Bonanza Bros Review

Along with Gain Ground, Bonanza Bros is one of those Sega games that everyone seems to go potty about, but isn't actually that groundbreaking.

The gameplay is relatively simple, as either one or two players sneak through multi-floored levels in search of electronics to "borrow", haul up to the roof, and hop on some sort of blimp before three minutes are up. The AI in the game is decent for the time, as enemies will either hear or suspect the presence of the brothers nearby. The brothers are equipped with guns firing rubber bullets that merely stun enemies. This adds a degree of difficulty as the immobilization of the security guards is only temporary. The player can either jump, shoot, or lean up against walls as they travel through locales such as a mansion, a mint, a casino or a bank.

When hit, the player drops any loot they've gathered up to that point and lose a life - and this will happen a lot. Some guards have rubber bullet guns like the brothers, others have riot shields and a baton (and can only be hit when facing away from the brothers), a giant fat guard that throws grenades, and awkwardly animated dogs which pursue at an alarming rate.

There is a nice mix of enemy types that make each level challenging, as you may pump seven rubber bullets into Ruben Studdard only to find the guard you just incapacitated behind you has come to and wants Justin Guarini-esque revenge. It can be tricky busting into rooms only to find three guys with shields and you have nowhere to hide. The difficulty is challenging, but not frustratingly so.

The difficulty is toned down a bit as the radar above displays where all the items are hidden. Further, this occupies precious screen space, as the developers for some reason decided to make the screen permanently split, regardless if a buddy is joining you in the fun. This means that the entire time the top half will be flashing for a second player to join and is pretty annoying. The simple solution is to play the game with a buddy and tackle the objectives together.

There's no denying that playing 'cat and mouse' around the various buildings, laying traps for the cops and getting away with the loot is good fun, the gameplay grows stale fairly quickly. The unusual graphics have helped the game age quite well, but there really isn't a great deal of challenge here and you will see everything there is on offer after a few hours.

As it stands Bonanza Bros is a decent little game that worked very well in the arcade but isn't really worth downloading on the VC. If you're a fan of the game then you will obviously know what to expect, but to anyone who hasn't played this in the past, there are far more worthy games available at the moment.