Bucky O'Hare (Arcade)

The arcade Bucky O'Hare game is drastically different from its NES counterpart, being some sort of beat 'em up/run n' gun hybrid rather than a Mega Man-styled platformer. This game was something of a developers' "last hurrah"; after this game, several Konami members would leave after a little pitch was rejected and form the company Treasure.

Unused Graphics#

Playable Characters#

A pair of sprites consisting of Bucky and Jenny lying on the ground with smiles on their faces. The purpose for these is unknown.

A small picture of Bucky with his arms crossed with some Japanese text which translates to "Sigh... I'm a dummy." (As in, the actual English word dummy written in gairaigo.) Possibly used as filler.

Miscellaneous#

A variety of fillers are found near various graphics, consisting of several faces, the Toad Empire logo, a bear face, some cat faces, and a generic 8x8 X.

Several sketchpads are found after Toadborg's graphics. These were most likely drafts by the animators before they begun actual work on Bucky O'Hare's graphics, as all of these seem to demonstrate either an animation principle or meant to loop. The skeleton is also found near the graphics for the upper part of The Indefatigable.

Above are GIFs of the animations.

The same case above applies for this dude, too, except he's only found with the Storm Toad graphics from the intro.

Hidden Detail#

Jenny has a weird face hidden behind her hair in the sprites for the opening of stage 6. It can't be seen properly in-game.

Unused Sounds#

Oh, thank you so much! In return let me help you!
A 50% sped-up duplicate of Sound #087.

Let's blow this. There are many planets out there that have been polluted!
A 50% sped-up duplicate of Sound #079.

Regional Differences#

Title Screen#

Japan	International

The Japanese version used to have a caption with the Japanese version of the title. This is removed in all other versions, but the graphics for it can still be found in the ROM.

Controls & Game Mechanics#

The US version changes a few game mechanics, at least one of which makes the game harder.

All non-US versions allow you to get an extra life by collecting a Life item when your health bar is almost full- it will 'roll over' and start filling a new health bar while increasing your stock of lives, similar to extending your health bar in the Japanese version of The Simpsons. This change means there is no way to get extra lives at all in the US version.

All non-US versions have the Bomb attack set to the third button and the Gimmick Weapon set to Attack and Jump at the same time. The US version has the Gimmick Weapon set to the third button (and it also limits Deadeye and Jenny to having only one Gimmick Weapon on-screen at a time, compared to two in every other version) and the Bomb attack set to all three buttons at once, with Attack and Jump now performing the melee attack (which in other versions can only be done when close to an enemy).

As a result, this tip that appears the first time a Continue prompt appears is not present in the US version.

Level Changes#

Level 1#

US	Other

All non-US versions add some extra details to Stage 1. Toad Air Marshall and some Toad Troopers were added to the right side of the screen as the Righteous Indignation lands then leaves before the stage begins, and two electric gates were added to the left of the starting area. In the background, one of the parallax layers now moves up and down and the sky periodically flashes red. Finally, two Toad ships that crash-land were added to the background- one at the start of the stage, and one at the end just before the boss fight with Al Negator.

Miscellaneous#

Japan	International

The dialogue for the captive Planet Warren civilians in Stage 2 has more detail and different palettes in the Japanese version. There is also an extra dialogue for it, too. While it isn't used anywhere else, the Japanese text can be found in other ROMs.

Japan	International

The intro text in the Japanese version scrolls; other regions have dialogue boxes instead.

References#