
The NES had its fair share of licensed games for popular cartoons and movies. The most popular of these were generally made by Capcom and their Disney line-up which many of us know and love but Konami was in on it as well, particularly with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a bevy of other licensed games though they were more in favor of arcade style beat-um ups. They got some rather obscure titles (anyone remember Cowboys of Moo Mesa?) and Bucky O'Hare was certainly obscure. So obscure it came out after the show's run had already ended at 13 episodes. So for those not in the know, what was Bucky O'Hare? I'll let the epic opening tell you what Bucky O'Hare was:
Kind of gets you pumped doesn't? It is also pretty much the perfect set-up for a videogame premise. Who doesn't love space, space-faring animals and shooting stuff? Throw in some platforming and hard as heck difficulty and you get a cult classic videogame.
PlotBucky O'Hare and his crew have been attacked by the evil toads and his crew has been captured and are being held on four color-coded planets. It is up to you, Captain Bucky O'Hare, to rescue your crew and use their unique abilities to rescue the others and take down the toad menace. Let's croak us some toads!
GameplayBucky O'Hare at its core is very Mega Man-ish in a lot of ways. Initially you can select from 1 of 4 themed planets (fire, ice, jungle, mechanical) wherein you rescue one of 4 crew members and use their powers to rescue the others. Their individual abilities are:
- Bucky (a green rabbit) has a straight-shot (like Mega Man) and can also charge up for an extra high jump.
- Blinky (little robot dude) shoots an arc shot that can break ice and stone blocks and can hover for a short time after charging up.
- Jenny (a cat) has a fast moving attack and can charge a hovering, controllable shot that can attack enemies at a range.
- Deadeye (a duck) has a short range spread shot and when charged can climb walls for a period.
- Willy (a nerd) has a strong gun that can be charged up to be very strong shot.
Once you have all 5 you can switch between them in real time with select to best traverse each stage. Each character does handle a bit differently so figuring out the best to use in each situation is important. Especially in the 2nd half of the game.
Bucky O'Hare is also considered to be on of the hardest games ever to grace the NES. And for the most part it does live up to that reputation but with one difference from a lot of other hard NES games, I'd also consider it to be one of the fairest very hard NES games ever. The main reason is that while yes you will die a lot, the game never brutally punishes you for sucking. So you won't spend an hour busting your ass to get the boss of that stage only to lose and have to redo large chunks of the stage just to get back to it (I'm looking at you Ninja Gaiden). This goes for losing lives and game overing as when you continue you will just restart the most recent act. The levels themselves are also fairly devious as well. Whether they are throwing lots of enemies and bullets at you, making you move quickly ala Quick Man's stage or putting you on fast moving platforms and stages that will require precision kind of like Battletoads. With unlimited continues the overall frustration factor with Bucky O'Hare is high but not to the point where you'll want to curse all those associated with it to the 9th circle of hell (see Guillaume & Adventure Island). The REAL bad one. And if you are really looking for a challenge, there is apparently a code that makes the game even harder and I have no interest in finding out what that entails.
PresentationObviously Konami is about as synonymous with the NES as Capcom is and while Bucky O'Hare isn't the best looking game they ever produced it is still a good looking game. The player characters are all recognizable from the cartoon and each stage has its own distinct look. And despite the game's penchant for throwing lots of bullets at you the game never slows down. The enemy graphics are little generic and underanimated but they are just shooting fodder so they do their jobs.
The audio is also quite good though nothing as memorable as some Capcom's licensed efforts they are fast paced and never get particularly grating even after you spend a lot of time in a stage, death after death after death. But they probably won't stick in your head as, say, Duck Tales. Sound effects are general gun shots and explosions, nothing spectacular or bad. Just does it job well.
In SummationIf you like hard games that punch you in the teeth but also will pick you up and dust you off all friendly like, you'll probably enjoy Bucky O'Hare. It is classic platforming by one of the NES's best 3rd parties and another fantastic licensed game for the NES. It comes fairly cheap and provided a great amount of variety and difficulty while not feeling like a grind. And since I am having trouble figuring out to close this, lets see that opening one more time.
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