The Adventures of Bayou Billy....sounds like a boring game. Sounds like your typical jungle scroller platformer. I think I'll give this game a miss *looks at the producer of the game*....K-kkk-Konami?!? Konami made this game? Well, that makes all the difference. You know a game's going to be epic when Konami makes them (well, 95% of the time). I swear the way they make a game is by pulling four words out of a hat, and the words that always appear are "make an awesome game". I'm excited about playing this game, and I take it all back. Lets see what this game has to offer.

As you start up the game, you notice that there are four different modes: Game A, Game B, Practice mode and a Sound Mode. Game A is your main game. The game introduces you with a voice saying the title of the screen, which is unusual in an NES game. It's not the clearest voice for it's time, but it's almost as good the Sega Genesis (which I found out is the same console as the Mega Drive, so no more confusion there =D), and that was a 16-bit console. After that, you are faced with some over confident villain whom kidnaps your girlfriend or sister or someone you care about. He says that if you want her back, you must meet him in his estate and fight his hoard of goons. What kind of evil villain talks like this? He's just asking to be beaten senseless out of. I have a feeling he just does this for attention. I don't even think the girl he kidnapped even knew you. This guy just goes around kidnapping people, then turning to the nearest person and talking about how you must save them. How arrogant can he be? But I digress.

You can skip this cut scene (and I use the term loosely) if you press A, yet to scroll through the text, you have to wait. At first, I thought you had to press a button to go through the text, only to find that it skips it entirely. This is a little odd, but something that I can get over quickly. Now the screen says "use this controller" as it shows a picture of the classic Nintendo controller. Well duh, of course I'm going to use it. What else will I use, the Power Glove? Now you play. At first, it appears to be a side scrolling beat 'em up, very much like Double Dragon. Wait, two guys, one in red, and one in blue. Bimmy and Jimmy? You press the A button to kick, and B to punch. Kicking is longer ranged, but I'm not sure is punching is stronger. Pressing both A and B will make you jump and kick at the same time.

Some enemies hold weapons, which you can just hit them to make them drop it, but be careful, ad if you are holding an object, if you get it, you also drop that item. These guys must be wimps to drop an item when they get hit, it's a surprise that they don't die sooner. This is just something like in Streets of Rage. What was so wrong with the enemy dropping the item when they die? What was so wrong with you dropping the item when you die, and not every time you get hit? How would you like it when in the Legend of Zelda, when you get hit, you drop your sword, and had to pick it up again every single time you got it? Yeah, it would make the game a lot less fun.

You have to defeat every enemy you see to advance. This can range to goons to crocodiles. Yeah, crocodiles. Why do you need to kill those? Why can't you just run past them? Well, the controls are as fluid as Double Dragon as far as I can tell, and the game play is as engaging, if a little too hard and annoying. Ok, that's an understatement, this game is extremely hard! I can hardly get passed the first level. But after all that, you have that villain telling you that your Annabelle (her names Annabelle, by the way), is safe with her. Well that's great, I'll pick her up in a half hour, if that's ok. I got the impression that you were....hey wait a minute....Does he have to intimidate you further this way? Is the game trying to increase motivation by having him say this sort of stuff? And what does he plan to do with Annabel?

Now we have a different level.....The Zapper? I have to use the Zapper for this stage? How was I supposed to know that? So in this stage, I have no choice but to get shoot to death. So I have to start all over again. At least I know what the "this stage use the controller" was for, it's to tell you what to use. Then what's game B? Pretty much the same thing, I thought. After some luck and frustration, I got past the first level again, this time, I can use the regular controller to aim the cross-hair. This stage is pretty easy compared to the beat 'em up stage you were just at. After that, the villain intimidates you some more, and you play another beat 'em up stage, precisely where you left off for the shooting stage.

And after that? I don't know, I have never beaten that stage. I can only a driving stage, guessing by the practice mode stages. The practice mode stages are off putting, as you only get one life for these stages. One life for a practice stage? Seems logical, but why not have the same number of lives as the main game? Who would want to play this game with only one life *looks on youtube*.....well, as it turns out, quite a lot of people do, so that makes my statement invalid. The driving stages are a nightmare, you have two weapons for this, the machine gun on your car, I guess to shoot at other cars, and grenades, to throw at things in the sky. Touch one thing that isn't the road and you'll explode, so you better be careful. I can just see that this villain is putting out all the stops to make you not get to his estate. I mean, this is over doing it. Is Annabelle meant to be the mother of the Devils child? Is she some secret weapon to fight the entire world? Does she have some sort of special nose that can sniff out treasure? If not, then why are you making it so easy for me to die?

Lets just recap the story, shall we? So the villain kidnaps Annabelle, say you have to reach his estate to get her back, have your goons set to kill you, have an entire army to bomb you when your in a car, and continuously intimidate me as I clear each stage. Right, I think this guy was the son of some mafia leader, and inherited everything he had, and is obviously drunk with power, giddy with thinking he can do anything he wants, and decides to blow it all, blow everything he has gotten from his father, by kidnapping this one girl. That's how I see it. I can just picture it now, it's still looking out the window, intimidating this Billy character, as Billy comes in, rescues the girl, and stabs him in the back without him even noticing, and he stabs him repeating as the villain falls to the floor, still muttering how Billy will never get there in time, and how his whole army of goon - now dead - will make him invincible and unstoppable. Weather or not that accurately happens in the game or not, the fact is still the same. This game has to have the most arrogant villain ever in a video game.

Overall, I give this game a 7.3/10        Konami kinda disappointed me here. The game was fun, but was so hard I almost lost all the fun in it. Sure, the graphics are pretty good, and the music suits the game well, but this is the Contra to Beat 'em Up games. It might also be the Contra to Rad Racer as well. It's got a lot of variety in it, and the controls are smooth. If you want a challenge, this this game will give you one fore sure.

I played this game back in the late 80's when this game was new but i never knew the title of it until I finally saw the review on screw attack this game is hard still