Bucky O'Hare NES (1992)

I arrived home from Primary School one day to find this game resting against my TV and being a fan of the cartoon I was very excited to say the least and it turned out to be a great game!

Bucky's crew are kidnapped by the toads in this game and taken to different planets. Needless to say Bucky then has to go and rescue them. The characters kidnapped are Willy, Deadeye, Jenny and Blinky. Bruiser is unfortunately not in the game and I was so looking forward to croaking some toads with him!

Select your destination

Blinky is being held on the green planet.

Deadeye on the red planet.

Jenny on the blue planet.

Willy on the yellow planet.

The Green Planet

The game is an action platformer and each level sees you going through a series of acts until you reach the boss at the end. The green planet is a jungle with ropes to swing on, trees to climb and logs to ride. You are faced with toads and you use your blaster to overcome them. Also when using Bucky he has a special ability to jump really high. You hold down one of the buttons and hey presto! Comes in handy especially when the boss of the green planet turns out to be Toadborg! After defeating him you rescue Blinky who then becomes playable! He has the ability to smash blocks of ice and his special ability is his jet pack. This is really useful for the blue planet.

The red planet contains a lot of lava which sees you trying to escape it and riding giant boulders over spikes. At the end of the level you face a huge sphere containing a toad. It's easy enough to destroy. When you get Deadeye he has a blaster that shoots in 3 directions and he has the ability to climb up walls! Who needs Spiderman eh?

The Mighty Toadborg!

If the red planet was lava guess what the blue planet is!? Yep, Ice! I found this level irritating at times. There are lots of ice cubes to smash and mini icebergs to ride while the toads try to melt it. Also there are some tricky sections with this snake thing that moves around the screen either creating paths for you or blocking you entirely. The boss for this level is Al Negator! The water level rises as you fight him and he turns it to ice that can trap you. There are spikes up above so you have to kill him before you reach them. Once defeated Jenny is freed and can shoot laser beams from her gem on her head gear and can generate an energy ball that you can direct anywhere across the screen.

So onto the yellow planet! You face snakes on this one and have a lot of riding and jumping to do. One section sees you riding asteroids from one to the other and jumping between

Surely this is not possible?

toad ships to reach your destination. Frustrating at times yet I enjoyed these parts. You also get to ride in a cart and then face off against a Toad Tank. Nice. Afterwards Willy is yours and has a weapon that he can power up for more damage.

Yay! Game over! Everyone's happy...oh...but then the crew are kidnapped again and this time so is Bucky :0

Now all the remaining levels take place on the Toad Mother ship. Bucky and Blinky are in a cell together and you use Blinky to break out of it. Now to find your remaining crew. Get ready to face toads, lasers and other mechanical nuisances.

When you locate each member of your crew the Air Marshall shows up and brainwashes them into doing his bidding so you have to keep firing at them until they regain their senses. Of course they try to kill you during this time.

Hands up!

Once all the crew are assembled it's time to escape. You get to control the Toad Croaker and experience some fun flying bits for the rest of the game. However then comes the last two bosses. One is a toad ship which can be a pain to destroy and then you get to take out your frustrations on the Air Marshall! We all want to croak him right?

When he's defeated the game is over! Hurray! Give yourself a pat on the back. There is an arcade Bucky O'Hare game too which is quite good. It would be awesome if they made a current generation Bucky game!

How cool does this look!?

Bring Bucky O'Hare back I say!