"Hours of fun to be had here"

I really can't believe there isn't another review up for this game yet. I've seen it in many arcades and it was pretty popular back in its day. The game was developed by Capcom and originally released in Japan as Pang! Later, it came home to the SNES and Game Boy, and was even re-released for the PSX with Super Buster Bros and Buster Buddies (AKA Pang 3). Buster Bros is one of the most addictive games you'll ever play, and if you happen to see it in an arcade don't pass it up.

Gameplay:10/10

50 stages of trying to stop killer balloons from taking out famous world monuments. Well, that's not the official story, the game doesn't really have a plot so you just have to go with what they give you. The objective of Buster Bros is to shoot the crap out of a never ending rain of balloons. As you progress, you'll come across stages with larger amounts, and different types and sizes, of balloons. Your characters are perched at the bottom of the screen shooting upward, in a scheme similar to Donkey Kong 3. You're armed with a harpoon, but occasionally special weapons like a double harpoon or a grappling hook will fall out of a popped balloon and become useful to you. There are other power-ups, like an hourglass which slows the balloons down, dynamite which clears out every balloon on-screen, and a force field. Aside from firing at balloons, you'll also want to target the blocks at the top of your screen, as you can blast them away to reveal more of the screen, and sometimes even gain power-ups from them. Another valuable thing to remember is that a piece of food worth lots of points will drop out of the sky in every stage. More points lead to extra lives, and those food items are worth many balloons in their point total.

Graphics: 6/10
The game was released in '89, so it's by no means impressive looking by today's standards. Still, the backgrounds featuring world landmarks like Angkor Wat, Mt. Fuji and Mayan Ruins are pretty cool. They reminded me a bit of the backgrounds in the original arcade Tetris, except Buster Bros looks better. The characters and balloons are bright and colorful. The graphics aren't meant to be the game's strong point, anyway. It's one of those games like Point Blank! that's all about fun.

Sound: 8/10
Pretty good for an older arcade game. The tunes don't get annoying, and they all seem to coincide with the region you're playing in. The Leningrad theme sounds Russian, New York is crazy and raucous, Mt. Fuji is slower paced and calmer and so on.

Replay Value:9/10
The game is tough, and it's unlikely that you'll beat it on your first try. The 50 stages provide plenty of variety, and any fan of old-school games will appreciate this one. They simply don't make games like this anymore, except maybe as dumbed-down crap for cell phones. But, why would you want to play a classic like this on a tiny cell phone screen? Hunt down the arcade version and you will not be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/17/07