What it was
Bucky O'Hare is a green rabbit who captains a spaceship, and the Toad Air Marshall has just kidnapped his whole crew. Your job is to get them back. Four planets hold one prisoner each: Blinky the android on the Green Planet, Dead-Eye the duck on the Red, Jenny the cat on the Blue, and Willy on the Yellow. You can tackle the planets almost in any order.
Here is the trick. Every rescued crewmate becomes playable, and you can swap between them with the Select button whenever you like. Each one shoots differently. Bucky has a normal gun and a long jump, Dead-Eye fires three bullets in three directions and can climb vertical slopes, and Blinky carries short-range bombs and a jetpack. Blinky's bombs are the only way through the ice blocks on the Blue Planet, so you can't just stick with your favourite.
Hold the B button and a special move charges up: the longer you hold, the bigger it gets. The planets are split into eight or more acts, and the acts change style and scrolling direction as they go: climbing a huge tree, riding a log, dropping down a waterfall. Once the crew is back together the toads grab them again, and the last stretch is a break-out through the Toads' ship.
Where it sits in history
Konami made it, directed and programmed by Masato Maegawa with H. Awai, and released it in North America in February 1992 and in Europe on 18 February 1993. It was based on a comic book series of the same name. Kaname Shindoh, Madonna Taira and Toshiharu Furukawa drew the graphics, and Tomoko Sumiyama wrote the music.
Maegawa founded Treasure the same year the game came out, and several of the credited staff went on to work there. Hardcore Gaming 101's Kurt Kalata saw a link between Bucky and Treasure's 16-bit games in the same frantic rush approach to level design. Critics at the time liked the graphics and the variety, but several felt it added nothing new to the platform shoot-'em-up. In 2015 USgamer put it among the best NES games of 1992 to 1994, and Retro Gamer's readers ranked it 24th on their all-time NES list.
How it plays today
It still looks sharp. The sprites are big, the colours are loud and it moves fast. Bucky himself is quick, and the game isn't shy about hitting you with something small you didn't see coming.
Difficulty is the argument people have. Continues are unlimited, so you will see the end. Whether you earn it is another matter: Kalata called the instant deaths cheap, and the Blue Planet's platform snakes are the example he gave. Fair enough. But swapping heroes mid-stage is a good idea that most platformers never tried, and it gives you something to think about besides jumping.
Compared with
- Mega Man 3: Another NES shooter-platformer where choosing the right tool for the moment is the game.
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: Another NES platformer built on a cartoon licence.
- Contra: A Konami NES run-and-gun, with no crew to swap.
Why it matters
Bucky O'Hare is a game about a team you have to assemble before you can win. The crew starts imprisoned, and each person you free makes you more capable than you were alone. That's a small, true thing about how most good things get done.
Przybylski and colleagues found that games are at their most engaging when playing a character brings us closer to our ideal self. Swapping between five crewmates is a neat version of that: you try on the long jump, then the jetpack, then the bombs, and find out which version of the hero you like being.
Read: Who you are when you play →
- Przybylski, A. K., Weinstein, N., Murayama, K., Lynch, M. F., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). The ideal self at play: The appeal of video games that let you be all you can be. Psychological Science, 23(1), 69-76. doi:10.1177/0956797611418676
What you're levelling up
You have been training these without noticing. Here is how to do it on purpose, and where it pays off away from the couch. All the skills games teach →
Planning ahead
In the game. The four planets can be played almost in any order, and Blinky's bombs are needed to break the ice blocks on the Blue Planet. Swap to the wrong crewmate and the ice stays put.
Do it on purpose. Before each planet, decide which crewmate you'll swap to at which obstacle. Then see if the plan survives the first screen.
Off the couch. Packing for a trip, working out a week of shifts, getting three jobs done in the right order before the shops shut.
Hand-eye coordination
In the game. Bucky scrolls fast, and a small enemy you didn't spot can still hit you. Hold B to charge a special move and fire it at the right moment.
Do it on purpose. Play the Green Planet with the charge held down as long as you dare before releasing. Aim for a perfect timing every time.
Off the couch. Catching a cricket ball, hitting a drum fill, parallel parking without a second go.
Teamwork
In the game. Every rescued crewmate has their own weapon and ability, and Select swaps between them at any time. You win by using the right one at the right moment.
Do it on purpose. Pick a stage and use every crewmate at least once. Note what each does better than the rest.
Off the couch. A good team isn't five of the same person. Work out what each mate is best at and let them do it.
Verdict · 8/10
A fast, handsome NES platformer with one genuinely clever idea: your whole crew is your arsenal. Unlimited continues take the sting out of the cheap deaths.
