Duke is the badest punk rock/martial artist because of all his move. A total of fifteen!!!!! Unfortunately, in order to conserve energy (and because of a lack of button combinations), he can only use three of these moves per level. That's okay though, especially when the moves are fast and furious like the sweep kick, the punch and the ear twist.

The consummate perfectionist, Duke takes painstaking efforts to make sure all of his "martial arts" skills are up to snuff before each level. So Shakespearian is the tale of Bad Street Brawler that the world "level" isn't used at all. They are seperate "stages" each with it's own compelling proverb to be contemplated throughout the stage's training process.

Bad Street Brawler is a real "East Meets West" type experience. It's kinda like when Jean Claude Van Damme had that asian trainer in Bloodsport but he was still a Belgian. He maintained his Western upbringing and took on some of the philosophies of his mentor from the East.

But are these proverbs just random wisdom or the key to solving the stage? Difficult to say. You'll have to play to find out. You will have to battle bulldogs, midgets and guys with baseball bats until you finally reach the banana tossing gorilla at the end of stage one. "...till trouble troubles you..." It's all coming together!!

In Stage 2 Duke decides that he's not going to kill all the dogs with simple kicks, he'll pet them to death.

The great thing is that they don't introduce any new villains for a while. It's just midgets, bulldogs, gorillas and the guy with baseball bat. One starts to wonder if the entire game is like that. Some of the boards are protected by "level boss" type characters. Others by different non-threatening combinations of these villains.

At the end of Stage 3, Duke wonders what combination of foes he'll have to face. A midget and a gorilla? A bat guy and a midget? A bat guy and a gorilla? Three dogs??? But whoa what is this? A skateboarder? Oh no. Duke hadn't planned on this. These hooligan skateboarders with their elbow pads, knee pads, helmets and other assorted safety paraphernalia.

After Duke does in the dastardly skateboarding man he decides to take a quick break from saving his hometown. He pauses for a little silent reflection then does a quick TV appearance before returning to his training.

Along the way Duke runs into a number of tough customers. Atilla the Honey is no walk in the park but the knife wielding woman proves to be no match for Duke (mainly because her range is limited to an eleven inch radius from her pelvis).

***Special Chefelf Bonus***
Interview with Yvette Spinler -- The woman who modelled for the graphics programmers to make Atilla the Honey.

Another fan favorite include this 12 foot tall basketball player. He throws basketballs at you sometimes, but usually just walks around dribbling furiously. He doensn't want to get called for travelling.

Then there's the sneaky guy. After you beat the "mini boss" of the stage this guy comes out and does one of two things. Either he sends a flying heart that you can grab for energy... or he puts a bomb on the screen which hurts you even more. It is questionable where his allegiances fall and what precisely his motives are. Sometimes he comes out of a guy who looks just like him but is even bigger. Strange.

Then there's Siegfried of & Roy fame. It's unclear why a homosexual gymnist would be part of the gang of thugs taking over Duke's hometown. Of course it's also difficult to figure out why there are a wide assortment of wild animals in the gang as well. He's easily the games most annoying opponent, being that all he does is spin around on his back and stun Duke.

Part of Duke Davis' Zen-like training in between stages in Bad Street Brawler include the contemplation of a Sun-Tzu Style proverb. A lot can be learned from Duke Davis about the naturalistic approach taken by Eastern Philosophers. You may even learn a little about yourself.

There are plenty of things in the game that happen rather briefly. I'd like to take some time to give "ups" to the things in Bad Street Brawler that often get overlooked^*.

Big Sneaky Guy
I'm not sure why usually it's the little sneaky guy and 1% of the time it's the big sneaky guy. Also the big sneaky guy just drops off the little one and leaves immediately but usually the little guy arrives solo to either help or hurt you.

Dumpster Sequence
Another thing worthy of mentioning is that at the end of every level, Duke goes into a dark alley and throws all of the confiscated weapons into a dumpster. If there's one thing we've learned about evil-doers from TV and the movies it's that they rarely hang out in dark alleys. And they never use dumpsters for any illegal activity such as disposing of bodies. Having said all of this, these weapons shouldn't be causing any trouble for anyone anymore. Among the guns and knives and bats that he throws away he also throws away the balloons and bananas he collected from the midgets and the gorillas. Those are deemed to dangerous to be out in the open for anyone to take.

German Soldier
This guy shows up dressed in full World War I German Soldier gear. He's apparently crazy. It's at this point that it become clear that this is no ordinary gang. Duke was surprised enough by the banana tossing gorillas and the unemployed circus midgets but this guy pushes him over the edge.

*I'm not sure if they count because usually they're getting overlooked with the rest of the game.

The excitement in Bad Street Brawler is NON STOP! Duke only pauses to train for the next stage and to occassionally get interviewed on TV and be congratulated by the mayor. When being congratulated by the mayor, he often finds it appropriate to make a comment like: "I'd like a hamburger instead." Apparently this is an either/or situation. In one's life they can either be congratulated by the mayor or eat a hamburger. This would explain why I've never been thanked by my mayor for anything, I fall unfortunately into the second category. Rats.

A disturbing moment occurs when we realize that the "trip" attack as it is called, is a clever guise for something much more sinister. The things that Duke does to those midgets is just wrong. It's also a little spooky. For some reason the "trip" attack does about four times as much damage as any other attack in the game.

***Special Chefelf Bonus Hint***
Always trip your opponents when you have the option.

Duke usually has a grizzled, "angry hero" focused look about him. You can tell that he's got his mind directly on the task at hand: cleaning up and readying his hometown for a return to "normal" activities.

The moves for Bad Street Brawler are as follows: punch, high kick, pile driver, bull ram, head butt, body fling, sweep kick, drop kick, armspin, ear twist, gut knee, aeroplane spin, trip, stooge hit and roundhouse kick. They're all VERY similar. You get to use three per level but you always just use the one that's twice as good as the other two.

Here's the look Duke usually has on his face while he's "taking care of business."

Sometimes our hero needs a break from the Mr. Serious attitude he's developed to save his city. In Stage 3 he develops a new attack: The Stooge Hit. Duke receives an inordinate amount of self satisfaction from delivering the stooge hit.

Here's a close up to show you just how happy he is with himself while delivering the hilarious stooge hit.

The ending of the game is a ewoks-save-the-day type festival. Well actually it's just our scrawny hero in the back of a car during a parade. At least we assume that it's a parade. I guess it could also be him waving congratulations at his friend who just shot a tropical bird that was flying over Duke's head. But it's probably a parade.