Bomberman

~ BOMBERMAN ~

Hudson Soft / NEC

HuCard

1991

My favorite parts of my Bomberman experience were the Gate of Thunder breaks I took every few levels. And my fondest memory of it revolves around the discovery (back in the day) that my Gate disc contained a free game. I was happy about that, even though I never really bothered with the freebie. I always looked at Bomberman as something laughable; I felt embarrassed for Hudson that this simplistic, archaic game was their pride and joy, the foundation for their trademark franchise. I could see why, say, Compile would wave their Puyo Puyo flag proudly; I don't dismiss the notion of a series with a simple premise and basic appearance having a huge impact, especially if its games are charming and addictive. But I've never believed that to be the case with Bomberman, and after finally bothering to beat its one-player mode, I felt all the more confident in my long-standing belief.

The game becomes mildly fun when you grab power-ups that enable you to walk through walls and detonate bombs at will, but then, it's also a cakewalk once you've acquired those capabilities. When you don't have them, it feels very slow and repetitive, what with the waiting around for bombs to blow up and the stages that basically all feel the same. By the time I reached the second half of the adventure, I was sick of it. And things get irritating near the end: starting at about Stage 8-4, multiple spinning face things (which can cruise through destructible walls) come right at you as soon as you gain control, which makes for many cheap deaths as you try to "escape" from the very tight "start corners." I endured the unfairness because I knew I was near the end, and the final fight with the evil bombermen is somewhat interesting (although most of the attempts at "boss battles" fall flat).

Things eventually improved for Bomberman on the PCE; '93 and '94 are both much better than this "pioneer." Perhaps this first effort is a heck of a lot more enjoyable in multiplayer mode, but I doubt it, and I don't think I'll ever bother to find out. My friends and I usually play quality stuff like Asuka 120%, Puyo Puyo, and Dungeon Explorer when we get together, and I can't see this moldy old-timer cracking the rotation.

The bad guy got away with the girl. Good thing we have the helpful map screen to guide us to his lair.

You'll see some enemies over and over again, and the "environments" aren't very interesting.

Here's a look at a few of the exciting boss rounds. I say blow these fools up quickly and get back to Gate of Thunder.