My first exposure to Konami’s 1989 release Adventures of Bayou Billy was through the Captain N television series. It was never something I was particularly interested in because the theme wasn’t particularly captivating. Back then getting a new video game was pretty rare, and I wasn’t about to waste it on a title I had never played and one that didn’t belong to a franchise I was familiar with. With that said Konami was one of the most prolific high profile developers on the Nintendo Entertainment System and they released many of the classics. I always wondered about the Adventures of Bayou Billy, and so in the past few years I decided to track it down. While the game does bring some interesting things to the table it’s plagued by an unforgiving difficulty and loose mechanics. This is one of the rare 8-bit duds from the house of Castlevania.
Billy West is a tough guy outdoors-man from the bayous in Louisana. One day his girlfriend Annabelle Lane is kidnapped by a crime syndicate run by a man named Gordon. Billy sets out to rescue his fair lady in an adventure that will take him from the swamps, to Bourbon Street, and eventually to the crime lords personal estate. It’s your typical damsel in distress story, but it has been jazzed up a bit with a unique setting and brief dialogue sequences in between the stages. What makes this game unique is that it features three different modes of play. The basic levels play like a standard Double Dragon clone wherein you can move in all directions, punch, kick, and jump kick. Next up we have light-gun sequences that actually use the zapper. These are viewed from a first person viewpoint as the screen scrolls to the right with enemies constantly popping out from behind objects in the environment. The last of these is a behind the car driving sequence where you gun down bad guys and dodge hazards. Let’s dissect each of these individually.
The beat ’em up sections are by far my least favorite. I’m a huge fan of the genre, but Bayou Billy does a great disservice to it. The basic mechanics are pretty standard; you have a life bar at the top of the screen which depletes each time Billy takes damage. Punches are the weakest attack but also the fastest, kicks are middle of the road, and jump kicks are the strongest. Some enemies, when defeated leave behind items such as throwing knives, clubs, whips, and even guns (although these are very rare) that Billy can use as weapons increasing his attack range and strength, but they can also be knocked out of his hands. Unfortunately the gameplay engine is a mess. Hit detection is really bad, and clearly favors the enemy. Aside from that the level design is extremely boring, and enemies are very difficult to defeat. Even as a seasoned gamer I didn’t stand a chance until I tried using my turbo controller, and even then it was a constant struggle. There’s very little variety in the types of enemies you face, and the boss characters are boring with simplistic attack patterns and too much power. Billy is hardly the tough guy he appears to be.
Next we come to the light-gun sequences. It is here that the Adventures of Bayou Billy gains a little ground. Enemies approach from either off-screen or appear behind obstacles, and you have to gun them down using the zapper. Thankfully there’s no major problems here, but it’s still a very hard game. In these sequences you have limited ammunition, and Billy retains his health bar that is lowered when objects are thrown at the screen or when characters successfully fire a round at you. Thankfully they frequently drop items with a variety of effects. Some recover health, grant temporary invincibility, give you short term limited ammunition, or give you more bullets. It’s pretty basic, but the game does feature some really well done boss encounters that are challenging but never frustrating. What’s nice is that if you don’t have a zapper you can opt to play game B from the title screen and instead guide cross-hairs using the NES controller.
The third of these has Billy taking the wheel of his Jeep, and let me tell you he’s not a very good driver. That might have a lot to do with the fact that he’s being attacked by oncoming traffic and helicopters. These sequences are controlled with the standard NES controller and the action is viewed from behind your vehicle. Unfortunately the scaling is rather choppy but comparable to other similar titles on the NES with small poles on both sides of the road. Enemies kind of pop in to view and animate poorly as you approach them. In this mode you have two different attacks; firing your gun and shooting an explosive. It’s really difficult to aim either one because the hit detection is once again poor, and its virtually impossible to predict your shot’s trajectory when the road bends. You’re under a strict time limit to reach the goal at the end, and every hazard slows you down. These sections are just as unfair as the standard beat ’em up stages.
The Adventures of Bayou Billy is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to the graphics. The beat ’em up stages are fairly unimpressive with little variety and a lot of repeating backgrounds. What’s more is the enemies are heavily recycled. It’s just uninteresting visually. The light gun sequences fare a little better. The enemies feature a decent amount of animation, and though the sprites are re-used there’s more variety in their patterns. The bosses are the most impressive with large detailed sprites. Driving sequences, as I mentioned earlier, suffer from choppy animation but they’re by far the most impressive of the bunch. Billy Bayou’s Adventure is decent graphically. The soundtrack is decent, but there’s little variety to it. Themes to to repeat, but each stage does have its own theme. These are fairly catchy but aren’t particularly memorable. The most impressive part of this game on the audio side is that it features a few real voice clips. These are scratchy, but I imagine they blew players’ minds back in the olden days.
This game had a lot of potential. Mixing things up with three very different gameplay scenarios is a fantastic idea, and it’s more ambitious than most other NES titles. Unfortunately it’s lacking polish. The game is far too difficult for its own good, and the mechanics are too loose. Supposedly the Japanese Famicom verison is much better in terms of difficulty, but for now the Adventure’s of Bayou Billy is a definite pass.
