This is a game I rented as a kid but got stuck in and never ended up beating. I remembered liking it a fair bit, but when I picked it up a couple years back I bounced off it hard. This time I ended up liking it more than ever, and I completed the main game 100%, even getting all the gold medals in addition to the purple ball thingies. I played through the Japanese version, and the game doesn't keep track of how long you've played it (and neither did I), so I really have no idea how long it took me ^^;
Where Baku Bomberman 1 and 2 are more like "classic Bomberman meets action platformer game", Bomberman Hero is Bomberman staring in a proper action platformer. In an intro that is a delightfully silly homage to Star Wars Episode IV, Princess Mirian is captured by the bad guys while trying to flee them in a tiny escape ship, and gives her robot companion Pibot a very important data disc to escape with to find Bomberman. It's a very lighthearted story that doesn't take itself seriously at all, but it's a delightful framework for the adventure with how campy and colorful it is. The game itself is overall very colorful and nice looking with a good soundtrack to boot (in grand Hudson fashion).
The gameplay is much more standard action platformer than either Baku Bomberman game. You can jump with the A button, throw bombs with the B button, kick bombs with down on the C-stick. You can tilt the camera with the other C buttons, but only temporarily. The game is played with a fixed camera going through linear stages one at a time, and for the most part the camera is never really an issue (on the normal final boss it can be a bit awkward, is all). There are point totals to aim for in each level (which are annoyingly only told to you after you beat the stage XP), and getting a 5-rank in all the stages unlocks a secret 6th world after you beat the normal final boss. The point challenges for the boss levels themselves are very cleverly done, with your score starting at 10,000 and counting down to 0, so they're more like time attack challenges.
The normal platforming stages rarely outstay their welcomes, even if ultimately they don't have a ton of variety to them. Bomberman controls quite well, but throwing bombs can be a bit of an inexact science at first and takes a bit to get used to, as aiming a shot diagonally is something the game often wants you to do but doesn't make easy XP. There are also many vehicle stages. They're gimmick levels that range from Star Fox-like Bomb Jetpack levels, similar but more controlled (you can go backwards if you want) underwater levels, infrequent but very easy to control Bomb-Copter levels, and the utterly terribly hoverboarding stages (which there are mercifully only two of). The vehicle stages aren't so bad if you're not aiming to hit the point totals on every level, and even then the point totals in them are often very mercifully low compared to the total point totals possible to get in each level. The hoverboarding parts are easily the worst and most difficult parts of the game, but overall the game itself is fairly easy.
Verdict: Recommended. It's not gonna set your world on fire, but it's something a bit different and it's a very competently put together game. If you like 3D platformers on the N64 and want something that's a little different from all the collectathons on the platform, this game can be a great way to spend a weekend. It's a bit of an oddball in that it's probably the only console Bomberman game to lack a multiplayer mode of any kind, but it's a good single-player experience that's easily worth $10 at least.
Where Baku Bomberman 1 and 2 are more like "classic Bomberman meets action platformer game", Bomberman Hero is Bomberman staring in a proper action platformer. In an intro that is a delightfully silly homage to Star Wars Episode IV, Princess Mirian is captured by the bad guys while trying to flee them in a tiny escape ship, and gives her robot companion Pibot a very important data disc to escape with to find Bomberman. It's a very lighthearted story that doesn't take itself seriously at all, but it's a delightful framework for the adventure with how campy and colorful it is. The game itself is overall very colorful and nice looking with a good soundtrack to boot (in grand Hudson fashion).
The gameplay is much more standard action platformer than either Baku Bomberman game. You can jump with the A button, throw bombs with the B button, kick bombs with down on the C-stick. You can tilt the camera with the other C buttons, but only temporarily. The game is played with a fixed camera going through linear stages one at a time, and for the most part the camera is never really an issue (on the normal final boss it can be a bit awkward, is all). There are point totals to aim for in each level (which are annoyingly only told to you after you beat the stage XP), and getting a 5-rank in all the stages unlocks a secret 6th world after you beat the normal final boss. The point challenges for the boss levels themselves are very cleverly done, with your score starting at 10,000 and counting down to 0, so they're more like time attack challenges.
The normal platforming stages rarely outstay their welcomes, even if ultimately they don't have a ton of variety to them. Bomberman controls quite well, but throwing bombs can be a bit of an inexact science at first and takes a bit to get used to, as aiming a shot diagonally is something the game often wants you to do but doesn't make easy XP. There are also many vehicle stages. They're gimmick levels that range from Star Fox-like Bomb Jetpack levels, similar but more controlled (you can go backwards if you want) underwater levels, infrequent but very easy to control Bomb-Copter levels, and the utterly terribly hoverboarding stages (which there are mercifully only two of). The vehicle stages aren't so bad if you're not aiming to hit the point totals on every level, and even then the point totals in them are often very mercifully low compared to the total point totals possible to get in each level. The hoverboarding parts are easily the worst and most difficult parts of the game, but overall the game itself is fairly easy.
Verdict: Recommended. It's not gonna set your world on fire, but it's something a bit different and it's a very competently put together game. If you like 3D platformers on the N64 and want something that's a little different from all the collectathons on the platform, this game can be a great way to spend a weekend. It's a bit of an oddball in that it's probably the only console Bomberman game to lack a multiplayer mode of any kind, but it's a good single-player experience that's easily worth $10 at least.