Dynamite Dux History
Dynamite Dux was released in 1988 by Sega.
It was first made for arcades but was later ported to the Amiga, Atari ST, Commadore 64, and Master System.
More information of the history can be found on the Dynamite Dux Wikipedia page.
Dynamite Dux Story and Characters
Dynamite Dux starts in a field with a blue duck and a red duck. They are named Bin and Pin. A girl named Lucy is seen hanging out with the ducks.
All of a sudden an evil king appears who is called Achacha. He puts Lucy into a bubble and vanishes with her.
You can play one of the ducks or both of them in co-op play to save Lucy from the horrible Achacha.
Dynamite Dux Controls
The controls are very simple. They are very similar to most arcade beat’em up games at the time, such as the Simpsons arcade game.
One button is used to punch. It can be held down to charge up a punch which has greater range and power.
The second button is to jump. If you hit the punch button in the air you can kick while jumping.
Dynamite Dux Stages
Dynamite Dux Stage 1 – Downtown
The enemies in this stage include dogs that bite, dogs that shoot from grenade launchers, and moose that use spin attacks.
There are items that you can pick up and use. Items are bombs, rocks, and a homing rocket launcher.
There are 2 bosses in every stage. Downtown had a boss made of fire that you have to shoot with a water gun. Another boss was one made of rocks that circled the rocks around itself to hit you.
Dynamite Dux Stage 2 – Japan
All the enemies from previous stages show up in later stages. This stage introduced pig enemies.
There was a flamethrower which you could pick up to burn enemies around you.
The middle boss was a Chinese dragon. The last boss was a cloud boss. The cloud was extremely difficult. It would throw clouds and lightning bolts across the screen which made it hard to get close to hit the cloud without you also getting hit.
Dynamite Dux Stage 3 – Jungle
A giant boulder boss appears in the middle of the stage. The end has you fighting a flame ring boss with a water gun.
Dynamite Dux Stage 4 – Chicago
Rhino enemies dressed as football players come rushing toward you to tackle you all throughout this stage.
One boss is a star and the last boss of the stage is the same fire boss that was in stage 1.
Dynamite Dux Stage 5 – Texas
There are cow enemies that are extremely quick and should be dodged by jumping over them as they charge you.
The stone boss comes back from the early stage. Another boss fight is a penguin king.
Dynamite Dux Final Stage – Achacha
You walk through the bricks of a Mayan-looking temple. All of the past enemies show up on this stage and they fill the entire screen. This makes it almost impossible to get to the end without dying at least a few times.
The Dynamite Dux final boss is Achacha himself. He comes being held by a giant boulder that shoots flames at you. There are a few stages to this final boss. Eventually all that is left of Achacha is his head and once you defeat him the game will be over.
Dynamite Dux Ending
Achacha is defeated. The game congratulates you and you can enter your initials for the high scores. Lucy returns to the colorful duck heroes, Bin and Pin, in the field where the story began.
Dynamite Dux Review
This classic arcade beat’em up is one of the hardest ones I have ever played. It took me two hours to play through and I died around fifty times.
If you like old school games that are challenging than you will like this game. A few times it seemed like I was getting hit by cheap shots from enemies. Hits where the enemies or projectiles were a lot faster than the ducks so it felt impossible to dodge.
My strategy for Dynamite Dux was to run past all the enemies without hitting them. A boring way to play but I found it the best strategy to beat the stages. You do not need to kill the enemies to scroll through the stage. The enemies were also usually so fast that they would just pass you by and disappear behind you.
The stages were colorful and the music and sound effects were great. Sega really knew how to make vivid and memorable video game characters.
One of the best parts of Dynamite Dux was the design of the boss fights. The bosses were unique. They had special abilities and would have different stages and forms as you damaged them.
Dynamite Dux Easter Egg
I do not want to cover the easter egg in depth because it did not show up on the arcade version of the game. The easter egg was on the Amiga and Atari St versions of the game.
The Dynamite Dux easter egg was offensive and not family friendly (I won’t show pictures here).
To see the secret easter egg you would have to access the hex editor of the game and put the word “dirty” into the code at a specific spot.
Where to Play Dynamite Dux the Arcade Game
I like to play my arcade games with an Xbox controller on my PC using playretrogames.com to play online. This is where I play Dynamite Dux.
If you enjoy collecting arcade game cabinets you can also look for the vintage Dynamic Dux arcade cabinet online. The Prime Arcade Machine with over 3,000 arcade games has Dynamic Dux along with many other popular classic arcade titles.