Bad Street Brawler (NES review)

Developer: Beam Software
Publisher: Mindscape Inc.
Released: 1987

Bad Street Brawler is a side-scrolling beat-em-up and one of only two games to officially support the Power Glove.

You play the role of Duke Davis and your mission is to protect the city streets from lawbreaking thugs. There's 15 Force Move attacks in the game but only three are randomly assigned to you before each stage. Examples include a Pile Driver and an Aeroplane Spin and they can be activated with the A and B buttons pressed separately or simultaneously. The range of enemies is varied and includes Punk Rockers, Spies and even Gorillas! Although you never gain weapon abilities the bad guys carry items such as bats, knives and guns; if you defeat them and collect these weapons you'll gain bonus points at the end of each stage. The gameplay is unbelievably repetitive with nothing to break up the action and getting through all 15 stages is a test of endurance. The time limit in each level is very short so you'll find yourself rushing through rather than enjoying the beat-em-up action. Using the Power Glove is very unresponsive and your character moves too fast so you can't really pull off precise attacks. It's pretty unusable but thankfully you can plug in a standard controller and things work much better. The attack moves are decent but I would have preferred to pick which ones to use in each stage rather than having them randomised; this would have added more strategy and increase replayability. It would have also stopped the frustration that sets in when you're given useless attacks (i.e. Arm Spin) or moves that take too long to wind-up (i.e. Roundhouse Kick). The music is painfully generic with standard blues riffs and the tracks soon get repetitive and irritating.

Bad Street Brawler is a poor game with little variety and not enough freedom in the attacks. It's a bad first showcase for the Power Glove and while you'll be forced to reach for a standard controller just to make it playable you still find yourself getting bored very quickly.

Random trivia: The game was also released on the Amiga, Commodore 64 and MS-DOS.

Super Glove Ball (NES review)

Developer: Rare
Publisher: Mattel
Released: 1990

Super Glove Ball is a 3D version of Breakout (1976, Arcades) and one of only two officially released games to support the Power Glove.

You control a glove and your mission is to find a way out of the space maze by destroying blocks with floating balls. Certain blocks unlock exits that lead you to other rooms with different enemies and obstacles such as pool pits and steam tunnels. To find these you use the glove to bounce balls onto the walls or hit them with your limited supply of bullets. The ? icons house useful power-ups where you can top-up your ammo or gain items such as Triple Balls and Bombs. If set up correctly the Power Glove is surprising accurate; your movements are mimicked incredibly well and actions such as grabbing the ball are more intuitive as you simply close your fist. There's also an exclusive move if you wear the Glove where you can curve the ball by twisting your hand; again it works perfectly and makes placing your shots a bit easier. However, having to press the face buttons at the same time can be tricky as you need to take your eyes off the screen; luckily the game also supports the regular controller and it works just as well. Providing you have enough bullets clearing an entire room of blocks isn't too difficult and it's mildly entertaining. If you run out and have to rely on your glove to attack it takes forever and gets boring. The gameplay is highly repetitive with nothing to break up the action and despite its simple premise it's difficult to play as there's only one correct route through the game and no map screen; therefore, unless you sketch out your progress you'll be wandering around aimlessly. The 3D graphics are excellent though and the shadows make it easy to know where your glove and ball are.

Super Glove Ball is an interesting concept but despite the innovative and well thought-out control scheme the gameplay falls flat. It's perhaps a bit too ambitious and unless you're a patient gamer the whole maze aspect becomes far too tedious after a while.

Random trivia: The other NES game that officially supported the Power Glove was Bad Street Brawler (1987).