Saturn Bomberman (1996)

Preliminary: Based on the Gameplay video I peeked at, will this be the bomberman I finally click with because of the amazing Look and especially amazing Sound?!

Welp nope. It didn't click. Just too slow of gameplay for me. Wild soundtrack tho. Good ol Jun Chikuma. I have several of the Bomberman Hero soundtrack songs already as beloved, so I will be curious about that game.

Look: 7.5/10

Sound: 8/10

Play: 6/10 Just not a Bomberman fan :-X

Feel: 6.5/10

Attachment: 6/10

Overall: 6.8/10

One of my favorite personal heuristics I can use to rate games is whether or not my wife says it hurts her eyes to watch me play it. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet? Her eyes hurt. Crow Country? Eye pain. Killer7? Big time eye pain.

Obviously I don't place too much emphasis on this measure - two out of the three games mentioned are stellar visual experiences in my opinion (I'll let you guess which two) - but when my life partner for the first time all year looks at the opening stage to a game and asks "Is there two player?", you better believe I take note.

Saturn Bomberman is an absolute joy to play both solo and with the company of loved ones. The normal mode and adventure mode provide more than enough puzzle-action goodness to satisfy the lone player's craving for explosion-oriented combat. It also provides a co-op mode as well as the tried and true battle royale style multiplayer the series is best known for.

The art style is a sight for sore eyes. No pixel is wasted on these characters and tilesets. Each level is unique and usually has one or two fun little easter eggs - whether it be the horses in the old timey western world or the cannons the player can fire at sea creatures off in the distance as a sort of understated minigame.

This has to be the best game I've played so far this year, and though I've completed the adventure mode solo already I'm very much looking forward to completing it again co-op with the aid of my wife (if we can stop accidentally killing each other).

Saturn Bomberman is a classic in every regard, and easily the definitive game in the series. In high school, I got this for Christmas from my parents along with Enemy Zero (ugh) and Dragon Force. I only ever managed to get as far as the Wild West World, but still had a great time with it. I remember liking that the level maps were themed, and also remember how brutal some of the bosses were, but the real challenge ended up being against myself as I tried to avoid blowing myself to Bomberman-bits after getting a few power-ups.

The multiplayer was supposed to be an absolute blast (no pun intended) as well, esp. if you got a 1/2 dozen or more friends in a game, but I only had one Saturn controller and would not of been able to afford a Sega NetLink (even if I had known about it at the time).

If I bought an old Sega Saturn and a copy of the game off ebay, I'm not sure I would enjoy it as much as I did back then, but it's a good memory.