Bomberman General - Bombs away, chumps!

[Metallic Blood]

Bomberman, the well beloved battle royale/puzzle game franchise that everyone enjoys, but never gets much talked about compared to most other gaming series.

It's also one of the weirdest franchises to talk about due to how diverse their catalogue is. There's the battle royale games, racing games, platformer games, MOBA games, strategy games, anime OVAs, mangas... and so on and so forth.

I'd like to start and talk about some of my favorite entries:

Bomberman Party Edition (PS1):

Probably my favorite entry of the series, it was basically the ultimate bomberman game for me and my cousins. 23 maps to choose, 20 characters (if you playing in Advanced, some of them even had in-built powers like Super Bomberman 4), a crapload of customization options and the game even enables Hyper Bomber, which allows the winning player to start the next match with a permanent power-up.

The only thing it sucked was the singleplayer because it was basically a remake of the NES game, but hey, if you're playing traditional bomberman games for their campaigns then you're not getting much out of them anyways. (There's also not a lot of Bomberman campaigns that would surpass Super Bomberman 2 imo lol).

Bomberman Fantasy Racing (PS1):



A strange "kart" racing game with a surprisingly high skill ceiling. There's nothing more satisfying then pulling up a bunch of perfect bomb jumps in a row, let me tell ya that much.

The only criticism I have towards this game is how brutal the rubber band AI can be: It's way too easy to go from first place to last in a matter of seconds. If you aren't grinding for the Black Louie, you probably gonna be stuck 5 hours trying to beat the final mirror world like a total scrub (me)

Power Bomberman (PC Fangame):



And for last, I'd like to just mention a PC fangame called Power Bomberman, there has been a lot of online multiplayer bomberman games throughout the years, and I've heard of them all, but recently, I find Power Bomberman to be the best one.

It's basically what I enjoy of Party Edition but up to a thousand fold: over a hundred characters (including cameos like Wario and Bonk from the Bonk series), all the known powerups from the previous games, private lobbies, local lobbies if you have a LAN, 12 player claustrophobic matches... it's honestly the perfect Bomberman Battle Royale game.

Here's a download link if you ever want to try it for yourself. I totally recommend it even if you just wanna play against the AI. (Intense and even Hard difficulty are no jokes)


But yeah, here's my favorite Bomberman entries, what about yours? Post them, talk about them, tell your fondest memories about the series or just talk about the animes that I never watched but I find interesting.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

Great fucking game! Think the GameBoy Zelda games, except it's Bomberman. It encourages you to be a completionist as well because there's easter eggs and a TRUE ending after you get all the monsters.

 

[TheArtilleryman]

My favourite genesis game. I love the adventure mode, though I never got passed the vampire boss. Party Edition on PlayStation was also fantastic, I used to play multiplayer all the time on that one. The jetpack and flamethrower bombermen were OP.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Bomberman (or Eric and the Floaters as it was known on the Speccy, thanks IRA) is a very well loved series, enough to get an assist trophy in Smash Ultimate. I will second Power Bomberman and throw in Super Bomberman 2, Bomberman 2, and Saturn Bomberman as games to play. Frankly, all of the games are worth playing, maybe except the Xbox 360 gritty reboot. The N64 games are ripe for decompilation/recompilation.

 

[C4-621]

Bomberman 64 is an amazing game. When I beat it and saw the crazy skills displayed in the credits screen only then did I fully appreciate the depth of the gameplay. You need some 200iq to come up with the absurd maneuvers shown at the end. The secret ending is cool too, especially since the spine of the box and the manual show a character you never see in the game unless you got all the gold cards to get the secret ending. Great soundtrack and the main villains always gave me tokusatsu vibes. Pouring one out for the 64 duology we will never get a proper remake or sequel to.

Not my favorite Bomberman but gets a special notice for the visual charm and some of the soundtrack.

Worth mentioning are the more traditional Xbox Live titles, Bomberman Live and Live: Battlefest. In a fair and just world Hudson Soft would still be making Bomberman and we wouldn't have the current cumbrain anime girl design bullshit The Jetters game on the Nintendo Gamecube was also fairly fun, hardly seen the anime though. This one song from the anime is all you need to know about the series.

https://youtu.be/aZaSgnYLceQ?si=COQ0agkt6NXUcG0_

Also, circular shaped head Bomberman isn't my Bomberman.

 

[Dan of Steel]

I love the look and feel of Saturn Bomberman, it's a game I play all the time while listening to podcasts/youtube videos. The music, the various sounds and noises the characters make, the gorgeous Saturn pixel artstyle, very comfy and very fun, and the boss fights are actually interesting which is rare for a puzzle game. It's not in my personal top 10 games of all time but it's a perfect game for picking up and playing.

 

[Silver Higgs]

I had one for the Playstation, too young to know how to read so I don't remember very well .

Later in life I would go almost everyday to a friend's house to play the racing one for the PS2. Bomberman Kart


Happy memories.
I don't know if Bomberman is the origin for this genre of battle royal, putting bombs to blow up blocks and other players but through out the years I would play a lot of flash games that I always called Bomberman copies lol and they always will be idc.
Despite not knowing too much about the franchise it has kinda of a special place in my heart probably because I just associate Bomberman to a time in my life that all I had to do was being a kid and nothing more just living the life.

 

[NoonmanR]

Not my favorite Bomberman but gets a special notice for the visual charm and some of the soundtrack.

One of my favorites games as a kid, right up there with Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon and Mischief Makers.

In a fair and just world Hudson Soft

In a fair and just world, Hudson wouldn't have gotten completely fucked over by their bank collapsing into it's own asshole and they would've finished the 3ds game they were working on WHEN KONAMI SHUT THEM THE FUCK DOWN. This also means Act Zero wouldn't exist because it was Konami's influence that allowed that festering pile of edgelord trash to exist in the first place.

I don't know if Bomberman is the origin for this genre of battle royal

The original bomberman is as old as the fucking NES so i would say yes. You'd have to be hard pressed to find anything that predates it.

 

[Alex Yiik]

This is way too long to ever reasonably expect anyone to watch, but I learned a lot about the series and what games are worth playing by watching this in chunks over a week or so.

I've had a long history with Bomberman starting with the SNES games. As a kid at Toys R Us I had a choice of buying Mario Party 2 or Atomic Bomberman and I chose incorrectly with Bomberman. The N64 games were great and Bomberman Hero introduced me to the very concept of electronic drum and bass. I even had a lot of fun with Bomberman Land Touch on the DS. Even just a couple weeks ago Genshin Impact had a Bomberman inspired event minigame which shows the reach of its influence and the accessibility of its gameplay.

This series is as long-lived as Mario but doesn't have the reputation of a major company riding on it so sometimes it just phones it in for a few entries and that makes it really hard to care about. Nowadays it kind of feels like one of those legacy franchises that still technically exists but doesn't have anyone who cares about it in charge. Like Mega Man or Sonic. Every once in a while you might get a game with a critical mass of people who want to make something good, but most of the time it's just a product to cash in on an established brand name.

 

[Metallic Blood]

I don't know if Bomberman is the origin for this genre of battle royal, putting bombs to blow up blocks and other players but through out the years I would play a lot of flash games that I always called Bomberman copies lol and they always will be idc.

Ohhh I actually know which games you talking about, or at least one of the many Bomberman clones:



This game was "we have Bomberman at home", but curse me if it didn't do a great job at it, computer science classes were never boring because of this game alone!

My favorite thing about these games is just how they straight up just let you kill someone with a weapon, like yeah you could strategize your bomb placement and put someone in a corner the good ol' fashioned way, or you can also just take a double barrel shotgun and shoot someone in the face with it lol.

I also have a soft spot towards the robot designs, even if they feel very "bootleg"-esque.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

Bomberman Generation was a good game and im tired of pretending its not!

 

[Zaireeka]

Never played much of the main series, but I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Bomberman Hero. The controls are a little floaty and imprecise, the levels amateurish and unremarkable and the gameplay can be frustrating at times, but something about it is just likeable to me. Unlocking a level which serves as a deep cut reference to some random Japan-only Bomberman game for 100% completion has always been something I've admired, too.

The music is pretty great - especially Redial, Dessert and Zip, though what's always caught my ear is Loom, which doesn't appear anywhere in the game, is a complete tonal and stylistic shift from the rest of the soundtrack and uses real instruments. Makes me wonder what purpose it would have in the game, assuming it was composed for it in the first place.

I may just be a complete pussy, but I remember some of the enemies in this game giving me the creeps - especially those monoeye, gaping mouth bird things and the Tutankhamun masks. The enemy designs are abstract enough and the animations limited enough to where the enemies come off as more alien than I think was intentional.

May as well close out my post with the infamous, unused Atomic Bomberman lines. I've always been fascinated by how formal and meticulous the recording process for these lines were

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

Nobody talked about Bomberman: Act Zero yet?
Good.

 

[NoonmanR]

so sometimes it just phones it in for a few entries and that makes it really hard to care about.

All too common in the game's industry. Bomberman is something that could easily still work in today's market, but Konami doesn't give a single fuck, and the people in charge of handling Bomberman atm are the fuckers who ran 4kids Entertainment into the dirt. No, i'm not fucking joking.

The music is pretty great - especially Redial, Dessert and Zip, though what's always caught my ear is Loom, which doesn't appear anywhere in the game, is a complete tonal and stylistic shift from the rest of the soundtrack and uses real instruments. Makes me wonder what purpose it would have in the game, assuming it was composed for it in the first place.

What the fuck is that? Certainly not from the game, unused or not. It does NOT sound like something the Nintendo 64 could handle though, that's for sure. Did one of Jun Chikuma's arabic inspired songs get stapled onto an OST(she quit game composition like 20 years ago to go play in Le Club Bachraf, a band that does arabic songs)?

 

[Metallic Blood]

Bomberman is something that could easily still work in today's market, but Konami doesn't give a single fuck,

I never gave too much thought about it, but you're actually right.

In fact, this reminds me of Brawl Stars and how incredibly similar that game is to a traditional Bomberman thinking about it:
-You play as a chibi character with a top-down perspective against multiple players
-One of it's main modes is a battle royale against 10 other players, which also rewards map exploration with power-ups
-You have to constantly to have good position and time your attacks for a chance to win the matches
-All the characters have basically the same body type with a few differences

And would ya look at that? 500+ million downloads and a bazillion dollars in revenue.

Of course, Brawl Stars has a few more things that give it it's immense wide appeal, but come on now, Bomberman, a pioneer of Battle Royales, could definitely get a piece of that pie if it wanted.

Instead we have...





...whatever this is

 

[Super Guido]

View attachment 8056609
Bomberman 64 is an amazing game. When I beat it and saw the crazy skills displayed in the credits screen only then did I fully appreciate the depth of the gameplay. You need some 200iq to come up with the absurd maneuvers shown at the end. The secret ending is cool too, especially since the spine of the box and the manual show a character you never see in the game unless you got all the gold cards to get the secret ending. Great soundtrack and the main villains always gave me tokusatsu vibes. Pouring one out for the 64 duology we will never get a proper remake or sequel to.
View attachment 8056633
Not my favorite Bomberman but gets a special notice for the visual charm and some of the soundtrack.

Worth mentioning are the more traditional Xbox Live titles, Bomberman Live and Live: Battlefest. In a fair and just world Hudson Soft would still be making Bomberman and we wouldn't have the current cumbrain anime girl design bullshit The Jetters game on the Nintendo Gamecube was also fairly fun, hardly seen the anime though. This one song from the anime is all you need to know about the series.

https://youtu.be/aZaSgnYLceQ?si=COQ0agkt6NXUcG0_

Also, circular shaped head Bomberman isn't my Bomberman.

I got stuck on the last world of Bomberman 64. Never figured out where I was supposed to go, and all the cars trying to hit you? Whew. Fun game, though.

 

[LucasSomething]

I love the 64 bomberman games and remember loving some of the snes ones, but one i loved the most that i never see mentioned anywhere even withing the fanbase is Bomberman 2... On the european DS.

This game is not your usual arcade bomberman, it's actually mission based and has legit rpg elements and unique equipmanent that gives light rpg stats and powers. You straight up have a health bar in this game.

So it has this extremely fun sense of progression as you do missions, find secret parts, get stronger and unlock new abilities. In fact, some parts are ultra hidden and a few require actually redoing older mission with powers from later stages. Some power require part combinations, usually being antenna head + glove or body + arm/leg.

If you want to 100% this game (i did almost all for fun) then it's actually kinda hard. You NEED a good score AND speed to get S ranks so you can level up to equip better parts and that will force you to adapt. This is a dark stage so you have to use parts with good hack to see or use a light head+suit. I remember a stage with dozens of skulls so you need the antidote helmet to not be poisoned. One has hidden keys so you must use the scanner to find it fast or you'll legit run out of time (and the scan needs high hack stat). The "drone bomb (yFor some you simply need way to throw a bomb across a gap or distance.

There is some stuff i dislike, like how you'll probably stay with punch arm-> throw arm for most of the game as everyone knows how throwing is too good to pass, so i barely used the unique stuff like shields or projectiles. Antenna head is also mandatory for many unique bombs and it falls off statwise later, which is probably intentional to balance it.

But there is still some leniency for customization if you got the skill. For this next stage do i use the fast boots, the kick boots or the anti-slippery floor boots? That's part of the fun and it's cool that you basically get to build your own custom made armored bomberman. There is even super secret parts that are never implied in the game and build full sets that have exclusive powers (the mage set lets you walk through blocks, the Max set gives you maxed stats etc).

And i believe you can use all of that on multiplayer too, and since it's the DS you have 2 screens meaning 2 stages of pure chaos happening at once.

This game is very easy to emulate too, just download desmume or no$gba then the rom and play it. I highly recommend and it's a shame that they never made a game like this again as the potential is huge. The game releasing on europe and being titled Bomberman 2 probably fucks it further as everyone assume it's either the NES game or super BM 2. In japan it's "Custom battler bomberman"

Another one i really liked that i never see mentioned was bomberman tournament on the GBA. In hindsight it's not that great of a game but it has an real story and world to explore. It got a sequel that was never released outside japan.

 

[Metallic Blood]

Konami just released the Super Bomberman Collection out of nowhere

One thing to note is that this is the first time that Super Bomberman 4 and 5 have been released outside of Japan. they even got an official English localization too, good stuff.

I wouldn't really buy it cuz I already played those games to death, and sadly, none of my friends nowadays seem to be interested in Bomberman for the cozy local multiplayer experience. But hey, it looks like a decent collection for $20: 7 games, boss rush, over 200 artwork pieces, rewind/save states, and if you're a Nintendo Switch 2 owner, you can actually have online multiplayer throughout Gameshare.

... why can't you do the same with Steam's Remote Play though? I have 0 clue.

 

[analrapist]

I'd like to just mention a PC fangame called Power Bomberman,

Neat game. Haven't seen Saturn Bomberman mentioned here yet, but that scaled up to 10 players. Nice that someone scaled it a bit further.

 

[Captain Quazar]

Konami just released the Super Bomberman Collection out of nowhere

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MaYd1h9lnQw
One thing to note is that this is the first time that Super Bomberman 4 and 5 have been released outside of Japan. they even got an official English localization too, good stuff.

I wouldn't really buy it cuz I already played those games to death, and sadly, none of my friends nowadays seem to be interested in Bomberman for the cozy local multiplayer experience. But hey, it looks like a decent collection for $20: 7 games, boss rush, over 200 artwork pieces, rewind/save states, and if you're a Nintendo Switch 2 owner, you can actually have online multiplayer throughout Gameshare.

... why can't you do the same with Steam's Remote Play though? I have 0 clue.

I would get it if I didn't already own all five games physically.