"A truly spectacular game, this is Bomberman at his best."

Bomberman 64: The Second Attack is an Action/Adventure game for the Nintendo 64. It is the sequel to the game Bomberman 64. It was released on May 28, 2000 in the United States, developed by Hudson Soft and produced by Vatical Entertainment and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB. I will say right now that there is no perfect game, but this one comes close enough to deserve a 10.

Controls 10/10

The controls for the game are fairly simple and very easy to get the hang of. The Control Stick moves Bomberman or any other character you may be playing as, A Button drops bombs, pressing A again kicks them. B Button allows you to pick up bombs, items, KO'd enemies, etc., pressing it again while standing will set them down, or if you press it while running you will throw them. If you are holding a bomb you can hold down the B Button to charge it up. The C-buttons allow you to switch what type of bomb you use, or to call your partner over to you.

Gameplay 9/10

The single player is much like the previous Bomberman 64. However now your bombs explode in the classic '+' pattern instead of the circle, although later in the game there are bombs you can get that explode in circles. You have also lost the ability to kick or throw bombs unless you grab a power-up that lets you do so (these must be picked up again each level, or you can upgrade your Bomberman to be able to use kicks/throws at any time). On one hand this is more similar to the classic Bomberman games and makes things a tad more difficult, but on the other hand people who played the first Bomberman 64 before this one may find this frustrating. There are also only 8 different levels, but they are all long enough to make this one of the longest Bomberman games ever made. The only problem here is there is no way to save in the middle of a level, so you should make sure you have a lot of free time before you start playing.

The game is much more puzzle based than previous Bomberman games. Things start off easy enough, you should be able to get past the first level in under an hour. But by the time you reach the fifth world there are times when you will be spending hours on just one puzzle. There are also many puzzles that require a certain kind of bomb to pass, like freezing water with an Ice Bomb or blowing yourself across large gaps using the Hurricane Bomb. There are seven different kinds of bombs in total and each has a giant form which is much more powerful than your standard explosion. Mastering the different bombs and their effects is key to your success.It will take more than brains though, you will need some serious skill to beat some bosses and enemies. Each different enemy has a health bar, and different kinds of bombs do different amounts of damage from doing nothing to killing in one hit. Learning which bombs are best to use against which enemies is necessary as you will have to deal with dozens of enemies in a single room at times. But don't worry, this time you have more than one health so it's alright if you get hit just a few times.

Boss battles are a bit different than standard enemies, instead of having health bars that take different damage depending on what bomb you use they have a set number of hits they can take before dieing. For example against the boss of the ice/water world (who fittingly has ice powers) Fire Bombs do the same amount of damage as Hurricane Bombs will do, without the elemental effect having an impact. The bosses also get incredibly difficult near the end of the game, with some of them having more than 3 times your maximum health and multiple attacks that can finish you off with one blow no matter how many Hearts you have. You have unlimited continues so you have plenty of time to train against a boss giving you trouble, but each time you continue you lose some of your collected power-ups as a penalty.

You can also upgrade Bomberman's health, abilities, and even appearance by purchasing items at a shop in-between levels. The various costumes you buy can be used in the Custom Bomberman mode to change your Bomberman's appearance and use your cool looking (or funny looking depending on your tastes) in the multiplayer mode. You buy these items with money you find in the courses by blowing up destructible objects.

You can change the single-player adventure into a Co-op game with a friend and a second controller. First player plays as Bomberman, and the second player plays as a new character named Pommy (Pommy is CPU controlled when there is no second player). At first Pommy is mostly useless, being a very slow character and only being able to temporarily knock out opponents, but by finding and giving him different kinds of food he can evolve into a different 'type' of Pommy and grow stronger, faster, and even smarter! Pommy has 4 stages of evolution, each one stronger than the last. What he evolves into depends on the type of food you found, and what type(s) of Pommy he was before. Pommy is playable in all areas except for boss rooms and Gravity Generator Rooms (the last room of every level).

Every real gamer knows that the best part of every Bomberman game is its multiplayer, and although the single player mode is fantastic you will love playing against your friends. There are a total of 5 different modes of battle ( Survival, Score, Key Trial, Team, etc.) and five different difficulty levels to set CPU opponents. There are also unlock-ables in the battle mode that you can unlock by either buying in the single-player mode or by winning against difficult CPU opponents. The various things to be unlocked in battle mode are more difficulty levels, more gameplay modes, secret characters, and new courses. the battle mode is incredibly fun if you like chaotic games where anything can happen. One possible scenario would be a battle on a sinking island with a tornado sweeping people off, one of the players is twenty feet taller than usual, one is on fire, one has been turned into a hamster, and another hiding up in a tree, during this whole thing disco lights are flashing everywhere and fish are walking around carrying gloves, sandals, and sometimes skulls.

Story 8/10

After the events of the first Bomberman 64, Bomberman took a vacation to the Hot Springs Planet Ksa2. It was there he found a strange egg and decided to take it with him to research once he got back home. On his way back home to Bomber Planet his ship is sucked into a black hole and he falls unconscious. When he awakes, he is in a prison cell and his Fire Stone, which is the ancient treasure of Bomber Planet and what allows him to make bombs, has been stolen! What Bomberman doesn't notice is that the egg he took from Ksa2 is also in the cell and starting to hatch. Once it hatches a tiny pink critter named Pommy introduces himself and asks where he is. After Bomberman finishes explaining Pommy makes it quite clear that he does not like the thought of being in a black hole, so he makes a deal with Bomberman. Pommy gets back Bomberman's Firestone, and Bomberman helps Pommy out of the black hole.

Once the pair escapes they meet the 'Scourge of Space', Lilith. She explains to them that the black hole is being generated by machines called Gravity Generators, and that the only way to get rid of the black hole is to destroy every one of them. Easier said than done. There is one Gravity Generator on each planet, all of which are guarded by an Astral Knight that Bomberman must defeat. These knights, as well as many other enemies work for the same group that made the Gravity Generators and created the black hole, work for the BHB Army. They created the black hole to suck in all nearby planets and search them for Elemental Stones, one of the stones they seek is the very Fire stone in Bomberman's possession. They already have the other 6 stones, making Bomberman their prime target.

There are a lot of twists and turns in the story, many of which will surprise you. Things are not what they seem from the start, and there is something of a much grander scale going on than simple galactic domination. There are also multiple endings you can get depending on how you play through the game. The biggest flaw is that while the story itself is very good, you will have to wade through a lot of text which not every gamer wants to do.

Something I should mention is that you should see the 'real' ending to the first Bomberman 64, which can only be done after getting 100 Gold Cards. It isn't necessary, but you will have a better idea of why one of the bosses you'll meet has a grudge against our bomb throwing hero.

Graphics/Sound 9/10

The graphics are very good, some of the most detailed character designs I've ever seen on the N64 are in this game. Every face on every character is very well done.......but almost too well done. Sometimes the faces can appear smudge-y due to the fact that there is so much in one little space. Even though everything is so detailed, it is done in a cartoon-y way, staying true to the style of the Bomberman franchise.

The SFX is pretty much what you would expect from a Bomberman game. Explosions and funny little grunts from enemies, although the bosses have some pretty threatening screams. There are Dragonball Z'ish flying or dashing SFX that some of the bosses have, which suits them surprisingly well. Most of the sounds are kinda cartoon-ish or goofy, but that actually works very well when it is a series like Bomberman.

The music is absolutely amazing. There are a total of 75 songs in the game, all of which are beautifully composed. The one who composed all of the music in this is the same man who did the music for the game Chrono Trigger, so if you've played that game you should know what you are in for. The music in this game definitely has it's own style. Sort of like secret spy or special agent music for some of the level themes. Others are almost techno, while another track is sort of jazzy. There are a wide variety of song genres in the game, from fast paced, blood-pumping boss music to piano and chanting people giving an ancient and mysterious feel to levels where you confront and fight an angel.

Replay Value 10/10

I have played through this game countless times, sometimes just to get to fight the bosses again, watch the epic story unfold yet another time, or even a speed run. There are also many secrets hidden in levels you will have to go back to get using newer abilities. You need to go to each planet a minimum of 2 times in order to get 100% completion in this game, and I promise you it WILL take you more than 2 tries on every planet to pick every thing up.

The battle mode obviously has amazing replay ability and never gets boring, the multi-player is what Bomberman games are known for and this game delivers it. There has never been a multi-player in Bomberman with as many options or as many possibilities as there are in this game, even recent Bomberman games like Jetters and Generation are lacking in multi-player aspects when compared to what The Second Attack has to offer.

Controls 10/10
Gameplay 9/10
Story 8/10
Sound/Graphics 9/10
Replay 10/10

Over-all Score 10/10

There is really nothing bad I can say about this game, other than it may be too challenging for beginning gamers, it's certainly harder than the average video-game. It has been my favorite game for many years now, and will likely be for many more. If you haven't played this game yet then you seriously need to try it. It is definitely worth buying. What are you waiting for? Get over to E-bay right now!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/07, Updated 04/16/08

Game Release: Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! (US, 05/28/00)