Blood Bros.

About Blood Bros.

Blood Bros. (1990) is TAD Corporation's Wild West spiritual sequel to Cabal, in which a cowboy and his blood brother hunt the outlaw Big Bad John through shattering frontier towns.

Blood Bros. in Depth

Two blood brothers, a cowboy and an Indian, team up to hunt down "the most wanted outlaw in Dodge City", Big Bad John. The mechanics are almost identical to TAD's earlier Cabal, though there seems to have been no trackball version. The heroes are seen from behind, some screens give them protective walls that enemy fire damages and shatters, and they have unlimited ammunition for their guns but only a limited number of sticks of dynamite to fend off enemy gunmen.

A gauge at the bottom of the screen depletes as enemies fall and certain structures collapse; emptying it brings down every remaining building and sends the heroes off into the horizon in Cabal's comic "victory dance walk". Boss fights restart from the beginning if a player dies. Power-ups come from destroyed objects or from characters who run across the screen, such as a small Indian chief or warthogs, and a tin can can be shot into the air and juggled with further shots to release points and weapons. Power-ups include stronger weapons, extra dynamite and bonus points, and two players can play together.

Making Blood Bros.

TAD Corporation developed it and published it in Japan and Europe in 1990, with Fabtek publishing it in North America. Game Machine listed it as Japan's tenth most popular table arcade unit in its 15 February 1991 issue, and Micom BASIC Magazine ranked it eighteenth in popularity in May 1991.