ULTIMATE GUIDE
BONANZABROS
SEGA REALLY BROUGHT HOME THE GOODS WHEN IT SNUCK SPLIT-SCREEN STEALTH, SLAPSTICK CHARM AND UNIQUE CHARACTERS INTO ARCADES THROUGH THE LOVABLE BONANZA BROS. JOIN US AS WE INVESTIGATE THE CRIMINALLY GOOD COIN-OP GAME, ALONG WITH ITS CONVERSIONS AND SPIN-OFFS
WORDS BY GRAHAM PEMBREY
» [Arcade] Robo and Mobo scarper across rooftops at the start of the game.
For all their supposed stealth credentials, the Bonanza Bros have a dubious track record of keeping a low profile since their original arcade heist. Take a glance at their prolific police record and you’ll find evidence of Robo and Mobo being present at the scenes of conversions and spin-offs across a litany of consoles and home computers. Those pesky yellow thieves just keep getting away with it.
Labelling the brothers as robbers is perhaps a little unfair though, as their criminal status is somewhat up for debate. The introduction screens of the arcade game depict a mystery client recruiting the pair for a mission to help with “cleaning up Badville once and for all” by gathering evidence from “crooked joints that are run by counterfeiters, thieving bankers and cheating casino operators”. On the other hand, the same sequence on some home ports tells a slightly different backstory of the brothers being “reformed villains” who are asked simply to “test security” at a series of swanky establishments.
Opinions also seem divided about how human the brothers really are. Some versions of the Mega Drive cover artwork portray them as real people, albeit in cartoon form, while in the Master System game alone their sprites are pale-skinned instead of yellow. To add to the confused intelligence available to us, the Sega Genesis game led US audiences to believe the duo are in fact named Mike and Spike, with the manual describing them as “the most famous investigators around” and not bad guys at all. The title of that version of the game was also extended to become Bonanza Brothers. So just who really are these slippery characters?