Review
Release Date: 06.21.2005
Platform:
Nintendo DSDeveloper:
Hudson Soft Co., Ltd.Publisher:
Hudson Soft USA, Inc.Reviewed by
Ash Paulsen on 7.27.2005
| Review Rating: 8/10 | User Rating: 7.12/10 |
Get a bunch of decidedly old-school gamers together and suggest some multiplayer party gaming, and there's a good chance the first word out of their mouths will be, "Bomberman!" That's because the
Bomberman series has always been synonymous with frantic and explosively (sorry) fun multiplayer gaming, and the series' latest iteration on the Nintendo DS is no different. As with most games in the series, if you come expecting an engaging, deep single-player mode, you'll be deeply disappointed, but if you buy this game with the intention of playing it with a lot of other DS-owning friends, you'll find that there is simply no other DS game currently more worth your money than
Bomberman.
The setup is familiar, of course: from a top-down view, you guide your cute lil' explosives expert through various maze-like stages, setting bombs that detonate at 90-degree angles after a few seconds. The idea is to catch enemies (or in multiplayer, your enemy Bombermen) in your bombs' explosions, while being careful not to trap or blow yourself up in the process (or run unwittingly into another opponent's bomb while running away from your own). This is the game at its most absolute basic, of course, and a decidedly large, diverse list of power-up items can and will make that objective much easier and harder for you in the process. These power-ups range from basic items that increase your running speed or the length of your explosions (har har), to advanced items that change the properties of your bombs (such as being remote-controlled or exploding through otherwise-safe walls), and extend to everything in-between (such as boots that let you kick already-dropped bombs toward your opponents). Combine this premise with the series' traidionally robust multiplayer modes and you've got a great recipe for multiplayer fun that lasts long after you've plunked down the cash for the game.
But let me stress that:
multiplayer fun. If you don't have a lot of DS-owning friends (shame on you!) or are simply in the market for a single-player game, take a pass on
Bomberman. All you'll find here is 100 levels (10 themed worlds of 10 levels each) that pit you against generic enemies with decidedly bad AI, and with no other object than to slog through level after level with the knowledge that there really isn't much else to see other than the basic theme the next world will take, or maybe what the next boss will look like. Granted, this isn't much different from any other titles in the series, but at least older titles like
Super Bomberman 2 had a cute storyline and inspired bosses (rival bombers with different special powers) behind their single-player games; that is not so with this DS version of the game. You will find no storyline here, (no, "recover the Bomb Crystals!" does not count, and that is literally all you get) and don't even think about inspired bosses or enemies.
Compounding the simple monotony of the single-player mode is the game's insufferably mediocre soundtrack, which is dreadfully dull and doesn't even clock in at "hummable," which is a shame because past games in the series (such as, again,
Super Bomberman 2) have usually had inspired and hummable songs that enhanced the game, even if they didn't particularly stand out otherwise. Plus, I am so sick of Bomberman verbally announcing every single power-up he gets in his high-pitched voice, I can't even tell you. (Don't even get me started about a full multiplayer game, when there are eight loud, high-pitched Bombermen onscreen.) In short, it's been awhile since a handheld game has given me such tempting reasons to touch the volume control on any handheld system, and this is coming from someone who's passionate about the aural experience in his games.
The game's graphics are also pretty dull and uninteresting, though I will be the first to say that this hardly matters in a game like
Bomberman, and is not something I count against the game. The designs of the Bombermen this time around are cute, though, and I like their anime-inspired facial expressions as well as their fluid animation.
But you knew it was going to be said eventually, and here it is: nothing else really matters that much when you take into account the multiplayer aspect of
Bomberman. Aside from the fact that this series has always had one of the most entertaining multiplayer experiences around, this latest DS installment boasts what is possibly the most robust multiplayer mode the series has ever seen, with over 30 different stages to choose from and option after nitpicky option to tailor your multiplayer games right down to the tiniest detail, from how many different teams there are and how many players are on each team to various options including time limits, sudden death rules, post-death revenge chances, pre-game bonuses, and more. And the best part of all this: every multiplayer option is always available no matter how many players actually have the game; that is, even with eight players, only one person actually needs to have the game, because that one game can host a full-featured, eight-player game. (Sure, it's true that the initial load time to get the game set up and everyone registered in the first place can be lengthy for an eight-player game, but after that initial long load, there are hardly any more loading times to deal with.)
But aside from all of those great features, I feel that there are three things that I need to stress to you about multiplayer above all else: it's eight players, it's wireless, and it's lag-free (assuming the DSes are within the advertised range of each other). Plus, those who drop out in the middle of a game (and they won't, unless it's on purpose) have no negative effect on those still playing; the game simply adjusts and kills their Bombermen off at the beginning of every subsequent match. Do I really need to say anything else? No, I really don't believe I do. In short,
Bomberman is the current benchmark in true handheld, wireless, multiplayer gaming, PSP (or other DS games) be damned, and I suspect it'll hold that prestige until
Mario Kart DS is released later this year (and even then it'll still put up a good fight).
In short,
Bomberman is a game you buy for the incredibly robust and entertatining multiplayer and nothing else. The game could certainly have done with a better, more complete single-player game, and some added audiovisual (mostly audio) polish, but none of these issues bring down the multiplayer experience at all, which is the only reason you should buy this game. If you've been looking for the first definitive use for the wireless multiplayer capabilities of the next-generation handheld systems,
Bomberman is it.
