Action Maze Game Review: Bomberman

Bomberman is an action maze game by Hudson Soft that was originally released in 1990 for the PC Engine and in 1991 for its TurboGrafx-16 counterpart in North America in 1991. It was also released for computer platforms in Europe as Dyna Blaster to disassociate it from the terrorist bombings by the Irish Republican Army during the thirty-year period known as The Troubles. 

The story sees the Black Bomber go beserk and kidnap Dr. Mitsori's daughter Lisa. Bomberman climbs to the top of the mechanical tower to rescue her, blowing up Black Bomberman's army of monsters along the way.

Bomberman was the first game to get the 16-bit aesthetic that the series would become known for throughout the 1990s. It also set the musical style that the series would be known for, as the stages each got their own musical motif. It was also the first appearance of bosses. They require multiple hits or multiple parts of a boss body to be hit multiple times. There are also sometimes common enemies included as well. Thank goodness for the time bomb powerup.

In this game, the block with the item flashes orange when the final enemy is defeated. The portal pulses when the last enemy is defeated as well, which signals that the stage is ready to be exited.  There is a helpful timer sound when invincibility is about to run out.

There are sixty-four areas that Bomberman has to go through, seperated into eight stages with eight levels each. The boss battles are the final levels in these eight stages. 

Bomberman is a game that is very easy to recomend. The music is great, the graphics are fantastic, and the gameplay is as timeless as always. The boss fights really add a lot to the formula, and this is the game from which they all started. This game is available on a ton of platforms, from the original PC Engine console to many computer platforms. It didn't receive a port to the Wii platforms like the other PC Engine Bomberman games, but the 2002 Bomberman Collection compilation for Windows is still readily available to purchase on second-hand marketplaces and works well to this day. It is well worth playing if you can track it down.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5