Menace Beach is a game originally released for the NES by Color Dreams in 1990 and, like all Color Dreams games, was not officially licensed by Nintendo.
Overview
According to the game's instruction manual, the player controls a skateboarding hero whose girlfriend, Bunny, has been kidnapped by Demon Dan. The intro screen shows a shackled Bunny pleading for the player's help. The cutscenes that appear after most levels are infamous for Bunny's clothes rotting away while she insults Scooter.
During the game, Scooter uses his skateboard to ride across levels. Pressing A makes you jump while pressing B allows you to either punch on the ground or spin in the air. In the air, you can do mid-air hops by pressing A. Even though you descend more, this can be used to cross wide pits. You can also pick up items off the ground and then toss them using B. Scooter starts off with six health points (with each heart representing two) and these can be increased up to eight health points.
The objective is to get to the end of the level while beating up various enemies along the way. The level themes are mostly composed of towns, sewers and beaches; with the final level taking place in a cave.
The most basic enemies consists of ninjas, Elvis impersonators and surfers. These three can be taken out in three attacks or can instantly die to any item thrown at them. There's also clowns that drop bombs down but will die in one hit to anything. Once they're defeated, they drop their balloons which can be used to fly up. (In some levels, it's crucial to obtain a balloon from them). There's also people randomly tossing items to you from either covers or windows such as bottles, pipes and bombs (which you can use to pick up once they stop moving), bananas (which cause Scooter to slip), balloons, or kisses (which causes Scooter to lose control). In later levels, sumo wrestlers appear which can't be defeated unless you blow them up somehow whether it's through a mine or a tossed bomb. The sewer levels contain frogs which cause Scooter to jump, light switches which can turn the light on or off in the stage, springs, and mines that blows up after a while when you step on them. The beaches also have seagulls which can drag you back to part of the level. The only boss in the game is Demon Dan in the final level; he proceeds to throw fireballs at you and the only way to hurt him is to jump on the ground, causing a spike from the ceiling to fall on top of him.
Miss Peach World 1: Super L.A. Cop
Miss Peach World 1: Super L.A. Cop (simply known as Miss Peach World on the box and cart) is a hack of Menace Beach released by Hacker International in 1991 for the Famicom. This hack changes the majority of the graphics; most notably Scooter is changed to a woman with a white dress (which despite what the box and cart art may imply, has no relation to Princess Peach) and Demon Dan to a mad scientist with a syringe. The majority of the music has been changed to a track from AV Dragon Mahjong. The cutscenes are also changed to two girls with their clothes rotting away between levels, eventually becoming nude. The text for the cutscenes are all in Japanese but oddly enough, it's written out in rōmaji.
A prototype of this version has also been discovered that's titled Mr. Assy. The only thing known about the game is that the cutscenes remain the same as they did in Miss Peach World. Given the game's title, it's presumed that Scooter remains the same or is slightly edited here. Something to note is that in Miss Peach World, some of the cutscenes still refer to "Assy". Miss Peach World's cutscenes also retain the "Meanwhile at Demon Dan's" message at the top of the screen, possibly implying Demon Dan (and likely the other enemies) were left untouched in Mr. Assy originally.
While Dan Burke is credited for Miss Peach World, Dan Burke states he was not involved with the game. [1] However, he has not mentioned anything regarding Mr. Assy. Given how Hacker International has published pornographic versions of games developed by their original company, Mr. Assy was most likely the intended version that was sent to them. However, possibly without Color Dream's acknowledgement, the game was rehacked (most likely by another company who has worked with Hacker International) into Miss Peach World. Not only does Dan Burke's comment on Miss Peach World suggests this, the usage of "Peach" in the title (around this time, Princess Peach still went by Princess Toadstool in the US) and the AV Dragon Mahjong track supports it as well.
Sunday Funday
Sunday Funday is a hack done in-house in 1994 and was released on the Sunday Funday: The Ride in 1995 under the Wisdom Tree name. The hack itself is a graphical overhaul to make itself much more family-friendly (although it's a bit infamous that despite the changes, people regard the hack to be quite violent for its theme) and Christianity-themed compared to the original game.
The hack changes up the plot of the game to where Scooter (Despite looking the same, he is never referred to by his name even in the manual) has to make it to church on his skateboard. Scooter himself has been edited to hold a bible and his punch attack was changed to him spinning his skateboard (like his original attack when preformed in the air). The cutscenes are now a Sunday school teacher telling Scooter to make it to school while also giving hints. Many of the enemies have been changed to resemble more common civilians and defeating enemies will cause a Holy Spirit to emerge from them (with the exception of the clown enemy). Demon Dan himself has been changed to a bear and the cave palette has been edited to less resemble hell. The game also gives you the ability to toggle music on or off on the main menu.
Trivia
- Menace Beach was rereleased as part of the Maxivision 15-in-1 multicart. It was also released as a Famicom cart by Daou Infosys along with Baby Boomer and Crystal Mines. [2]
- The game was originally planned to have a jet ski bonus round which was not included in the released version. Graphics of Scooter riding a jet ski still remain in the ROM.
- Supposedly, many of the Menace Beach characters were based on Color Dreams staff. [3]
- Given this, Demon Dan's name was most likely derived from Dan Burke's name.
- There's a hidden message in Menace Beach which is accessed by first beating the game. When the ending sequence ends and the message "PRESS A TO REPLAY SCREEN, PRESS START TO RESTART GAME" appears, press and hold Down + Left + Select. While holding these buttons, a sound will play 10 times, then 5 times in row. Immediately, the message will appear at the bottom of the screen.
- There are two ways to skip levels:
- At the title screen, press Left, Select, Left (x6), Up (x6), Right (x6) (Left, Select, Left (x7), Up (x7), Right (x7) in Sunday Funday.). White parts of the screen should flash red every time you press the right button (aside from pressing Left for the first time). A sound will play if the code is entered correctly. Finally, press B to trigger the cheat and the message "YOU BIG CHEATERHEAD!" will appear and another sound will play. Now you can skip the level you're in by pressing B + Select during the game.
- First, start a new game. Then, press Up + A + B on Controller 1 and Up on Controller 2 at the same time. If done correctly, you will be sent back to the title screen. Like above, press B + Select during the game to skip levels.
