess we have a little bit of a difference of opinion of those other two stages. But I thought those other two stages were really well balanced.

12:34 So let's break it down then. Let's go into the beat-em-up first, something that very closely mirrors the Double Dragon style of gameplay that is currently prevalent in NES beat-em-up games. I mentioned Double Dragon because that's our reference for how to do it right. That's on our Essential Games list. I think it's the only beat-em-up on our Essential Games list.

12:52 So it's taking that Double Dragon style. It's giving you a button for punching, a button for kicking, and then push both of them together, and you get a jump kick, which sounds great on paper, but I didn't appreciate that the only way to jump is to also do the jump kick. There should have just been the up arrow on the D-pad, which isn't preferred. But there just should have been another way to do jumping in this game because that just feels weird.

13:16 If you need to jump in this game and there's no one to attack, you still have to do the jump attack button. But that's a small nitpick. Sean, thoughts on the beat-em-up? I had high hopes for the beat-em-up sections until I actually started fighting the guys. And like Mike was saying, they take forever to kill, especially if you're hand-to-hand.

13:40 And it just seems that whenever you push an input, there's ever so slightly a delay that doesn't really occur in these other beat-em-ups that we played. And they don't seem to have that same kind of delay. They seem to just know that you're in range and immediately do a frame-perfect punch.

14:01 You don't have enough range on your attacks. It all added up. Like, all of these things are kind of small when taken alone. But when they all get thrown in together, it becomes a very frustrating experience. And to be honest, I played through that first level five or six times until I was just like, OK, I'm going to go play the practice stage. And OK, I'll play the practice stage for the other different modes. And I was like, OK, if I'm going to play through this for real, or at least not for real, but at least experience the game, I have to cheat. So I had to cheat in this game just to get past the first level because the beat-em-up section is so poorly designed.

14:51 Sean, may I ask real fast before we go over to Joe? Was it the, like, you know, you were saying, just the normal guys that are basically acting like punching bags. Were you stopped by them, or did it get to the section where you have to fight the alligators? I actually got through the alligators pretty easily because I think I accidentally cheesed them. Like, that I didn't have to cheat for. I was just like, oh, if I stand here, they keep, like, spawning in a place that they just can't hit my hitbox.

15:19 So the alligators were fine. It was the, like, gas mask dudes in the swamp later, along with, like, when they were paired up with the big burly dudes. So you've got, like, gas mask dude with a, um, uh, with a bulletproof vest, and you've got big burly dude with a rock. And that combination, uh, was very, very difficult. So I was just like, I can't do it anymore. I might be remembering this wrong, but the gas mask guys are, like, scuba guys, right? Like, they're coming out from the water. Yeah, I guess they're more scuba. I just didn't want them to think, like, New Orleans had been in, like, a post-apocalyptic setting. I mean, you know. For context, in the manual, their name is Jacques Kilsto.

16:04 Yeah. Just this game has a sense of humor. Yes, yes, you're right. I forgot about that. So, yeah, scuba, not gas mask. Strike it from the record, Mike. Yeah, you got it. You got it. Joe, thoughts on the beat-em-up stages? Yeah, I mean, I definitely largely agree. As far as, I think the beat-em-up stages are the weakest portion of this game by far. And it is, I don't know that I noticed necessarily that the controls themselves were a problem.

16:28 But it's more like the enemies, I don't know, it just feels like in any other video game, it would take, like, one-sixteenth the amount of hits on an enemy to kill the enemy. So, like, it never ends up being like, oh, this is interesting. I have to think about a way to do it. It's just like, I just got to hit that guy, like, 16 times. And, like, it gets a little frustrating after a while. It doesn't feel like there was a lot of thought put into, like, how that would work.

16:53 And I definitely was very annoyed with the crocodiles. And I did, like you did, Sean, I cheesed them after a while where I was able to stand a certain distance away from them and, like, hit them at a point where they couldn't hit me. But, again, it's like 15 hits that I have to get on them. And, like, sometimes you just absolutely can't get past them.

17:13 So, it just becomes you standing there off to the corner as they come at you. And there's just, like, nothing you can do but try and hit them. And when you do it, when you do the cheesing way that I was doing, you only hit them one out of every, like, five swings. So, it was really just, like, those really just stopped down the level for me. But I will say that there were some points where, like, at one point I realized, I didn't even notice, that I had a gun. And I picked it up from an enemy. I didn't even notice that, like, that was a pickup. I didn't even realize I had a gun.

17:40 Yeah. And when I started using that, like, and it would, like, kill an enemy in one hit. And it suddenly, I guess, you know, did a good job of making me feel like my ammo, first of all, was really valuable. Made me really think about, like, what weapon, when to use my gun, when to attack. And kind of, in that sense, like, I think it did an okay job of doing that. And especially with some of the other weapons you pick up later. There was a whip that I used a lot.

18:05 And, you know, like, a throwing knife. Well, a whip is indispensable. Yeah. What's that? The whip is, like, you have to use that. Yeah, yeah. I think unless you have the gun and you have enough ammo for it, the whip is the next best thing. But it, like, keeps the enemies away from you. So, like, on that level, I thought it was good. But I did feel like that's the one where, you know, like I said earlier, I agree with Mike. Like, that those levels are too long.

18:27 Well, you know, they're probably just too long, though, because of this, you know, the amount of time it takes to defeat an enemy, right? Now put in a few enemies in each wave and then the number of waves. I just feel like you have to make a decision. It's either, like, okay, there's going to be, like, you know, the enemies are really hard fights that you have to be very strategic about, like, you know, make sure, like, you know, this is a fist fight, right? So they're going for some kind of realism here where, like, a bullet means an automatic death.

18:57 But a fist fight, you know, most people don't die in, like, you know, four punches. Like, you're going to have, you are seriously knocking these guys unconscious because you have to hit them, like, 16 times. So you are really beating them down to a pulp. But the tradeoff there is that now you're saying, all right, so that's the amount of hits that it's going to take because this is a fist fight and we want it to feel like that.

19:17 However, you're really testing the limits of the player here because you can keep saying, like, okay, well, now, you know, you saw how it was with one guy. All right, now it's two guys. Now it's three guys. Now it's alligators. You know, it's like I feel like there was a certain decision made here where they needed to actually step back and say, like, as we're building out the waves, we should test the game at this point and see if, like, how this feels, you know? And I'm not saying they didn't. We have no way of knowing. But it feels like they made the whole level, then tested it and said, well, we just programmed all this. So we're going to keep it.

19:54 But I don't know that, like, you know, I don't know if, like, the bullet, you know, and having limited ammo, like, yes, that is, like, something that is really cool feeling and, like, yes, you should conserve that stuff. But I don't know if it should be praised because it's, like, I don't know, just make, like, just make combat in general more interesting. Don't rely on, like, picking up a gun. Like, you know, you guys are both talking about the whip.

20:17 I'm like, I don't know if you, you know, like, shouldn't you just have always had a weapon? You were coming into a fight. Like, I don't know. Like, should that have just been the thing? Should you have been a little more powerful than your adversaries? You're going up against a bunch of them if they're the grunts and you're no more powerful than the grunts.

20:35 Well, okay, this might be a little bit of a silly comparison. But when I was talking about the gun thing, like, I almost think of that, like, in a slightly similar way to, like, the way The Last of Us makes me feel. Where it's, like, it makes me feel about conserving my ammo. And, like, it makes me feel like, what do I want to use this bullet on? And, yeah, it is, like, I agree with you on everything else you're saying. I definitely think that, like, it was a gameplay, like, the gameplay in these levels was kind of designed in a way that doesn't really let you, like, play it.

21:03 You know, it makes you want to cheese it more. It makes you want to just, you know, avoid everyone, which you can't half the time. So you just got to, you know, like, I found myself running in circles sometimes as people chased me. And, like, staying the exact distance away from them where they can't hit me. And then every once in a while I would come up behind them and hit them once, keep running in circles. Like, that was, like, a strategy. Which games should never be, like, unbalanced enough that you have to, like, resort to things like that. But I thought that the weapon thing was, like, the one thing that made me somewhat enjoy these levels.

21:31 Where it was making me think, like, okay, I got a gun here. Like, I can use it on this guy. Okay, maybe I got to kill that guy. But I'll save it for this because I know this guy is coming up or whatever.

21:39 But, yeah. For the gun, I just, the way that I would describe the gun, I still think that the inclusion of it should be praised. Because we're in a beat-em-up game. And, like, I haven't seen a gun in a beat-em-up that is supposed to be used, like, more situationally before. I think it does add, like, alone. Like, the idea of this alone, like, sort of adds to the strategy of this game. But the fact that the baseline combat is so, like, sluggish that it really undercuts that inclusion. Like, the gun would be much cooler if this were a much more polished game. I don't think that it should be. I do think that its inclusion should be praised in some way.

22:28 And then also in these beat-em-up stages, there's the boss fights, too. Where, you know, these guys have, I think they get a separate health bar on the opposite side of the screen of where your health bar is. And, you know, they're significantly bigger. They have different ways of handling combat than, you know, your usual grunt. Because I think, like, you know, the first boss you go up against in this beat-em-up stage actually, like, can pick you up and throw you and do a massive amount of damage. And I feel like there's some real danger in that, too.

23:00 Like, this feels like a little bit of a one-on-one style thing that we were talking about of, like, well, if you have a weapon here, that would be great. Because then you can, you know, you can go through this fight a lot faster. But you also want to make sure you don't, like, just go, you know, like, just lose it or lose your opportunity. Because, like, whenever you die in this game, you lose all your stuff, too. So, you know, the actual boss fights here have a balance of, like, it's the same shitty combat that we've been talking about beforehand with all the different waves. But now it feels more personal. It feels like a one-on-one fight.

23:35 I just wish that, like, I could be a little more creative than just trying to think of, like, ways to cheese it as I'm going up against these guys. Because I'm being so cautious. Because I'm realizing, like, you know, my health is a precious thing. If I have a weapon, I really don't want to lose it. And so I'm just trying to really, like, circle around the area and then get, like, you know, I'll get, like, a punch or a kick in, maybe. And then I'll go back to, like, you know, running away. Maybe that's the way they, you know, they expected you to play out these boss fights. Be more conservative and play out that way. To me, it just felt like it doesn't match, like, how a beat-em-up usually goes down. Right? Like, the pacing seemed off.

24:15 Yeah, it seems to be, like, less. I mean, it seems to be, like, similar amount of enemies on screen. But just because it takes so long to kill them, there ends up being fewer screens, kind of. And you spend way more time, like, just staring at each individual section. So, yeah, it definitely feels sluggish. Joe, any thoughts on the boss fights? Yeah, I mean, similarly, I mean, I just felt like it's...

24:44 I mean, I don't want to keep repeating myself. But, like, it takes several hits before you even see their health bar to start going down. Did you guys notice that? Yeah. Like, it's like they have an invisible health bar. Yeah, they have the colored bars they should have, you know, over each of the health bar. Yeah, it's like Sephiroth's invisible health bar. And it's just, like, things like that where it's like, well, why not at least give me the feedback? I mean, I get that, like, there's a bulletproof vest in this game that kind of gives you that ability.

25:09 So, like, they must have that or something similar to that. But it just, like, feels like, am I even doing anything? I'm just sitting here, like, just hitting this boss over and over again while I'm getting destroyed. And, like, I don't even have any feedback. So, like, it felt like a similar frustration there. And I'm not sure what the answer is there, given the game that we currently have. Like, I'm not sure how you make the boss fights more engaging. Because it is a scary threat to go up against.

25:35 And they're not, like, they're not impossible as, like, a one-on-one combat. I think that would suck if they were actually, like, also just, you know, really tough to beat.

25:47 And, you know, destroyed you no matter what you did. Like, that would be my moment of giving up, too. So, they are beatable. And it's not terrible. But it's, like, it's not interesting enough for the types of bosses we're going up against. I thought, like, you know, facing a gigantic dude who's clearly, like, can throw me over his head and suplex me. Like, I thought that was a pretty cool idea. It's just nothing really happens with it. It doesn't go anywhere. Right. So, the next one we'll talk about is the light gun shooting portion of the game.

26:34 Obviously, used within NES Zapper here. And just, you know, quick observation here. I mean, last week we played Operation Wolf. And that was made by Taito. This game is made by Konami. So, is it, like, did Nintendo play a role in, like, the release dates of these games? And saying, like, oh, we should release Zapper games close to each other? Or, like, I can't imagine Konami and Taito would want it this way. Where they'd be like, yeah, let's make two Zapper games and compete against each other.

27:02 Like, it feels like Nintendo just kind of threw these in here. I don't know if you guys have any thoughts about that. Or if, like, this is, like, a weird point where, like, they're also both being used by a controller instead of the Zapper. If you so wish. Whereas, like, the Nintendo Zapper games are, like, you must use the Zapper.

27:17 Any thoughts here on any of this stuff? I don't know if it was just a coincidence. I think, like, the odds of it are coincidence. But it is such an odd, like, because we, like, Zapper games have been so sporadically released recently that it's almost hard to believe that that's a coincidence. Otherwise, I think it would definitely just be Nintendo of America saying, like, oh, we're going to do this. Because they kind of, they fit that same mold.

27:48 Yeah, I wonder if, like, the Nintendo action set was being released, like, maybe, like, the Christmas before or something. Like, you know, that's the one that came with the Zapper in it. So maybe they're trying to, like, justify. They're like, no, it wasn't a waste that you bought that. Like, those games that you played, like, yeah, they're still good. But now you also have these new Zapper games. Like, maybe they were trying to revitalize some Zapper interest. But they really don't go anywhere else with it from here on out. So it just seems strange that we have back-to-back Zapper games. But let's not talk about Operation Wolf.

28:18 Let's stay on topic here with Bayou Billy. Joe, you were a fan of these light gun portion of this game. And you said that maybe it could have even been a little longer. What did you like so much about it? Yeah, well, I mean, I think, like, first of all, I think it's clear that I am just a fan of Zapper levels and Zapper games. And I didn't play this with the Zapper. So I think part of it was that I was very pleasantly surprised at how well it worked with the controller. And I did listen to your episode last week that you guys were on where you both said the same thing. So it was interesting to kind of experience that.

28:52 But I don't know. I just thought it was, you know, it's not like it's different, like super different from, and I'm blanking on the name. There was another game like this. The whole game was like this. We played, like, I think in 87. I'm not going to remember. But it's not like it's super different than things that we've seen before. But I just think it works really well, and it's nice for me to see, like. Were you thinking of Freedom Force? Freedom Force. Yes, I was. Oh, yeah. Which I voted essential, if that's the one I'm thinking of. You may have. Yeah. Sounds like a Joe move.

29:26 And he's Appergame. But I just, you know, thought it was a nice way to, like, break up the adventure and make it feel like you're progressing. Make it feel like, you know, this is something a little different. And, admittedly, part of me was just having to imagine how cool it would be to just then bust out the Zapper in the middle of playing this other adventure and be like, all right, now I'm shooting people. But, yeah, I think it was very clean and it worked very well.

29:51 And I love the fact that maybe this is something that we'll talk about later, but I love the fact that on the menu screen it allows you to go practice the Zapper. You don't have to play through. You can, like, get better at that first before you play through the adventure. So you can just play through the Zapper levels at any time you want.

30:08 And I thought that that was a really nice touch that kind of, like, makes it feel more like you're trying to get, you know, you're trying to progress. You know, you can be like, all right, I'm going to practice this before I start. It's because I know that, you know, I'm not good at the Zapper game. You can do this with other levels, too. But, like, I'm not good at the Zapper levels. I'm going to practice the Zapper levels. Okay, now I'm going to start my journey. And you get to the Zapper level and now you feel like you've kind of earned it. I'd say that these levels, like, yeah, it felt very much like the last game we played. It was tight, like, with the controller controls because, again, I don't have a Zapper.

30:43 But I'd say that this had less going for it than remind me of the game we just played. Operation Wolf? Operation Wolf. Because Operation Wolf had, you know, the grenades, which you also had to keep track of. I don't think there was ammo in this one.

31:04 Was there ammo? There is ammo because if you run out of it, it's, again, it's another Operation Wolf parallel. They both have a thing where, like, if you lose, you can lose by running out of bullets. True. Okay. So not that. But at least with Operation Wolf, it seemed like there was a bit more challenge.

31:22 Because I think as challenging almost, yeah, very much to the point of frustration at the beat-em-up portions of this game where the first-person shooter, I guess, portions of this game were kind of easy for me. I don't know if it was because I was just doing it with a controller, but there were certain points where, like, the enemies are dropping in, like, two or three different areas. And you could just kind of, like, oscillate between those two spawn spots.

31:53 Sometimes there'll be enemies running by, but your cursor moves fast enough that you never really have too big of an issue catching up to them. Um, so I thought that, like, this was, this is a bit more enjoyable, only so much that it felt more like a rest, um, as opposed to the beat-em-ups. But, yeah, I think that this was kind of half-baked, too.

32:19 I'd say the best part about these light gun levels are where the enemies can hide. Like, yes, for the most part, they're spawning, um, right out in the open, and it doesn't take much challenge to take those guys out. But, you know, maybe my reaction times aren't what they used to be. But I liked, like, occasionally just being like, wait a minute, is that a guy in the bushes? Like, you know, and, like, you barely see his head, you know?

32:42 Like, and then, like, you know, he probably took some damage on me or whatever. But, like, and then it's, like, satisfying to take those guys out because it's not, like, an entire, uh, you know, an entire human's body that you have access to. It's, like, you got to shoot the head and, like, they're, you know, they're in, like, the trees in the background. I like how there was, like, a background, a bushes area, and then, like, the foreground, you know? Like, I like that there was, like, multiple, even though it is all flat, obviously, and the zapper can't differentiate.

33:12 Like, it is kind of cool. Like a classic shooting gallery. Right. You have to, like, pay attention to all areas of the, um, of it. And I wasn't sure, uh, if they were just spawning randomly, like, you know, uh, each time or if they were being, like, properly placed. Uh, Joe, I don't know if, you know, maybe the practice would have revealed that to you. Did, was it always the same placements? I, don't quote me on this, but I thought that they were placed. Like, I'm pretty sure I remember, like, redoing the level and starting to kind of, like, learn the patterns.

33:41 Um, but I'm not positive. Yeah, because I was thinking about that even, like, when you get to the helicopter boss fight. Those felt kind of random of when those soldiers, like, pop out of the helicopter or from the sides.

33:54 Um, so I wasn't sure. But, yeah, it would make sense. Placement would make a lot more sense for something like this because I imagine it would be hard to program, like, randomly showing up in the bushes or stuff like that. Yeah, but, but I had, I had fun with the zapper portion of this game. I did find it a little challenging, though. Not in the sense of, like, you know, game over screens all the time or anything like that. But, there's a lot of enemies on the screen, and I feel like, you know, if, let's say there's four, right?

34:23 Even if you take out, like, three, you're probably going to get shot by one of them. And that results in a loss of, you know, one health bar. So, I feel like that is, you know, along the course of a stage, that is kind of tough because they are hitting you as you keep going through. So, you do have to worry about it later on during the boss fights. Like, I think it would be rare to go into the boss fights with a full health bar and, you know, not that you need it, but it would be helpful when dying counts as so much in this game.

34:48 Yeah, I think that, like, based on, based on previous experience, I think it might not necessarily be easier with the zapper, but I think it would be more doable with the zapper. Like, because you don't, you're not limited to the speed that you move the cursor. It's just wherever you point, you can shoot. So, if you're, if you're quick enough on your reflexes, I think with the zapper, that wouldn't be as much of a problem. Yeah, just shoot point blank at the TV screen. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you don't cheat, then what I'm saying applies. Hey, they're getting close to the TV screen. Why shouldn't you? That's true.

35:18 That's a very good point. But, yeah, I think overall, like, what you guys, well, especially what Sean's saying, too, kind of likens back to when I was saying that, like, at least the way I feel about it is it's a jack of all trades, master of none. Like, I think that it does the light gun thing well. But, yeah, it's not, it's not, like, as good as other light gun game things we've done before. But it's cool to see the variety.

35:42 You know, it feels, this game feels a little bit like a little triathlon of games. You know what I mean? And I feel like this, yes, it does give me a little bit of, like, I get to rest from that part that I'm, like, not crazy about. But also I'm definitely, like, on the edge of my seat, like, okay, I got to try and beat this stage this time. You know, like, it feels like a fun challenge and not, like, the previous stage, the beat-em-up stage where it's, like, a little bit of, like, okay, I think I figured out a way to just cheese this because it's just way too, you know, way too difficult otherwise.

36:14 Does the game really need this, though? Like, I think you know what I mean by saying that. I'm not saying, like, it's good or bad or anything like that. Does it actually need this whole light gun shooting portion of it? Like, is the game so long or such a slog that, like, oh, well, this will help, you know, keep people engaged and it's something different. Like, I don't know, like, how much this feels like the rest of the game between the beat-em-up and the driving levels. Like, how, I don't know, like, maybe it was the first-person view. Maybe it was, like, the swamp setting.

36:46 Maybe it was just, like, the idea that, like, a guy who was fighting with his fists a second ago and had nothing else available to him now has, like, a gun with, like, a plentiful amount of bullets. More so than you would expect from a guy who in the beat-em-up levels only gets, like, you know, I think it's, like, less than six shots with the gun.

37:06 I think, I mean, yeah, I guess no game needs anything. But I think this does add value to the experience. Like, for somebody that has a light gun, the library for that's pretty small. You might want your light gun game to be more than just a light gun game. Um, I think it adds value. I don't think... Not about adding value, though. I guess I just wonder, does it feel out of place in this game?

37:35 Do you felt like it just was like, oh, yeah, now I'm going into the Zapper stage. Like, of course. I guess, like, contextually, it maybe doesn't do, like, I don't know. I mean, even trying to think of, like, Golgo 13, like, how well that those were, like, split apart. But, like, contextually, maybe it feels out of place. But I think gameplay-wise, like, I don't know.

37:53 I think the variety is the draw. Like, I think that without that variety of these, like, of these three totally different types of game, this would just completely melt into, like, the, like, super mediocre or even bad games that we've played. Like, it's just another boring game. Where this made me interested in it, you know? Not just the Zapper, but combined with the Zapper and the driving sections.

38:18 Right. At this point, they should have added, like, a high-stakes, you know, Texas Hold'em game into one of the levels, too, at the end of it. Hey, I'm in for it. Like, now you're in my poker tournament. I'm in for it. You know, we've seen people try to do this before and, like, to varying degrees of success. And I think that they did a decent job, minus the first level. I just question the context is all. I'm not saying, like, the Zapper levels are shit and they shouldn't be in the game. I just question why they're here. But a tremendous value to the customer. Yeah, I guess it's like having a, not like a Halo game and then there's a Kinect portion. I guess, yeah, if you look at it that way, it's out of place.

38:58 And I guess that means it's not needed. But, yeah, I still think that in this sort of, like, not so mature video game space, it fits well enough. But, Sean, you did make the best argument yet, which is the value thing. Like, that is clearly something that, like, you know, is at the front of Konami's head, if not Nintendo's. It's like, you want to give a tremendous value for the game that you're buying.

39:25 You want people to think, like, I must buy this game because of everything it's bringing to the experience. So, that is the most compelling reason of why to include a game that is a Zapper game, a normal, like, you know, beat-em-up style arcade game, and has, like, driving levels, too. Like, yeah, that's definitely the sell. When you read that in a magazine, you're like, I must buy this game. It's three different games.

39:46 Yeah. Yeah, and, you know, to address what you said a minute ago, Sean, about, like, the Kinect game being added to an Xbox game or something. The way that I sort of kind of – I guess it's just – it just depends on, like, your perspective on it or the way you like to look at it. But the way that I was sort of feeling about it was a little more like – like, we'll say a Ratchet & Clank game because those are just games that I know really well.

40:09 Like, obviously, those games are all largely, like, one style of gameplay. But, like, then you have the racing section. And then you have the section where you get in a turret and you're suddenly, like, first person shooting down ships. And then you have the section where you're on grind rail. And, like, they're all different little, like, mini games within the game that help get you there. I think the difference there, though, is that you're using the same input method. Like, it's always a controller.

40:29 So everything feels a bit more fluid because you don't have to run and – not run and grab. But, like, now you don't have to put your controller down and grab the gun. And now you're shooting with the gun. It feels a little bit more disjointed. And I guess as I keep talking, I'm siding more with Mike on this.

40:48 But the mixed input method, I think, is where that feeling of disjointedness kind of comes from. Not so much different modes of play. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I see what you're saying. I'm, like, yeah. I'm, like, actually, like, physically, like, having different controllers.

41:03 But then personally, I feel like that that is a minimal – like, that's still – I'm not saying that they did it perfectly. But now just the idea, the concept of, like, switching input methods doesn't bother me if it's done right. Which I think this was done okay. Yeah. Could have been done better. But, like, if I see a game done really well where you have to put down your controller and pick up, like, a gun, I think that could be a really cool thing. You know, I don't think that that's necessarily a negative.

41:31 And you'll have to change inputs again, Joe, because we are now talking about the driving levels of the game. You know, I think driving levels, you know, we were talking about this. They're definitely not racing levels in my book. You're not racing anybody. Could be a race against your gas, though, as Sean mentioned earlier on in the episode. It's just – it's like mock rider stages, you know?

41:50 They have this fake 3D look to them and the roads bend at a moment's notice. But I think you can tell. Actually, I would argue that you can tell here more so than in any other one of these games that we've played that, you know, that the road is about to bend. And I actually found myself enjoying the driving portions of this game specifically because there's, like, enough control over your car. There's enough, like – there's not too many other vehicles littered, so you have time to shoot them because you have – they're saying it's grenades, but I thought it was just bullets from the car. Do we have a verdict on whether it's grenades or bullets?

42:33 I think it's grenades. That's interesting. You're just – yeah, you have a car equipped with shooting grenades in New Orleans, and I just liked how much control you had over your environment and over the other vehicles. And then it all comes crashing down when you realize that, like, oh, I made it through, like, 25% of the stage, and even though I unfortunately did crash into a pole that I didn't see, you know, I get to start right over again. So let me just keep going along, you know? Like, I get to start right where I am. So now I go a little bit further. I maybe get to, like, the 40% mark, and that's being generous. And then I hit another pole, and it's like, all right, simple mistake. Like, I see what I did there. I'm going to fix this.

43:15 Just respawn me back in, and it does that, and that's really nice. I'm like, wow, I can't believe this game is just going to, like, allow me to just pick up right where I left off because I have the lives for it. And then all of a sudden you don't have the lives for it anymore. You realize you made it maybe 50% of the way through or 60% or whatever. And you're like, all right, no big deal. I'll just continue. Hopefully the game doesn't start you all over again. And they don't. And you're like, oh, that's a relief. But they start you back at the beginning of the level.

43:42 And it's like, well, that was a really long stage. Am I going to really remember all of the twists and turns and all of the pulls I hit from earlier on? Am I going to be able to be perfect? You have to remember that? Am I going to be able to be perfect for this long? I don't know. It felt like the length of this stage was what hurt it from being fun.

44:01 I mean, yeah. I guess they are a little long. I felt like a lot of the obstacles were easy enough to avoid. If you're prioritizing avoiding things that are going to make you explode and maybe allowing yourself to take a hit from, I don't know, a puddle or oil slick or whatever the hell those things are that just slows you down a bit. I thought that it was manageable enough. You could sort of juke the helicopters to drop stuff on the sides of the road. What are they dropping? I don't even know. They're like torpedoes or something.

44:49 But I don't know. I didn't find these too challenging. There are some frustrating moments just with fuel or time, whatever you want to call it. But I also didn't see anything great about them either. I mean, I guess it's got a bit of a sense of speed. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, once again, I really didn't find this too long.

45:14 It was long. And I see what you're saying about having to start the levels over after you lose all your lives. But I thought that that was a good balance. I mean, it didn't just put you back right where you died, but didn't send you back to the beginning of the game, which so many games have done so far. And it is, yeah, it is like you do have to sort of practice and get better at this, which, again, they include in the menu. But I thought that this was a fun addition. And I agree that it wasn't like there wasn't anything like absolutely amazing about the driving compared to like a game that would maybe focus solely on this kind of driving.

45:51 But it was in a game that has a lot of other things in it. Like I thought it was another fun switch up. And it didn't overstay its welcome for me. Like I'm sure I would have gotten bored because they would have needed to add a little more to it if they wanted to make a full game out of it. But for being like two levels in this game, I enjoyed these parts. No, I love the stages. Don't get me wrong. Like I love the driving levels. And I think they are a good challenge.

46:20 I question, you know, my gameplay abilities, I suppose, because I did find these challenging. I found the driving levels to be, you know, not unforgiving all the time. You know, it's not one of those things where I'm constantly dying or an enemy spawns out of nowhere and I crash into him. Or I don't even think there's like, you know, there's not like the Mock Rider style obstacles of like puddles and other things that make you like slip and slide around. So like it's generally a relaxing experience compared to, you know, the reflex moves of the light gun shooting part or just the slow draw of the beat-em-up stages. So I really like these.

47:04 I guess I just question my own gameplay ability because I found myself to be struggling with these driving levels over the course of the entire level. You know, enough that like – You're talking to somebody that had to cheat for the beat-em-up portion. So I think you're fine. Yeah. And also, I mean, I definitely struggled too. And then I started practicing over and over. You know, like that is another thing about the practice where it makes you – I feel like it makes you feel like this is like – it makes your goals more like tangible.

47:29 It makes you feel like, okay, I'm going to try and beat this game but not like other games where it's like I just have to keep trying over and over again and just get better like that tedious way. But it's like, okay, I know I'm bad at driving parts. I can just go play the driving parts and get better at those before I play the game. And I don't know. That just gave it a little more like – I don't know. Like a cooler feeling of progress to me.

47:48 I really should have done the practice mode stuff. You keep bringing it up, Joe, but I think we should just mention what it is real fast. It's another game mode that you can select from the main menu that basically is like a shorter version of select stages that lets you like figure out how to play. Like, oh, I'm not good with the zapper so I want to get better or I want to get better at driving.

48:09 So there's shorter stages but then when you complete these practice stages, you are awarded a power-up that can be used in the actual game. And that's a pretty cool bonus for like – it's almost like a hidden feature that shouldn't be so hidden. I'm sure it's mentioned in the manual or whatever. But like that seems very helpful to any player who's going through this game because you're probably going to need those power-ups.

48:32 Yeah, no, I thought that that was a cool – because usually these like – we've played games with practice modes. But they're usually just like an afterthought slapped on. And it's a very simple thing that adds to their inclusion of, yeah, just adding that stat boost or that extra life or whatever the rewards are to make it feel more a part of the whole package. I really like that. Now, Joe, you're the one who played practice mode so I want to hear your thoughts. Oh, I did too. Oh, okay. Sorry. Joe just keeps bringing it up. You can't shut up. Yeah, I literally have said it on every section of the podcast so far.

49:13 No, yeah, like I said, I think I've said my piece about it. I think that it adds a lot to the game and it gives you also just the option to just play your favorite type of level because the levels are so different. I mean that might not necessarily be like – depending on how you want to look at that, that can be a plus, like a positive or a negative. I mean if it's like you just hate the rest of the game and you only want to play that part, that doesn't speak well to the game. But if it's like, oh, my favorite part is the first-person shooter parts or like I want to have a friend over to play a Zapper game, you can just jump into the Zapper game. I think that's really neat.

49:46 I definitely like the reward thing though and I almost wonder if like should that have been a – should that have been something in this game? In the main modes too though of like the way that you get the power-ups in this game mostly are in the beat-em-up stages just by like you punch an enemy and then maybe a turkey falls out of him.

50:11 It sounds ridiculous but that's what happens. That's how you find most of the power-ups in this game. Other times it's like you shoot in the light gun stages. You shoot the guy and then it's like, oh, there's a bulletproof vest so you collect that. You know, like cool. All those things check out and they're typical for video games.

50:30 But I wonder if there was like another incentive of like a certain random thing or not random or based on performance that you could get to help you with the next stage similar to the practice mode. It seems like it's a feature already built in like that they can make that work so it would have probably enhanced playthroughs of like, you know, how well did you do during the beat-em-up stage? Well, now you have this in the light gun round.

50:55 Yeah. I think – yeah. I mean I think that first of all, it's cool that they include power-ups there but it would be – yeah, it would be really cool if they made it like almost more integral to the overall. Yeah, because the power-up thing, like the overall situation of the power-ups is just strange in general. It's – you know, we're even calling them power-ups. We probably should just call them items. Yeah. But like, you know, dying at any point in the game results in the loss of whatever weapon you had and the bulletproof vest.

51:24 Now, if you have both, you'll lose both. If you have either, you'll lose either one you have. It's very simple. No matter what, you're losing these things anytime you die. But this also counts in levels where they have no effect. So if you had a weapon that you were carrying over from like a light gun stage to like a later beat-em-up stage, well, it doesn't matter if you die during the light gun stage because now that weapon is gone too. I guess like logically that checks out but continuity in general would end for that person if they died. It's true. Like what they did. Your episodic memory stops. Yeah, like they blacked out and they were like, oh, cool. Let's take his knife and then they were like, all right, but let him get back up.

52:05 No, no, no. I think dying in a video game is like, you know, you're playing a different version of this person in the multiverse. So – Who also did everything exactly the same before that though minus having the knife? Yes. Oh, okay. Yes, okay. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That checks out for my explanation.

52:27 Yeah, see, I actually didn't realize that that's how it worked though. That like in the shooting level if I died that I would lose – I thought it was actually just every time you went to a new level you lost your older power-ups because I always died at the next level. So I never felt the other – I never experienced the other way around where I got – The carry over, right? Yeah, I never got through like the shoot-em-up and then the driving level without dying and then got back to a beat-em-up and was like, hey, I still got my weapons.

52:54 You know, it's just a neat game idea for the people who make games, who have made games for us. I mean we had a game jam earlier this year. Check out that episode and play those games. If anybody wants to do this, make a platforming game where like anytime you fall into a hole or die by an enemy, you like immediately respawn to where you were like five seconds before that.

53:14 And then once you beat the game, during the credits, it shows you your playthrough where you were the one who was perfect, like who never made any of the mistakes and it just shows you your entire playthrough. I think that would be amazing. I feel like there is a game like that. It kind of sounds like Super Meat Boy but that shows all of your deaths too. But no, do it. Like even if it's not been done before, do it. Do it. There you go.

53:40 Godfather Gordon or whatever his name was. His laugh in the cut scenes. Go ahead. You know, like the synthetic laugh that they created. And also for the game itself, for the game title. All really cool stuff that whenever there's voice synthetic stuff, I like it. I just thought the laugh here was just something worth calling attention to. It was very strange. It wasn't like a, you know, it wasn't like a human laugh. I can't imagine it right now in my head, but I did notice that there was some cool voice stuff in the game. I'll play it back for people here.

54:17 But that sounds great. What you just played, like for the audience, that was very disturbing. So I agree. Joe says it sounds great. No, not that. I mean the Bayou Billy, like that's what I said at the top, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That one sounded like we've come a long way, I think, from Bubble Bibble back when we played that game.

54:40 Yeah, but you know what? The Intellivoice, which was an add-on for the Intellivision. Now that was a really good voice synthesis system. And that had some really cool stuff. But it was actually like you had to plug the Intellivoice into the cartridge system of the Intellivision. And then plug the Intellivision cartridge into your Intellivoice. And then all of a sudden your games would now have, your older games, keep in mind, would now have voice functionality added to them. That's crazy. You mean like you could tell it, you could just say like left and you'd go left or something?

55:09 Like it would have voices now in it. But where would the voices, like who developed those voices for the games? Other games. Yeah, yeah. Where are the other ghosts in the machine? Yeah, you're right. Where's the IntelliSmell that makes BurgerTime? This is where you can smell the burgers you're making.

55:26 BurgerTime was a fever dream by the chef. Don't forget Sean said it first. All right. Also, a quick observation here. Avoiding damage during one of the light gun boss fights, the one before you get to Godfather Gordon,

55:42 it's impossible to avoid damage during that particular boss fight. If you reach the machine gunman and his knife-throwing partner without enough health, you will die. Like you're dead. Like it's predetermined.

55:56 It is written. It is written because you have to take a certain amount of hits. You're forced to. Like there's no way to – even like I guess with the best equipment, you know, hackers have, there's no way to dodge taking equipment, taking damage because, you know, like the light gun does the whole like register of the flash and hitting you and everything like that. And these ones are like forced into the gameplay. So you must take that damage. So if you don't come in with enough health, you're dead. Huh. It's not your fault. Still like those light gun levels, Joe? I didn't think so. Yeah. I didn't know about this. So maybe that's – maybe that's – I was better off ignorant. You know, ignorance is bliss.

56:38 What are your other thoughts on this game, Joe? Any stray thoughts? Well, I have a stray thought if we want to kind of move away from the game itself. Yeah, go for it. And that is that there is – and I'm trying to remember what it's called on the menu screen. There is a mode called music mode or sound mode. Like a sound mode or something like that. Sound mode. And that mode is just something I would have loved as a kid, maybe not particularly for this game, but for like all of my games, where it literally just lets you go in there and select any music track in the game and just listen to it.

57:10 Not only that, like sound effects too. Yeah, sound effects and like the little voice files and the laugh and like literally every sound that's in this game, which that's cool. I mean that's neat if you're interested in it when you're a kid. But also the music – I think it was just designed for kids to make like prank calls and use that as like a sound board. Yeah, perfect. That adds more value to this game.

57:32 But I mean the amount of times when I was a kid that I would like turn on – I would go into the ice path in Pokemon Gold and just listen to the music. Or like I would play like some Game Boy game or a PlayStation game and just turn on – turn sound effects off and just listen to that music. I mean nowadays it doesn't really matter. You can look anything up. You can find everything on YouTube or you can find it on Spotify or whatever. But like back then it was – that would have been a really cool feature. I would just argue that, yeah, I love sound effect modes and they should be all over the place.

58:04 In any game you should be able to select any of the music you want to hear and the sound effects and stuff like that. But a lot of times it's hidden in games and maybe like the devs hit it somewhere. But like you have to like put in a certain input on the main menu screen to find it. It's like just screw that. Just put it out there, man. Like just put it on the freaking menu and let me select it. Yeah, do it. Do it. Sean, what about you? Any straight thoughts?

58:29 I don't know. I like Bourbon Street. It kind of reminds me of – that's just what Bourbon Street is like is people picking fights. Well, you know what? You bring up a good point though, Sean, about one particular thing, okay?

58:43 Does Godfather Gordon run New Orleans so much that like no civilians should be about? Like even in the light gun levels, there's no like gotcha people that you're not supposed to shoot. Like you're supposed to just kill everything you run into in this game. It's probably like – it's obviously nighttime when the game is happening and we all know that Bourbon Street clears out at like sundown. So it's very realistic. Yep, yep. I think it just makes Godfather Gordon really an intimidating villain. You're like, oh my – like the world building there. Yeah. How much everyone's afraid of him. Godfather Gordon should really have his own game too. I'd like to hear more about him. Yeah. Or a movie.

59:29 Sequels and spinoffs. Did you think that there was going to be a section for this? Is there a Godfather Gordon game? Please say there are none. There are games or rather media in the Adventures of Bayou Billy cinematic universe. Okay. So the first thing we need to talk about though is that there is a Famicom game called Mad City. Yes. Okay. Yeah. I'm surprised we haven't talked about this yet. Yeah. Mad City is this game but the Japanese version of this game and the NES version is just a harder version in every which way you can imagine of this game called Mad City. So enemies in the beat-em-up stages have – they have less health. They don't attack as frequently.

1:00:15 It's not Bayou-centric. Yeah. It's not Bayou-centric. We don't have – but even like even just gameplay-wise. I'm just going over the gameplay here. Like you have more ammunition in the light gun stages in Mad City.

1:00:29 The driving stages. Like the road is actually wider. Like there's more room to be spread out. It's like whoever – like whenever they brought this over, they were either like angry at Americans or they thought like Americans are really good at video games because they just made every possible decision along the way to make this a harder game gameplay-wise. That seems to be like a common thread though. Like usually when games – I mean not always but it's never like it gets easier crossing the ocean. It's always like the American version – the American port is always harder for some reason. I don't know. Is it – I would have thought – the only example I can think of is Mario 2, the original Japanese Mario 2.

1:01:13 Wasn't that like not even brought here because they thought like Americans aren't good enough at video games to play this game? Yeah, but Nintendo America, we're the only people smart enough. I think Sean is right here. I think most of the time when we get these ports, we find out that the Japanese one actually had like two modes, easy and hard or something. You know like – Oh, interesting.

1:01:30 We usually just get the hard mode for some reason. I also make gross generalities – gross generalizations that end up wrong pretty often on this podcast. So it could be either way. Now, Mad City does lose all the New Orleans stuff and everything like that. But the general idea is still the same. But the Famicom version has four possible endings and the NES one only has the one normal ending where you save Annabelle and get the kiss and all that. So blah, blah, blah. That's cute and everything and that's the normal ending that one should expect. But there's three other endings that you could get here.

1:02:06 After beating the last boss, Annabelle comes out of a door. She walks over to you. And in Mad City, you can move around during this scene. Like run away from her? Yeah. If you run away from her and stay away from her long enough, you'll get an alternate ending where Annabelle decides that Billy no longer wants her and she goes her separate way. That's crazy. Why? Not something you're allowed to do in the NES version.

1:02:33 Another one, okay? This one cracks me up. The ending that – this ending gives you that after you have beaten the game, it informs you that you have cheated because you used the power-ups that you gained from the practice mode. Oh, come on. And therefore refuses to show you any ending at all. It just says the end in white text. That's so – that's evil. Yeah, that's bullshit because that's there like to entice you to do that stuff. They gave you those. Yeah. But now they're saying, no, you cheated. You had these power-ups. You just get the end. You took this government handout.

1:03:12 Yeah, yeah. And then the last one, which again, just amazing that there's even this many endings. If you hold the up button on the D-pad and the select button during the ending, during mid-scene, Annabelle and Billy will change the dialect of Japanese that they are speaking. And Billy will ask Annabelle for a kiss to which she turns to the player and implies that she knows that they are watching and she cannot kiss Billy. I actually just got chills.

1:03:46 She knows that other people are watching us. Wait, that we're watching? Oh, that's creepy. That we're watching. That's some Kojima shit right there. And it's like, yeah, but why is it if she can see us, why isn't she afraid that like we've been possessing her boyfriend this entire game to begin with? Well, because now you're like she's in physical contact with them and she can feel it. I think that she's telling him. I think that she's always known. Like maybe they all always know. And then he's like, shut up. Like, don't let them know. We know they're here. You know, it's like very like like they have to smile and like grin, bear their teeth through it and like knowing that like every moment is this horror for them.

1:04:26 They're like, no, we're video game characters. We have to stick to the script. And they just keep going. Or he'll turn the game off. Yeah. There's also a comic book series called The Adventures of Bayou Billy, believe it or not. And it was released by Archie Comics. And I think it's notable for being the first video game like actual like, you know, like video game comic book series. Did it have a long run? What's that? Did it have a long run? No, it did not. I think like eight issues, maybe six.

1:04:58 But it came before Sonic the Hedgehog got his Archie Comics. So that's just kind of crazy that like when, you know, when they're looking for video games to adapt and turn into comics, they went to Bayou Billy first. Wow. And then also Bayou Billy appears in an episode of Captain N, the Game Master. We haven't talked about Captain N in a while. The episode was called How's Bayou. I don't know the pun there. How is you? How is, yeah. How's Bayou. How's about you? Oh, my God. This is like a live, like figuring it out. It's like another game. Playing on the difficulty of its real world counterpart, Bayou Billy was said to be the one game that even Captain N was unable to conquer.

1:05:50 That's kind of funny, right? Captain N, he's the video game master. He's like, yeah, I can't beat the Adventures of Bayou Billy. Yeah, whatever, man. And then a sentence nobody should really ever have to say, but I'm going to say it. It's the plot of the episode. Mother Brain had Dr. Wily build a robot cat to have Duke lead Captain N to Bayou Billy's world. Captain N ended up meeting Bayou Billy where he learned some tricks from him.

1:06:16 I feel like we didn't learn a damn thing and that's way too many characters in that first sentence. That was like word salad to me. I don't even know what you meant by that. Yeah, it was like you plugged in a bunch of video game stuff into like an AI that's supposed to deliver a description. Did you write Ready Player One?

1:06:35 Too good.

1:06:38 Yeah, I didn't. But it seems like I could have. You could have. Based on that sentence. You know, Joe, you mentioned AI algorithms and one thing that AI algorithms cannot figure out is where or whether. What? No, I'm sorry. Go ahead. What did you say to me? Did he say that? Yes, he did. He said it sounded like an AI algorithm. Oh, he did. I'm sorry. And I was going to say that the one thing that, you know, AI algorithms cannot figure out is where or whether or when an NES game belongs on a little thing we call the Essential Games List. Joe, The Adventures of Bayou Billy, the Essential Games List, is it on there? So I will say that I enjoyed this game a lot, as you guys could tell.

1:07:32 And I did consider voting this Essential. The only thing that prevented me was the main beat-em-up stage, which is probably more than a third of the game. What's that? Only most of it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Like, that was the one thing that I couldn't bring my—if that part was better, I would have voted this Essential.

1:07:58 Because I think, first of all, yes, I keep saying it's a jack-of-all-trades where you might say, like, well, if it's not, like, great at anything, it's just good at everything, that wouldn't even be good enough either. But I think that there's value to that. I mean, there's a game—it's a little different because its hook is being co-op, but a way out. I don't know if anyone's played that. But, yeah, the hook is being co-op, but, like, forgetting about that, like, everything in that game is mediocre, like, gameplay. Yeah, but the sum is greater than the whole idea.

1:08:28 Exactly. And that's kind of what I was getting out of this. Plus the fact that it has the practice mode, which, as you know, I love. And the tiny little cherry on top of the sound mode, which is just like, wow, these people really, really, like, cared and made this, like, overall solid game. But I just can't put a game on the essential list when one of the three gameplay level types that is by far the—encompasses the most of the game just is frustrating and somehow not very good. So I did end up saying no, but I'll call it a play it for sure. All right. Fair enough.

1:09:12 Sean? And then the beat-em-up is, like, a D-minus. So even in, like, an average thing there, the fact that the majority of the game is so frustrating and the minigames—I would even call them minigames that you play between those levels aren't even that much better.

1:10:09 This isn't going to sniff the essential games list for me. Anyway, well said, Sean. And the last thing, you know, when it comes down to how to do an essential games list is that I must vote. That is always the last thing that we must do. Even if I go first, we always have to make sure that it's okay with me at the end of the essential games list because I always speak last. So I will speak last here, and I will vote. And I am delaying because I'm not quite sure what to make of The Avengers of Bayou Billy. It's a flawed game, no doubt. And it's not going on my essential games list, so I guess I could get that out of the way. But I don't know what's my final verdict here. It's Konami, and they usually don't let us down.

1:10:47 But I don't know if it's because it's Konami that I'm so let down. Like, would I let, like, you know, another random publisher or developer who's just made, like, one or two games on the system, like, would I care as much?

1:11:00 Adventures of Bayou Billy, like, had a chance to be a great beat-em-up game with, like, yeah, as Sean mentioned there, it's like, yeah, the other two are just, like, mini games, things that happen in the game. But it's a beat-em-up, right? But they missed the mark on the beat-em-up thing, and I'm not sure how that happened to them. I feel like, you know, Konami, Capcom, Nintendo, you know, these guys, like, know how to make games better than anyone else in 1988, you know, 1989 now. But, like, they know how to make these games, and they just completely missed the mark on, like, what made Double Dragon and even Renegade, you know, the first beat-em-up we played on the NES. Like, that was so much more fun than what we got here.

1:11:44 But there was a lot of good stuff to say. We went on for a long time talking about this game, so there was a lot of good stuff. It's just, it's so flawed as an experience that I couldn't recommend this to anybody.

1:11:56 I'm sorry to say that, you know, but, like, I think you've heard from me, you've heard from Sean, you've heard from Joe, and I think, you know, whoever you landed on the side of, the one thing you should take away from this is that just because you add in, you know, more types of gameplay or more variety to the gameplay, you know, doesn't mean you should.

1:12:21 Maybe if they spent more time on the thinking about how the beat-em-up portion should work and making a game that was just a beat-em-up game, they would have came away with something more Konami-like and more solid. Like, imagine a Castlevania game that's not a platformer, but instead it's a beat-em-up. It's like, we could have got that game here, but instead they went for something that was more like a smorgasbord of a game.

1:12:44 Mmm. And that sounds delicious. Yeah, that sounds delicious. Yeah, let's get some gumbo. Let's get some gumbo. Seafood gumbo. Yeah, some broils. Yeah, get some grits. All right. Some grits, yeah. What else did we eat down there?

1:12:59 Yeah, we should mention that we went down to New Orleans for this episode to research. Yeah, this is live from New Orleans. Just to check it out and see what the deal was. No, in all seriousness, as most of the listener fan base knew, we didn't post last week because I wasn't feeling too well. And it means a lot to me that a lot of the fans reached out on Twitter and hoped that I would get better. And I did. You're all very good people.

1:13:25 Yeah, you're all very good people, but we did it again. We recorded and we are delivering the episode this Friday. And you're listening to it right now on this Friday or a later Friday. You should just tweet at us and say which Friday you listen to it. But not like if you listen to it on a Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Yeah, those don't. Round to the nearest Friday. I just want to hear about Fridays. Yeah. Nearest Friday. That's good, Joe. Yeah, exactly. So, like, the question there, Joe, do you round up or do you round down? Well, if you're exactly halfway there, you round up. Otherwise, you just decide which one you're closer to.

1:13:59 So, if you listen to this thing on a Tuesday, you're going to let those people go back to Friday, the previous Friday. You're going to let them get that credit? Yeah, why not? Okay. I don't think. I guess it's really there's no stakes. I say give it to them. Right? There's no, like, no risks to be taken here. And you know what? Another thing you can do is if you listen to two on one Friday, you can bank that for another Friday. I think this episode just needs to fade out, like, while we're talking.

1:14:21 Yeah, that's a good idea. We should really do that. Can we, like, have that happen? I'm not the best audio engineer. I guess I could figure out how to make it work or something like that. Yeah, I mean, this is a crossfade. You just fade. Yeah, or, you know, we can organically fade. What if we all just start talking at the same time and we just make it, like, let's just start fading out ourselves with our volume. Yeah, we can start slowly backing away from your mic as you're going. Yeah, just, like, I'm just getting really nervous.

1:15:08 I'll see you next time. Thank you.