STREET HASSLE
Original Release: Melbourne House, 1987, Commodore 64/ZX Spectrum
Other Releases: PC (1988), NES (1989), Amiga (1994)
Perhaps better known as "Bad Street Brawler" and being one of the launch titles for the NES Power Glove peripheral, Street Hassle was originally a janky but creative Commodore game from Beam that got smeared by some sources as one of the "worst ever" after a series of bad ports
Street Hassle (Amiga, World Software, 1994)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Amiga Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
In 1994 the fine folks behind Franko: The Crazy Revenge decided, for whatever reason, to create what I presume is an unlicensed Amiga port of Beam's Software's 1987 Commodore 64 title Street Hassle. This game was officially ported to numerous platforms in its day, and it was probably best known as Bad Street Brawler for the NES, but this is years after everyone else had forgotten the game.
Poland's somewhat wild gaming scene of the time might have had something to do with this, as when Street Hassle first came out the country was still under communist rule and I would assume Western products were still embargoed. That all led to a thriving bootlegging scene in the country that seems to have remained common after the early 90s changeover to democracy, and maybe World Software wanted to give the country a native port of one of the games that inspired Franko. I dunno.
Whatever the case, this version does make some little gameplay and aesthetic tweaks. Instead of the original Boomhauer-Hulk Hogan hybrid we now play as a greasy black-haired bodybuilder who wakes up in his slum apartment and rolls out of bed to beat up all the neighborhood seniors and dogs.
The enemies and backdrops have been changed up a bit. You now seem to only fight the old people and dogs, at least for the first few segments, but they have some new moves in their repertoire and add even more as the game goes on. By the second segment the old guys are capably countering your meathead strikes and pummeling you from above with Link's downward thrust technique from Zelda 2, and zoning you with an endless supply of buy-one-get-one pea cans or something.
The original game was no prize for gameplay and this one somehow makes it even clunkier. But I guess it's interesting if you want to see an enthusiastic amateur interpretation of the game that adds some new twists and elements to it.
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