Bomberman GB and GBA games

[Andi]

I recently completed the single players modes on Saturn Bomberman and had a really good time doing it. So I borrowed my roommate's copy of Bomberman (for Gameboy) and have been enjoying that as well.

I'm interested in picking up a couple more games from the series and the GB and GBA seem like they have several entries. Are the GBA Bomberman games actual Bomberman-style games or are they weird spin-offs? And which of the Bomberman GB games are actually good?

[JBC]

The Bomberman MAX games are very close to the original Bombermans, but didn't quite feel right to me at first. There's a gay virtual pet system implemented into them and well... that's so done. Other than that it was OK though.

I recommend you try out the Super Famicom entries, they where some of my favorites and Mega Bomberman on the Genesis is excellent as well.

I remember Wario Blast! for the GBC being really fun. It's kinda neat that they did a Nintendo/Hudson cross over game.

Here's an interesting snippet about Hi-Ten Bomberman, a cancelled PC-FX game that was supposedly the worlds first HDTV compatible video game.

http://bonk.classicgaming.gamespy.com/g ... me=htbm#ss

[Ganelon]

Pocket Bomberman (for GBC but not required) is an OK sidescroller.

[Andi]

Pocket Bomberman (for GBC but not required) is an OK sidescroller.

Yeah, I've heard some really mixed things about this one. It seems like no one is willing to call it anything more than "OK".

The Bomberman MAX games are very close to the original Bombermans, but didn't quite feel right to me at first. There's a gay virtual pet system implemented into them and well... that's so done. Other than that it was OK though.

I recommend you try out the Super Famicom entries, they where some of my favorites and Mega Bomberman on the Genesis is excellent as well.

I remember Wario Blast! for the GBC being really fun. It's kinda neat that they did a Nintendo/Hudson cross over game.

Bomberman MAX would most certainly make me really mad. I couldn't agree more, I'm so tired of lovable little monsters being put into games where they don't belong. Hell, even Megaman Zero has (ahem) "cyber elves".

I don't own a SNES of SFC and I don't typically emulate and I've never been able to find Bomberman for the Genesis. It seems to pop onto E-Bay pretty infrequently.

Mario Blast seems pretty interesting though. It is weird that they made a Nintendo/Hudson crossover.

[BrianC]

I like Atomic Punk and Bomberman GB quite a bit.

Atomic Punk has a shop where you buy items to use before going in to a level. Money is earned by beating stages and finding items. Items chosen for a stage are gone after you use them unless you use a potion. However, potions also serve as lives, so potions have to be used carefully. Atomic Punk was called Bomber Boy in Japan and was the first of the GB Bomberman games. It has a port of the NES Bomberman with it too.

Bomberman GB/GB 2 Japan has where you choose from two paths at the start of each world. Each path has goals and levels that are significantly different from each other. Like in some other bomberman games, you get a special power for beating a world. One nice thing about Bomberman GB is that 4 players can play on SNES with a Super Game Boy and a multitap.

Also, yes, Bomberman Max has collecting. The collecting element isn't that great, but it's a secondary element of the game and far from a gamebreaker. However, it is extremely annoying how Bomberman Max's multi is nothing more than a battle between two Carabombs and not a full fledged multiplayer game. oh yeah, I heard that Bomberman Max has goal based levels and actually has a fleshed out single player game. That alone has me wanting to check it out.

I agree that Pocket Bomberman is just average. An interesting attempt at getting bomberman gameplay in a sidescrolling game, but it doesn't feel right. The lack of multi is very disappointing.

I didn't care much for Wario Blast/Bomberman GB 1 Japan. The oppoents are all other Bomberman/Warios and there are no non bomber enemies except for the bosses. I found it too easy to trick the AI with some practice. The game actually gets easier on later levels due to all the powers you earn.

[Andi]

I like Atomic Punk and Bomberman GB quite a bit.

Atomic Punk has a shop where you buy items to use before going in to a level. Money is earned by beating stages and finding items. Items chosen for a stage are gone after you use them unless you use a potion. However, potions also serve as lives, so potions have to be used carefully. Atomic Punk was called Bomber Boy in Japan and was the first of the GB Bomberman games. It has a port of the NES Bomberman with it too.

Bomberman GB/GB 2 Japan has where you choose from two paths at the start of each world. Each path has goals and levels that are significantly different from each other. Like in some other bomberman games, you get a special power for beating a world. One nice thing about Bomberman GB is that 4 players can play on SNES with a Super Game Boy and a multitap.

The Bomberman GB formula seems to work pretty well for me. I'll have to get Bomberman GB 2 pretty soon.

They had an Atomic Punk arcade machine in the laundry mat where I live. It looks pretty cool, although I didn't get to play it before someone's bratty kids broke the joystick. It was made by Taito, right?

Anyone played Neo Bomberman (for Neo Geo arcade machines)? Is it any good? I probably won't ever have the opportunity to play it, but I'm curious.

[Damocles]

You might also try Atomic Bomberman on the PC.


*shrug*

[Andi]

You might also try Atomic Bomberman on the PC.


*shrug*

I own it. It's may favorite Bomberman game ever. It doesn't have a single player mode, the multiplayer options are fun and it's fun and frantic as hell.

[BrianC]

They had an Atomic Punk arcade machine in the laundry mat where I live. It looks pretty cool, although I didn't get to play it before someone's bratty kids broke the joystick. It was made by Taito, right?

The arcade Bomberman/Atomic Punk is actually a completely different game from the GB Atomic Punk/Bomber Boy. The arcade Bomberman game was made by Irem. Strangly enough, there is an arcade sequel that was called Atomic Punk Global Quest in the US and Bomberman World in Japan.

Klov entry for Bomberman arcade aka Atomic Punk:
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?let ... me_id=7182

Klov entry for Bomberman World arcade:
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?gam ... 3&letter=B

[Limbrooke]

I recently completed the single players modes on Saturn Bomberman and had a really good time doing it. So I borrowed my roommate's copy of Bomberman (for Gameboy) and have been enjoying that as well.

I'm interested in picking up a couple more games from the series and the GB and GBA seem like they have several entries. Are the GBA Bomberman games actual Bomberman-style games or are they weird spin-offs? And which of the Bomberman GB games are actually good?

Damn, job well done.
Maybe I suck balls at BM but in SBM I get stuck on Level 2 boss Ninja Joe or something, fuck that guy is cheap. And to the fact it's one hit kill. Oh well.

[Andi]

They had an Atomic Punk arcade machine in the laundry mat where I live. It looks pretty cool, although I didn't get to play it before someone's bratty kids broke the joystick. It was made by Taito, right?

The arcade Bomberman/Atomic Punk is actually a completely different game from the GB Atomic Punk/Bomber Boy. The arcade Bomberman game was made by Irem. Strangly enough, there is an arcade sequel that was called Atomic Punk Global Quest in the US and Bomberman World in Japan.

Klov entry for Bomberman arcade aka Atomic Punk:
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?let ... me_id=7182

Klov entry for Bomberman World arcade:
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?gam ... 3&letter=B

Weird. It's strange that the Atomic Punk arcade game would share the name with the GB game. There is no relation between the two games at all? And why would Hudson take a franchise that many people recognize and change the name of it on some of the arcade machines?

[BrianC]

Weird. It's strange that the Atomic Punk arcade game would share the name with the GB game. There is no relation between the two games at all? And why would Hudson take a franchise that many people recognize and change the name of it on some of the arcade machines?

About the only relation between the two games is that they are both Bomberman games. I have no idea why they changed the name of a small about of US Bomberman games to "Atomic Punk". Also, there were name changes for some of the Bomberman games in Europe too. The Atari ST and Amiga ports of the TG-16 Bomberman, the arcade games, and the GB Bomber Boy/Atomic Punk are all called "Dynablaster" there. Again, like with Atomic Punk, it's only a select few games. The Bomber King renamings are even more confusing.

[captain ahar]

god i love irem.

[it290]

Anyone played Neo Bomberman (for Neo Geo arcade machines)? Is it any good? I probably won't ever have the opportunity to play it, but I'm curious.

Neo Bomberman's a decent Bomberman title. The single player mode is basically your classic Bomberman, moving from level to level and destroying monsters. The multiplayer mode is also pretty standard, and is obviously limited to two players thanks to the hardware, which really holds the game back. Not really worth the high price tag it usually commands.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Could post about Pocket Bomberman in "the best GB(C) games" thread, but it's too soon for me to decide whether it's one of my favourites. The "Jump game", however, is worth playing at least once, be it emulated. It's like Duck Tales with bombs from Super Mario Land, in a nutshell.
You can't go wrong with Bomberman Tournament.
First of all, multiplayer for up to four GBAs takes just one cartridge, plain and simple.
Furthermore, singleplayer (reportedly akin tu Hudson's own Neutopia), is a pretty fun open world action adventure with groovy dungeons and bosses. Something 8-bit (I mean it in a good way) about the game.
Bomber Boy/Atomic Punk/Dynablaster lets you play the original Bomberman (called Bomber Man/Game B there) on a handheld without emulation.

[Turrican]

Expanding this thread to Bomberman DS releases, I've been trying to sort out the multiplayer modes available on DS. Turns out to be something like this:

BOMBERMAN DS (MAY 2005)

°Has only DS Download Play, no WFC;
°rather ugly "chibi bomberman" sprites;
°in-game voice-acting spells out whenever you pick up an item;
°DS microphone used to activate powerups in selected maps;
-3 CPU levels: easy, normal, hard;
-30 maps to choose from;
°"classic" map where you can play with just bombs, speed, fires, kicks;
°powerups include: detonator, shield, punching glove, land mine, rubber bomb, power bomb etc;
-Pressure blocks (in menu: tiebreak) starts from bottom screen and rise up;
-customizable from options: tiebreak on/off, skulls on/off, machine slot on/off, revenge on/off/Super;
°handicap menu lets you choose 17 kind of handicaps per each player;

BOMBERMAN LAND TOUCH! (JULY 2006)

-has both DS Download Play and WFC;
-different bomberman sprites;
°default player speed seems to be faster;
°no stylus control in the multiplayer menu;
-3 CPU levels: easy, normal, hard;
-20 maps to choose from;
-there is no "classic" map. However, all maps seem to play like Classic (just 4 items and powerdowns);
-Pressure blocks (in menu: Sudden Death) starts from bottom screen and rise up;
-customizable from options: sudden death on/off, powerdown on/off; revenge on/off/Super;
°handicap menu lets you choose 4 different kind of handicaps per each player (6 slots) (fire bomb speed kick);

BOMBERMAN STORY DS (MARCH 2007)

-has both DS Download Play and WFC;
°third and final bomberman sprite set;
°4 CPU levels: supereasy, easy, normal, hard;
-20 maps to choose from; each of these is available in Single and Double screen mode;
°Pressure blocks go from edges to center stage;
-customizable from options: pressure on/off, revenge on/off, powerdown on/off; skull on/off/
°handicap menu lets you choose 7 different kind of handicaps per each player (6 slots) (fire bomb speed kick glove spike heart);

BOMBERMAN LAND TOUCH! 2 (JULY 2007)

-has both DS Download Play and WFC;
-third and final bomberman sprite set;
-4 CPU levels: supereasy, easy, normal, hard;
-20 maps to choose from; each of these is available in Single and Double screen mode;
-Pressure blocks go from edges to center stage;
-customizable from options: pressure on/off, revenge on/off, powerdown on/off; skull on/off/
-handicap menu lets you choose 7 different kind of handicaps per each player (6 slots) (fire bomb speed kick glove spike heart);

CUSTOM BATTLER BOMBERMAN / BOMBERMAN 2 (DECEMBER 2008)

-has both DS Download Play and WFC;
-third and final bomberman sprite set;
-4 CPU levels: supereasy, easy, normal, hard;
-20 maps to choose from; each of these is available in Single and Double screen mode;
-Pressure blocks go from edges to center stage;
-customizable from options: pressure on/off, revenge on/off, powerdown on/off; skull on/off/
-handicap menu lets you choose 7 different kind of handicaps per each player (6 slots) (fire bomb speed kick glove spike heart);
°multiplayer now has an optional tutorial mode: "Bomberman for Beginners"

°this one has yet another multiplayer game, called versus mode, you can fight against other Custom Bombermen: however, multiple DS game cartridges are required for this mode;

BOMBERMAN ITSUDEMO / BLITZ (OCTOBER 2009) (DSiware release)

-going full circle, this release amazingly is WFC only, it doesn't offer DS Download Play mode. (should support local wireless, but only if each player has bought its copy from the DSi webstore. Epic fail!);
-no single player game whatsoever;
-I haven't tried this one, so I'm lacking any other info on it;


Some considerations... The 2005 one comes with a full array of powerups, offering the greatest variety of the lot: however some of them such as the shield or detonator, admittedly are probably a tad too powerful for a balanced multiplayer session, while others feel redundant. To play without them you can select the classic map, but it's just one map in the whole lot. This, and the fact that your bomberman starts painfully slow, detracts something from the package overall. It's the only one where powerdown items aren't optional. Also the only one with mistery "?" items. As a side note, it seems that throwing bombs out of the screen with the powerglove doesn't make them reappear at the opposite edge. Three maps (Voice Detonate, Voice Bomb, Voice Shield) are for the mandatory gimmick use of DS microphone: it's a 2005 release after all. Microphone use was ditched altogether in the following iterations.

The first Touch! is interesting because it's the one where they probably thought, "let's add a battle mode to the single player game", and streamlined it a bit too much, stripping it bare. Perhaps this was partly due to the effort of making it WFC available for the first time. In all the 20 maps you can only play a classic Bomberman game made of bombs, fires, speeds and kicks: no gloves, no shield, nothing too fancy: they even removed skulls completely! I guess this is a good one if you aren't playing with seasoned players, on the other hand you will probably regret not having more variety at some point.

Finally, Story DS, Touch! 2 and Custom Battler all seem to share the same final revision of the DS battle mode (according to bomberman wiki, these three games should be compatible with each other in WFC mode). The player's default speed feels right, they addressed the pressure blocks issue (if blocks starts always from bottom, it's easy to see that the players below get an unfair disadvantage. Luckily this had always been optional)... Most important, they balanced things a bit by reintroducing spike bombs, power gloves, skulls and introducing hearts for handicap. So unlike the battle mode in touch, this feels actually fleshed out and flexible enough to warrant a cartridge purchase for multiplayer purposes only. Unfortunately, they didn't keep a "Classic" map, nor they made possible to disable spike bombs from the option menu, so you can't really play it "classic". If you hate those blue flames that penetrate bricks, it's a small disappointment.



===

As per single player games... Well, Story DS seems a rather dull rpg, probably the worst of the lot. The two Touch! are minigames a la Wario, not really my cup of tea. 2005 and Custom Battler are the only ones to offer a true bomberman single player campaign, so I guess it's a toss on these two. However, for all the fun you can have equipping different parts in Custom Battler, the set goals per stage can be annoying and having a life meter is surely a letdown. So is the fact that you can store items a la SMB3 for later use in the 2005 one - it's just too exploitable. Custom feels slightly less like the usual singleplay Bomberman - which could even play in its favor, if you're too tired of the same formula.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Played some Normal mode of Pocket Bomberman today and this time it reminded me of Hudson's own A Shadow's Tale in that both games look very me-too, but are actually quite original. Normal is not as wildly eccentric as Jump, but you not only can, but also have to use your own bombs as platforms, which doesn't even sound like any other plaform game known to me.

[Mortificator]

I've been obsessed, just fucking fixated on Bomberman recently. Revisiting ones I've played, trying ones I haven't, dragging everyone I can into battle mode.

The MSX and NES games are just tedious.

The PC Engine is when the series first started to come into its own. Each game was better than the last, with Bomberman '94 being one of the highlights.

All the SNES games except the third are good, with Super Bomberman 2 being my favorite. It feels like the series was going in a different direction with the first two Super Bomberman games, before backing away. My tentative ranking: 2 > 4 > 5 > 1 > 3.

On the Game Boy, Bomberman GB2 wins by virtue of having a battle mode in addition to a nice little single-player game. Bomberman GB3's campaign is somewhat better; it lacks a battle mode, though it tries to make up for that with caravan modes.

I don't think much of the Irem & Neo-Geo games. It's too bad, since a well-made Bomberman could have kicked ass in an arcade environment.

Saturn Bomberman rules the 32 bit era. There are strong arguments that could be made for it being the best in the series. Over on the PS1, Bomberman Party Edition has a pretty good battle mode, though its single player is a wash.

Of the Bomberman Max sub-series that ran through the Game Boy Color & Advance, it's an awkward attempt to capitalize on Pokemon's popularity. Of the Zelda/Neutopia-style games, I quite like Tournament, think Quest is charming if not exactly compelling, and think Story DS is insipid.

Bomberman Generation makes some misteps, but it's the best choice on sixth-generation consoles. On the seventh generation, I wasn't able to compare all of them in their heyday, but Bomberman Live seems to be the most respected.

Finally, on the DS, Bomberman 2 might be the last great game in the series.

Playing the N64 games now...

[BrianC]

On the Game Boy, Bomberman GB2 wins by virtue of having a battle mode in addition to a nice little single-player game. Bomberman GB3's campaign is somewhat better; it lacks a battle mode, though it tries to make up for that with caravan modes.

The first Bomberman GB/Wario Blast also has a battle mode, but, for some odd reason, it requires a password. 5656, if I remember correctly. Bomber Boy/Atomic Punk has a vs mode, but I haven't tried it since it needs two carts. I like how the first two Bomberman GB games can be played with 4 players on Super Game Boy, though they are overshadowed by the awesome multiplayer in Super Bomberman.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The first Bomberman on Game Boy (Game B/ Bomber Man mode of Atomic Punk/Dynablaster/Bomber Boy) is one of my most played GB games. Extra stages unleash mayhem rarely seen on the thing (sprite flicker overload).
It's good to remember it all started as a singleplayer game and as such, it is pretty rad. Pure 8-bit gold.