Why the hell do I do this?

Why am I compelled to play all these video games and then talk about them? What is this thing in me that wants to communicate something about the experience at all?

Because there’s always something that feels like it deserves a conversation.

Take Bonanza Bros.

This is a SEGA game where your goal is to be a stealing, robbing thief.

The Western releases tried to pretend otherwise. You’re a “security tester.” Which is nonsense.

The original Japanese version didn’t bother with that fiction. You’re breaking in to steal things. Everyone involved knew it.

Either way, the game is about sneaking through buildings. Ducking through corridors. Moving between foreground and background. Avoiding guards and police. And if you need to take a chump out to keep moving, you do.

By today’s standards, Bonanza Bros. looks simple. Maybe even primitive. But at the time, this was considered cutting-edge. Sega marketed it as “3D” because depth mattered. Foreground and background weren’t just visuals. They were mechanics. Today we’d casually call this 2D and move on. Context matters.

I also can’t shake the feeling that Bonanza Bros. is a swipe at Nintendo’s Mario Bros.—intentional or not.

This was peak SEGA vs Nintendo. SEGA was actively searching for something that wasn’t Mario. And here you have the anti-Mario Bros. Greedy, sneaky, morally questionable characters. Everything Mario and Luigi were not.

This wasn’t the answer SEGA was looking for. But the idea itself clearly had legs.

Funny enough, Nintendo would later explore that exact concept themselves with Wario and Waluigi.

A fun little game. Very much a SEGA game of its time.