Bonanza Bros is a 2 player sidescrolling action game originally released in arcades in 1990 by Sega of Japan. And what Sega Genesis got was a port in 1991 on usual-at-that-time 4 Megabit ROM cartridge, a bit cut here and there, but still keeping 2 player mode. Though, I heard that this conversion ITL. Or maybe Sega of Japan was involved as well. Who knows. Not me.
It also came out for SMS and PC Engine CD thing. I think. And computers. And Ages 2500 rerelease on PS2.
The game that you have here is nothing more than emulation of Sega Genesis version. Well, European-Japan one, but it's english and 60hz, no worries.
Now, technical part about Sega's emulation here:
The Sega Classic games that you purchase on Steam count as DLCs for "Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics" game that should appear in your library.
It has Bedroom HUB which is the one with many features yet lags for many and Simply Launcher which lacks Workshop and Online but at least it works just fine for everybody.
However, Simple Launcher has it's fair share of glitches as well. It can crash. And it does the second time you go to main menu, so always quit after saving there so it doesn't crash when you want to save next time!
Emulation itself, mostly sound, isn't that good but it does it's job. Also, yes, emulator supports quick saves.
As alternative, you can use external emulator to run games that you purchased. Sega kindly placed in all games that you purchased in "uncompressed ROMs" folder that program itself doesn't use, just change file extension to ".bin" or so. The file for this one being "BONANZAB_JE.68K".
I also demand you to read digital manual of this game first. You can find it here on store page or go to "manuals" folder of game root and open "BB_PC_MG_EFIGS_US_150ppi.pdf".
Has online (in Bedroom HUB only) and local multiplayer.
The plot follows Robo and Mobo, the Bonanza Bros, no mushrooms involved, are wanted thieves who were hired by mysterious person, maybe, to clean up Badville by taking all the treasure and evidence from crooked joints ran by counterfeiters and cheating casino operators. Good bad guys, yep. The fancy thing is that for American version they changed it both in manual and in-game intro to be just two investigators Mike and Spike being hired by mysterious busynessman to test their security. Imagine if Payday had same thing going.
There is not plot-related ending scenes or anything anyway, just The End shorts fun.
The gameplay has you going through a building, with few floors, stairs, doors, to collect all treasures and then leave through rooftop. Ofcourse it will not be so easy, so there are guards spread all around the building. But it's not just action game. Your bullets only stun guards for a short amount of time, knocking them down. Another thing is that it has slight stealth elements, at least for it's time. Guards aren't immeditly aware of your presence so you can get the first shot on them. They can also alert others as well, at least the ones on the screen. And then sometimes forget you quickly.
But nonono, it's not about stealth. After all you have only 3 minutes to beat the game, unless you want to lose life. And it's not like you can pass through area without being noticed. Instead it's more of action-evasion. Good old cops and criminals. There are actually two planes that you can free change around, use that. Especially with nasty guards with shield, always on one or another side, not allowing your bullets to hit them. Plus you can sometimes use environment to your advantage. And under "use environment to your advantage" smartnessnessness I meant "smash them against wall with door". Which is fun. Always.
This port of Genesis is pretty decend but not the best. It's fairly straightforward port, it didn't bring anything new. Actually, it cut 2 levels out of 12, leaving us only with 10. They also removed bonus stages as well. It still has a two players mode, in this case the screen is horizontally split into two, plus map in the middle. Always reminding you that the second player can join in even when you just play solo. Music is pretty nice and graphics are fine, albeit they aren't clean enough to pull off this simplistic style pleasently.
Yep, there are also options. You got usual sound test and controls. And you got "players" which means how much lives per continue you have. Yea, you always have 4 continues. And then there is Difficulty. What it does is set how fast the 3-minute timer goes. They could just change the timer limit instead of confusing people like that, ha.
However, I wouldn't call this game all that good. It just doesn't involve me and feels dissapointing. Ofcourse it's fairly short game, but that's a given with arcade-style, they make it up with difficulty. Which is a valid way of designing game, shush. However, this one is overly easy as way. Game gives more than enough continues that you can always beat the game easily. But fine, short easy games can be enjoyable as well. It's just that it doesn't try to combine elements into more complex things, one of rules of game design. Or it doesn't try to throw in new different-enough elements. You will be fighting same guards. No, dogs make no difference. Barely much new in later levels. It's just meh.
At least the SMS version had new variation of enemies, much more fit to single-player.
Oh yea, and there is 2 players cooperative game. Both players share same continue count. There is no friendly fire or collision. Unless you smash player with door, but you don't lose life over it. Levels are designed in such way that if two players separate in two ways then they can get all the treasures faster. But then it doesn't feel like much of teamwork is being done. And I don't think there is enough of space or such for two players in same area. No collision, no, players don't block each other, but still. But then I haven't played it in multiplayer, so who knows.
So eh. Not exactly much for solo play. It just feels quite meh. Maybe more fun in two players though.
