Arcade Archives: Gang Busters

[tepidsnake]

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Gang Busters (Konami, 1988)

PSN
EU
US

Switch
EU
US

Both the Japanese (Crazy Cop) and International (Gang Busters) ROMs are included. Preference Settings

"... And we'll keep you posted on the restoration efforts of the Lord British ship in the coming months. Meanwhile, in local news, the Dagrus Gang, lead by Mr. Soul, have just pulled off a daring bank heist, snatching a million dollars from the Main Street bank. Reports from the scene indicate the gang is heavily armed but, in a sign of the heist being a little rushed, some of them are still counting the money on the street! Ah, wait, I'm being told just now that two officers from the police station, Smith & Wesson, have been assigned to the case to catch the burglars and retrieve the money, with officials stating they're taking the job on 'with a sense of grim determination'. It seems they're at the scene right now, arresting any gang members they find with dollar bags and sending them to the nearest police wagon to get massive fire power upgrades. There's a giant rock on the scene as well? (Are you sure about th- you are? OK, whatever) We'll have more on this story as it develops, but coming up next on 573 News, Reiko Hinomoto is in the studio to talk about her long-storied wrestling career, stay tuned!"

A top-down shooter with a cops-and-robbers theme, Gang Busters has a lighter tone than something like Jail Break, with more exagerrated, silly character designs (especially the player characters themselves who, yes, really are called Smith & Wesson) and some light touches of humour like comic book-style sound effects and squid you can pick up and put on your head in the dock area. There's also a hostage mechanic similar to Jackal but this time, it's burglars you're capturing to send them to be arrested- each one you pick up gives you upgrades in a specific order like speed boosts and better weapons, and sending them on their way gives you limited super shots to blow enemies away. The strangest mechanic has to be the giant boulder that usually shows up during mob fights at the end of each area, this can be pushed to block shots and eventually explodes but if you can keep it until the next area, you'll get a massive score bonus and an extra life and can keep doing this! LordBBH's 1CC shows this mechanic off and it's such an odd fit for the theming of the game- I wonder if it was made for a completely different game and just shoved into this one? In any case, this one feels a little strange- it has that Contra and Jail Break thing where shooting while moving from a diagonal to a cardinal direction will mean your aim is slightly off until you fully reach the cardinal direction and vice versa, the scrolling is slow so you frequently have to stop and start when moving the screen along, and it can often feel a little cramped and awkward, but it's not a bad game and it has a goofy charm to it. Just watch out though- continues eventually get cut off, a classic Konami move!