Bomberman Retrospective

Bomberman is such a fascinating series to me because it's not like it's some super prolific and popular gaming franchises. Not many of its games sold super well, it frequently garnered mixed reviews since critics only liked the multiplayer, and not many people seem to talk about it. And yet, somehow, Hudson Soft was able to put out over 60 Bomberman games, ranging from mainline entries to spinoffs to party games to racing games. For a while, Bomberman was on par with Mario and Mega Man when it came to the sheer quantity of games it was getting. And since I happen to have played a pretty sizable chunk of Bomberman games and since I personally adore the series, I wanted to go over Bomberman's impressively long history and see how the series has evolved and changed over time.

This is an update to my original Bomberman retrospective, which I found somewhat inaccurate since I have played a few more games and changed my perspective on some of them.

Bomberman: Humble Beginnings

For your average gamer, the first Bomberman game is one of the most iconic entries in the series. And for your average Bomberman fan... yeah, this game is kind of weird? Bomberman as a character wasn't even really a thing yet, he's just a transformed human in this game. Being an arcade game, it's pretty light on content too. There's no multiplayer yet, and the only proper gameplay loop was to bomb every enemy in identical large arenas before tediously bombing every block to find the exit. I just find the first Bomberman game to be really boring and repetitive due to how basic everything looks and how overly large the stage design is, it very much feels like "first game syndrome" in its purest form. Despite that, however, Hudson Soft definitely struck some kind of gold with the concept of Bomberman, gameplay-wise. Timing your bomb drops, setting off chain reactions, the satisfying feeling of slowly becoming more powerful as you get more upgrades, and the risk of losing it all upon getting hit are all here fully formed. It's just that the game around those mechanics needed to be a bit more fleshed-out and engaging.

Bomberman '90: The Series Finds Its Identity

Eventually, Hudson Soft would release their first console, the PC Engine, which was set to rival the NES. As you'd expect, Hudson would want to release a Bomberman game on their big next-gen system, so '90 feels like it expands upon everything from the original game. The weird mishapen human of the original has been replaced by the cute oval-headed bot we know and love, and even the professor and his lab are introduced right in the first cutscene. The game is split up into multiple worlds each with different aesthetics and music tracks, and there's even boss fights (albeit not very good ones) at the end of each world. The soundtrack takes the very simple loop of the first game and expands it into a bunch of melodies that would become iconic mainstays within the series. And on top of all of that, there's a Battle Mode now! It's pretty basic, as there's only one arena and it's multiplayer only, but it's still a step up. While Bomberman '90 still had some rough edges here and there, it can feel a tad repetitive and slow, it's a wonder how much Hudson managed to nail in their first true attempt at making a console Bomberman game.

Bomberman II: A Brilliant Sequel

Bomberman II for the NES is genuinely brilliant. For starters, I love how the title has multiple meanings. Bomberman II works perfectly as both a sequel to the original arcade game (which got a port to the NES), and as a sequel to the PC Engine reboot. And since the PC Engine wasn't super successful in America, I'm sure a lot of people here jumped straight from the arcade original to II, and the gap in quality is massive! Bomberman II is an incredibly confident game that refines the formula 90 had established even more. The battle mode is still multiplayer-only, and the bosses are gone, but the game feels a lot faster paced. Bomberman moves quicker, the game doesn't drag on as long, and it's the first game where you really get to feel overpowered as you accumulate a lot of power-ups. Bomberman II also improves in terms of the overall presentation. The story about Bomberman getting framed and put in prison is so silly and charming, and instantly makes for a super memorable premise. And the soundtrack is easily one of my favorites on the NES, really using the console's chiptune to its absolute fullest. I love how the first level theme starts exactly like the theme in the arcade original, but suddenly erupting into the extended melody that '90 introduced. Bomberman II is one of my favorite NES games and one of my favorite Bomberman games in general, it feels so refined, breezy, and polished.

Bomberman 93 & Super Bomberman: Refining The Formula

From here on out, Hudson Soft were really settling into the formula that Bomberman '90 established, with the next two mainline games refining it increasingly further. Bomberman '93 for the PC Engine introduced a bit more variety in the way the levels were laid out, and amped up the boss fights to be far larger-scale encounters. The multiplayer was expanded upon too with multiple arenas and the ability to bring in CPUs as opponents. Soon enough, we also got Super Bomberman, the first of several Bomberman titles on the SNES. The Super games would often reflect the state of the series at the time, and as such, Super Bomberman pretty much just further refines the formula. It lacks the larger and more complex levels of 93, but it introduces more weird level gimmicks like invisible walls and a world entirely based around fighting other Bombers. Like Bomberman II to 90, Super feels a lot polished and brisker-paced than 93, and the multiplayer feels even more accessible. The last four games have all been pretty consistently great, but it did feel like it was starting to become time for a change.

Super Bomberman 2: On Another Level Entirely

Super Bomberman 2 does a lot to shake up the Bomberman formula in ways I personally really like. I feel this game is a bit divisive within the fandom because of how different it is, but Super 2 is actually a Top 3 entry in the series for me. Instead of being a combat-focused game about bombing all the enemies in a room, Super Bomberman 2 feels more like a puzzle game where you have to make it to the end of a level, carefully using your bombs to activate and manipulate all sorts of contraptions to get you to the end. It's honestly really tough and unforgiving, which is why I think some people aren't huge on this game, but I think the increase in level gimmicks, puzzle-heavy level design, and stronger sense of progression makes for a more engaging and less repetitive main campaign. I also adore the bosses in Super Bomberman 2. It feels like Hudson Soft knew that the Bomber-on-Bomber fights in Super was one of the best things about that game, so now every boss fight has you fight a Bomber face-to-face before they hop into a giant mech for the second phase. It's the best of both worlds, you get a close-up bombing match and a gargantuan foe to dismantle in a single boss fight. On top of all of that, the multiplayer has even more unique stages and fleshed-out customization, the spritework is the best out of all the Super games, and the uniquely funky soundtrack by Yasuhiko Fukuda is one of my favorites in the franchise, all adding up to a nearly perfect Bomberman experience in my book. 

With Super Bomberman 2, it really feels like the series is starting to reach its fullest potential... It's just a shame about what happens next...

Bomberman 94: A New Formula... And Why I Don't Like It

Around the same time as Super Bomberman 2, we also got Bomberman '94, the last mainline game on the PC Engine. Bomberman '94, which also got released on the Genesis as Mega Bomberman, would drastically change up the series' formula, in ways both good and bad. See, the gameplay loop in '94 wasn't to clear a room of enemies or get to a goal, instead you had to destroy four points across the arenas before collecting a shard in the center. Get all the shards in a world and combine them, and you'll be able to fight the boss. 94 does make a lot of notable improvements. The arenas are more diverse in shape, there are unique level gimmicks like minecarts, the enemy variety has been improved, and you even get a mount named Louie that can serve as a second hit. That's all fantastic stuff and for a lot of people, it marks Bomberman 94 as a big moment of growth for the series. However, I unfortunately have my gripes with 94's core structure compared to its predecessor.

Whether you have to fully clear a stage or solve a tightly-designed linear puzzle, all the previous Bomberman games encourage you to fully make the most of each individual level. In the Mega formula, all you ever need to care about are those few specified points and actually engaging with enemies is useless unless they're blocking your path, meaning you're incentivized to avoid enemies entirely and make it through the levels as fast and efficiently as possible, which just feels wrong and underwhelming for Bomberman. 94/Mega does try to mitigate this, however, by putting you in more claustrophobic arenas by the end of the game, but I still don't find it ideal. However, I still overall enjoy 94 even if I find it to be a bit of a step-down compared to the last three games. The more interesting level design, Louies, and more-fleshed out multiplayer still make for a good time even if the first half can feel somewhat underwhelming.

However, that wasn't it for the Mega formula, as Super Bomberman 3 would also take after '94. It's not a full-on port like Mega, but it does reuse a lot of the same assets, and I think it's probably the weakest Super game as a result. Unlike 94/Mega which had more varied arena shapes that made the most of the game's mechanics, Super Bomberman 3 drops the level gimmicks and sticks to static, square-shaped arenas, which makes it even easier to avoid enemies. In addition, while the sketchier artstyle of 94 felt right at home on the PC Engine, it feels like a big downgrade coming off the heels of Super Bomberman 2's beautifully detailed spritework. Super Bomberman 3 obviously isn't all bad, the soundtrack is phenomenal and it probably has the best multiplayer to date, but it marks a bit of a drop in quality for the Super series.

Super Bomberman 4-5: The... Weird Ones

Super Bomberman 4 is an improvement, though. It reverts back to the "kill all enemies in the room" structure while keeping a lot of 3's other changes. The artstyle is still flat and sketchy (which I'm still not a fan of), but the mounts are back, and the game also introduces caged Bombermen who you can free to help you out in that level. But the real improvement in SB4 is in the level design, which takes advantage of the game's time travel premise to throw in a bunch of weird level themes you've never seen before. While the arenas are still static like in the previous game, they're also feature a lot of gaps and multiple levels to keep things feeling varied. SB4 still isn't really on par with 2 or even 1 for me, and it can feel a tad samey at points, but I think it's a big step up for the series and a far riskier and weirder title than its predecessor. Interestingly enough, a few years down the line, we'd get an entry on the Neo Geo called Neo Bomberman which actually took the most from SB4, including the more varied mounts and the trapped Bombermen. It's pretty great too, and it brings back the more detailed spritework of the earlier Super games to great effect.

But then, there's Super Bomberman 5, the grand finale to the Super Bomberman series and a very... weird entry. Being the last entry in the Super series (at least until 2017), Hudson decided to basically make this a culmination of everything they had learned throughout, and they almost succeed. Super Bomberman 5 actually makes some pretty massive changes to the formula, one that would actually get expanded on in a future game. It keeps that simple "kill every enemy in an arena" formula from 4, but now, beating each level will spawn multiple end goals. Each end goal takes you to a different level, and there's a total of 90 levels you can visit. That's right, this game has branching paths, and it's awesome. There's so much replayability here thanks to the multiple routes, and with the Battle Mode expanded upon even more, SB5 is easily the most content-rich entry in the series to date. Definitely befitting of a final installment.

So what's the catch? Well, Super Bomberman 5's worlds are actually based off of previous games in the series, as in Hudson literally reused assets from all the other Super games to form 80% of the main campaign. I get the intention here, Hudson wanted this to be a love letter to the Super Bomberman series as a whole, a culmination of everything that came before, the Bomberman equivalent to Sonic Generations. And I can respect that, this game feels big and it's certainly fun to play, but the asset reuse here sticks out like such a sore thumb. You can really tell Hudson has been rushing the Super games out and just don't have the time to make anything all that original right now, and it does hold Super Bomberman 5 back from being one of the series' absolute best installments. If I had to rank the Super games, it would probably be something along the lines of 2 > 1 > 4 > 5 > 3. 

But that's okay, because Hudson Soft was also working on another entry, one that would be held up by fans as the pinnacle of the entire franchise...

Saturn Bomberman: A Triumphant Return To Form

Saturn Bomberman is a beloved entry in the Bomberman series for a very good reason. Not only does it further refine the series in a variety of ways, but it also adds a ton of new mainstays to the series as well. Saturn Bomberman reuses the formula from Mega, but the level design is perfectly built around it. Saturn's stages are big and filled with unique themes and level gimmicks that you have to engage with. Even the bosses are more experimental than usual, with a highlight being a fight on a moving train. But what I especially love about the campaign is the introduction of Mujoe and the Hige-Hige Bandits, an incredibly likable villainous team who would become major antagonists in the series to come. I adore the Hige-Hige Bandits, they're so charming and silly, and the Bomberman franchise as a whole is better with them in it.

The side content also had some massive improvements. The battle mode now has a tournament mode to lend it a bit more single-player content, there's the addition of a 10-player battle arena for especially chaotic multiplayer fun, and there's even an entirely new third mode called the Bomber Mansion. On top of all of that, the presentation in Saturn Bomberman is immaculate. The detailed 32-bit spritework is lush and vibrant from start to finish, and the fantastic synthy CD-quality audio soundtrack shows Chikuma slowly starting to lean more into DnB. While Saturn Bomberman isn't my personal favorite game in the series, I can totally understand why it is for so many people, as it's definitely the most polished and ambitious Bomberman game to date, and it kickstarted what feels like a creative renaissance for the series.

Soon after Saturn Bomberman, we got Saturn Bomberman Fight, a very weird but fun experimental entry that tried to turn Bomberman gameplay into a fighting game. It's an absolute blast, super polished, and feels really fresh. Then there's the handheld games, which also slowly started to introduce weird new ideas like a shop, unlockable abilities, and multiple versions of each stage. And in 1998, we even got our first Bomberman adventure game in the form of Bomberman Quest, a Zelda-like where you explore a large map and figure out how to trap every monster with your bombs. It's a fun time, even if it's also mind-numbingly slow. While the Super series did start to get a bit tired, especially with all the asset reuse in 3 and 5, seeing the series play around with this many unique one-off ideas felt like a breath of fresh air.

But eventually, the Nintendo 64 came around. 2D games weren't cool anymore (because people were stupid back in the 90s), and Bomberman needed to pull off its biggest experiment yet...

Bomberman 64: A Not-So-Rough Transition To 3D

If you're a Bomberman fan and you don't think Saturn Bomberman is the high point of the series, chances are one of the N64 games is going to be your favorite. The N64 Bomberman games are equal parts beloved and polarizing. While the critics were consistently mixed with the N64 entries, the Bomberman fanbase loves this era as a collective, but which game stands out as the best of the lot is often debated. However, Bomberman 64 seems to be the most well-liked, and that's cool, because it's my favorite of the three N64 titles as well.

In a time when many video game series were trying to figure out how to transition to 3D, Bomberman 64 played things pretty safe by essentially being a top-down Captain Toad-esque puzzle platformer where you get to the end of a number of intricately-designed dioramas without the ability to jump. You can tell Hudson put a lot of thought into how to rework the mechanics to accomodate a 3D space. Bomberman can move diagonally, bombs erupt in spherical explosions rather than crosses, and both the levels and battle stages have more verticality and open spaces to them. There's also a big emphasis on using bombs as movement options here. You can bounce off the bombs you place this time, and the ability to make entire bomb constructions like a bridge or ladder gives this game an incredibly high skill ceiling. It's no wonder 64 has the biggest speedrunning community in the franchise hands down. 

However, it's this high skill ceiling that's probably also 64's biggest flaw. While I find the game to be incredibly enjoyable if you're willing to practice and get better at its mechanics, 64 also doesn't have much to offer to a casual player who just wants to blaze through the game normally. The true final boss is locked behind getting every collectible, which will require you to have mastered bomb bridges and ladders, and the last few levels are brutal in terms of difficulty. I think this is why 64 initially got such mixed reviews, because it's not accessible in the slightest. And that's a real shame because if you are willing to stick with Bomberman 64 and push through some of that early frustration, it's an immensely rewarding game with a lot to offer from thoughtful level design, to fun and memorable bosses, to its dynamic battle mode, to a charming and clean-looking visual style, to an absolute banger of a soundtrack. Bomberman 64 has since become a pretty big N64 cult classic, and for a first attempt at 3D, Hudson Soft could've done way worse.

Meanwhile, On PS1... 

Unfortunately, while the Nintendo 64 was getting some of the series' best and most beloved games, the PS1 was lagging behind hard. The big PS1 entry was Bomberman World, a pre-rendered isometric game that kind of sucks. It's super unpolished and janky, Bomberman's movement is painfully slow, the sound quality is ear-grating, and worst of all, it goes back to the Mega formula. After so many inventive and unique Bomberman games that push the series forward, Bomberman World regresses to that safe "find the items and go" structure and somehow still executes it even worse than the Super Bomberman sequels. All the areas are super open, the level themes are unoriginal, and as I mentioned above, the game both plays and looks bad. While there is still a Battle Mode and some neat side content, all of it suffers because the Bomberman World engine is just not very good. Thank goodness for Jun Chikuma's score, it's truly the only redeemable quality here.

Thankfully, the other PS1 entry is actually really damn great, but it's also super unambitious. Bomberman Party Edition is pretty much just an improved remake of the first game, but man, what an improvement. Party Edition's campaign is pretty much just the first game's campaign again, but with smoother movement, prettier spritework, fantastic music, and varied level aesthetics, it fixes almost all of my issues with that original game. And if you really love that retro aesthetic, you can even play a pixel-perfect recreation in Retro Mode. The multiplayer is also one of my personal favorites, with a massive library of characters and stages to choose from making for hours of fun. Party Edition indeed. That being said, while I adore Party Edition and think it's a fantastic remake, it still pales in comparison to the N64 games in terms of ambitions. Unfortunately, the PS1 was just dealt a really bad hand when it comes to Bomberman, and that's a damn shame.

Bomberman Hero: Weird But Soulful

So okay, fine, Bomberman 64 was a bit too niche for people, huh? That's fine, that's cool, how about turning Bomberman into a full-on 3D platformer then? 

Bomberman Hero is actually very close to being a really good 3D platformer, but is held back by two annoying but easily-preventable flaws. There's a pretty impressive amount of levels spanning over a dozen different planets, with a nice variety of vehicle stages, level design structures, and gimmicks to keep things feeling fresh. Bomberman can still throw and place bombs, which is often times used for puzzles meaning it doesn't stray too far from the series' roots, and all the visual charm that the franchise is still there in spades. So, what's the problem? First up is the movement. Bomberman himself just doesn't feel all that great to control, he's slippery and his jumps are incredibly floaty. Once you actually start to play Bomberman Hero, it's hard not to get the feeling that the game is lacking in polish, and just could've used a few more months in the oven. The other issue is that Hudson pulled a Working Designs and made getting 100% unnecessarily difficult by amping up the score requirements compared to the JP version, a trend that I always despise.

That being said, none of that really matters because Bomberman Hero is not a game you play for the gameplay. It's an album that happens to come with an okay 3D platformer. Jun Chikuma returns for the soundtrack for Bomberman Hero and goes full acid DnB, and it makes for a score that's unlike that of any other video game out there. Personally, Hero's soundtrack is what helped me discover the DnB genre as a whole, and I think that applies to a lot of others as well. It truly is one of the best and most legendary video game soundtracks ever made, and it's nearly impossible to talk about Bomberman Hero in general without bringing it up. So yeah, Bomberman Hero is a neat but unfortunately quite flawed attempt at turning Bomberman into a 3D platformer, but it has a lot of heart and I think most Bomberman fans look back on it quite fondly, primarily for that soundtrack.

The Second Attack: Flawed But Full Of Potential

Bomberman 2: The Second Attack takes a pretty massive shift from the first game to the point where it almost doesn't feel like a direct sequel. Compared to the weird abstract exterior environments of 64, The Second Attack takes place in a lot of interior space stations, prisons, and temples that have a greater sense of space. The music is less techno-heavy and more adventurous-sounding, with even Yasunori Mitsuda getting to make a few songs for the game. The Second Attack even introduces a health system, finally fixing the issue of one-hit deaths making these games way too brutal. This all sounds pretty sick, but The Second Attack also drops pretty much all of the clever gameplay additions 64 added as well. Bombs don't explode in circles anymore, just crosses again, and a lot of the wild bombing tech from 64 like ladders and bridges are entirely gone. It's got a lot of cool ideas, but I sadly find The Second Attack to be the least fun of the N64 trio to play.

However, The Second Attack is also one of the most important Bomberman games, and it makes an incredibly smart addition filled with so much potential that it deserves respect solely for that: This game marks the addition of the Charaboms. Well, technically, The Second Attack only had one Charabom in the form of Pommy, a cute little companion that you could evolve over the course of the game. I love Pommy, he's absolutely adorable and his design is top-notch, but he also paves the way for easily my favorite Bomberman mechanic in the entire franchise...

Bomberman Max 1/2: Refining The Charaboms

I shouldn't have to say that Pokemon was a massive phenomenon, especially in the late 90s and early 2000s. Everyone wanted a piece of that monster hunting pie, including Hudson Soft. So, they decided to make a dual-release Bomberman game and introduced the entire Charabom species, where you could catch a variety of little creatures beyond just Pommy, each with their own ability... and it kinda slapped?

Bomberman Max for the Game Boy Color is actually the closest thing we have to a sequel to Super Bomberman 5, using the same nonlinear structure but with entirely new and unique levels this time. And even more, each level comes with a unique mission ranging from "get to the goal" to "kill all the enemies" to "take out all the targets" to "don't bomb enemy X". These missions do so much to keep the gameplay loop of 2D Bomberman varied and fun, and the nonlinear exploration gives Max a ton of replay value. What helps are the aforementioned Charaboms which you can run into throughout the game, each giving you a special perk like walking over blocks, faster movement, a special attack, or remote bombs. You can also raise and level up the Charaboms by collecting food, and use them to battle your friends (which is where the Pokemon influences come in). I love the Charabom system and I think it adds so much to Bomberman's gameplay on pretty much every level. Finding Charaboms gives you a reason to explore, leveling them up gives you a reason to bomb every block, and they work super well as permanent power-ups that expand your moveset in a way that feels satisfying and empowering. The other thing Bomberman Max introduces is the titular Max, a great new character who ends up becoming Bomberman's major rival over the next few games. That's where Bomberman Max being a dual release comes in, you can play as Bomberman and Max depending on the version you get, and certain levels and Charaboms are locked to each version, requiring you to trade with friends to get 100% (which I'm not super big on to be honest).

Bomberman Max 2 for the GBA is even better. It has the charming premise of Mujoe and the Hige-Hige Bandits shrinking Bomberman and Max, which leads to a ton of creative levels based around you interacting with ordinary objects that look giant. Max 2 even tosses in some environmental hazards like a Hige-Hige Boot stomping on parts of the arena, just to keep things especially varied. Another thing I quite like about Max 2 is that since you're small, you can ride on the Charaboms making this the only game where you can actually see them in gameplay. It almost makes this the HGSS of the Bomberman series. Aside from that, everything that made the first Max game great is still here and accounted for, from the varied missions to the engaging exploration to the Charabom battling. I think both Max games are super underrated and left a pretty massive impact on the series as a whole, ultimately kickstarting what I believe to be the best era of the series.

Bomberman Tournament: Reaching Potential

Bomberman Tournament continues this momentum by combining the Charabom system with the Zelda-like formula that Bomberman Quest established, and it was a match made in heaven. Exploring the different environments for Charaboms that you can use to find even more Charaboms and get even more powerful is a super satisfying gameplay loop, and the main campaign offers more opportunities for you to battle Charaboms outside of just with your friends. This game also adds in elemental bombs which is yet another great addition to the form, though they're gained through a pretty underdeveloped fusing mechanic. Add in what's quite possibly the best battle mode in a handheld Bomberman to date, and you get one of the best-recieved games in the franchise by critics.

That being said, I can't really say too much about Bomberman Tournament because, in the long run, it's not super memorable. The story is incredibly basic and you're not given too much context for what you're actually doing, the level design doesn't have too much going on in terms of complexity and the theming remains pretty basic, and the battle mode while cool at the time feels pretty basic by today's standards. The core Charabom hunting still holds up incredibly well and makes Tournament a worthwhile and breezy playthrough, but it does make the game feel quite undercooked especially compared to some of its sequels. Still, between Max and Tournament, you can tell Hudson Soft has finally figured out where they wanted to take Bomberman as a series: Fun and charming adventure games with engaging exploration, the Charabom mechanic for added depth, consistently catchy soundtracks, and increasingly robust battle modes. Hudson had solved the Bomberman single-player dilemma and it finally feels the series is reaching it fullest potential, and nowhere is that more evident than in the very next game...

Bomberman Generation: The Peak Of The Series

Bomberman Generation is the best Bomberman game ever made, in my opinion. And it's not just me who thinks that, it's the most critically-acclaimed 3D Bomberman of them all. It takes bits and pieces of all the best aspects of previous Bomberman games and mixes them together into the definitive entry in the series. It has the circular bombs and puzzle-focus of Bomberman 64, the naturalistic level design of The Second Attack, the Charabom hunting and battles of Max, the elemental bombs of Tournament, the return of the collectible cards, the best and most fleshed-out battle mode since Party Edition, a cel-shaded artstyle that's aged well to this day, and a very charming soundtrack. Generation also makes a ton of little tweaks to the formula that make the game all the more enjoyable. You can boost your speed up quite a lot making for easily the fastest-paced game in the series, you have a lot more health leading to way less frequent deaths, the game only makes you find every Charabom rather than all the cards so it can still test you on the Charabom abilities without feeling too inaccessible, some Charaboms have to be gained through battles, and you get new bombs through minigames which add some fun variety. 

As far as issues goes, I guess some of the bosses can be pretty tough and Professor Ein's tutorials can be pretty annoying early on in the game, but otherwise, Bomberman Generation just gets everything right. Everything that Hudson Soft had been slowly learning throughout nearly 20 years of the series had culminated in the perfect Bomberman formula, and the franchise hasn't had this much acclaim since the SNES years. Bomberman had reached a new peak, and what better way to follow up that peak than with an... anime?

Bomberman Jetters: The Best Video Game Adaptation Ever Made

I've already reviewed Bomberman Jetters, but I feel my opinion on it has only gotten higher over the years, especially as I've played more Bomberman games. I believe that Bomberman Jetters is the best video game adaptation ever made, as it perfectly toes the line between feeling like an accurate summation of the franchise as a whole and working within its own medium. Jetters has quite a lot of the game series' DNA within it, bringing over Planet Bomber, Louie, Mujoe, Bagura, the Hige-Hige Bandits, Professor Ein, Max, and the general premise of Bomberman being some sort of interstellar space ranger. However, Jetters decides to simply further expand on that premise by having Bomberman (who I'll call Shirobon in this anime's case) join a team of space rangers called the Jetters, who are all quite likable. That being said, Mujoe and the Hige-Hige Bandits are the real stars of the show though, they are an absolute joy to watch and it's a blast to see their lovable antics realized to their absolute fullest.

But even beyond just being an adaptation, Bomberman Jetters tells an incredibly well thought-out and emotional story about dealing with grief, with a fantastic and lovable cast of characters, witty brand of humor, and top-notch pacing that slowly builds towards its climactic final third. Don't let the fact that this is a Bomberman anime fool you, it gets shockingly dramatic at points and Shirobon's character arc from immature wimp to badass bomb-slinging superhero is incredibly natural and satisfying to watch. Unfortunately, Jetters only came out in Japan and that's a real shame because I think it's the type of show that kids would've really latched onto at the time. Although, it's also the type of show 4Kids would've latched onto so... maybe it's for the best. Either way, I don't want to spoil too much for those who haven't seen the show, but I highly recommend checking it out especially if you're a fan of Bomberman. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.

Bomberman Jetters GBA: 2D Bomberman Perfected

Naturally, like many video game adaptations, Bomberman Jetters had to get a few video games to coincide with its release. As a matter of fact, it had three. Everyone knows about the home console release that came out worldwide, the only piece of Jetters media to not be Japan-exclusive, but there were also two JP-exclusive Jetters games for the GBA. One was just a game collection which came with some minigames from the Land series and a solid battle mode (and is weirdly enough the most accurate Jetters game to the original anime), but the really interesting one is Bomberman Jetters: Densetsu No Bomberman for the GBA, a full-on sequel to Bomberman Tournament that doubles as a prequel to the anime starring Mighty. It's really good too, a pretty massive improvement on its predecessor on nearly every level.

While fun, Bomberman Tournament does feel quite generic and underdeveloped in a lot of ways. The level design gets a tad repetitive, the difficulty curve is pretty much entirely reversed, and fusing is only used for bombs. Densetsu No Bomberman fixes pretty much all of this. The world design in this game is far more varied and interesting, with more element-sensitive obstacles like logs to freeze and fires to extinguish, more puzzles and contraptions to manipulate ala Super Bomberman 2, and more unique locations like a futuristic city stationed next to a volcano. There's more minigames, collectible cards to craft giving the fuser more of a purpose, a more fleshed-out story to give everything just a bit more context, a much longer runtime, and even a vastly beefier Battle Mode with multiple modes ala Generation. It even has one of the few soundtracks by Aya Tanaka, composer of Mario Party 5's beautifully orchestrated score. The difficulty curve is also perfect, starting off pretty simple, but eventually requiring some of the most precise bomb throws in the entire franchise. The last few dungeons test you as a Bomberman player in ways no other 2D game in the series has managed to do, and you will be swapping between bombs and Charaboms like crazy by the end.

The only thing I'm mixed on in Densetsu is the way Charaboms work. Unlike in all the previous games where Charaboms basically functioned as collectibles, Densetsu changes things so that there are only eight Charaboms that can each be leveled up a bunch of times. On one hand, the evolution system gives finding Charabom food more of a purpose beyond leveling up, and the level design is able to craft challenges around the few Charaboms you get, utilizing their abilities in more interesting ways than ever before. On the other hand, that element of exploration that Charabom hunting provided isn't as prevelent anymore, and Charabom battles as a whole are completely gone. Thankfully, the sheer number of new sidequests, collectibles, and minigames does make up for the decreased amount of Charaboms, but I will say that I do prefer how the previous games did things a bit more. But that aside, I thought Jetters was absolutely fantastic. It sets an entirely new bar for Bomberman level design and is so well-crafted, so rich in content, so polished to a glowing sheen that it stands as one of my favorite games in the franchise. It's just a shame that this wasn't the Jetters game we ended up getting, maybe Bomberman as a franchise would've turned out a lot differently...

Bomberman Jetters: The Game That Killed The Series

With several great and critically-acclaimed games back-to-back and a top-notch cult classic anime on its belt, Bomberman was doing so well in the early 2000s, but it crushes me to say that as much as I love Jetters the anime... it may have unintentionally killed the franchise. As I said, like with most video game adaptations, Jetters got a bunch of game tie-ins. The GBA games were great, but the big home console Jetters game was a massive let-down for a lot of people. And as I said, this was unfortunately the only exposure Western audiences had to Bomberman Jetters, only exacerbating the issue.

So what's the problem with Jetters the game? There's a lot of problems, but I think the fundamental issue is that it's rushed. It tries to be a sequel to Generation that uses the same engine, but it looks worse, is way less polished, and makes a ton of weird regressions of everything the last few games had added. Remember how I said Bomberman Generation was the fastest game in the series? Well, Jetters ended up slashing your maximum speed in half making for one of the slowest games instead. Like in the GBA game, Charaboms were also dramatically reduced and battles were removed entirely, but unlike in the GBA game, the level design wasn't built to accomodate it. There's less collectibles, less levels, the battle mode was less fun, it feels like everything about Jetters is just Generations but worse.

But the truly insulting part about Bomberman Jetters the game is what it does to the anime and its characters. Unlike Jetters for GBA which tries to be a somewhat accurate prequel, Jetters for home consoles feels like it takes place in an entirely different continuity with dramatically different characterizations for everyone, none of the deep storytelling and character arcs of the anime, most of the major side characters completely cut, and even entirely different locations that you end up visiting. What only twists the knife further is just how godawful the voice acting is, everyone sounds so irritating and they interrupt you in the middle of gameplay constantly! Generation had cheesy voice acting too but it was minimal enough that I found it charming, but Jetters not only has more dialogue but it's also based on an anime with defined voices for all the characters, making the awfully unfitting English dub feel even more hard to listen to.

Bomberman Jetters, the game, was a mess. It was very blatantly a rushed product (it came out only a few months after Generation!) that was met with the worst critical reception in a while, backlash from anime fans who felt it was too different, and backlash from Western audiences who thought it was worse than Generation. It pleased no one, and after this game, Bomberman as a franchise would never quite be the same...

 Back To Basics Bomberman

The next few years would be a bit of a tumultuous time for Bomberman as a franchise as Hudson Soft and Konami became increasingly close. Most of the Bomberman games that came out after Jetters were spinoffs like Hardball and the Land games. The series would eventually get a pretty straight-forward soft reboot on the DS simply titled Bomberman. It's pretty heavily inspired by that original game again, with extra care and attention given to the Battle Mode. It's fine, nothing too special, but it's well made and uses the dual-screen in some neat ways. However, it also strips away a lot of the series' mainstays. No Louies, no Charaboms, no Mujoe, no side characters, it's really back-to-basics. The next few mainline Bomberman games would follow a similar path, including the very similar Bomberman for the PSP. Bomberman Story DS released with the aim of being a spiritual successor to Bomberman Tournament, but it unfortunately wasn't very good. The best mainline Bomberman from this more simplistic era of the series is easily Bomberman 2 for the DS, which boasts more unique level design and brings back the mission structure from the Max games, but even it lacked a lot of those recurring characters. However, even as it felt like the series may have been starting to find its footing again, Hudson Soft was working on the game that would deal the finishing blow to the series: Bomberman Act Zero.

or basic 2D Bomberman games inspired primarily by the first entry, with weak single-player campaigns and a major focus on the multiplayer. Eventually, it felt like Bomberman games had removed the single-player entirely, with games like Bomberman Blast, Live, and Blitz being exclusively multiplayer. I wonder if the series' reputation for having bad singleplayer only ever being worth it for the multiplayer may have gotten to Hudson Soft's heads, and that's a real shame because that isn't the case. There are tons of Bomberman games with fun singleplayer. Super Bomberman II, Saturn Bomberman, 64, Generation, Quest, Tournament, the Max games, Jetters GBA, and it feels like everything that defined those great campaigns have been entirely excised from the series. Bomberman was approaching an identity crisis, and it all culminated in the series' lowest point:

Bomberman Act Zero is considered by many to be not just the worst Bomberman game, but one of the worst games period. It's a product of the era where every company was trying to make their characters dark and edgy, it was the same energy as Shadow The Hedgehog but even worse. All the charming cutesy characters that defined Bomberman were replaced by these terrifying over-designed freaks, the colorful environments were replaced with a dull brown dystopian wasteland. But it's not just the horrendous visuals that bring this game down, but the fact that Hudson also ruined the tried-and-true gameplay on pretty much every level. The singleplayer was just the original game on NES but worse, the battle mode was online-only and lacked any of the unique and dynamic stages that the series became known for, and even the controls feel awful. How do you mess up Bomberman controls?! Act Zero exudes desperation. Hudson Soft wouldn't be bought by Konami for another few years, but I feel like you could see it coming at this point.

From Act Zero onwards, we wouldn't really get many true single-player-focused Bomberman games anymore. After Bomberman 2, it felt like Bomberman games had removed the single-player entirely, with games like Bomberman Blast, Live, and Blitz being exclusively multiplayer. While Blast did actually have a campaign, it was exclusive to Japan. I wonder if the series' reputation for having bad singleplayer and only ever being worth it for the multiplayer may have gotten to Hudson Soft's heads, because it felt like they really only focusing on the battle mode now. And those battle modes were genuinely great, and more fleshed out than they've ever been, but it really felt like there was something missing from the series. When all the Bomberman games we get are throwbacks to the arcade original and battle modes, the series starts to feel stagnant and repetitive. And then, Hudson went bankrupt and Konami bought them, and the series went radio silent for years.

Konami

Like with most of Konami's acquisitions, they didn't do much with Hudson Soft's IPs for a while. Bomberman was slated to get a 3DS game in 2011 that actually had the potential be a pretty neat adventure game, but it got canned. The last Bomberman game we got was Live: Battlefest in 2010, and it wouldn't be until Super Bomberman R in 2017 when the series finally had a resurgence. Announced alongside the Switch's 2017 lineup, Super R did get a lot of fans excited and even spawned a bunch of sequels and follow-ups, but it still feels like something is missing. Despite its campaign having a nice blend of Super 1's structure and Max-esque missions, the levels feel particularly barren and artificial compared to games like The Second Attack and Max 2 which felt more naturalistic while keeping the grid shapes. The Hige Higes are back but that's pretty much it for returning faces. The Louies are still gone, the Charaboms are still gone, Max is just a battle mode skin, and Bomberman's new crew are just different colored Bombermen.

I don't get the feeling that Konami cares about Bomberman as a franchise. I think they mostly just care about it as a vehicle for crossing over their IPs, and you can tell by the fact that most of Super's updates prioritizing adding new character skins to the battle mode from other Konami games, while Bomberman mainstays are still nowhere to be seen. What confirms this even further was the announcement of Bombergirl, an arcade MOBA where Bomberman is turned into an anime girl and a vast majority of the cast are once again crossed over from other Konami IPs.

Man, I didn't mean to end this retrospective on such a sour note but when you really look at how the Bomberman series has evolved over the years, it's not hard to feel sad at how quickly the series fell after finally hitting its stride. Even though the series is back in the limelight now thanks to Konami, it just doesn't quite feel the same. I think many tend to see Bomberman as a stagnant series that keeps putting out the same game for money's sake when that couldn't be further from the case. From the massive amount of weird experimental spinoffs to all the big mainline games that push the series further, Bomberman has always shown a willingness to keep trying new things and hold onto the lessons it's learned along the way. I believe that the devs at Hudson Soft genuinely wanted Bomberman to be their Mario, and even if that didn't last, I think they succeeded, at least for a bit. After all, 60+ games ain't bad at all.