Bonanza Bros (Mega Drive Review)

 

When I first loaded up Bonanza Bros I thought someone was playing a prank on me.  As in, they’d stripped out the Motorola 68000 CPU from my Mega Drive, leaving it with the Master System’s Zilog processor and somehow boxed the game in a 16-bit cart.  Yep, this is as 8-bit looking a 16-bit title as you’re likely to see and you’re bound to initially feel a little miffed.  However, Bonanza Bros has a lot more going for it than initially meets the eye.

 

 

This is a direct port of the arcade game with the premise being two brothers who have to loot increasingly larger properties in order to “test” these security systems.  The game’s levels are 3-D in the sense that you can walk to the back and to the fore of the screen as well as left to right.  In one-player mode the screen is still split which is annoying if you’re playing on anything less than a 20″ TV.  “Enemies” (you’re the bad guy remember) can be taken down using your gun (that only stuns them) or through a variety of hilarious traps littered around the levels.  It has a very Spy vs Spy feel to it but the gameplay works much better.

 

Doors can be opened to splat enemies, rakes can lie in wait waiting to be trodden on but remember, they can do the same to you.

 

 

The sound effects are dire, although the music is quite jolly.  The collision detection at times is abysmal.  Riot police are possibly the most annoying enemy, you can be past their shield, firing away, and nothing hits them.  The weedy jump of your character can also be annoying, especially when failing to clear the aforementioned rake.  One player mode is okay, nothing more, but it’s the co-op mode where BB really comes alive.

 

Tackling the game with your mate is immense fun. One of you can distract the guards whilst the other gives them a “kersplat!”.  You can also nab each other’s loot when the other drops it.  The basic graphics help the game run smoothly and I hardly noticed any blur.  The later levels like the Casino and Treasury look rather pretty.

 

Maybe it wasn’t a prank after all.