Review: Bomberman
Score:
57%
Version Reviewed: 1.00
Buy Link | Download / Information Link
It's another classic gaming hero come to life in pocket form on the N-Gage. Hudson Soft's Bomberman has been in the arcades, on the 8 bit Nintendo NES Famicom, a million T-Shirts, and an eerily similar to the MMC game Java MIDP game. So how does the N-Gage version fit in.
Bomberman translates really well - but if you're looking for an updated version of the little pyromanic, then you're out of luck. Bomberman's greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. On the N-Gage, Bomberman looks almost exactly like Bomberman on any other platform, including the original Famicom platform.
So What's Bomberman All About?
But there may be those of you out there not familiar with how this unique maze game works. You are Bomberman (naturally) and while you can walk around the world you are in, you're vulnrerable to the slightest touch from any of the enemies prwling around. But you're not defenseless, you have an infinite supplu of bombs with some short fuses. Leave a bomb behind, and leg it round a corner. The chances are you'll blow up a wall, opening up moreo f the maze. Get really lucky and your bomb will explode into one of the numerous enemies on the level. Eventually, you'll blow up a piece of wall hiding the trap door to the next level.
It's a level based game, and every four levels you get a "Big Baddie" to try and take out with your powered up bombs. Along the way you can pick up bonus blocks to allow you to drop more than one bomb at a time (up to a maximum of four on the screen at any one time) and how powerful these bombs are (shown by how far the flames of destruction reach out). But don't loose a life, or you'll be back to a single bomb that reaches out one space.
Problems in the Perfect Port
Now if you're a big fan (and I am) then you're going to love the look of Bomberman, in 16 bit cartoon colour, and not a single change in the gameplay or the graphics. But is that sort of fascination with a perfect port of an old game the sort of thing we look for in an N-Gage MMC Game?
I'll give them credit in implementing a two player bluetooth option, but would point out the original game had a two player option as well (of course those machines had two game controllers, making it slightly easier), and the arcade had four players gathered round the monitors - so this multiplayer was to be expected.
So what's new? Nothing. Not only has every single game element in here been seen beofre, it's been done better, more polished, faster, snazzier, and cheaper on a million other platforsm, and on Series 60 itself (Bomb-Man???). Heck, I'd expect an 16mb MMC based game to offer something a little more over the 64K Midlet version of the game.
Everything's Missing
I always go on about how gameplay is the most vital aspect to a game that there is (in my opinion), but I've never advocated it being the only aspect to a game. One day's work by a graphic artist could have polished the graphics into something that looked a bit special. Another day's work by one programmer could have added an option to the 'Sound' menu so I could stop the blasted cheesy music, but kept the game sound effects on.
Bomberman misses the mark for many reasons, but the biggest one is the cost. Even hunting round the web for some special offers with this game at £20, it's overpriced by 400%. If this was £5, then it would be getting a pretty respectable mark, but when you compare it to what else the N-Gage has to offer, it falls woefully short.
I can't recommend Bomberman on MMC here. Although technically there's nothing wrong with it, he's taking away a 45% score for a game that leaves a taste of "if only" in my mouth.
Alternative View
Rafe has also been looking at this game and he doesn't entirely agree with Ewan...
First things first there are some things that aren't great. The saving process is a bit limited in the single player game. It does auto save meaning you never really loose that much game progress, but this has the disavantage you can load the same save over and over again (meaning you always lose any powerups you gain). It would have been nice to see more than one save slot.
The music can get annoying, but this is Bomberman. It's meant to be chessy! I also found the graohics to have a bit of a retro feel to them whereas Ewan saw tham as lacking in quaity a bit. As with a lot of game reviews such things are quite subjective.
The best thing about the game is the multiplayer. I think this is on a par with the gameplay you get in FIFA with the advantage that nearly everyone knows how to play Bomberman. The cat and I had many happy hours with Bomberman while on a recent car journey. I would add that titling the N-Gage console does not make Bomberman move faster...
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So quite a nice game. Is it worth £20. It depends. If you're the sort of person who download lots of SIS files onto your phone you probably are not going to be too impressed with this when there's an alternative like Explode Arena out there for a third of the price. If however you are into the MMC games then this is one of the better ones. It is available cheaply online, has excellent multi player and is a faithful (very faithful) recreation of an old classic that you have almostr certainly played before. If you like that sort of thing, you will like Bomberman. That's why I think the score should be nearer 70%
Rafe and Ewan couldn't really meet eye to eye on this one, so both scores are in the review, and we've taken the average as the posted 'on-site' score. At the end of the day, reviews are personal opinions, and Bomberman, more than any other N-Gage game, is going to divide people.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at