Super Buster Bros.
Also recorded as Super PANG · Super Buster Bros
Super Buster Bros.
- Date
- 1990
- Publisher
- Mitchell Corporation
- Genre
- shooter game
In this article
Key facts
• Title — Super Buster Brothers
• Developer — Mitchell Corporation
• Publisher — CapcomMitchell Corporation (Arcade)
• Designer — Toshihiko Uda
Futoshi Kuwahara
• Composer — Tatsuya Nishimura
Minae Fujii
• Platforms — Arcade, Super NES
• Release — Arcade Super NES
• Genre — Shooter
• Modes — Single-player, multiplayer
Super Buster Bros., released as Super Pang outside of North America, is a cooperative two-player shooting puzzle arcade video game developed by Mitchell and released in the United States in 1990 by Capcom. It is the second game in the Pang series and was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992. It is also featured in the compilations Buster Bros. Collection for the original PlayStation and Capcom Puzzle World for PlayStation Portable.
Gameplay
The object of the game is to take the role as Buster (P1) or Kutch (P2) to use their guns to pop bubbles that bounce around the screen. There are two different modes: Panic mode and Arcade mode. Similarly to Asteroids, when a player pops a bubble, it splits into two smaller bubbles. Sufficiently small bubbles simply vaporize when popped. Occasionally, monsters walk or fly on to the screen. When the player character touches the bubble or the timer reaches zero, they die. Monsters can also pop bubbles. Although the arcade game and the PlayStation version included in Buster Bros. Collection allow two players to play simultaneously, the Super NES version only has one player mode. Powerups are found by popping certain bubbles, shooting boxes, or shooting certain unmarked spots in the level. The gun power-ups cannot be used in conjunction with each other.
Panic mode
In this mode, the player faces a rain of bubbles. The default weapon is the bubble shot and cannot be changed at any time. Every time a bubble is popped, a rainbow bar at the bottom is slowly filled. Filling the bar all the way causes the player to advance to the next level. As more bubbles are popped, the remaining and incoming bubbles move faster.
There is also one special type of bubble that appears rarely. The bubble can appear at any random time, and has a clock image engraved. Whenever the bubble bounces, the engraving changes to a star, and when the bubble bounces again, the engraving changes back to a clock. Popping the bubble when the clock engraving is present causes all bubbles to stop movement completely for 9 seconds, while popping the bubble when the star engraving is present causes all bubbles to be popped and the game screen gets cleared, filling the rainbow bar with every pop made from the bubbles that are being destroyed.
Panic mode is beaten when the player reaches level 99, fills the rainbow bar and destroys any remaining bubbles on the screen (after the bar is filled and level 99 is reached, no new bubbles appear). The ending of the game is different in panic mode than in Arcade mode.
Arcade mode
In this mode, each of the stages has a set layout, consisting of walls, destructible glass walls, invisible walls, ladders and ice. There are items such as candy and 1-ups. In the SNES version, there are four difficulty levels in the arcade mode: easy, normal, hard and expert. Each difficulty has their own stage layouts, some remaining the same, some varying slightly and some changed completely. The amount of continues and general speed of bubbles is also affected by the difficulty level chosen.
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- Japan
Named but not plotted · 1
Super Buster Bros. is associated with Japan.
Country
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Super Buster Bros., revision 1357718395 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record.
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Super Buster Bros. on their January 1, 1991 issue as being the eight most-successful table arcade unit of the month, outperforming titles such as Carrier Air Wing and Columns.
In 1995, Total! ranked Super Buster Bros. 83rd on their Top 100 SNES Games writing: "Otherwise known as Super Pang this is an unusual game in which you break up bouncing bubbles."
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Super Buster Bros. Review Score.
- 2.Harris, Steve. Review Crew. Electronic Gaming Monthly. Sendai. 5. 10. October 1992. 1058-918X.
- 3.Amusement Press, Inc. Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos). Game Machine. 395. 37. 1 January 1991.
- 4.Top 100 SNES Games. Total!. 43. 47. July 1995.
Citations
References
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reference work
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Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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