Bucky O'Hare

O'Hare stars the titular rabbit as the captain of the Righteous Indignation, which protects the parallel universe of the Aniverse. His other crew members, duck Dead-Eye, cat Jenny, android Blinky, and human Willy, have been captured by the Toad Air Marshall. The first four levels take place on the Green, Red, Blue, and Yellow Planets, where the crew members are imprisoned. The player starts out with Bucky, and the other kidnapped crew members are playable once rescued and have different abilities and weapons. After all the members are saved, the Toad Air Marshall then kidnap the Righteous Indignation again in the Magma Tanker. The remainder of the game involves the crew members saving each other, blowing up the Magma Tanker and escaping. Well received by critics. Reviewers praised its graphics and exciting gameplay, but disliked its lack of original contributions towards the platform genre and were divided on its difficulty.

• Title — Bucky O'Hare • Developer — Konami • Publisher — Konami • Director — Masato Maegawa • Composer — Tomoko Sumiyama • Designer — * Masato Maegawa • H. Awai • Artist — * Kaname Shindoh • Madonna Taira • Toshiharu Furukawa • Platforms — Nintendo Entertainment System • Genre — * Platform • Shoot 'em up • Arcade adventure • Modes — Single-player

• Illustration — Bucky navigates the Yellow Planet using fast-moving asteroids as platforms. Bucky O'Hare is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up arcade adventure platform game. It takes place in a parallel universe called the Aniverse, where the robot K.O.M.P.L.E.X. plans to destroy the captain of the Righteous Indignation, rabbit Bucky O'Hare. It orders the Toad Air Marshall to kidnap members of the Righteous Indignation and imprison them throughout the Toad Empire. The Toad Air Marshall goes after the Indignation while they are on a small transport riding to their headquarters. Bucky barely evades, but the crew members, android Blinky, cat Jenny, duck Dead-Eye and human Willy DeWitt, are trapped in four separate planets, which are the first four levels. The four Planets can be played almost in any order. Blinky is stuck in the ecologically themed Green Planet, consisting of waterfalls and trees as part of the level design and worms, bees, fish, and other creatures as enemies. Dead-Eye is trapped in the Red Planet, a volcano-and-lava-heavy stage with rock platforms. The icy Blue Planet holds Jenny, and the Yellow Planet, which is the largest and has laser cannons and floating asteroids, contains Willy. The player can switch characters anytime by pressing the select button. The planets are divided into eight or more acts with different gameplay styles and scrolling directions (either vertical or horizontal). For example, in the Green Planet, sections include climbing a large tree, jumping on platforms, riding a log on water, and going down a waterfall. Throughout the game, the protagonists fend off enemies such as androids and cyborgs modeled after toads or with toads in them, as well as parts of the environment, like fireballs shooting from a volcano. Bosses are scattered throughout and are not always at the end of a level. Each crewmate is playable once rescued and has different weapons. Bucky uses a normal gun, Willy and Jenny both shoot beams, Deadeye shoots three bullets going in different directions, and Blinky has short-range bombs needed to destroy the ice blocks on the Blue Planet. The characters also have special abilities; Bucky has a long jump, Jenny has a third eye that forms an energetic crystal ball, Willy can shoot a larger beam which can go through enemies and thus kill multiple at a time, Blinky can fly with a jetpack, and Deadeye can climb vertical slopes. The special abilities are charged by collecting power-up icons (the amount of power is indicated by the power-up meter) and are activated by holding the B button; the longer it is held, the more powerful the execution will be. Extra lives, bonus points, and health are also collectable, and continues are unlimited. Once the crew are reunited, they are again attacked in space and sucked into the Toads' Magnum Tanker; only Bucky and Blinky are playable at this point. The remainder of the game takes place in the ship. Its hazards and enemies include beams, mind-controlled crew mates, anti-gravity fields, animal-eating plants, and the ship's toads. The two journey through the Toad Mother ship, freeing their imprisoned crewmates. All members gather together and Bucky hatches a plan for the crew to escape down the Salvage Chute and blow up the ship. The Indignation succeeds, but the crew remain vigilant as the fight continues.

Bucky O'Hare was directed by Masato Maegawa, who also programmed the game together with H. Awai. Kaname Shindoh, Madonna Taira, and Toshiharu Furukawa designed the graphics, and Tomoko Sumiyama composed the music. The staff, like other employees at Konami, went on to work at Treasure, which was founded the same year as Bucky O'Hares release. In addition to two people with "special thanks" credits, Hideyuki Suganami and Kouichi Kimura, later working at Treasure, Maegawa was founder and president of the company, and Shindoh worked on the visuals of Alien Soldier (1995). Hardcore Gaming 101s Kurt Kalata saw a connection between the game and Treasure's 16-bit library, that being the "frantic rush approach to level design". First announced in Nintendo Power in the June 1991 issue, Bucky O'Hare was previewed in magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly and GamePro before its release. It was released worldwide in February 1992.