In this fashion the plot and gameplay resemble the Atari 2600 game Keystone Kapers, but with additional features similar to ones in Lock 'n' Chase.

The places the brothers burgle include a bank, a millionaire's mansion, a casino, a mint, an art gallery and a treasury.

While similar in graphics and gameplay, the story and the Bonanza Bros.' role changes from the original Japanese to the early western versions: in the former, the duo are thieves attempting to steal valuable treasures for profit whilst avoiding getting arrested; in the latter, they are recruited by the Police Chief of Badville to test security facilities and help the police recover evidence from various crooked businesses and institutions, but on the threat of jail if they fail to do so.

The player can walk, jump, shoot and move behind a column or large furniture, which allows both hiding and dodging shots from the guards, who can only be stunned for a few seconds with the gun or by slamming a door on them.

[6] The arcade game was ported to the Sega Mega Drive, Master System, TurboGrafx-CD (Japan only), ZX Spectrum (Europe only), Amstrad CPC (Europe only), Commodore 64, Amiga, X68000 (Japan only) and Atari ST, with minor graphics differences, depending on the system, and some changes in the gameplay, mainly in the bonus stages.

The whole idea is clever and the way the characters act is like an old Laurel and Hardy or Keystone cops movie.

"[13] MegaTech said the two player mode action is fun but does not have challenge, giving criticism to the game's difficulty for being too easy.

[12] Console XS praised the genesis version saying it has a very decent presentation and neat graphics and they criticized the game's difficulty being very easy.

Due to its violent content, it was removed from the US and PAL releases along with the Streets of Rage series in order to preserve its universal rating.