Bomberman Tournament

"A terrific game that has a long-lasting single-player, but a longer multiplayer."

Bomberman Tournament was the first non-launch GBA game to be released. It went back to the original Bomberman gameplay, and also threw in a few new things too. Bomberman
Tournament also includes a Karabon system, which I'll talk about a bit later in the review.

The above though, is all single-player. Of course, the title of this game includes Tournament so there has to be some multiplayer involved, right? There's where Bomberman truly becomes a must-have. Read on for all the details.

Story: 7/10

A so-so story here. The Bomber base originally sent down Max to investigate weird things going down on the planet below. Soon after Max was dispatched, they lost all communications with him. So now the original Bomberman (sloppy seconds) is their only hope to explore the area, rescue Max, and defeat Brain Bomber.

Controls: 9/10

I found the controls in Bomberman Tournament to be easy to use. A sets down the current type of bomb you have set. B uses your set Karabon's special power(teleportation, detonation, shield, etc). R brings down the item and karabon sub-menus, while Start lets you save or exit the game. No special tricks to moving Bomberman either-it's all in the D-Pad.

Graphics: 9/10

The graphics are crisp, clear, and colorful, and I found they were very easy to see. They're also very detailed, as you can almost see everything that Bomberman is wearing. Also, on the boxes that you must blow up in bases to continue, you can see the markings on them easily. Very nice.

Gameplay: 10/10

I'll go into detail on both kinds of game-play.

Single-Player: Most people say this is too short and easy, but if you take your time and don't look at any guides, it can last you a long time. You'll lay down bombs, with make plus shape blasts, so position yourself either diagonal from it or a long way away from it. Your karabons actually give you special powers like in Rayman instead of fighting like in Pokemon. A cool idea was put into this game too; you have to fuse 2 karabons in each base to open up the door to the boss. That means you must acquire a special karabon within the base, then find the fusing machine, then find the boss door. It takes quite a while. In the bases you'll find armor and boots, and also bomb ups, which increase the number of bombs you can deploy at the same time, and fire-ups, with increase your blast radius. All in all, I really enjoyed the single-player game.

Multi-player-This is not Karabon battling, since they all know the same moves and they can only grow to a certain level. Instead, this is bomb-blasting fun, on eight different arenas. The object is to knock the other people out with your bomb blasts. The AI is very smart, and the only time you'll hit them with your bomb is if you trap them.
Also, they have a Revenge option where if you're killed, you
can slide back and forth on the edges of the screen chucking
bombs to people below, trying to kill them. If Super Revenge is on, if you kill somebody from above, you'll be back in the game. Overall, it's quite fun.

Bomberman Tournament is a fun-filled game that is definitely worth the 40 bucks(or for free, like I got at the EB Trade-in deal). Anyway, make sure Bomberman gets a place in your collection this year; it'll be hard to find a copy later on.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/02/01, Updated 05/02/02