Bomberman Hero

"It feels pretty generic..."

BOMBERMAN HERO review version 1.0

So, is Bomberman Hero da bomb, or is it just a big bomb? It turns out that it is neither - it's neither all that great nor all that bad; it just sort of is.

The story is cheesy - Garaden's empire is attacking Bomber Nebula and has kidnapped Princess Millian - this sort of story has been done way too many times. Some people would write off the game right there, but stories don't make a game. Hopefully the game itself should be fun, right?

Well, the gameplay is pretty solid, but it feels quite generic. It's just about pure platforming - you run, jump and throw bombs at enemies. You don't have much in the way of special moves either - nothing at all involving jumping, and your only real special attack is the "Rolling Bomb" - "charging" up your throw to throw up to four bombs at once. You always take damage exactly one bar of health at a time - nothing is more or less damaging than anything else. And the enemies are the same way - it takes exactly a certain number of bombs to kill each one, regardless of how big your explosions are. There is crude scoring in the levels, too, but it is usually too easy to achieve a perfect score.

The camera can barely be controlled at all - you can only move it slightly and it just snaps right back, and even then you can only do it while standing still. It really doesn't help you at all.

However, the game does have some redeeming qualities - the level designs are good. Some of them can be quite puzzling, while others have more action, so that's a good variety. There are many different enemies in the game, at least in looks. Some of the levels are clever, too - in one, you throw a Rolling Bomb at a "freeze" flower to cover up the whole level with snow so you can reach the exit. In another, you turn the gravity way down so that you can jump much higher to reach the switch that opens the exit door. And scoring for how fast you defeat the bosses gets just a few points for creativity, since I haven't seen that before this game.

It ends up that if you're a die-hard platformer fan, you'll like this, but if not then it's probably not for you.

The game is probably too easy - while the number of levels may daunt you at first, you'll go through them faster than you think. But the real low-difficulty strike against this game is that perfect scores are all too easy to achieve, knocking down replay value. There are a few nifty extras to unlock by doing this which I won't spoil, but they won't keep you going much longer. The game will sort of come to an abrupt halt and you'll realize that there's absolutely nothing else to do with it! I actually wanted to trade in this game, but didn't do it when I realized that, without the box, I would get only three dollars for it!! So, here it sits in my cartridge bin, gathering dust.

The graphics look just as generic as the game - the game doesn't push a lot of polygons. Bomberman is made up of few enough geometric shapes to count, and the enemies aren't much better. There's also a lot of pop-in, with some large enemies suddenly appearing and taking up the whole screen! I've seen the N64 pull off a lot more graphical power than that.

The sounds, too, are generic - there aren't much more than 100 sound effects grand total in the game, counting up the "sound effects" in the sound test. While neither they nor the music sound horrible by any stretch, it certainly won't immerse you - it doesn't go much beyond basic explosions and damage sounds.

Overall, I would say that if you really like platformers, then you should rent this game. If not, ignore it.

GRAPHICS: 4/10
While it isn't ugly, it looks simplistic - and despite that, it still suffers from quite a bit of pop-in.

SOUND: 5/10
Absolutely nothing special in this department, but it gets the job done if just barely.

CONTROLS: 5/10
They are responsive, but there are very few special moves, and the camera controls are absurdly limited.

GAMEPLAY: 5/10
The level designs are pretty good, but it feels so generic that only big platformer fans would want this.

REPLAYABILITY: 4/10
While the quest is fairly long, it is easy - and while there are some secrets to discover that warrant me not spilling the beans, they will come to a very abrupt halt.

RECOMMENDATION: Rent

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/25/04