How do you review an absolute classic? Bomberman is a near perfect balance of puzzle, action, timing and dexterity. You need to plan ahead and use your best special abilities to blast the bad guys, avoid getting cornered, or do something you'll really regret, like bomb the doorway.
The graphics are whimsical but nothing to write home about. The bad critters make a funny face when you blow them up. The background music is actually enjoyable, it melts well into the background and while it repeats indefinitely while you play, you don't seem to notice. Nice little fanfare when you start a new level and something of a dirge when you get killed.
Effect sounds are serviceable, a small noise when you drop a bomb and loud explosions when they go off. They're useful feedback when you're playing. And when you set a bunch of bombs near each other so that they set each other off, the resulting series of explosions are quite satisfying.
Control is perfect, it's forgiving, and Bomberman really goes where you want him to go. Unlike other games where you can get stuck in corners or coast past where you wanted to go, this game has control tuned perfectly.
My primary complaint is that the difficulty is not well balanced. Once you get some proficiency you get to the detonator and block pass power ups pretty quickly, and once you get good at hiding behind blocks the game gets pretty easy (well, except for boss battles). Then you wind up hanging on to these and cruising through the levels until you make a stupid mistake. Once you die, you come back on your next life without power ups (but you can still drop the same number of bombs, and they explode just as far). By the time you get to Round 3 it can be very difficult to hang on until you find another detonator and block pass.
The other minor complaints are, first, the power ups are predictable, at least insofar as which level they appear. And there's only ever one. Takes a way some of the suspense. Second, no bonus for finishing quickly. The four minutes allotted per level is more than enough—over many, many hours of play I've run out of time exactly once. Third, once in awhile a level will start in a position that's more or less instant death. Not very often, but these things can happen in randomly generated levels.
But these are minor compared to the joy of blowing things up, of watching a carefully laid plan come to fruition, and of watching Bomberman advance to the evil castle. I will say that this game can become tedious if played in stretches that are two long. But for sneaking in a game where you can on the old Turbo Express, it's just what the incendiary expert ordered.
[Editor's note: If you have three or four friends that play games, it is well worth your time to track down a TurboTap and four extra controllers for multiplayer Bomberman. It's one of the best party games of all time.]
-Eric Ruck
Postscript 1:
My 5 year old son loves this game. I have Bomberman on my phone (N-Gage), and at some point we were waiting in an office and he was bored. I let him play on my phone to keep him busy even though I assumed the game was over his head. I checked on him 15 minutes later and he's on the third level, having pretty much figured out the gist of the game. And it appeals to this child (and maybe any child) in the same way that it appeals to adults, by presenting a quick, tractable challenge mixed in with some timely action.
Postscript 2:
The N-Gage version of Bomberman is great, and one of the reasons to own an N-Gage, in fact. (OK, so the best reason might be because you can get the phone and some decent games really, really cheap right now). It's a lot harder, though, in that it's faster (at least it feels faster), and more random. It also works well on the N-Gage that I can interrupt the game to use the phone or any of the other unit features, then come back to the same place where I left off.
Postscript 3:
Just found what appears to be an easter egg or bonus. Occurs when you do something particular, that requires a little skill but mostly luck. I don't care to elaborate right now, except to say that it's worth 100,000 points (which is quite a lot in this game).
2008 ben langberg, all rights reserved.