Bomberman: Act Zero

"Lackluster single player and what seems to be a dead on-line option"

Most gamers will recognize the name of Bomberman. I'm sure everyone has some sort of fond memory. He's mostly known for his multiplayer skills and some odd adventure stuff on the Game Boy systems. Now he has made the leap to the next gen of gaming, the X-Box 360. Does he make the grade or does he fail? Read on!

Graphic wise Bomberman is a nice piece of eye candy. Everything looks good in its 3d glory. Not a fan of the design of Bomberman or Bomberwoman look but they look good in a graphic sense of the word. Levels don't have a whole lot going on but bombs and blocks and other players are easy to see. The graphics are perhaps the best part of this game.

Sound wise the game is pleasing as well. No voice acting that I remember. Music is kind of action packed and fits the mood of the game perfectly. Sound effects are what you'd expect from a game that deals mostly with bombs blowing up.

The control in the game is very easy. I had no problems with it. A sets bombs and B explodes the remote bombs. That's about it. It's fairly simple and I didn't run into any other problems.

As for the actual game itself there are two modes. One that uses a life bar and one that uses lives. You start with one life and you need to gain more. That's the only real difference in those modes. The game offers 100 levels, all of which have the same long and boring cut scene that is unskipable. I don't know why these companies think it's such a great idea to offer unskipable scenes.

The whole idea behind the game is to gather power ups like more lives, place more than one bomb at a time or make the explosion more powerful. Now use your skills to trick the enemy into getting into the path of an explosion. That's about it. You can create a male or female character and change its color.

As for on-line play the game does support it. You can create a room, or join one. It offers ranked and unranked matches. Sadly I can't tell you how it works because no one seems to play on-line any more. The leader boards seem to be maxed out by two different people and because of the fact that no one seems to play any more really ruins the entire purpose of the game. It was easy enough to create a room and all of that.

Is Bomberman a terrible game? No but it's lacking in the entire game play portion of the game. Perhaps if this was released on the Live Arcade it would be better but as a stand alone title it isn't worth playing. It might be amazing with on-line but come on; shouldn't someone out there be playing it? Either way I can't recommend this title as a buy or a rental, unless you find it for $10 or less. The single player isn't very good and the achievements seem to be mostly on-line based so it becomes a chore trying to find someone to play on-line, I had a few people say they would meet me in a match but never showed up, as I sat all alone in the dead servers of Bomberman.

Story - N/A
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 7/10
Control - 9/10
Game Play - 5/10
Replay value - 3/10 (due to no one ever seeming to be on LIVE)

Final Score - 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 10/19/06