Bomberman MAX Blue: Champion

"Drop bomb. Run. Yay!"

Old fans of the Bomberman games will probably enjoy this well-done version with some added but not overwhelming touches.

Pros:
Charaboms- These little pokemon-like creatures add a nice distraction from the standard plop-a-bomb-down-and-go-elsewhere scheme, but not so much as to mess up the game. They look kinda cute too, plus you can battle them with someone else with the game.

Graphics- The graphics are good and clean (good enough; you don’t need stunning graphics for a Bomberman game, so this works) and the color really helps a lot. If this was done without color you will probably have a tougher time playing this game, but fortunately if you’re playing this game you have a GBC.

Gameplay- Drop a bomb near an enemy. (Hence the name Bomberman, for all you newcomers) Run someplace safe so you don’t get blown to smithereens. Get rid of your enemies. Get nifty little powerups like the Remote Control bomb. Simple enough? There isn’t much to the gameplay at first sight, but that’s really the beauty of the Bomberman series. You’ll end up strategizing (like me… or not, if you’re good) so you don’t get trapped in a corner between an enemy and a bomb. (Not a situation to be in, by the way.) The simple gameplay has kept the franchise alive even after some not-so-good games on other consoles, but this isn’t one of them.

Controls- Please don’t tell me that this has bad controls. First of all, on the GBC, all you have are the A, B, Start, Select, and D-Pad. That’s it. Most of the powerups are automatically activated, but ones like the remote controlled bomb requires a simple press of the A button. Bomb setting requires the same button technique: right thumb on A button. Position Bomberman with D-Pad. Depress A button with right thumb. Voila.

Cons:
Storyline- A giant machine is taking over the stars in your world, and your mission is to go shut down that machine. (Don’t worry… not a spoiler… this is all in the intro movie.) Not the best or the most original, but come on. It’s everyone’s favorite little guy with an infinite arsenal of large bombs the size of himself and an extremely large head. Not a huge flaw, the storyline. Kinda like Jackie Chan movies: if the man’s there and fighting, it’s a good movie.

Warps- Here’s a little quirk in the game: to move on in the story, you have to get through the stars (they look like planets to me… oh well.) And to get through the stars, you get through the worlds. To get through the worlds, you need to find the warp points (little blue/ red swirly circles). This gets tricky. The paths to the different worlds are sometimes in the same place, so maybe it’s just me, but I see this as a downside. Instead of having a nice, linear thing going on, the designers may have tried to make the game more interesting by adding extra warp points that you really don’t need.

Music- Ehh… it is a handheld console, plus it’s hard to stick compelling music into a game where the whole idea is to just drop bombs and run. It’s not too horrible though.

Replayability- This isn’t really that big of an issue, but doing the same thing over and over again for 80+ stages (give or take) could get rather tedious. It depends on how often you play and how bored you are, and also on how much you like this series.

Bottom line: Like Bomberman? This isn’t a bad choice at all. Just pick up and play.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/12/02, Updated 01/12/02