Bonanza Bros. is a solid 4, a real fun co-op stealth side-scroller with some shooting elements. Steal the treasure in a variety of settings - like a casino, mansion and bank avoiding foes or shooting them when pulling out of nooks.

The Mega Drive home conversion has a very flexible continue system, basically pulls out all of the teeth from the game. Might suck up some serious coin in an arcade. But yeah, with unlimited lives and continues it’s a cakewalk.

I found later levels would need to be restarted when the timer ran out. But overall this was pretty easy to complete and a fun time waster. Can imagine kids in the 90’s playing this non stop.

Really excellent little action puzzle/platformer kind of game. Much like Crack Down (1989) which I played through yesterday, I find these tight little action games that are about careful and precise movement and shooting really compelling. Where Crack Down had a wall hugging mechanic to dodge bullets, Bonanza Bros. with it's 2.5D side view plays the clever trick of having one additional tile of depth - so there are functionally two flat 2D levels next to each other, and you can step forward and back between them to dodge bullets and enemies. It's really clever, and once you get the hang of things you can absolutely weave your way between enemy attacks and fire. Nothing more delightful than waiting for an armored enemy to approach you and perfectly stepping out as he steps in to avoid him. Plus I love the character designs. The two roundest crooks you've ever seen in your life.

This, like Gain Ground, was another favorite of mine on the PS2 Genesis Collection growing up that I'd never managed to beat. I could get to the final stage just barely, but could never beat the time constraints on it. I decided to take another crack at it because of this month's TR, and in a morning I wasn't even planning on finishing the game, I managed to beat it! :D . It took me around 40-50 minutes to play through the English version of the game.

Bonanza Bros. is about two brothers, one short and tall who wears red, and one short and round who wears blue, who wear sunglasses and steal objects of high value. There very well may be more story in the manual, but in the game itself that's all you really get. It's a simple (albeit clearly Blues Brothers-inspired) concept that works just great for an action game from 1990.

You go to all sorts of exotic locations stealing the required items in each stage and then getting to the exit to escape in your zeppelin. The perspective of the game is sidescolling, but also somewhat like Super Mario Kart in that the game is always in split-screen even when you aren't doing co-op play. The map for the stage that shows where the objects you're collecting are are displayed on there, which makes it distinctly harder to know where to go in some of the harder stages if you have two people as the time requirements on those stages are really strict, and BOTH players need to make it to the end to win the level. That's not an issue playing single-player though.

You can't just walk in and take the stuff though. There are tons of guards, cleaning staff, guard dogs, and bomb-throwing Bluto wannabees between you and your prize. Thankfully, you have a heckin' GUN to shoot 'em with! Unfortunately, all it does is briefly stun them, while their bullets/attacks kill you with one hit ^^;. The game takes place on two planes you can step back and forth between, and you need to step into the back drop to go around obstacles, hide behind walls, and go up staircases, and that second plane is often a more valuable way to tackle enemies than your gun could ever be. Escaping to another floor (so they'll give up the chase) or hiding until they've passed by (or turned their back so you can shoot them) is often far more efficient in taking care of enemies. However, you only have 3 minutes to complete each level, and your character walks pretty slowly (all the characters do). While you can instantly respawn (if you have lives remaining) if you're shot to death, a time up means you gotta restart the whole level. It makes for a very tense heist game with high risk/reward for if you wanna take your chances booking it past an enemy or if you wanna try and knock them out first.

The presentation is, as a friend of mine put it, "like MegaBlox said ACAB" XD. Characters look a lot like, well, MegaBlox toys, with big, round, shapes plunked together for the characters and environments all packed with bright, Genesis-y colors. It has a lot of cute little touches as well though, like if you press up against a wall to hug against it, a fly will come and rest on your sunglasses and your character will smack it X3. The music is nothing super impressive, but it sets the atmosphere well enough.

Verdict: Recommended. Like Gain Ground, this is a fairly simple and short game, but it's also very unique as far as games for the time go (I'd argue far more unique than Gain Ground in many ways). It's a gameplay loop that I adore, and it'll always be one of my favorite games on the system. The slow-ish paced heists won't be for everyone, but it's definitely worth checking out if you have one of the many compilations its on or happen to come across one of the (quite rare) physical carts~.

Played the Master System version after beating the Genesis one. This one is interesting. I think the Genesis version is ultimately the better of the two, and enemies get harder and more aggressive near the end of the game comparatively, but it's still a fun time. Bonus points for including the Bonus Stages from the Arcade port which the Genesis version doesn't even have.

By the way, no clue why this version isn't listed separately. Despite the gameplay being similar, it might as well be a different game considering it has unique levels, enemies, and level layouts compared to the Genesis release, as well as not even having Co-Op.