Bomberman (1985)

Bomberman is such a great idea for a game. So simple, easy to understand, yet fun and fast to get into. I never owned the NES cartridge of this, but I borrowed it a few times, eventually tried the GameBoy version, and the latter NES Classics Bomberman for the GameBoyAdvance which was good.

You lay down bombs that explode to clear enemies and bricks to advance through levels. At first you can only put down one at a time, but eventually you upgrade to putting down a few at a time, which totally changes the gameplay. With Bomberman, it gets hectic and addictive, fast.

Any version of this is a great time, imo.

This Bomberman title may not have the sizzling multiplayer components of the games after it, but the powerups and challenges of this 50-stage romp ramp up into a pretty fun title.

The idea of this game is pretty simple - Bomberman must destroy a bunch of enemies and find a randomly placed exit before the timer runs out (according to the ending, this is how he can become a human being?!) - starting off the game can get pretty rough, with a single bomb, tedious randomness of exits and tough enemies.

However! Once the player starts finding powerups in the game, this dramatically changes. The player can gather a ridiculous number of bombs to detonate (I had about eight at the end), increase the range of their explosion, detonate them at will, and even walk through blocks and bombs. A tough little action game suddenly becomes an ecstatic power trip where the player must be aware of their own power moreso than the enemies around them. Enemies are cute little icons that have some basic movement tactics (move back and forth, pursue the player a bit, go through walls) but will fall fairly easily enough when the player has their full power.

The game's stage is pretty basic and the theme can get a bit grating for 50 stages, but when the player is firing on all cylinders this game can be an absolute blast. Just make sure not to blow yourself up!

History:
I've never actually played either the NES or SNES versions of Bomberman. My first exporsure to the game was Bomberman 64, and while the single player mode in that game was radically different, the multiplayer was standard issue Bomber Man. As time went on, I'd pick up the PSN version and subsequently never play it...

Expectations:
Not sure really. I mean, it's Bomberman, so I know it won't be bad, but I'm really not sure what to expect in trying to beat the game, or if it can actually be beaten or not.

Night 1:

Yep, that's Bomberman alright. It actually took me a little while before I actually realized what it was I was supposed to be doing. I thought it was to kill every enemy in the stage, then I thought it was to find the door... then I realized it was both!

I didn't realize Enix made the game...

Having only reached Stage 3 tonight I can tell I'm already getting tired of this game. I've found additional bomb drops, firepower increases, detonator bombs, et al, but I'm just not really feeling this one. I just checked GameFAQs and saw that there's 50+ stages in this game... I'm not seeing that happening.

Night 2:

Ugh...

I gave this game another 45 minutes of my life, it shall have no more!

Liked:
The music was pretty awesome. Despite the same track looping over and over I never got tired of it. At it's core it's the same Bomberman I've always had fun with, even if I have to squint to see it.

Disliked:
The game is just slow and frustrating, and at no point in the last two nights did I ever think, hey, this is kinda fun! Nope, not once. The "Find the Door" minigame feels superfluous on top of the already difficult actual game. Killing enemies involves far too much luck than skill and as a result, deaths can feel very cheap.

Personal Score: