Buster Bunny is cleaning up at the Looniversity when he finds a treasure map! His arch enemy Montana Max takes it from him and gets in his mate Dr. Gene Splicer (s uperb name) to brainwash Buster’s friends into helping him find the treasure! This thin plot calls for a PLATFORM GAME!
This game plays like an interesting mixture of Sonic and Mario. It’s got the speed of the Hedgehog, combined with the precision jumping of the Plumber. That’s not to say it’s hard to play—far from it. It apes other platform games, but it apes them well.
It’s, as I said, easy to play. The C button makes Buster jump, the A button calls a helper, and the B button makes him slide. Buster also has a special wall-jump move which he uses to climb to unreachable areas. The levels are designed brilliantly for the use of these skills, which makes them a joy to play.
Bouncing around the eight worlds is a joy—highlights are the Lava Cave and the fantastic opening levels. The bosses are disappointingly pedestrian, with the exception of Elmyra, who isn’t even technically a boss. Buster can scamper over all kinds of terrain—ice, cavern, quicksand, even a pirate ship! Most levels can be tackled via multiple routes, usually top, middle and bottom. Buster will sometimes be set upon by 10 or more enemies at once, so you’ve got to be handy with a bounce attack!
This game is fairly easy—it can be beaten in about four days’ play. Some levels, especially in the Lava Cave, are totally brutal—if the secret level in that area doesn’t kill you, nothing will. Secret levels? Ah, yes. Each world contains one or two secret levels to seek out.
The tunes are catchy, but there really aren’t enough of them—maybe five or six? The FX are pleasing enough, but the explosions are weak—they sound like farts, basically. Visuals-wise, the game is colourful and rather impressive. The repetition of the boss sprite is a letdown, but the rest of the enemies have definite character about them and as such they engage the player’s interest. The final boss is an impressive construction.
I have kept coming back to this game for years and kept on finding new things. The levels are rammed with secrets to find—nothing to unlock a better ending, but still fun to find. It feels like a genuine achievement to locate one of the “bell” icons.
This is a fabulous little Genesis gem, and if you find it, you should snap it up.
