Overall rating: 4/5 Stars
In early 1989, Hudson Soft released a video game called Bomberman on the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System, a game that would prove to be the foundation for a much-beloved franchise. Starring the titular Bomberman, the title actually has an interesting plot, concerning a bomb-laying robot who is tired of working in the mines deep below the planetary surface. After hearing a rumor that any robot who reaches the surface gets to become a human being, he sets out to blast his way through bricks and bad guys to get out of the underground.
Gameplay
Bomberman is an overhead puzzle/adventure hybrid, in roughly the same vein as The Adventures of Lolo series, somewhere between Pac-Man and The Legend of Zelda in terms of topdown complexity. In this one-player quest, the player controls the Bomberman on a tile-based grid. On this grid are concrete blocks in an every-other-space pattern that cannot be blown up, but there are also “soft” blocks throughout each level that disappear when blown up. These vulnerable bricks are blown up by the bombs that Bomberman can lay with the A button. He starts off with the ability to only lay one bomb, with a blast radius of one square in the surrounding four cardinal directions, that explodes after a limited amount of time.
Why is Bomberman walking around the stage blowing up every block in sight? In order to find the exit, which is hidden in one of the bricks. There are a few catches, though, to prevent Bomberman from simply finding the exit and walking into it. Firstly, every level has a time limit of around 300 seconds. Also, the exit cannot be used until every enemy on the level is blown up. These enemies begin in early levels with very basic movement patterns, but later there are more foes, baddies that can move through soft blocks, ones that move quickly, and others that change direction with less predictability. Finally, if the exit is accidentally bombed, more enemies come forth that must be destroyed in order to advance.
Fortunately, this game has a plethora of power-ups available to our robot protagonist. Each stage has one hidden power-up, which include an additional bomb to lay at a time, a larger blast radius for bombs, the ability to walk through bombs, the ability to walk through soft blocks, faster walking speed, the ability to remotely detonate bombs when desired with the B button, immunity to bomb blasts, and others. As the player gathers power-ups per level, he or she will become
more powerful in order to address the enemies of increasing amounts and abilities.
Additionally, every five levels has a bonus stage where Bomberman cannot be killed, there are no soft blocks, and he can just blow up as many enemies as possible for bonus points within the timeframe. Also, when Bomberman loses all his lives, he is granted a password for the level that he can return to at a later time. Overall, the concept is fairly basic, but provides a fun challenge with the diversity of enemies and power-ups.
Graphics
Hudson Soft was a developer that displayed great imagination in the 8-bit days, creating games with colorful graphics and whimsical environments, but Bomberman is actually among their uglier titles. Bomberman himself looks odd, and his walking animation is not quite right: He is constantly leaning forward, which would be fine if it were not for the fact that his legs appear to be aimlessly flailing beneath him wherever he moves. The enemies look somewhat fun, but it is the extraordinarily repetitive appearance of the levels that puts the visuals down a notch; even after the bonus stage intervals, the basic room environment does not change, only the placement of blocks, enemies, power-up, and the exit. The block appearance, the background color, the grid size, all remain identical throughout dozens of stages.
Sound
The explosions sound great, and the rest of the soundtrack seems to have been neglected a little. Sure, there is a pleasant chime when Bomberman defeats the last monster on a level, but otherwise there is not much of a notable quality to the tracks. The background music is decent, but repeats across every single level. It sounds a bit .midi quality for some, but is not entirely unpleasant and its arrangement, and does boast the feat of real-time updating to incorporate a new instrument when Bomberman finds the power-up in a level.
Originality
Block-pushing and enemy-avoidance games on a time limit had existed for years prior to Bomberman, he was just the one to incorporate bombs in the arena. Thusly, the Bomberman concept is not entirely visionary, but can be seen as a progressive step upward from previous gameplay ideas. Many of the thoughts presented are great, and the overall Bomberman experience would be vastly tweaked with, updated, and expanded throughout many subsequent sequels across several different platforms.
Bomberman is remarkably fun, considering how little memory it was created with. This original game does not have a multi-player mode, which would become the delightful highlight of future sequels. Nonetheless, the repetitive nature of the levels does serve to dull the impact of the adventure after a while of play, and decreases replay value. This title is also a bit buggy, especially once the player gets the remote item. One of the more unheralded elements of this game is the mathematical factor inherent in maximizing the blocks blown up in a consistent strafing run of well-timed bombs, and also the fact that as the player gains power-ups a feeling of near-invincibility can arise that leads to deaths in later levels simply from stupid mistakes borne of over-confidence. Regardless of all other components, the basic standard in place is good enough to go bombs away on four stars out of five for this classic NES cartridge with fantastic box cover art.