Bomberman

A unique charm comes from maneuvering a pink-footed, big-eyed, single-antennaed sprite around a square grid into the perfect position to trap your best friend between a concrete slab and certain fiery doom. Perhaps that is why the basic formula for multiplayer Bomberman hasn’t much changed since it was first introduced on the NES with Bomberman 2 back in 1992. Following in the footsteps of nearly every game console released since, the DS is now home to a Bomberman game, and a darn good one at that.

Features:

• 8 player single-card wireless play
• 30 different multiplayer variations and stages
• 100 single player levels
• 28 different pickup items
• team play and handicap setting
• 3 levels of difficulty for CPU bots
• touch-screen and microphone support for certain game variations
• classic 2d Bomberman graphics and gameplay

A very basic game that is “easy to learn yet hard to master,” Bomberman places opponents in a simple arena containing blocks, some breakable and some indestructible, and challenges players to trap their enemies in the blast radius of a bomb as it explodes outward in the four cardinal directions across the grid. Some of the breakable blocks hold pickups that affect the player in a variety of positive and negative ways. A round ends when only one Bomberman is left standing or the time runs out. Add multiple players into the mix for some of the most crazily delightful moments gaming has to offer as bombs backfire and victory can be snatched from the most unlikely of positions.

While all this talk about explosions makes Bomberman games sound violent enough to have Jack Thompson on the phone negotiating lawyer fees with Ted Kaczynski, part of the charm of the series is that its action-puzzle destruction is wrapped in cute, unrealistic, non-violent, abstract, kid-friendly candy coating. Bomberman is presented in the classic 2d top-down view of it’s granddaddies, and what it lacks in graphical sophistication and “gee-whiz” factor it makes up with colorful, crisp artwork that leaps off the screen but doesn’t obscure the action even in a super ultra bombing frenzy.

Join the party
Bomberman is its best as a party game. Millions of gamer-hours have been spent huddled around a television playing past Hudson games like Super Bomberman 2. Dubbed “Battle Mode,” the multiplayer component of Bomberman can be played with up to eight other players, alone with computer-controlled bots, or with a mixture of both. Bomberman uses the full extent of both DS screens to provide a seamless playfield connected in the middle by a number of tunnels, allowing excellent eight-player game play that doesn’t resort to scrolling or shrinking the screen to fit in all the action (take that, 10-player Saturn Bomberman!) Only one game card is needed to get the whole gang up and running, and what’s more, after the initial wireless connection and game download, wireless play is fast, continuous, and silky smooth.

The DS version offers a beautiful buffet of Battle Mode Bomberman bounty. Instead of containing a set of levels and a separate set of gameplay modes, each level in Bomberman *is* its own gameplay mode, with thirty different modes/levels in all. These variants range from classic green-and-gray-grid, conveyor belt, and pipe stages to adding trapdoors, enemies, spikes, and see-saws, making all item pickups random, removing all indestructible blocks, limiting the stage to having just one pipe connecting both screens, and starting all players off at full speed and bomb power.

A few DS-specific variations utilize the microphone to control bomb placement, remote bomb activation, or to put up a protective shield in front of your Bomberman. I thoroughly enjoyed these modes, which basically turned into “funniest thing I can say into my DS to cause your explosive demise” contests, since any noises picked up by the mic will do. Constantly saying “boom!” when setting a bomb gets tiring after a while, however, and these variations will obviously be less useful in really loud areas, when playing with noisy people intent on interrupting your game by causing you to drop bombs unintentionally, or if you are ashamed of talking to your DS in public.

The two other major game play variations are “Crown Battle” in which all players start at the bottom of the lower screen and race to snag a royal crown on the top screen, and “Blocks Battle” where the goal is to paint as much of the ground your color as possible, done by exploding bombs over ground panels. My favorite of the multiplayer variations, Mini-Mini, places all eight players on a field that covers just the top-screen, bringing forth extremely fun and hectic close-quarters bombing. All of these modes can be played in teams.

Other options can be changed as well. “Revenge” mode can be set in any variation and it gives “dead” players the chance to fling bombs from the bottom of the lower screen using their finger or stylus to enact revenge on those who eliminated them from the match. The touch-screen bomb-flinging is fun but difficult to use effectively. Another option causes a slot machine to appear before the battle and it randomly doles out starting power-ups.

Most of the power-ups and power-downs are classic Bomberman. Some pick-ups increase the number of bombs you can drop, enhance your speed, and further the blast radius of your explosives, while other pick-ups decrease each of those three attributes. Remote bombs are set and then detonated later with a touch of a button. Bomb Punch, Bomb Kick, and Bomb Glove let you hit, knock, or throw bombs out of your way. Land Mine Bombs hide underground for unsuspecting enemies, Dangerous Bombs explode in a square pattern that is difficult to escape, and the Shield can protect you from a blast in a given direction. There are no dinosaurs or kangaroos to ride, but I didn’t miss ’em.

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When setting up the Battle Mode match, the game creator can also give each player a unique handicap; a basic set of starting power-ups. This is very useful to keep inexperienced players in the game, and it is also a method of creating custom game types. With all of the options available, there are literally millions of ways to play a Bomberman round. How about giving all players the ability to throw their bombs at the beginning of a match? Or what about giving one player super speed, setting him against the other players as a team, and timing how long it takes them to hunt him down, Pac-Man style? Or what about agreeing that the green team use cow noises to activate bombs while the red team use pig noises? The possibilities are fun and endless.

Unibomberman
or “that other game mode”

Bomberman also features a complete, but bland single player mode with one hundred stages. Apparently, some star or something has broken into shards and you must travel into ten lands to recover them.

The top screen features the play area, which may scroll horizontally for multiple screens, and the bottom screen features a power-up selection menu. When you run over a power-up, you don’t immediately get granted that power. Instead, it is stored in your power-up cache and can be used immediately or saved for later. If you have enough items stored up, you can immediately restore yourself to super status after a death. The single player game starts out somewhat difficult until your stockpile of power-ups reaches critical mass and you can easily become a super-speedy invincible Bomberman-O-Doom on any level that gives you a problem the first time through.

A few of the levels really lean towards using certain items, and they give a feeling of resource-management, but those levels are few and far between and by the time you reach them you have a stack of the required items anyway. Every set of ten levels concludes with a boss fight that pits you against vicious such foes as a giant crab and a set of stereotypical Mexican cacti. Even though you can use your power-ups to become mega-ultra-Bomberman, the boss fights are fun and require more strategy than the standard levels.

The single-player game can be beat in a day if you aren’t a perfectionist and happen to be really good at Bomberman. As I continued through the game, I took on a “greedy treasure horde” mentality and started playing levels not to beat the enemies but to add another five “bomb” power-ups to my already obscene pile.

It isn’t that the single player mode is horrendously bad, really, it’s just that its blandness stands in sharp contrast to the fun insanity of the multiplayer. If the levels were more puzzle-based and required actual thought or better yet, a puzzle-based co-operative mode the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, then we’d have something to talk about. As it stands, think of the “Normal” single-player campaign as a mini-game meant as a short break from the Battle Mode and you’ll have things in the proper perspective.

Closing Comments
Bomberman, like an old high school friend, brings a nostalgic and fun party to the DS. The single-card multi play is brilliant and ensures that owners of the game actually have a chance to experience the multi play madness without magically encountering eight DS owners who also happen to have brought the exact same game. If you’ve played and enjoyed any multiplayer Bomberman in the past, then you know what to expect; one of the greatest party games ever and for $29.99 it’s a steal. If you haven’t enjoyed past Bomberman games then this one probably won’t convert you. If you don’t know anyone with a DS, then playing against bots and going through the single player mode should tide you over until you do, and Bomberman is a darn good reason to go out and make friends with more DS gamers! In short, just as it did on the SNES, NEO-GEO, N64, Saturn, and Dreamcast; Bomberman rules and I can’t wait to get back to bombing.
COD