Unlike other such games Badlands's only control was a button to fire the character's gun.
Unrelated to the racing game by Atari or the 1973 film directed by Terrence Malick. It is also unrelated to the 2013 mobile game Badland.
This game provides examples of:
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Random townsfolk will pull guns and try to shoot you in the middle of the street. With no warning.
- Eyelid Pull Taunt: The bartender does this if he shoots you.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The aforementioned random townsfolk, but the various supernatural beings even moreso.
- Lost World: Besides the banditos there's a portion of the game involving an area filled with prehistoric monstrosities.
- The Many Deaths of You: Par for the course in a laserdisc game, but some of the deaths are just plain silly. Like the one where a scorpion jumps on Buck's head and cuts his hair, giving him a mohawk.
- Opening Monologue: "We were living a quiet life, when suddenly, for no reason, my wife and my children were killed in cold blood!..."
- Weird West: What starts as a simple story about a gunslinger seeking revenge on a gang of outlaws is filled with odd detours involving weird monsters, dinosaurs, and undead.
- What the Hell, Player?: Kill people for no good reason (those random townsfolk? You have to wait until they draw on you) and Buck will be hanged, then thrown in jail. No, that is the right order.
- Winged Soul Flies Off at Death: The "game over" screen shows Buck as a rather comical angel who flaps away rather awkwardly.
