Oh hey I managed to find time to actually finish a video game !
Bucky O'Hare
System: NES
Release Year: 1992
Developer/Publisher: Konami
Genre: Action Platformer
Completion Notes: Beat Normal Mode, I'm not enough of a sadomasochist to play Hard Mode lmao
Based on a short-lived animated series adaptation of an eponymous comic (basically a TMNT wannabe), Bucky O'Hare was released pretty late into the NES's lifespan, and yet hilariously this hidden gem of an NES game seems to be more remembered than the TV show or comic it's based on. The game itself was directed and primarily designed by Masato Maegawa in his first ever game directorial role, and he would leave Konami very soon after this game's release to found the much-loved studio Treasure (a company I've talked about before, will talk about in this review, and will bring up plenty more times in the future :p). Not only that, but this game also has several staff members who would later join Maegawa at Treasure, most notably Hideki "NAMI" Suganami. Between all this, as well some trademark graphics effects (the way letter rotate and move around on the stage start and Game Over screens is pretty reminiscent of effects used in Treasure's Genesis titles) and design philosophies, I'm inclined to call this the game that really started the foundation of Treasure.
Just at a glance, Bucky O'Hare has all the marks of being a damn good NES game. Graphically, the game is fairly but good nonetheless, with plenty of big sprites on-screen at once and decent amounts of detail. Does the game look as eye-pleasing and well-animated as Kirby's Adventure, Gimmick, or Fire n Ice? Are the sprites as detailed at Metal Slader Glory? Are the backgrounds as impressive as the ones in Ninja Gaiden III? Well, the answer to all of these questions is, no, not really, but by keeping things simple, Bucky manages its main claim to fame: The performance. I can't recall experiencing any lag
at all, and even sprite flickering is something I can barely remember. For an NES game with not only large sprites, but a large number of them on screen at any one time, this is utterly insane. Bucky O'Hare may not look like a technical marvel, but having played a good number of NES games, it sure as hell plays like one and might be one of the most gracefully aging NES games I've seen, to the point where it basically plays like a modern 8-bit indie game (we'll touch on this stuff later on actually). The OST is excellent, though it doesn't come as much of a shock since Konami's 90s NES games consistently had quality soundtracks. Every single level theme fits the stage well while remaining catchy and rocking and having those signature Konami DPCM drums, prime examples being
Green Planet,
Red Planet, and the super underrated
Yellow Planet, though my favorite songs are the ones for the last two stages,
Center of Magma Tanker and
Escape.
Bucky O'Hare on the surface seems like a Mega Man clone: You run, you jump, you shoot, and you've got a special move that you can use when charging your weapon. You're given 4 stages to choose from at the start, and for each stage you clear you unlock a new character, whom you can switch between on the fly, with each character sharing the same health bar, but having different shot types and charge moves. Then once all 4 are unlocked, you'll go through 4 harder stages to finish off the game. In terms of the playable roster we have Bucky, who can shoot rapidly forward and upwards while having a high jump as a charge move. Next, there's Blinky, whose shot travels in a downwards arc, but is more powerful and can break certain blocks, plus Blinky has a hover for his charge move. Deadeye's shot is a slow three-way shot and can climb around walls for his charge shot. Jenny's charge shot is cumbersome to use, but is also the best at killing bosses when mastered, making her great for optimal play and possibly a forerunner for some similar design decisions Treasure would put in their games (i.e. Phoenix Force in Alien Soldier). Lastly, there's Willy, who is very much like Mega Man in that we can only shoot straight and can charge his shot, but the weapon itself is strong and very easy to use. Despite all these colorful descriptions, however, you'll probably find yourself sticking to Bucky for most of the game, and only later on will your other characters prove to be useful.
What makes Bucky O'Hare stand out from Mega Man, however, is the gameplay design. Classic Mega Man has very meticulous level design that often requires some careful consideration before you act on top of moderate speed and a slightly floaty jump. Bucky O'Hare is not only a bit more loose and a lot more nimble with its movement, leading to precise platforming and a faster-pace (both of which I like more!), but the actual level design feels like the developers just had a billion different level ideas and just decided to put in a bit of EVERYTHING. Levels don't really focus on just one or two ideas and build them up like Mega Man, they constantly jump around, with some screens expanding on previous ideas and some ideas only appearing briefly before getting dropped. Take Blue Planet for example, we start from a platforming screen that requires you to break ice blocks, then there's three screens of moving snakes (see below) that you need to carefully walk across while not dying, then a platforming screen introducing enemies that can dissolve platforms followed by an autoscroller screen on an ice floe the disintegrates, followed by a screen where you have to make enemies break the floor so you can descend to the ground level, followed by a platformer screen where you have avoid vertically moving crushers, followed by -
do you see where I'm getting at here?? To be honest, I really like just how many different ideas the developers here are playing with, especially considering how bland the level design of some NES games (
cough Ninja Gaiden) are. Plus, these ideas are generally well-executed, and I think Bucky O'Hare's play control and movement/physics are probably the best of any NES game I've played. The levels themselves are obviously quite meaty too: Despite only having 8 stages, Bucky is definitely not a short playthrough even when you've mastered it. Still, I can't shake the feeling that this level design is messy and unfocused, as not every screen is as polished as it should be. The reliance on using every possible idea also leads to stupid oversights like how you can't actually start the game with Blue Planet, you need to beat Green Planet and unlock Blinky before you can break those ice blocks. Not to mention, there are occasional duds in the level design, most notably the last screen of Yellow Planet (see above), which is a frustrating pseudo-autoscroller requiring you to repeatedly jump between fast moving "mine carts" or else you die instantly. It's probably the longest screen in the game and it boils down
entirely to memorization and twitch reflexes.
Oh right, did I mention? Despite being based on a kid's cartoon, Bucky O'Hare is a
SHOCKINGLY hard game. It seems innocent enough at first too, as Green Planet, the stage you'll probably start with, isn't all that bad, but the difficulty ramps up very quickly from there. There are a ton of different things that can kill you instantly in this game, and you will find yourself dying repeated times to many different screens in the game. At times it gets downright absurd, as some bosses or enemies will instantly kill you on contact, and some have attacks that are instant kill. Incidentally, a lot of enemies will do pittance to your life bar, letting you brute through the cannon fodder, though you still need to watch out for repeated hits or enemies that deal significantly more damage, and obviously the bosses will still kill you very quickly. There is a silver lining to all this though: Bucky O'Hare is one the most forgiving games on the NES. Not only are there password saves for every single stage (including the last 4, take that Mega Man!), but every screen in the game counts as a checkpoint. Game Overs will reset you at your last checkpoint, the only thing you end up losing are your life upgrades, which does suck for boss fights (and is especially painful for the brutal first part of the game's final boss), but it's still really refreshing to play an NES game that doesn't make you play everything you've already mastered repeatedly just to take a crack at the part you're stuck on. The brutal difficulty but forgiving design kinda reminds me of a modern indie game: I humorously think that this game could pass off as one if you just gave it a synthwave soundtrack, flashier sound effects, and included a "Press A to Restart" every time you died. Anyways, this forgiveness does make the often comical difficulty a bit easier to swallow and fun even. Yeah, that boss at the end of Magma Tanker was utterly insane, but I can't really think of any NES boss anywhere near as dynamic and exhilarating. But again, it still sometimes feels like this game goes way overboard, and the developers seem to use this as an excuse to make challenges that require prior knowledge in order to not die instantly. Honestly, if Ninja Gaiden had similar quality-of-life features, I'd definitely call Bucky O'Hare the harder game, so even though Bucky has these nice features, I hesitate to recommend this game to more modern gamers trying to get their feet wet with old-school games.
(if you're wondering, yes, these spike balls will kill you instantly if you touch them and don't shoot your way through them)
The scariest part of the game's difficulty is that there's actually a Hard Mode hidden in the game, where the main difference is that EVERY hit kills you instantly, turning those sections where you could brute force your way through into the stuff of nightmares. While it doesn't appear on the title screen, it's accessible by typing in the password "HARD!". And no, you won't get any valid passwords while playing Hard Mode, so you have to play it all in one go, making it a bit less appealing to play through for me. Granted, this mode was originally meant to be an anti-piracy protection, so it's
probably not intended to be balanced in the slightest, although Treasure
is a developer that expects some players to master their game, so who knows. Still, the fact that some people
SPEEDRUN the game on this mode, albeit still dying numerous times, is both amazing but also just plain terrifying.
I've always found it to be kinda annoying that NES games are often rated more based on their impact than their raw quality, when the reality is that not only do a lot of games not hold up by modern standards, but many of the best NES games came out in the 90s when no one was really paying attention to the console (and some were, worse yet, Japan-exclusive). I do truly believe Bucky O'Hare is one of the very best games on the NES just because of how solid the game is across the board, though I always hesitate to call any NES game truly great simply due to their limitations. Bucky honestly came close to showing me just how versatile you could make an NES game (and at a third of the size of Kirby's Adventure at that), but it still has a few legitimate issues with its difficulty balancing and scattershot level design. Still, I would recommend checking it out, it's just a shame this game based on an obscure license, so it's probably never getting a re-release, and even before COVID physical carts went for around $80-100 online. So maybe go emulate it if you're interested in playing...just be prepared for a wild ride. Less experienced gamers should play some Mega Man games first.
Mid to High
7 / 10 (Legit Good)
