“Now nickname. New Orleans called “The Big Easy”, and this here why? New Orleans, big. (Cuts to women at Mardi Gras) And look at em girls, that’s easy…” - The Man Show - Jimmy Kimmel as “Karl Malone”
I'm surprised you can pinpoint the shift in NES difficulty and the "Nintendo hard" mentality down to...a single month. If you look prior to here, difficulty is either plainly obvious padding already present on Famicom, or accidental due to poor choices. Fascinating how putting things in very precise context reveals the exact moment someone got dollar signs in their eyes.
They sure die quickly in the JPN version, and that’s an accurate enough description of the arcade version of Double Dragon III. In which you could PAY for extra health/lives?
One fun thing about the extra difficulty to hit game renters thing is that it's led to a persistent idea among Japanese fans of old games that Americans loved super hard games. In those instances where there was an impossible game created for the US market that wound up back in Japan, they'd go, "Yeah, that's just those Americans and their crazy difficulty."
Yep, and then there are cases like Final Fantasy IV, in which not only was it made far easier but simplified for American audiences. To the point that many confuse the NTSC Final Fantasy II with IV Easytype. And especially pre-Internet?
That's funny, cause I've never heard of this. I have, however, seen with my own eyes and also heard tell of multiple instances of Japanese players believing the OPPOSITE; specifically that American games are super easy baby mode because Americans are bad at games. This has been used for all kinds of weirdly xenophobic takes around the JP net, usually something to do with keeping American influence away from Japanese games lest all the challenge and fun be dumbed out of them.
A while back I had someone make me a copy of the Sega CD game Popful Mail that kept the Working Designs localization but swapped in the Japanese difficulty just so could play it without losing my mind. That was about the time I learned about the whole US-JP difficulty delta.
There's a whole community dedicated to undoing all the difficulty curve dickery in Working Designs localized games. It's cool that they brought over so many RPGs, but they really did a number on their playability.
For me, Bayou Billy was the type of game that I beat not because I enjoyed the challenge, but because something in my brain made it a war of attrition and something I desired to complete out of pure spite. Once I completed it, I didn't get even get a sense of accomplishment but instead a sense of relief telling myself, "Thank goodness. I'll never have to do that again!" Of course, I technically didn't NEED to do it in the first place, but that was the kind of thing I did to myself back when I was 15.
Pure "gamespite", one could say. But yes, Battletoads + Game Genie + Nintendo Power maps broke me. Along with a bunch of Stage Select cheats. I gave up, after hours of trying and dying, barely making it to Dark Queen, because I felt no joy in any of my "accomplishments" along the way. Clearing the ice stage, fire tunnel, and snake pit seemed meaningless, because subsequent stages were even MORE punishing and unfair.
@@JeremyParish I beat it in March of 1990, It took 4 Rentals, but I did it. Bayou Billy is FAR Superior to TMNT NES in every way. BTW, I have the Cartridge at home for my NES.
12:45, Speaking fo pricing, younguns should take a note that in the early 1990s, it was $29 for a single VHS with two Star Trek The NEXT generation episodes.... DVD making an entire season box set for $30 in the early 2000s was insane.
@@jonothanthrace1530 It aired perfectly fine and with finished background. The DVD version is the version without. Transformers had a similar issue with its original DVD release from Rhino.
I love that the video store clip showed C.H.U.D. on the shelf. That was one of those tapes that always was available for rent and much like the ghoulies and the critters, had the scariest and this most interesting covers in the entire store. The rental scene is also the first time I recall hearing cartridges referred to as ‘tapes’.
@@yellowblanka6058 What about the amazing graphics, stellar sound, cool cutscenes, fun environments, and multiple, diverse modes of play? The only thing that makes it a "bad" game is its relentlessly unfair difficulty. If it had the same difficulty level of"Mad City", it would be an all-time NES classic.
So you're telling me that the fact I rented/borrowed Bayou Billy at least a half dozen times as a kid and never managed to get far in it was delibrate decision by the programmers, and not at all a reflection on me. That's what I'll take away, at least.
The Adventures of Bayou Billy was one of those games that was good enough to persist on our memories as kids with the NES, more so by wondering all these years what the ending was because it was hard as hell.
What a mind boggling informative video. Yeah we were definitely let down with this one back in the day. Much too hard for our early teen gaming prowess, however still I hold fondness for it...
I remember this game's setting featuring prominently in an episode of Captain N, which was enough to earn it a rental from my family. (Back in the 80s, what defined a "AAA" game was its advertising budget moreso than anything else.) Bayou Billy was definitely interesting, but not fun.
And even that backfired, as the version of the episode that first aired is a disaster on the level of the original version of The Simpsons’ “Some Enchanted Evening”.
@@SetTopGames The episode of Captain N that features Bayou Billy originally aired with a boatload of animation errors (including numerous shots with no background), but was later corrected (which even included dialogue changes) for reruns.
Bayou Billy is a leading exemplar of something I've long said. If a game brings fun to its experience, it can outweigh a huge amount of bad. If it's fun, that is often enough. If it isn't fun, though, no amount of technical process will make up for it. That is to say, in a sense, the heart wants what it wants. You can enjoy a game without really knowing why. But if it isn't fun, no number of itemizable attributes can balance the books. Which is sad because I wanted to like Bayou Billy, but it's a classic case of being spread too thin.
My First thought in hearing about the cranked up difficulty in the localization was: "I wonder if anyone put a Translation patch out for Mad City" and lo, there was. Really need to hook my NES back up at some point and try it out.
All I remember about Bayou Billy was that it was excessively difficult and $3 that could have been used better at the video store, but the soundtrack still slaps today.
Pour one out for Jeremy's VHS camcorder. I might not NEED to comment on it, but it will forever live on in my memory. And in many videos across the internet, which is probably a superior form of immortality.
Konami had a tendency to imitate movies. Castlevania was inspired by old horror movies. Contra was influenced by Aliens. Dark Adventure features a whip-wielding archaeologist who resembles Indiana Jones. Arumana no Kiseki is reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
@@oaf-77 Konami did publish an NES game based on The Lone Ranger. Like The Adventures of Bayou Billy it had a mix of side-scrolling stages and Zapper-compatible first-person shooting segments.
In context of publishers making games harder in the US as a way to combat game rentals, it should also be known that in Japan at that time video game rentals were nearly illegal or at least quite rare. Add in Nintendo's licensing policies in the US at that time requiring upfront payments to Nintendo, limited amount of releases and so on and it becomes quite clear why many developers went the route of cranking up the difficulty for US releases. Once it became clear that was going on both my parents and I agreed that no game would be purchased until after we had rented it at least once. Which meant that game like Bayou Billy, which I really wanted to buy after seeing it in Nintendo Power, became rent only games after I tried it out and didn't have fun with it due to it's difficulty. For players like me the developers cranking up the difficulty meant that I ended up buying fewer games in the long run. It also meant that I ran out and bought a Game Genie as soon as I could once it was released! The same held true through the 16-bit era as well. Most of my owned game collection consisted of longer adventure games and RPGs. Stuff that could not be easily completed on a rental.
Looking back on it, I’m surprised publishers wanting to stave off the rental markets didn’t consider, say, letting you turn off the terrible difficulty spikes via a code in the manual, which the rental stores almost never had available.
I was ready to scroll down halfway through and start writing a comment about the Japanese version's difficulty, but then you went and summed up the situation better than I even considered. Now I'm hoping you give the Game Genie its own special episode. It'd make a perfect companion piece to this one.
I remember back in 89 I mowed lawns for 2 months to buy this game, all because the cover looked awesome!! 😂 It was soo bad, But I pretended to like it. Glory days
Also... A short lived phenomenon at the time was movie and game rentals offered from places that weren't video stores. I remember seeing both for rent at several local convenience stores and even grocery stores. Lots of people tried grabbing a piece of the rental pie. I specifically remember the hard translucent plastic cases that NES games were rented out in, with a large white sticker on the side offering instructions for playing the game in capsule, since the game's own instruction booklet would often be lost when rented out.
Video rental at grocery stores was a popular phenomenon from the '80s on into the '00s. Some stores only had a few racks while others would have a whole separate little department with it's own checkout. And almost any place that rented videos also tended to rent games.
@@BelgandI was going to say that, I remember video rentals at grocery stores all the way until my first years at college in the late 2000s. Rarely games, though.
Early NES: Kids will think Super Mario Bros 2 is too hard! Bayou Billy: Fuck them kids. Funny thing: a friend of mine found one of those "How to Win at Nintendo Games" books and mailed it to me, on the cover they're hyping Bayou Billy. I had the same book as a kid so it really took me back.
When I was young, The Adventures of Bayou Billy crossed my path and I hated it. The music is amazing, but the game was impossible. That said, later in life I played the famicom version, “Mad City” and it was absolutely playable and if anything, actually fun. It’s just a shame the hatred in the states is from unnecessary difficult implementation. Fun Fact: The digitized voice at the beginning saying, “The Adventures of Bayou Billy” with the gunshot and siren is totally my ringtone lol
Wow, yesterday afternoon I randomly decided to listen to the entire B.Billy OST, and now, day after, you upload the video 😮 I think this happend with some other game a few months ago 😅
I was kind of fond of this one back in the day, warts and all. but yeah man the difficulty was legendary! so much so that it was even the main plot point in the captain n episode when he gets tricked into being teleported to bayou billy's world! But yeah thanks to emulators I did get to try out the original Japanese Mad City, it's a far more reasonable experience. Jury's out if it would make my top ten NES games, but possibly top 20 or 25 at least? also it didn't click for me about the billy and jimmy thing til you pointed it out! I see you now, Konami hahaha.
Ah, the days when you could rent a game for the price of _multiple_ comics. Now even a single comic costs more than that rental. I'm surprised that the discussion of artificially-inflated difficulty didn't reference the infamous admission by the developers that _The Lion King_ explicitly had a difficulty speed bump added to it due to the publisher's insistence. One of the few times when we've been given concrete evidence of the practice rather than simply speculation and analysis.
Thank you for detailing some of the combat annoyances in the brawling sections. Like the original Ninja Turtles arcade game (and its port), it has that same annoying Konami jank with the hit detection, combined with the oversimplistic movement (3 whole moves to choose from). Making the enemies more aggressive and resilient, while making the hero's attacks weaker, magnifies the frustration. Imagine TMNT's arcade game, with enemies that can't be one-hit by neutral jump attacks, and recover too quickly for you to avoid their counterattacks.
I'm not sure how much ramping up the difficulty of American NES worked on sales. When I was a kid, I could rent a game for 3 days over a weekend, still beat some games. If I was close, I could just rent it again. Plus, it didn't matter how hard it was, if it wasn't fun, it wasn't getting played. And some games we cranked up to be so hard, they were never going to be fun. Bayou Billy was such a game. One of my friends rented it, and I think we played it for an hour or two before we figured we got our money's worth. So ambitious, but so grating to play.
Quick correction as I suspect it was a miss spoken line: Tron was developed by Robert Abel and Associates (Roger Abel? I forget) and was released by Bally Midway. :)
As a rental kid, a fun rental was one I'd pay full price for. A cheap shot difficulty hack with damage sponges vs. a glass hero was trash I never wanted to see again. Don't get me wrong, I adore Ghouls N' Ghosts, but that one gives you infinite continues and all the attack options you need. It's built for sadomasochists, in a way Konami's greed and insecurity was incapable of understanding.
I'm a little surprised you didn't mention that part of the context for the difficulty change was that game rentals were, and still are, illegal in Japan. Yes, the force of law there allows this, unless the copyright holder specifically allows it.
First time I saw this game was via Spoony some eons ago. Despite knowing full well what I was getting into, holy crap this game is hard! Ended up switching to the Japanese "Mad City" to actually beat this nonsense. Though eventually, eventually I did beat the american release. The one and only time I'll ever do so!
I have a lot of friends with a love/hate relationship with this game. The 2nd driving stage has amazing music! Also, I love the new look of your videos!
I used to think I hated this game as a kid, but then I emulated the Japanese version and I realised I was not only wrong, but I had been wronged. Also, there have been 0 days since the last Golgo 13 reference.
Got this for Christmas as a kid, and I still love it. I cheated back then with a Game Genie, but it's definitely not impossible to legitimately beat with some practice. When you finally knock out the final boss who's been laughing at you the entire game, you'll be roaring at your TV in triumph. It's great for a quick challenge to see if you can make it without any game overs.
Nah. When you knock out the final boss, you'll be absolutely wrecked by the incredibly cheap secret twin bosses wearing power armor that came from a totally different game altogether
Ok, no, I did not need coddling, I became an adult and did not have the mammoth time I used to have to beat super hard games from Japan. Nowadays, when I play a game, I hope to at least accomplish something before I call it quits for the night.
Either intended or unintended, you have a clear reference in the title to Hard Times (Walter Hill, 1975). This film was set in Louisiana in the Great Depression and stars Charles Bronson as a street fighter with James Coburn as the main supporting actor. I don't really see much connection in Bayou Billy to be honest. The game was not too fun from what I remember almost 35 years ago...................lol. Thanks for doing these wonderful videos about my childhood and many others in Gen X!
Bayou Billy would've been a great game if only the actual fighting didn't suck so much. I loved this game as a kid but never got too far into it because of how much the computer cheated.
Never played Bayou Billy as a kid, its a shame that the game is synonymous with its extreme difficulty. Those tunes are nice, and it definitely looks like a cinematic 8-bit game. Desert Commander next time, that's gonna be a toughie.
Yup. When I heard the name "Rommel", that's exactly what I thought. When I played the game as a kid, I had no idea that it had anything to do with World War II. I also had no idea what the different unit types were meant to do, and didn't have any context for it until Advance Wars came out over a decade later.
Whats also interesting is that the japanese version has a bunch of "new game upgrades" you can get by beating the training mode ... unfortunately they all lock you out of the real ending so you have to do an upgradeless run to see the actual ending...
I remember loving the soundtrack and coming to greatly resent the game. The idea that this was the vanguard for rental store difficulty inflation is painfully easy to believe. Damn those alligators in particular.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on the music and the sound effects, they were amazing but then again, it was a Konami game, so that was to be expected. I also agree with the sentiment that the game tried to be ambitious in its scope and game play variety, even if none of the options were particularly interesting nor well done entirely. It's not nearly as bad as everyone had claimed it was, but it really didn't do too much for me and it wasn't one of the games that, to steal from that mentality of Japanese programmers and producers, that I was in a hurry to finish. Fantastic work that you do on these videos my friend, and you definitely deserve more subscribers than you have.
I never got past the first stage of this game. Furthest I got was to the scuba guy. It is difficult, tedious, frustrating experience. And I still love it. I have such nostalgia for it and sincerely thought it was awesome back in the day. A lot of that likely has to do with the great music, the cool mystique of the latter levels seen in the attract mode, and the (I think) good graphics. Plus it has alligators, which little me adored with the same enthusiasm as 90s kid had for dinosaurs during the height of the Jurassic Park craze. I played Bayou Billy so much. The death noise and music still plays in my head to this day on an at least weekly basis. It's one of those cult iconic things, some moment or movie line or something that's iconic only to you or a small group of friends. Love this stupid game even if I'm convinced it doesn't actually have more than the one level.
Holy crap crazy how you brought up movies vs video games. While there are no direct influences this game remind me alot of a film that followed after Jean Claude Van Damme's HARD TARGET. I'm sure if you watch this now after looking into this game it will seem more like a better rated game to movie transition than anything.
@@TeruteruBozusamaOh, absolutely. Soul is important. Flight Unlimited does not have a lot going for it, but the way the game is set up gives it a lot of soul. With cheezy pictures when you choose your flight office, zany sounds when you crash, and even an instructor who will scream if you crash during an instruction.
Also also... Whether Japanese studios thought less of Western players or not, I took rather a lot of pride in finishing even difficult NES games on rentals. Bayou Billy, I did not finish it on one rental. But I absolutely did it on two. Because AoBB was not worth it to buy. I think ultimately Nintendo is somewhat to blame for this, really. Most of the best NES software was actually partly hardware. The chips that were involved in that chip shortage were, I believe, RAMs and the custom silicon mappers that gave the NES abilities outside of its design specs. If the had been included in the system, where they could have been included once instead of sold anew with every game, then either the games could have been cheaper (more sales) or the publishers could have had more profits. The costs of those chips that made many of the NES' technical achievements possible was bourne by the dev, not the console maker that arguably should have carried it.
My experience with this game was pretty much as described. Rented it, had a frustrating time banging my head against the first level, finally got to the driving part and noped out there or soon after. Even as an NES neophyte at the time I could tell it was poorly-balanced hard, not challenging hard. I kept thinking there was something vital I was missing, because it didn't feel like the fights were designed for the attacks I had.
I've often wondered whether those "make the game super hard" localization choices actually created more sales. I remember renting Bayou Billy once back in the day, and I hated playing it so much that I never touched it again. Same with Ninja Gaiden 3. I loved the first two, but the absurd continue restriction in NG3 caused me to skip it. (Until the SNES rerelease, anyway.) Meanwhile, know what game I did buy? *Mega Man 2.* Because it was an awesome game that I enjoyed playing repeatedly.
I was a little surprised to see the Mario Bava horror movie Hatchet for the Honeymoon show up in one of the video store segments. It's not one of his greatest movies but interesting for fans of his work.
Reminds me of how I always forgo the US version of Castlevania III on the anniversary collection because really, the game is punishing enough without the anti-rental measures of the NES release. I’d go as far as to say even with that model, Castlevania III didn’t need more brutality packed on. Every stage past the first is already a gauntlet of punishing platforming and cruel enemy placement.
My take-away here is that Bayuo Billy was actually an ambitious game back in the day. Legitimately had no idea, I thought it was just run of the mill as I just remembered how frustrating it was... but when it's all laid out then yeah, this game WAS real ambitious. Just a shame that aiming broad diluted the product. One day perhaps the industry as a whole will learn this lesson... one day.
As a kid I loved how it mixed the Zapper levels with driving and beat em up stages, and also the music was a jam. So difficult though, never beat it without the game genie. it's funny that Konami made it because it felt like a very American game next to Mega Man etc. the instruction manual was also nice. e: finished the video and all was explained! i never knew Mad City was so much easier. Dammit konami
15:00 - regarding the difficulty level - I will always remember this game as a game that even Captain N couldn't beat, as he mentions in the second "Captain N: The Game Master" episode, "How's Bayou". You'd think they would've saved such a difficult game for a later episode! Seems weird for him to take it on while he's still fresh in Videoland!
Konami was sadistic for making it harder for us Stateside gamers....but game was fun, loved how it had 3 different types of gameplay. My cousin had the game and always looked forward to playing it at their house. Music is top notch.
This was my dad's favorite game and i play it every year in his memory. Also made me curious about Mad City, so when i got a famicom, i got it, and its probably 10x easier than the US version!
The Adventures of Bayou Billy seems like something that would be generated by AI, cramming in a ton of varied elements in an effort to make everyone happy.
I traded my copy of Xexyz to the kid across the street for Bayou Billy. Somehow, we were both disappointed with the trade.
The title of this video obviously should have been "Hard Times in the Big Easy"
“Now nickname. New Orleans called “The Big Easy”, and this here why?
New Orleans, big.
(Cuts to women at Mardi Gras)
And look at em girls, that’s easy…” - The Man Show - Jimmy Kimmel as “Karl Malone”
I'm surprised you can pinpoint the shift in NES difficulty and the "Nintendo hard" mentality down to...a single month. If you look prior to here, difficulty is either plainly obvious padding already present on Famicom, or accidental due to poor choices. Fascinating how putting things in very precise context reveals the exact moment someone got dollar signs in their eyes.
Wait...mind blown. I didn't even take into account the initial enemies being Bimmy and Jimmy parodies.
That's why you're the king.
I mean... it COULD be a coincidence.
They sure die quickly in the JPN version, and that’s an accurate enough description of the arcade version of Double Dragon III.
In which you could PAY for extra health/lives?
@@osurplessIsn't that what quarters are for??
Reminds me a bit of some of the enemies in Ninja Warriors SNES being dressed like Mario and Luigi.
One fun thing about the extra difficulty to hit game renters thing is that it's led to a persistent idea among Japanese fans of old games that Americans loved super hard games. In those instances where there was an impossible game created for the US market that wound up back in Japan, they'd go, "Yeah, that's just those Americans and their crazy difficulty."
Another communications breakdown between cultures...
Yep, and then there are cases like Final Fantasy IV, in which not only was it made far easier but simplified for American audiences.
To the point that many confuse the NTSC Final Fantasy II with IV Easytype.
And especially pre-Internet?
That's funny, cause I've never heard of this. I have, however, seen with my own eyes and also heard tell of multiple instances of Japanese players believing the OPPOSITE; specifically that American games are super easy baby mode because Americans are bad at games. This has been used for all kinds of weirdly xenophobic takes around the JP net, usually something to do with keeping American influence away from Japanese games lest all the challenge and fun be dumbed out of them.
Unless it’s capcom who would proceed to release easier versions of their games in the west like megaman 2s easy mode.
@@ValkyrieTiaraI mean I've heard people say this, but I've never actually spoken to a single native Japanese gamer who had that take.
A while back I had someone make me a copy of the Sega CD game Popful Mail that kept the Working Designs localization but swapped in the Japanese difficulty just so could play it without losing my mind. That was about the time I learned about the whole US-JP difficulty delta.
There's a whole community dedicated to undoing all the difficulty curve dickery in Working Designs localized games.
It's cool that they brought over so many RPGs, but they really did a number on their playability.
For me, Bayou Billy was the type of game that I beat not because I enjoyed the challenge, but because something in my brain made it a war of attrition and something I desired to complete out of pure spite. Once I completed it, I didn't get even get a sense of accomplishment but instead a sense of relief telling myself, "Thank goodness. I'll never have to do that again!"
Of course, I technically didn't NEED to do it in the first place, but that was the kind of thing I did to myself back when I was 15.
I get it. That was Battletoads for me.
Pure "gamespite", one could say.
But yes, Battletoads + Game Genie + Nintendo Power maps broke me. Along with a bunch of Stage Select cheats.
I gave up, after hours of trying and dying, barely making it to Dark Queen, because I felt no joy in any of my "accomplishments" along the way.
Clearing the ice stage, fire tunnel, and snake pit seemed meaningless, because subsequent stages were even MORE punishing and unfair.
@@JeremyParish I beat it in March of 1990, It took 4 Rentals, but I did it. Bayou Billy is FAR Superior to TMNT NES in every way. BTW, I have the Cartridge at home for my NES.
12:45, Speaking fo pricing, younguns should take a note that in the early 1990s, it was $29 for a single VHS with two Star Trek The NEXT generation episodes.... DVD making an entire season box set for $30 in the early 2000s was insane.
Bayou Billy's difficulty was so well known that it's toughness was referenced directly in a Captain N episode.
Captain N!
an episode that aired unfinished, with an entire scene that didn't even have a background!
@@jonothanthrace1530 It aired perfectly fine and with finished background. The DVD version is the version without. Transformers had a similar issue with its original DVD release from Rhino.
@@RogerPyokoWhich episode was that? I have the early Rhino release, I must have missed it.
@@RogerPyoko the missing backgrounds were well-known long before the DVDs released.
I love that the video store clip showed C.H.U.D. on the shelf. That was one of those tapes that always was available for rent and much like the ghoulies and the critters, had the scariest and this most interesting covers in the entire store. The rental scene is also the first time I recall hearing cartridges referred to as ‘tapes’.
That damn Ghoulies cover gave so many kids a condition.
Nice Mission Impossible clip
I never would've thought to connect that particular episode to this particular video game
It's just one of those things. In a weird coincidence, it was an episode that aired within a few weeks of this game's release.
The music in this game slaps so hard.
Probably the only good thing about it honestly. That music deserved a better game.
@@yellowblanka6058Fortunately was always, and still is, in the JPN version.
@@yellowblanka6058 What about the amazing graphics, stellar sound, cool cutscenes, fun environments, and multiple, diverse modes of play? The only thing that makes it a "bad" game is its relentlessly unfair difficulty. If it had the same difficulty level of"Mad City", it would be an all-time NES classic.
So you're telling me that the fact I rented/borrowed Bayou Billy at least a half dozen times as a kid and never managed to get far in it was delibrate decision by the programmers, and not at all a reflection on me. That's what I'll take away, at least.
That's correct! You are a good person and it's not your fault.
The Adventures of Bayou Billy was one of those games that was good enough to persist on our memories as kids with the NES, more so by wondering all these years what the ending was because it was hard as hell.
I remember the Saturday night my brother came home with this game. We loved it. it was too hard, but that didn't stop us from playing it all the time.
What a mind boggling informative video.
Yeah we were definitely let down with this one back in the day. Much too hard for our early teen gaming prowess, however still I hold fondness for it...
I remember this game's setting featuring prominently in an episode of Captain N, which was enough to earn it a rental from my family. (Back in the 80s, what defined a "AAA" game was its advertising budget moreso than anything else.) Bayou Billy was definitely interesting, but not fun.
And even that backfired, as the version of the episode that first aired is a disaster on the level of the original version of The Simpsons’ “Some Enchanted Evening”.
@@GarrettCRW I'm sorry, could you elaborate? I can't find much info about that (though maybe google sucks...)
"Hey this is a popular game! Why am I not having fun? ... It must be me." (continues to play TMNT)
@@SetTopGames The episode of Captain N that features Bayou Billy originally aired with a boatload of animation errors (including numerous shots with no background), but was later corrected (which even included dialogue changes) for reruns.
Bayou Billy is a leading exemplar of something I've long said. If a game brings fun to its experience, it can outweigh a huge amount of bad. If it's fun, that is often enough. If it isn't fun, though, no amount of technical process will make up for it. That is to say, in a sense, the heart wants what it wants. You can enjoy a game without really knowing why. But if it isn't fun, no number of itemizable attributes can balance the books. Which is sad because I wanted to like Bayou Billy, but it's a classic case of being spread too thin.
My First thought in hearing about the cranked up difficulty in the localization was: "I wonder if anyone put a Translation patch out for Mad City" and lo, there was. Really need to hook my NES back up at some point and try it out.
All I remember about Bayou Billy was that it was excessively difficult and $3 that could have been used better at the video store, but the soundtrack still slaps today.
Pour one out for Jeremy's VHS camcorder. I might not NEED to comment on it, but it will forever live on in my memory. And in many videos across the internet, which is probably a superior form of immortality.
Thank you for focusing a bit on the soundtrack, because this one's a banger
Nothing like a trip to the rental store, picking out a couple vhs tapes and game or two and settle in for a comfy weekend ☺️
Great coverage Jeremy!
I feel like this was supposed to be Crocodile Dundee but they couldn't negotiate the licensing.
Konami had a tendency to imitate movies. Castlevania was inspired by old horror movies. Contra was influenced by Aliens. Dark Adventure features a whip-wielding archaeologist who resembles Indiana Jones. Arumana no Kiseki is reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
They got the license for Lone Ranger, was the that Konami? I remember the gameplay was very similar
@oaf-77 I'm half kidding, looking at the box art, I've always wondered if the similarity was intentional or not.
@@tenebraeannex8014 it absolutely was intentional in my opinion
@@oaf-77 Konami did publish an NES game based on The Lone Ranger. Like The Adventures of Bayou Billy it had a mix of side-scrolling stages and Zapper-compatible first-person shooting segments.
In context of publishers making games harder in the US as a way to combat game rentals, it should also be known that in Japan at that time video game rentals were nearly illegal or at least quite rare. Add in Nintendo's licensing policies in the US at that time requiring upfront payments to Nintendo, limited amount of releases and so on and it becomes quite clear why many developers went the route of cranking up the difficulty for US releases.
Once it became clear that was going on both my parents and I agreed that no game would be purchased until after we had rented it at least once. Which meant that game like Bayou Billy, which I really wanted to buy after seeing it in Nintendo Power, became rent only games after I tried it out and didn't have fun with it due to it's difficulty.
For players like me the developers cranking up the difficulty meant that I ended up buying fewer games in the long run. It also meant that I ran out and bought a Game Genie as soon as I could once it was released! The same held true through the 16-bit era as well. Most of my owned game collection consisted of longer adventure games and RPGs. Stuff that could not be easily completed on a rental.
Looking back on it, I’m surprised publishers wanting to stave off the rental markets didn’t consider, say, letting you turn off the terrible difficulty spikes via a code in the manual, which the rental stores almost never had available.
This is one of those games whose existence I knew about solely because it was the subject of a Captain N episode. Hooray product placement.
This is one of those games I still have and have owned since release…. Got to a certain point and never got any further.
Bayou Billy looks so fun, but I know otherwise.
I was ready to scroll down halfway through and start writing a comment about the Japanese version's difficulty, but then you went and summed up the situation better than I even considered. Now I'm hoping you give the Game Genie its own special episode. It'd make a perfect companion piece to this one.
I remember back in 89 I mowed lawns for 2 months to buy this game, all because the cover looked awesome!! 😂 It was soo bad, But I pretended to like it. Glory days
Wish you could put the grass back huh
Also... A short lived phenomenon at the time was movie and game rentals offered from places that weren't video stores. I remember seeing both for rent at several local convenience stores and even grocery stores. Lots of people tried grabbing a piece of the rental pie. I specifically remember the hard translucent plastic cases that NES games were rented out in, with a large white sticker on the side offering instructions for playing the game in capsule, since the game's own instruction booklet would often be lost when rented out.
Video rental at grocery stores was a popular phenomenon from the '80s on into the '00s. Some stores only had a few racks while others would have a whole separate little department with it's own checkout. And almost any place that rented videos also tended to rent games.
@@BelgandI was going to say that, I remember video rentals at grocery stores all the way until my first years at college in the late 2000s. Rarely games, though.
Our rental place often included poorly photocopied instruction booklets with the games.
Bayou Billy sure is a tough one, but at least that music will never make me mad.
Early NES: Kids will think Super Mario Bros 2 is too hard!
Bayou Billy: Fuck them kids.
Funny thing: a friend of mine found one of those "How to Win at Nintendo Games" books and mailed it to me, on the cover they're hyping Bayou Billy. I had the same book as a kid so it really took me back.
Bayou Billy? I hope you saved the receipt.
When I was young, The Adventures of Bayou Billy crossed my path and I hated it. The music is amazing, but the game was impossible. That said, later in life I played the famicom version, “Mad City” and it was absolutely playable and if anything, actually fun. It’s just a shame the hatred in the states is from unnecessary difficult implementation.
Fun Fact: The digitized voice at the beginning saying, “The Adventures of Bayou Billy” with the gunshot and siren is totally my ringtone lol
This was an awesome watch. Well edited, well researched. I’m excited to watch more of your stuff! Thanks for making this.
Huh. it's funny. I never played this, but I thought for _years_ that it must have been based on a movie.
Same! I thought it was based on some knock-off B-version of Indiana Jones.
I remember resenting this game. I swear, nes produced the hardest games of my childhood.
Loved how this game looked back in the day but hated how difficult it was. As usual great video!
Wow, yesterday afternoon I randomly decided to listen to the entire B.Billy OST, and now, day after, you upload the video 😮 I think this happend with some other game a few months ago 😅
You sent up the Billy Signal
Jeremy parish video dropping right as I need something relaxing to listen to yay:)
The great U Can Beat Video Games channel is indispensable, especially with this game.
I just watched a 20 minute video on Bayou Billy and what’s my one takeaway? Got the Megaman 2 music stuck in my head.
I was kind of fond of this one back in the day, warts and all. but yeah man the difficulty was legendary! so much so that it was even the main plot point in the captain n episode when he gets tricked into being teleported to bayou billy's world!
But yeah thanks to emulators I did get to try out the original Japanese Mad City, it's a far more reasonable experience. Jury's out if it would make my top ten NES games, but possibly top 20 or 25 at least? also it didn't click for me about the billy and jimmy thing til you pointed it out! I see you now, Konami hahaha.
Excellent video. One of the best you have done IMHO. Perfect for your style.
Ah, the days when you could rent a game for the price of _multiple_ comics. Now even a single comic costs more than that rental.
I'm surprised that the discussion of artificially-inflated difficulty didn't reference the infamous admission by the developers that _The Lion King_ explicitly had a difficulty speed bump added to it due to the publisher's insistence. One of the few times when we've been given concrete evidence of the practice rather than simply speculation and analysis.
I am impressed that you managed to make a 19 minute video about a game that wasn’t worth playing for 19 minutes.
Fascinating. This game kinda epitomized to me what the Deep South was like….wonder how accurate it was 😂
I have a friend who was mugged in NOLA a few weeks ago so I’d say it’s pretty spot on
I've been in the bayou near NOLA, it's very much like that, webby thick vines, closed in marshy areas and alligators everywhere.
Thank you for detailing some of the combat annoyances in the brawling sections. Like the original Ninja Turtles arcade game (and its port), it has that same annoying Konami jank with the hit detection, combined with the oversimplistic movement (3 whole moves to choose from).
Making the enemies more aggressive and resilient, while making the hero's attacks weaker, magnifies the frustration. Imagine TMNT's arcade game, with enemies that can't be one-hit by neutral jump attacks, and recover too quickly for you to avoid their counterattacks.
I'm not sure how much ramping up the difficulty of American NES worked on sales. When I was a kid, I could rent a game for 3 days over a weekend, still beat some games. If I was close, I could just rent it again. Plus, it didn't matter how hard it was, if it wasn't fun, it wasn't getting played. And some games we cranked up to be so hard, they were never going to be fun.
Bayou Billy was such a game. One of my friends rented it, and I think we played it for an hour or two before we figured we got our money's worth. So ambitious, but so grating to play.
Quick correction as I suspect it was a miss spoken line:
Tron was developed by Robert Abel and Associates (Roger Abel? I forget) and was released by Bally Midway. :)
Wow - I never made the connection between the opening foes being a knock on the Lees. Neat
As a rental kid, a fun rental was one I'd pay full price for. A cheap shot difficulty hack with damage sponges vs. a glass hero was trash I never wanted to see again.
Don't get me wrong, I adore Ghouls N' Ghosts, but that one gives you infinite continues and all the attack options you need. It's built for sadomasochists, in a way Konami's greed and insecurity was incapable of understanding.
I'm a little surprised you didn't mention that part of the context for the difficulty change was that game rentals were, and still are, illegal in Japan. Yes, the force of law there allows this, unless the copyright holder specifically allows it.
First time I saw this game was via Spoony some eons ago. Despite knowing full well what I was getting into, holy crap this game is hard!
Ended up switching to the Japanese "Mad City" to actually beat this nonsense. Though eventually, eventually I did beat the american release. The one and only time I'll ever do so!
The pan and scan Live and Let Die footage feels very era appropriate
I have a lot of friends with a love/hate relationship with this game. The 2nd driving stage has amazing music! Also, I love the new look of your videos!
I used to think I hated this game as a kid, but then I emulated the Japanese version and I realised I was not only wrong, but I had been wronged. Also, there have been 0 days since the last Golgo 13 reference.
Got this for Christmas as a kid, and I still love it. I cheated back then with a Game Genie, but it's definitely not impossible to legitimately beat with some practice. When you finally knock out the final boss who's been laughing at you the entire game, you'll be roaring at your TV in triumph. It's great for a quick challenge to see if you can make it without any game overs.
Nah. When you knock out the final boss, you'll be absolutely wrecked by the incredibly cheap secret twin bosses wearing power armor that came from a totally different game altogether
Ok, no, I did not need coddling,
I became an adult and did not have the mammoth time I used to have to beat super hard games from Japan.
Nowadays, when I play a game, I hope to at least accomplish something before I call it quits for the night.
Either intended or unintended, you have a clear reference in the title to Hard Times (Walter Hill, 1975). This film was set in Louisiana in the Great Depression and stars Charles Bronson as a street fighter with James Coburn as the main supporting actor. I don't really see much connection in Bayou Billy to be honest. The game was not too fun from what I remember almost 35 years ago...................lol. Thanks for doing these wonderful videos about my childhood and many others in Gen X!
This would have been one of the most revered NES classics had it not been so frustratingly and unnecessarily difficult.
3:50 - that STRUM effect is especially cool on the Final Mission aka S.C.A.T. Special Cybernetic Attack Team soundtrack! 😊
Bayou Billy would've been a great game if only the actual fighting didn't suck so much. I loved this game as a kid but never got too far into it because of how much the computer cheated.
The ending theme is a hidden gem of NES music. Too bad most people won’t hear it in context.
Never played Bayou Billy as a kid, its a shame that the game is synonymous with its extreme difficulty. Those tunes are nice, and it definitely looks like a cinematic 8-bit game. Desert Commander next time, that's gonna be a toughie.
Yup. When I heard the name "Rommel", that's exactly what I thought.
When I played the game as a kid, I had no idea that it had anything to do with World War II. I also had no idea what the different unit types were meant to do, and didn't have any context for it until Advance Wars came out over a decade later.
I remember this.... I don't think I ever got past the shooting stages.
Whats also interesting is that the japanese version has a bunch of "new game upgrades" you can get by beating the training mode ... unfortunately they all lock you out of the real ending so you have to do an upgradeless run to see the actual ending...
I have this game and I got it used from a friend back in 1990. It took forever to complete the first level.
I remember loving the soundtrack and coming to greatly resent the game. The idea that this was the vanguard for rental store difficulty inflation is painfully easy to believe.
Damn those alligators in particular.
I actually did rent bayou billy when it came out and was super disappointed, so you were right on the mark.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on the music and the sound effects, they were amazing but then again, it was a Konami game, so that was to be expected. I also agree with the sentiment that the game tried to be ambitious in its scope and game play variety, even if none of the options were particularly interesting nor well done entirely. It's not nearly as bad as everyone had claimed it was, but it really didn't do too much for me and it wasn't one of the games that, to steal from that mentality of Japanese programmers and producers, that I was in a hurry to finish.
Fantastic work that you do on these videos my friend, and you definitely deserve more subscribers than you have.
Stop! The beast contained herein shall not be set free... not even Bayou!
I never got past the first stage of this game. Furthest I got was to the scuba guy. It is difficult, tedious, frustrating experience. And I still love it. I have such nostalgia for it and sincerely thought it was awesome back in the day. A lot of that likely has to do with the great music, the cool mystique of the latter levels seen in the attract mode, and the (I think) good graphics. Plus it has alligators, which little me adored with the same enthusiasm as 90s kid had for dinosaurs during the height of the Jurassic Park craze. I played Bayou Billy so much. The death noise and music still plays in my head to this day on an at least weekly basis. It's one of those cult iconic things, some moment or movie line or something that's iconic only to you or a small group of friends. Love this stupid game even if I'm convinced it doesn't actually have more than the one level.
We rented this for a weekend, and I don't remember getting past the opening brawler stage more than once!
This is the most perfect example I can think of on the NES a game that tries to be a jack of all trades but ends up being a master of none
I rented this game all the time as a kid
Holy crap crazy how you brought up movies vs video games.
While there are no direct influences this game remind me alot of a film that followed after Jean Claude Van Damme's HARD TARGET.
I'm sure if you watch this now after looking into this game it will seem more like a better rated game to movie transition than anything.
Bayou Billy: Technically impressive, but nothing to write home about. Better luck next time, NES!
I find it interesting how important the "soul" is for a game..!
@@TeruteruBozusamaOh, absolutely. Soul is important. Flight Unlimited does not have a lot going for it, but the way the game is set up gives it a lot of soul. With cheezy pictures when you choose your flight office, zany sounds when you crash, and even an instructor who will scream if you crash during an instruction.
Bayou Billy would have worked on Wii Virtual Console. Just turn the controller for the shooting levels. It’s another game I regret missing out on.
The Adventures of Bayou Billy was released for the Wii U Virtual Console and allowed the player to point the Wii Remote for the shooting levels.
oh man, I recall almost loving this game, it was such a crazy game
Also also... Whether Japanese studios thought less of Western players or not, I took rather a lot of pride in finishing even difficult NES games on rentals. Bayou Billy, I did not finish it on one rental. But I absolutely did it on two. Because AoBB was not worth it to buy.
I think ultimately Nintendo is somewhat to blame for this, really. Most of the best NES software was actually partly hardware. The chips that were involved in that chip shortage were, I believe, RAMs and the custom silicon mappers that gave the NES abilities outside of its design specs. If the had been included in the system, where they could have been included once instead of sold anew with every game, then either the games could have been cheaper (more sales) or the publishers could have had more profits. The costs of those chips that made many of the NES' technical achievements possible was bourne by the dev, not the console maker that arguably should have carried it.
My experience with this game was pretty much as described. Rented it, had a frustrating time banging my head against the first level, finally got to the driving part and noped out there or soon after. Even as an NES neophyte at the time I could tell it was poorly-balanced hard, not challenging hard. I kept thinking there was something vital I was missing, because it didn't feel like the fights were designed for the attacks I had.
Hell yeah. I knew you were hinting bayou Billy. I’m here for it.
I've often wondered whether those "make the game super hard" localization choices actually created more sales. I remember renting Bayou Billy once back in the day, and I hated playing it so much that I never touched it again. Same with Ninja Gaiden 3. I loved the first two, but the absurd continue restriction in NG3 caused me to skip it. (Until the SNES rerelease, anyway.)
Meanwhile, know what game I did buy? *Mega Man 2.* Because it was an awesome game that I enjoyed playing repeatedly.
I was a little surprised to see the Mario Bava horror movie Hatchet for the Honeymoon show up in one of the video store segments. It's not one of his greatest movies but interesting for fans of his work.
The American version of The Adventures of Bayou Billy is very hard.
Reminds me of how I always forgo the US version of Castlevania III on the anniversary collection because really, the game is punishing enough without the anti-rental measures of the NES release. I’d go as far as to say even with that model, Castlevania III didn’t need more brutality packed on. Every stage past the first is already a gauntlet of punishing platforming and cruel enemy placement.
This soundtrack is blessed.
Konami figured the multi genre thing out in Lone Ranger, which is the game this game wanted to be.
My take-away here is that Bayuo Billy was actually an ambitious game back in the day. Legitimately had no idea, I thought it was just run of the mill as I just remembered how frustrating it was... but when it's all laid out then yeah, this game WAS real ambitious. Just a shame that aiming broad diluted the product. One day perhaps the industry as a whole will learn this lesson... one day.
As a kid I loved how it mixed the Zapper levels with driving and beat em up stages, and also the music was a jam. So difficult though, never beat it without the game genie. it's funny that Konami made it because it felt like a very American game next to Mega Man etc. the instruction manual was also nice.
e: finished the video and all was explained! i never knew Mad City was so much easier. Dammit konami
15:00 - regarding the difficulty level - I will always remember this game as a game that even Captain N couldn't beat, as he mentions in the second "Captain N: The Game Master" episode, "How's Bayou". You'd think they would've saved such a difficult game for a later episode! Seems weird for him to take it on while he's still fresh in Videoland!
it was probably produced later in the season, hence the infamous unfinished backgrounds
Konami was sadistic for making it harder for us Stateside gamers....but game was fun, loved how it had 3 different types of gameplay. My cousin had the game and always looked forward to playing it at their house. Music is top notch.
Man, this game was tough! My little brother, and I loved it though.
This was my dad's favorite game and i play it every year in his memory. Also made me curious about Mad City, so when i got a famicom, i got it, and its probably 10x easier than the US version!
4:20 The shadows show up more true to their intended appearance on this VHS footage. They're solid black in the other footage.
It is a great game that is heavily marred by the insane difficulty, same problem Battletoads had. Mad City is the way to go. 🤘
Bayou Billy AKA Bad City
The Adventures of Bayou Billy seems like something that would be generated by AI, cramming in a ton of varied elements in an effort to make everyone happy.