Talk:Bad Dudes

US Release Date

Here's why that Nintendo Power 1989 release date is wrong: the US version of Bad Dude has many changes when compared to the Japanese version. A different title screen, all story cutscenes were removed, the ending text was changed, and a credits scene was added. In a time when US games were released many months or years after the Japanese release, there's absolutely no way Data East made all those changes to the US version and still released it on the exact same month and year as the Japanese version. There's just no way that happened.
Another reason why Nintendo Power release dates are not gospel either, is the fact that Magazines were in production months before they were released to the public, and there are many cases where a mag has stated a game would be released on a certain timeframe, only to see it pushed back or not released at all. At the time the magazine was in production, that July 1989 date could very well have been the planned release date for the game, but by the time the magazine reached store shelves, that date could have very well have changed. It was the pre-internet pre-windows era. Information didn't travel as fast, and changing anything in a magazine wasn't as easy as double clicking on a screen.
Even if Nintendo has made mistakes too, the most accurate and current info we have right now comes from them. They have access to internal documents with dates and information we will never see. So the 1990 date straight from Nintendo should stand.ReyVGM (talk) 21:35, 22 November 2020 (UTC)

If you want information straight from Nintendo, the NES lot check spreadsheet (HNPdata_List.xlsx) lists the US version of Bad Dudes as having gone through the approval process on April 19 of 1989, so a July 1989 release date seems more plausible than 1990 based on that. --Devin (talk) 04:31, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

Have a look at the following link: https://nintendotimes.com/nintendo-power-pak-source-march-april-1990-p-25/. It comes from a special edition of Nintendo Power. This edition came in 1990, was printed by Nintendo of America and it says Bad Dudes was released in July 1989. The source can't be any more reliable than this. And claiming that there's no way Data East could have made changes to the US version and still released it on the exact same month and year as the Japanese version is plain speculation. What makes you think those changes were made after the Japanese version was released? Data East could have very well developed the Japanese and American versions at the same time, and it's likely both versions were already developed before either was released to the public. In any case, you can't draw a conclusion about a release date based on such argument. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dave Andrews (talk • contribs)

I did some more digging and that Nintendo Power edition is full of mistakes that conflict with Nintendo's own spreadsheet PDF. For example, it lists Gyruss as coming out in January 1988, a full year before it was actually released. And to verify this was incorrect, I looked at every game list Nintendo Power posted in 1988, and none mentioned Gyruss. It isn't until the February 1989 issue that the game appears on the list. So my point is, don't take those Nintendo Power release dates as gospel. ReyVGM (talk) 21:58, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

Regardless about Gyruss, Bad Dudes is shown in a special edition of Nintendo Power from March/April 1990 that had all the NES games already released at the time. Unlike the regular Nintendo Power, none of the games featured in Pak Source are upcoming releases. Not even the popular Ninja Gaiden II, that was released in May 1990, is listed. The fact that Bad Dudes is there automatically removes any possibility of the game being released in July 1990 in North America. The only mistake (if any) there could in the case of Bad Dudes would be with the month, not the year (for example June 1989 or August 1989 instead of July 1989).