Bomberman
Ever hear of the White Bomber? Bomber Nebula? Planet Bomber? No? Well have you heard of Bomberman? Oh good! Well Bomberman is also known as the White Bomber, who lives in the galaxy of Bomber Nebula, and specifically on Planet Bomber. I’m sure there are a lot of you out there who didn’t know this and probably wonder how someone would even know these things for such a simple game series. Well as of late we have only had the classic form of the games where you play on a square map and place bombs in a small field of rocks and powerups trying to outsmart your enemy and destroy them. Truth is, he also has some more interesting 3D adventures that take him out of his element in games such as Bomberman 64, Bomberman Hero, Bomberman the Second Attack, and Bomberman Generations (Bomberman Act Zero will be discussed later). Out of over 70 games that he has appeared in, this makes a small list in scale, but these games can be most memorable.
When we think of classic games we usually first think of Mario, Zelda, Megaman, Final Fantasy, Pacman, Donkey Kong, Pong, and many more. Rarely if ever have I heard someone chime in… Bomberman! This seems odd to me as whenever Bomberman is mentioned the typical reaction is, “Oh yea! I forgot about him!” and yet he has appeared in over 70 games, and being one of the most successful characters in gaming history. There are several games only released in Japan, but he has had many American appearances such as 5 SNES titles that were released year after year, 3 N64 titles, 2 PS2 titles, 2 GCN titles, about 8 Gameboy to Gameboy Advance titles, just as many DS titles, a couple PSP titles, and even an Iphone game to top it off. Now that is a lot of games, and most of them just being enhanced versions of the classic game, and a couple different types along the road such as the N64 games. There seems to be about 10 takes on the original game for every 1 different styled game, and most of those were released within years of each other.
The question I would like to rise here is, why is Bomberman always buried in the back of gamers mind, and not in the front with Mario and Zelda etc? I believe it is because the games have always followed a very simple formula, making them more like a mini game then anything else. A fun multiplayer minigame that you can take with you and play with others kinda like tick-tak-toe. it’s always there ready for a few minutes of fun boredom, and doesn’t usually offer that feeling of level progression for single player use (although there are Bomberman games that do but we don’t think of those at first) kinda like Pacman, and its only fun for so long on multiplayer before it’s charm wears out for the day.
As I mentioned though, there have been some very unique N64 games that I found very fun and stayed true to the concept of Bomberman as a hero. In the classic games there really is no storyline or villains, just you, your friends, and bombs. I will really only touch base on two games, Bomberman Hero and Bomberman 64 the Second Attack. In Bomberman Hero you advance from level to level within worlds and at the end of the level you are given a score from 1 to 5 on how well you did. You jumped around the levels dropping bombs, kicking them into enemies, collecting crystals and hidden items, and was a very fun platformer that provided challenges and reason to go back and play each level again for the perfect score. It was well executed and made a great feel for what a 3D Bomberman adventure could feel like. It even let us see some more depth to the Bomberman world.
In Bomberman 64 the Second Attack you don’t really need to play the first one to get the storyline and how to play. In this one you cannot jump, but there are plenty of puzzles to solved, really fun Bomb upgrades, boss fights, a great sidekick, a few massive worlds to play in sorta like dungeons in Zelda, and it provides insight in the universe of Bomberman even more. I would love to see a new similar styled game come out, but I am unsure if that will ever happen.
Sadly down the road Bomberman Generations on the Gamecube tried to use these same elements but provided an okay game. It didn’t feel as firm as this title, but would be fun for kids to get into it. Same with Bomberman Hero, kids would love it and so would parents. Bomberman Act Zero was a major failure which redesigned the main character and this mistake never happened again.
It has been a few years now since we have had a new 3D Bomberman game, and especially one with the glory of the N64 games which were quite a long time ago. I hope we can see a new adventure be created with the same love and fun of those titles, as I feel that will be essential to get the Bomberman title lifted more forward in our minds again. They should definitely keep at it with the portable titles, but a new adventure is out there for the White Bomber, waiting to be played by gamers like myself who wish to once again take a journey on Planet Bomber and save the galaxy once again.
Sadly down the road Bomberman Generations on the Gamecube tried to use these same elements but provided an okay game. It didn’t feel as firm as this title, but would be fun for kids to get into it. Same with Bomberman Hero, kids would love it and so would parents. Bomberman Act Zero was a major failure which redesigned the main character and this mistake never happened again.
It has been a few years now since we have had a new 3D Bomberman game, and especially one with the glory of the N64 games which were quite a long time ago. I hope we can see a new adventure be created with the same love and fun of those titles, as I feel that will be essential to get the Bomberman title lifted more forward in our minds again. They should definitely keep at it with the portable titles, but a new adventure is out there for the White Bomber, waiting to be played by gamers like myself who wish to once again take a journey on Planet Bomber and save the galaxy once again.