"Classic gameplay... Best for multiplayer though"

The newest installment in Bomberman has arrived on the DS and plays a lot like Super Bomberman 2. Super Bomberman 2 is my favorite of the Bomberman games because of it's multiplayer which i played with my cousins very often. The same goes for this game... it has outstanding multiplayer for 8 players at once. Hudson did a good job on this game for those who play with fellow gamers... but what about the lonely? Is this game for them? Personally i don't think so.

Story 6/10

You play as Bomberman, who just found out that the bomb crystal has been broken and has caused weird mutations throughout the land. The effects of the crystal shards darkened the ares and altered it to horrid versions of what they are. Bomberman now has to travel through the 10 areas that are affected by the crystals and defeat the bosses to restore the shards and his world back to normal. The classic save the world storyline... it should have been better and more detailed like in Bomberman Tournament

Gameplay 9/10

Like I said at the Beginning, it plays like Super Bomberman 2 so the gameplay here is great. You play using the D-pad to move and the A button to place a bomb. B and Y buttons have use is for certain items. B works to detonate Remote Bombs and Y works for Bomb Punch and Line Bomb. The touch screen's only use is to select items to use and works as a second section in boss fights and multiplayer.

The game flow is quite simple. You start on the first are and beat stages by destroying all the enemies before time runs out. While playing standard stages you can activate items the items you hold and obtain more of them as you play in a stage. In the 10 areas there's 1 Bonus stage where you play with invincibility and you have to destroy all enemies on the bottom screen to get to the top screen where many items await you.

The boss fights in this game are great with the use of the touch screen as a 2nd are to play in. Too bad that some latter bosses just look different and are more difficult than the one they act like so it's like fighting a tougher version of a previous boss... which doesn't make them really unique. The single player here is good while it lasts, but it might make you wish it had the same gameplay of Bomberman tournament in addition to what you have here.

Graphics 7/10

Nice looking 2D Bomberman game and not a 3D Bomberman... the way it should be. It's not much of an improvement from the previous games on gba but it's still good.

Sound 8/10

Here you have the sound you'd expect from a Bomberman games. The music is cheerful and fits into the mood very nicely, and the sounds like Bomberman shouting when bets an item and the explosions aren't too bad either.

Replay Value 8/10

It's worthy of a ten if you have friends but it's really low if you don't. There's no unlockable here so once you're done with it that's all there is to do. The game took me less than 3:30 hours to beat it... now you're wondering why i gave it an eight right? well I since this game is short like most non-RPG SNES games and it's a lot like Super Bomberman 2. I constantly played it's battle mode by myself with 7 CPU every night and beating the game a second time.

Overall 8/10

Buy this game if you got friends... otherwise you'd have to like Super Bomberman 2 as much as I do to find some fun after beating this game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/05