Developer: Hudson Soft Publisher: Hudson Soft Released: February 1989 Genre: Action
Every classic series has to start somewhere. While most everyone familiar with Bomberman remembers it for its legendary multiplayer it was not the party game in the beginning. Bomberman was a simple puzzle game initially without a hint of multiplayer shenanigans. You will recognize nearly all of the aspects that made the series great. But as a single player only title it falls short due to repetition. I can respect it but the original Bomberman is not a game I want to return to.
I say original Bomberman but the NES version is not the first. Bomberman was originally released to various Japanese PCs in the early 80s before finding a home on the Famicom in 1985. But it was this version that was essentially “complete” and the source of ports to other platforms going forward. The convoluted story sees Bomberman as a robot that produces bombs. Day by day he toils away until he hears a rumor. Anyone who escapes facility and makes it to the surface will become human. With his goal in mind Bomberman decides to use the same bombs he has been making to make his dream come true.
The objective of every level is simple. In each maze you must use your bombs to destroy walls and defeat all of the enemies on the map and find the exit before time runs out. Each level is about three screens wide, giving enemies plenty of room to hide/wander around. Preventing you from making a bee line to them are an assortment of blocks. Some are indestructible while others can be destroyed. The layout of each map makes your simple task a lot harder than it should be but that is part of the fun. Aiding you in your task are a litany of power-ups waiting to be uncovered.
Bomberman starts out fairly weak as he can only drop a single bomb. But soon enough you will uncover many different creative power-ups that speed up gameplay somewhat. The most common will allow you to drop more bombs, up to as many as four. You can increase your speed, gain the ability to walk through walls and even have immunity to your own explosions. Hands down the best item in the game is the detonator, which allows you to remotely detonate your bombs at any time. The detonator is incredibly fun and I daresay the game almost feels incomplete without it.
Bomberman is essentially a puzzle game even though it does not appear to be one. The limited selection of enemies has specific behaviors that must be taken into account when hunting them down. Ballom is the simplest as they walk back and forth. O’Neal is more aggressive and will change direction and follow you. Ovape are like ghosts as they can move through bricks. But they are incredibly slow and easy to kill. Pass and Pontan will actively chase you if seen and are very fast. Figuring out how to get each enemy is half the fun as their behavior and the map varies. While some seem oblivious to your presence others will immediately react. A moment of panic is all it takes to run into a corner with no way out. All while leaving enough time to find the exit is the loop that makes Bomberman great, like Pac-Man.
Unfortunately Bomberman is a heavily repetitive game that can grow old fast. By stage fourteen you have seen all but one of its eight enemies. That means for the rest of the game you are fighting the same group of enemies on the same boring gray and green map that never changes. The layout differs but you are looking at the same assets for the entire game which grows old fast. You could lobby the same criticism at games like Pac-Man but Bomberman is not a game you are playing for score. Even something as simple as new tile sets every ten levels (which would come in Super Bomberman) would have gone a long way to making this solo campaign more tolerable. Many will find the core gameplay strong enough to overlook this flaw but I could not.
In Closing
Bomberman is considered a classic for a reason. Its gameplay loop is addicting and fun. But in this case its simplicity does not hold up over fifty levels of repetitive action. Appreciate Bomberman for what it has established but not as a game that you return to over and over again.
