![]() Your location is now depicted on a map that Bomberman travels across as he clears out each area, accentuating the adventure with a sense of momentum and palpable progress. Most of the game’s latter half takes place inside Black Bomberman’s castle, giving it an epic, climactic feeling much like Dracula’s castle in Castlevania. ![]() The areas presented to the player are straightforward but varied enough in their appearance, taking them from a river to a forest, past some perilous mountains, and through a lava cave as well. While it’s a shame not every area has a unique track like Atomic Punk, the quality of the music for this entry is no less impressive overall.īomberman is divided into eight rounds with eight parts each for a grand total of 64 levels, the highest amount in the series up to this point. That game’s stage theme does of course make a return, but now there are a handful of tracks used across the eight areas, along with boss battle themes to make those stages stand out more and mitigate any potential repetition. Jun Chikuma’s compositions here are also an improvement from her previous work, using music from the 1985 game as a basis for many of the tracks. Just make sure you don’t try to start multiplayer without a TurboTap plugged in – you’ll never live down how sad Bomberman looks if you do! The intro and ending give each character enough personality to tell the story with minimal text, the river stages have an animated floor to simulate moving around in water, and when playing the multiplayer modes, each Bomberman will animate with visible pleasure or disappointment depending on the outcome of the session, encouraging you to do your best for Bomberman’s sake. Everything is far more colorful and better animated, with the expressions of the Bombermen being a particular highlight. Players of previous entries will immediately notice just how much Bomberman benefits from the power of a newer console. Not only does he serve as the quintessential “Player 2” character for much of the series, he ends up playing a consistent role in the story of several future entries, undergoing a character arc much like Dragon Ball Z’s Vegeta in which he goes from villain to rival to close friend, endearing himself to the audience with a more robust personality as time goes on. Black Bomberman’s introduction, however, is anything but. Mitsumori and Lisa never return in future entries, which makes it all feel a bit moot. Wily after you defeat him) and is charming enough, but Dr. The setup is somewhat similar to Mega Man (Black Bomberman even grovels at your feet à la Dr. Black Bomberman kidnaps the doctor’s daughter, Lisa, and flies off to his awfully convenient castle, forcing Bomberman to pursue him and save the day. Mitsumori attempts to build a second Bomberman in the image of the original, only to accidentally create Black Bomberman, who wants nothing more than to rule the world. Once again abandoning previously established lore, Bomberman is now the story of a justice-loving robot built by the famous Dr. This game is also the first in the series to have its sound design handled by Keita Hoshi, a prolific sound and music programmer for Hudson Soft who worked on games like Soldier Blade, Saturn Bomberman, and Bloody Roar 3. Designer Tsukasa Kuwahara went on to be a game designer on Bomberman ’93, a highly regarded entry in the franchise, and graphic designers Hideyuki Ogura and Mika Sasaki would go on to do map design for 1997’s Bomberman 64 and graphic design for Bomberman II respectively. Like with Atomic Punk, a mostly different team at Hudson Soft developed Bomberman, though Jun Chikuma returned to compose the soundtrack. In terms of the single player experience, Bomberman can potentially be seen as a bit of a downgrade for those who grew attached to the economy and environmental challenges of Atomic Punk, but with the introduction of an expanded multiplayer mode, it’s undeniably a big turning point in the franchise’s history. It’s also worth noting that this is the first console entry to abandon Nintendo platforms, likely due to the fact Hudson Soft now had a partial stake in the “console wars” with the PC Engine. Despite the identical title, this game isn’t a remake of its 1985 predecessor but rather feels like a true and proper continuation, eschewing the innovations and complexity of Robo Warrior and Atomic Punk in exchange for a return to the simple but engaging gameplay that gave the series its identity in the first place. Aside from being the year of the first portable entry in the series, 1990 would also be the first time the Bomberman franchise moves into the 16-bit generation with, well, Bomberman.
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