Bomberman

Hudson Soft’s Bomberman franchise has been one of the longest running series in all of gamedom, with iterations dating back to the original Nintendo Entertainment System all the way up until now.  The N-Gage is the latest system to be hit by the little Bomber.  However, the series is beginning to show its seams, and the N-Gage Bomberman unfortunately is a prime example of this.  Bomberman is a bare bones representation of the series, with no special features or extras and fairly limited multiplayer support.  In other words, Bomberman on the N-Gage is not a step forward or a step backward for the franchise, but merely stagnation.

Bomberman follows our hero through a warp hole after a mysterious stranger steals the golden Bomberman statue from the center of town.  This brings Bomberman into a familiar world of brick blocks, special items and floaty monsters.

All the familiar trappings are here.  The game requires you to drop bombs and kill all of the enemies in the stage and then find the exit in order to proceed.  You must be careful while dropping bombs throughout the level, as they have the same potential to hurt you as they do enemies.  Each of the eight worlds in the game has a boss level, where you must defeat a special boss to move along.  The items will increase your abilities as you go, allowing you to drop more bombs, make bigger blasts, run faster, or you can find a Louie, a kangaroo-type creature that you ride and can have special abilities, like jumping and dashing.

Bomberman offers up Bluetooth wireless support, which is great because Bomberman is never as much fun as when you’re playing against friends.  However, the downside is that the game only supports two-player Bluetooth.  Even in the early Sega Genesis days, the Bomberman series has featured four-player support, and has been one of the best party games around.  Therefore, it is extremely perplexing that the multiplayer support in the N-Gage version (the N-Gage being a system capable of Bluetooth wireless support for many players, certainly more than two) is so limited.

The graphics in Bomberman are also a bit of a downer.  The game looks like a throwback from the 16-bit days, which isn’t entirely a bad thing, as hardcore Bomberman purists will argue.  However, the animation is extremely jerky and stilted, which is another puzzling development, as the N-Gage should be able to handle graphics this simplistic and they shouldn’t be so poorly animated.

The sound and music are light and happy, pretty appropriate for the cartoony presentation of the game.  The sound is pretty clear and sounds nice, but the overly chipper music might grate on your nerves and prompt you to mute the whole thing altogether.

Bomberman’s presentation on the N-Gage isn’t bad, it’s just fails to bring anything new to the table.  Should you buy it? Well, that depends on whether or not you are willing to plunk down thirty dollars on the same game you’ve been playing for years.

Gameplay: 6.0
Run around levels, drop bombs, kill enemies, find exit.  Rinse.  Lather.  Repeat.  This is Bomberman exactly as you’ve known it for years.

Graphics: 6.0 
The graphics are 16-bit quality; nowhere near what the N-Gage is capable of.  Plus, the animations are terribly jerky.

Sound: 6.5
The sound effects are clean, but the super-happy music might get on your nerves after a while.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard

Concept: 6.0 
Yep.  This is Bomberman at his most basic. No real additions to the formula here.

Multiplayer: 6.0
The game’s two-player mode doesn’t really bring it to the table, either for an N-Gage title or an entry in the Bomberman series.  

Overall: 6.0
Bomberman on the N-Gage doesn’t represent either a step forward or a step back for the series, only planted feet on the road to progression.  Only hardcore Bomberman fans who don’t mind playing the same game (albeit with poor graphics and lousy multiplayer support) need apply.