Blood Bros. (Arcade) - 2.950.000 1CC

Blood Bros. (arcade)
played by Judgment Storm
Score: 2.950.000
1 Credit all clear using default settings
No deaths against bosses
Lives at start: 3
Bonus lives at 300.000 then every 500.000 after (800.000, 1.300.000...)
Difficulty: normal

Instead of a sequel to Cabal, TAD Corp. made a follow-up with an Old West theme called Blood Bros. Unlike Cabal, BB never came in a trackball version. All releases of BB use joystick control. Because of the setting, your grenades are replaced with dynamite sticks. Player one is a bounty hunter, and player two is a Native American warrior. The two are out to stop Big Bad John's reign of terror. As before, there are plenty of destructible background objects that give you nice things. The dodge-roll is back as well, giving you some i-frames during the animation. Cabal's victory dance animation returns... I like it, and IMO it would've been a sacrilege to take that away.

If it seems a bit similar to Natsume's Wild Guns, that's no accident. The developer of Wild Guns used this and Seibu's Dynamite Duke for inspiration. A SNES port of BB was planned at one time, but unfortunately main designer Mr. Fusaki suffered a stroke and had to quit, leaving the project on ice.

A rank system is in the game. Survive a while and you can tell because the bombs thrown at you will fly much faster. This is definitely a more challenging game than Cabal. Item farming is possible on a lot of stages, but be warned... a hawk will attack if you're taking too much time. You can use your dodge roll to avoid his dive. He can be killed with dynamite, as you see in stage 1-1. Either do that, or hurry up on getting the level finished.

Most of the levels have a can that can be shot and juggled for bonus points and extra dynamite sticks. Enough hits after one launch can give you a 10.000 (sometimes 20.000) point item or even a special weapon. Dynamite and special weapons can be obtained from killing certain enemies and tagging pigs. In Cabal, shooting a grenade will sometimes give you a grenade pickup. But if you shoot an enemy's bomb out of the air in BB, dynamite items will always drop unless too many pickups are already on screen. You have quite a lot of chances to farm dynamite, and it's not too hard to get to the max of 99.
One BS mechanic in Cabal's boss battles has thankfully been taken away. Losing a life during a boss battle in Cabal causes the battle to restart with a full enemy health bar. Blood Bros. doesn't do this unless you continue.

TRY THIS:

You can kill the "time over" hawk with dynamite. See this done at 01:54. You get a 5000 point bonus item for it. If you want, go ahead and milk the can some more. Another hawk will eventually show up.

To get yourself a 1-Up in stages 1-1 and 4-1, lift the can and juggle it for 8 hits. If you did it right, the extra life will show up among the falling items. But be careful, this is missable. If the can touches down before you do this, sorry, you've blown it. No second chance.

In stage 1-2, tap the trees to get 20.000 point items. The can will be there but this is a better deal. Look out for the group of five enemies that comes to the center of the screen. They'll throw bombs, which you can shoot down to get more dynamite.

Stage 2's boss stands no chance if you've got the shotgun when it appears. Rapidly tap (do not hold) the button. Tapping fast enough will give you a better ROF. The boss' life bar will drop fast and it'll be over before you know it.

Stage 4-2: Do you need more dynamite? They'll be throwing lots of bombs at you... here's your chance! Farm away.

Stage 5-2 and 5-4: Those catapults really have to go. Get them gone with dynamite.