When it came to competitive multiplayer, my friends and I kept Bomberman 64 in rotation just as much as Goldeneye and Mario Kart 64. I never actually knew anyone who owned it, but it always seemed like someone had the good sense to rent it whenever we had a sleep over. As such, I think I'll always have a special place in my heart for this game, and I even like it more than its sequel Bomberman Hero, even though I think there's a solid argument for that being the better game.

But I still find Bomberman 64's single player mode to be impressive. The level design is pretty solid and you're often dropped into environments where it's just fun as hell blowing everything up. The game's aesthetic perfectly captures this sort of breezy Spring feeling to me, where everything is bright and cheerful and chill at the same time, it's nice. It's comforting. I like causing harm to others by throwing high yield explosives directly at their face, I think it's relaxing.

Late game levels do get a little irritating, though, especially if you're going for all the gold cards like I did. I mean, I didn't have to do that, and my recommendation would also be that you shouldn't, but even without trying to be a completionist about it, the final few levels resulted in some cheap deaths amid puzzles that felt like they were designed to waste my time. Not a great note to go out on, but Bomberman 64 is still a solid little game that I love to death, plus it got me into bomb making and it's always nice when one hobby acts as a gateway to another.