 SNASS DRUNK! Time to review another NES game where the price of the cartridge is well over $100 and I have to end the video saying play this one any way you can, implying to play this one on an emulator or with a flash cartridge or whatever, rather than spending a ton of money that won't even go to the people that made the game in the first place. This time it's Bucky O'Hare made by Konami not to be confused with the arcade game by the same name, that came a few months later, and is a completely different game. The NES game came out in January of 92 while the Super Nintendo was already in full swing, so this one may have been ignored a bit back in the day, but it's a great playthrough, almost like Konami's answer to Capcom's Mega Man series. It's the same kind of gameplay, the same kind of controls, and similar level layouts and settings. And if nothing else, this is a good demonstration of the difference between a game being overly derivative or simply taking influence from something. Bucky O'Hare may seem like a Mega Man clone at first, but it's definitely its own game if that makes sense. It's based on the comic book series, and the game has you play as Bucky, selecting between four different levels to rescue four captured crew members. When you rescue a crew member, you also gain them as a playable character you can switch to when necessary. For example, once you finish the green planet, you get Blinky, who can float around for a brief moment. The blue planet unlocks Jenny, who does this oddball projectile thing that you can kinda sorta control. The red planet gives you Dead Eye, who can climb up walls and has a spread gun shot. And the yellow planet gives you Willy, who has a chargeable mega buster for all intents and purposes. Bucky himself has some special abilities of course, like the ability to shoot down, which is really handy, and he can charge his jump to reach higher platforms. One thing I should point out is that you have to complete the green planet in order to complete the blue, because Blinky's special weapon allows him to break through these ice blocks. Kind of annoying since the game doesn't really tell you that, but whatever. But yeah, every character's special ability is linked to the power meter below, which you can increase by collecting power-ups as you progress through the game. Where Bucky O'Hare shines the most is in the creative level design that makes you use all of your character's different abilities. For example, the red planet has a section where you need to place these boulders in appropriate spots. Bucky's charge jump works for certain areas, while Blinky's works for others. Then later on you run into these scrolling platforms, where someone with a quicker shot would work better for these enemies that pop up. So ideally, you'd use Jenny here. Those are small examples, but you can tell a lot of forethought and planning went into this game. That said, this game is still really freaking tough. A quintessential example of NES hard. To the game's credit, it does give you three life bar upgrades, each represented in different colors, a little bit like you'd see in certain fighting games. Fair in mind, each character shares the same life bar. And there's checkpoints and unlimited continues, as well as a password system. But still, when you beat the four planets and unlock every character, that's when the game gets really hard. For the most part, the level design is creative, polished, and really well done, but they get a bit too cutesy at parts, like this rotating platform thing, where you pretty much have to die a handful of times in order to get the sequence right to move on. Ugh. Oh, and when you die, you lose all your upgrades. That sucks. But despite that, Bucky O'Hare is tremendous fun. It's such a well-made, well-put-together game. It's one of those games that just feels complete, if that makes sense. There's tons of levels, multiple characters. It's challenging, but not too challenging. The visuals are fantastic, the music fits the game well, and like I said earlier, it's a great example of a game that's clearly influenced by other popular games, but it's not a rip-off by any stretch. It's its own thing. Play Bucky O'Hare on NES any way you can.