Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!

" Blow that fat git Wario up, it's about time SOMEONE did it to him..."

Wario Blast combines the classic Bomberman style of play with some smart use of a few recognisable characters to make a fun Game Boy title. You get to choose between Bomberman or Wario and progress through 32 action-packed levels, blowing up everything that gets in your way! Whether it be puny defenceless blocks or huge sword-wielding bosses, they're never a match for the arsenal of explosives that you carry. It's a game of pretty good quality and is perfect for those that specialise in mass destruction of things of a various nature.

Bob the Specialist of Mass Destruction of Things of a Various Nature: I specialise in mass destruction of things of a various nature and I found this game to be quite entertaining and a whole lot of good fun. For the rest of you that specialise in a mass destruction of things of a various nature, you can't do much better than this game.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is full of huge explosions and fast-paced action that will have you on the edge of your seat (if you're standing up you'll probably just get on your tip-toes). Your goal is to take either Wario or Bomberman through a perilous journey which involves blowing up many carbon copies of the character which you didn't select. There are eight stages and each of them has four levels to it, the first level will pit you against one foe, the second level will give you two adversaries and the third one will make you face three enemies (Huge thanks to my thesaurus for that last section). The completion of these levels will lead to a boss fight, they're always huge and move fast. You'll have to spend some time searching out their weak points and hammer them!
To make everything more interesting there's a range of pickups that will either help or hinder your progress, which can be found once you've blown up some blocks. These items will give you such powers as greater explosions or the ability to drop more bombs at once, but then again they might just cause your character to slow down considerably or lose the ability to drop bombs at all! There are also additional skills that will become available to your character as each subsequent boss is knocked over, you may be given the skill to kick bombs away from you, jump over blocks or simply be able to move with unprecedented speed.
Despite the large number of commands at your disposal, the controls have been made very simple and quite efficient to use. Despite there only being two buttons they are both put to great use and it won't be long until controlling Wario/Bomberman becomes of a second nature to you. To be able to move straight to the level which you're currently up to they've incorporated a lovely little password system into the game, input this handy sequence of four numbers and you'll be sent straight to the level as if by magic (inputting the numbers in reverse order will give you the other character to control!). It beats playing through them all repeatedly any day.
You are granted unlimited loves in Wario Blast which is lucky, as you're going to be doing a lot of dying particularly against the bosses and in later levels. The people you're controlling are real pansies, if they come into contact with a boss then they'll just evaporate into thin air. You'll have to play strategically rather than just going out and blowing the stuffings out of everything in sight if you ever hope to be a raging success. It's too easy to get boxed in and be trapped like a rat as your opponent blows you to smithereens. Thinking may not be fun for most people but it is required if you want to be a champion like me.
There is a cool multiplayer option of Wario Blast if you have the resources (ie. two Game Boys, two copies of the game and one of those handy link cables) at your disposal. It's worth going to the trouble of rounding up these materials as the two player games are insanely fun and will never get boring. It's a pity so few people will get to experience it.
Overall, the gameplay is great fun and will entertain you for months on end. It offers a good amount of well designed levels and a lot of variety. No level will ever be the same once you play through it again, this unpredictability makes it great fun to have a go at. It can prove to be a difficult task to blow away the enemy but once you get some know-how the world is at your fingertips. You'll be playing this game long into the night, and maybe even the next morning when you wake up.

Mr. LoCascio - Superhuman God of some sort: Whilst the gameplay is good, it just isn't a monkey decent banana. It won't appeal to all the erudite people out there, now if you'll excuse me I have to go and play a game of Australian Football.

GRAPHICS
The graphics of this title are of a reasonable quality and get the job done quite well. Most of the game is naturally played in all sorts of mazes with walls made of exploding stuff. Each of the different haven't had too much detail thrust upon them but are easily distinguishable from one another which is all you need to ask of them. They're just some of the huge amount of in-game objects that will be thrown at your eyes, with the rest of them not being entirely snazzy but still getting the point across well enough. It was never going to win any awards for being overly flashy or anything else like that, it's just a nice, solid effort. Sometimes you have to strain your eyes to make out what's taking place on that little screen in front of you but for the most part it is quite legible and you shouldn't have too many problems there.
The characters share the same characteristics as the rest of the visuals, they're just nothing special. Wario has taken a big step down in looks from his other games and appears less formidable than he should be. The animations of the characters are very simple and rather primitive, there is minimal movement done by the actual character shapes as you maneouvre them about the playing fields. It's all part of a very simplistic look that this game has in quite a large quantity. There's a few nice effects thrown in there to give it a little spicing up, of course there's a lot of big explosions seen here and they're surprisingly well. There are other such graphical beauties such as whirlpool, and if you're extremely lucky you might even see the majestic sight of Wario or Bomberman flashing!
Overall, the graphics do a respectable job but little more than that. Most of the graphics are very clear, so nobody should have too many problems with the visuals. Just don't turn on the game expecting a Picasso or a Da Vinci or any other outrageous comparism you can think of, otherwise you're most likely going to come away disappointed.

Billy the Art Lover: The graphics were certainly not a Picasso or Da Vinci or any other work of art! In my extravagent opinion you'd see better work on a postage stamp, where's the juxtaposition!?! We need more surrealistic, anti-expressionalist workings here and less pro-materialistic, algorhythmic work which this game has in spades. Of course that's just what I think.

SOUND
The sound of Wario Blast does a fine job of accompanying the graphics but once again does little more to be considered really good. The background music is made up of songs with a quick tempo that might just get your pulse racing in a tight situation. It suits the action of the game perfectly and was obviously chosen with a lot of tact. There's a reasonable selection and you should be able to listen to each of them for a fair amount of time before finally tiring of them. They've got a nice melody in most of them which is a nice change from the majority of Game Boy games, and only have a small amount of the repetition which is another common occurence in the hand-held games of today. It's a nice job altogether with many hours of pleasant listening waiting ahead for all of you!
The sound effects don't quite share the same quality found in the music, but the sparsity of them all means you won't have to put up with them too much. The blasts from the bombs sound like there was a couple of thousand pillows thrown over the bomb before it went off which is a big pity, the effects don't quite have the required impact on the listener as they should and they come away sounding weak and not up to optimum standards. Effects such as the walking of the characters are particularly annoying as they sound like someone rubbing a glass window with a razor blade, not nice at all!
Overall, the sound is good in some places but unfortunately is mediocre in others. If you can ignore the lacklustre sections you shouldn't have too many quibbles in reference to the sound and it should leave you happy and content. Some people however, may feel offended by the sound effects and be very irritated, so much that might be forced to do the unthinkable...TURN IT DOWN!

Joe the Music Critic: I don't have an opinion on the sound of Wario Blast, the speakers were ripped out of my Game Boy in a weird ritual involving novelty-sized lips, a bottle of whipped cream and some sweet-smelling flower (probably a rose) which was a particularly dark colour (presumably black). Sorry about the inconvenience.

LIFESPAN
The lifespan of Wario Blast is terrific, it's going to be a while before you actually finish the game and before that happens you'll probably finish most of the levels up to five times. The passwords mean you can go to your favourite levels and adds immensely to the lifespan simply because you don't have to wade through all the other rubbish levels just for a few good ones that may catch your attention. The bosses will have you coming back time and time again as they are the most fun you'll get from the game, you probably won't begin to tire of the game until weeks of solid play, and even then you'll still be trying to finally complete the darn thing (or maybe I just suck at the game, that's something we'll never fully know).

FUN FACTOR
There are a few niggly irritations that will spring up during your intrepid journey through Wario Blast, but these are outweighed quite convincingly by the enjoyable areas of the game. There is always fun to be had when you're put in control of large explosives, and this game is no exception. You may find yourself on levels for ridiculously long periods of time because your opponent won't get hit by your blasts, and this will give you a lot of frustration, but once you get past this there are good times to be found everywhere. Some of those boss fights are just endless amounts of joy!

CHALLENGE
The challenge ranges somewhere between easy and very hard, it just depends on your place in the game. There is a great learning curve and the advancement of difficulty is done perfectly in conjunction with the learning of new abilities, as whilst everything might have stepped up a notch you'll most likely have a new skill to help you out of those tight situations. Some of the later levels are ridiculously hard but as usual practice makes perfect and you'll be blowing up all that stand in your way in no time! Not a particularly easy game in any way, shape or form, a good challenge for those of you that find your Game Boy game collection to be full of pushovers and easybeats.

THE FINAL PARAGRAPH
Wario Blast is an addictive game that will send you through quite a few batteries in it's long lifespan. It's presentation may be simplistic but it more than makes up with it with the depth and challenge of the gameplay. It's quite an enjoyable game and not one that you'll give up in a hurry, you'll keep playing it until it's meagre conclusion. It's not a must-buy game by any account but it does provide some interesting ideas and could be well worth your time if you consider checking it out, it once again boils down to a matter of taste. It may appeal to me or it may not, if you hate the game then don't come crying to me, I haven't been to the supermarket to get any tissues. :(
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LETS ASK THE EXPERTS ONCE AGAIN!
Bob - I like the explosions, they are what this game is all about
Billy - The graphics aren't pretty, but then again neither are you. A fair effort.
Joel - Give me my novelty-sized lips back! Oh...and the sound was yet another fair effort.
Mr. LoCascio - The gameplay is full of fast-paced action, but don't expect it to appeal to you if you're an intellectual. It's fun, but it is brainless fun.
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GOOD POINTS
- The gameplay is well varied and you won't tire of it in a hurry
- A great range of difficulty means anyone can play it
- You get to blow up stuff darn it! Aint that good enough for you!?!

NOT SO GOOD POINTS
- The presentation of Wario Blast is rather primitive
- Blowing up your opponents is a little bit too tricky, whilst they often have little trouble wiping you out.
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GRAPHICS - 6/10
SOUND - 7/10
GAMEPLAY - 8/10
LIFESPAN - 7/10
FUN FACTOR - 6/10
CHALLENGE - 9/10
OVERALL - 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/12/00, Updated 09/10/01