Japan: Making terrorism cute, since 1983!
14 years ago Hudson Soft released Bomberman 64 in North America, for the Nintendo 64. Titled Baku Bomberman (Explosive Bomberman) in Japan, it was the first fully 3D Bomberman game in the series, and featured new gameplay that was anything but the traditional Bomberman gameplay that gamers had grown to love; and with sequel after sequel it was seeming like Nintendo 64 owners would be out of luck when it came to ever having the chance to play a traditional Bomberman game on their console of choice.
So what was a 2D loving Bomberman fan to do? Buy a Sega Saturn and play Saturn Bomberman, of course! But wait- what if you could not afford to buy a whole new system just to get your sweet, sweet 2D Bomberman fix? Well, luckily for you, in 2001 Hudson Soft released Bomberman 64 in Japan. Not to be confused with the North American release, Bomberman 64 was as traditional Bomberman as they get, and ironically it was the last console game in the series to feature 2D graphics.
Sadly, having been the last Nintendo 64 game to be released in Japan it was never released outside the land of the rising sun, so gamers wanting to fill that empty void in their 2D loving heart, will have to import the game in order to play. So the question lies, is it worth importing?
Like many games in the series the focus is heavily on multi-player. Well there is a competent single-player adventure mode it is nowhere near as varied as the adventure mode in Saturn Bomberman. There are 5 different boss battles, and multi branching levels, but the levels are pretty bland looking, and it ends up feeling a lot like the original Bomberman just with more bits; it’s nowhere near as fun as the single-player in even the Super Nintendo games. Not to mention, there is no co-op adventure mode, so if you are jonesin’ for a co-op boss fight, look to other games in the series.
Fun, fun, think about fun!
All in all the adventure mode feels like a giant step back. In fact as far as even the multi-player mode goes there are not nearly as many options as in the later Super Nintendo games. The levels are, again, very standard and while they all have their little variants, like tunnels or conveyor belts, they are not nearly as flashy as levels found in the other games. As far as your standard 4-player Battle mode, there is also a Team Battle mode, and a Tandem Battle mode. Team Battle is basically a 2 vs 2 mode, where 2 players work together to blast away the opposing team. Tandem Battle plays much like Team Battle, but instead of teams of two separate Bombermen, you and your partner work tn tandem; having one player control the movement and the other laying bombs. There are also special power ups exclusive to this mode that switch who is in control of what task, which make the battles very intense when you suddenly are not moving and realize you no longer are laying bombs and must run for your life, or else taste the spicy flame of the bomb you placed only a moment ago. It is by far one of the more fun modes in the game, and can be the cause of some very funny unintentional deaths.
Drop it like it's hot.
Other than your standard Bomberman fair, the game also features a plethora of different mini-games, most of which being single-player only. The big (and only) multi-player mini-game is a puzzle game much like Puyo Puyo, where blocks of 3 different colored Bomberman heads fall down the screen, which you must rotate and position to create combos. Occasionally bombs will fall which you can use to blow up the Bomberman heads for more points, or in the case of the giant bomb, to clear the screen of most if not all the heads. In the multi-player mode these bombs also destroy the little creatures that will pop into your board as your opponents achieve combos. This mode is also quite fun, though the single player does get a bit tiring after a straight half-hour of play. The multi-player mode however is great fun, and can be played with up to 4 players.
The other big mini-game is single-player only, and is basically a version of SameGame (or Bubble Breaker as you might know it by), only featuring Bomberman graphics instead of generic colored balls. It is pretty fun and by far the most challenging mini-game of the bunch, but it is nothing original, and neither are any of the other various mini-games.
It is so hard!
There are more than 10 other mini-games, each with their own harder versions that get unlocked as you play more mini-games. Some are more fun than others, however it is a bit of a pain to get to them, as they are all stored away in this theme park-like stage that you must walk around in to get to which ever mini-game you want to play. The theme park is cute at first, but after awhile it just gets tedious, especially if you just want to play one certain mini-game real quick. An option to choose the theme park mini-games from a menu would have been nice, but alas!
The graphics are beautiful for a Nintendo 64 game, and being completely 2D they have not aged at all. The sound is okay, albeit a bit repetitive. It would have been nice to have a couple more songs, but it doesn’t matter all that much, as for the most part the laughter of you and your friends will drown out any of the game’s sound.
Overall it is a pretty fun addition to the series. You can definitely tell that the focus for this one was on the mini-games, and they are, for the most part, quite fun to play, however the whole theme park idea really kills the pick up and play nature of them. Also, the lack of a co-op adventure mode is sort of disappointing, as are all the other missing features from earlier games in the series, like choosing which power-ups will appear in multi-player, and different powered animals in which you can ride. The blue kangaroo-rabbit thing is in this game, but it basically acts like the mushroom in Mario games, and gives you no major advantage over your opponents.
Bomb Punch!
If you want a really good 2D Bomberman that just focuses on the core elements of the series then this is not really it. Saturn Bomberman this is not, and if you have no interest in any of the mini-games then I would definitely recommend you pick up that game instead of this one, assuming you own both a Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn. It bears mentioning though that this is the only 2D Bomberman game that does not require the purchase of 1 or more multitap(s) in order to play with more than 1 friend, so that is a plus.
As far as Bomberman games go this is not a bad choice. It is a blast to play with a couple of friends, and the different mini-games spice things up a bit and make the game feel even more like a party game, which is not really a bad thing.
