I think we finally have a worthy successor to Bomberman '90.
They finally did it... They removed the exits and finally turned Bomberman into a more modern video game rather than the old "kill all enemies and find the exit". This game was the first step in the right direction for the future of the franchise and I'm glad they finally moved on from that old gameplay loop.
Compared to '90 and '93, what's new? Nothing actually other than the singleplayer getting revamped, if anything we lost some features such as the ability to save and load files. We still have the option to use passwords and thankfully they were shortened to only 4-digit numbers. But in the process, we also lost the PC Engine GP link cable multiplayer like how the two previous entries had, it's not so much of a big deal nowadays but maybe back then people in Japan maybe were disappointed to see that feature gone.
Alright, so the new singleplayer changed the goal for each stage from killing all enemies and finding the exit to finding all crystals in a stage and breaking them while avoiding or killing enemies, enemies being totally avoidable and optional.
The story is separated into 5 worlds with 4 stages each and my god, we finally did it, good pacing in a Bomberman.
All stages have some of their own gimmick and enemies with each of them not overstaying their welcome and just being overall fun, plus with most of the stages being pretty fair I think most of them have the right difficulty to them.
In terms of complaints, I guess the two last worlds are pretty tough, but my issue like with most Bomberman games with original bosses I find them all to be too hard since we still have to play with the one-hit death rule, I do wish someday they'd give us like 3 damage to deal with them only during the boss fights to make them feel less frustrating and tedious.
Multiplayer-wise, this game gives you a wide range of stages to choose from and for the first time lets you choose a unique costume for your Bomberman and I think that's a really neat addition, fun customization in multiplayer games is always welcomed.
I do hope the best for the future of this franchise and we really need some more innovation because even though we got a revamped singleplayer for this game I think it's still lacking content, especially when we look at a game like Super Mario World which released three years priors to this game and has plenty more gameplay and features to offer.
I know this is a Bomberman and you are not supposed to get hundreds of hours but it's still the third Bomberman game on the PC Engine and they barely have any feature worth whatever price they charged this game at launch compared to Bomberman '90.
In conclusion, yes I do think this game is an upgrade from '90 but I also think this franchise should stop relying on being just "Bomberman" and try to come up with more ideas.
They finally did it... They removed the exits and finally turned Bomberman into a more modern video game rather than the old "kill all enemies and find the exit". This game was the first step in the right direction for the future of the franchise and I'm glad they finally moved on from that old gameplay loop.
Compared to '90 and '93, what's new? Nothing actually other than the singleplayer getting revamped, if anything we lost some features such as the ability to save and load files. We still have the option to use passwords and thankfully they were shortened to only 4-digit numbers. But in the process, we also lost the PC Engine GP link cable multiplayer like how the two previous entries had, it's not so much of a big deal nowadays but maybe back then people in Japan maybe were disappointed to see that feature gone.
Alright, so the new singleplayer changed the goal for each stage from killing all enemies and finding the exit to finding all crystals in a stage and breaking them while avoiding or killing enemies, enemies being totally avoidable and optional.
The story is separated into 5 worlds with 4 stages each and my god, we finally did it, good pacing in a Bomberman.
All stages have some of their own gimmick and enemies with each of them not overstaying their welcome and just being overall fun, plus with most of the stages being pretty fair I think most of them have the right difficulty to them.
In terms of complaints, I guess the two last worlds are pretty tough, but my issue like with most Bomberman games with original bosses I find them all to be too hard since we still have to play with the one-hit death rule, I do wish someday they'd give us like 3 damage to deal with them only during the boss fights to make them feel less frustrating and tedious.
Multiplayer-wise, this game gives you a wide range of stages to choose from and for the first time lets you choose a unique costume for your Bomberman and I think that's a really neat addition, fun customization in multiplayer games is always welcomed.
I do hope the best for the future of this franchise and we really need some more innovation because even though we got a revamped singleplayer for this game I think it's still lacking content, especially when we look at a game like Super Mario World which released three years priors to this game and has plenty more gameplay and features to offer.
I know this is a Bomberman and you are not supposed to get hundreds of hours but it's still the third Bomberman game on the PC Engine and they barely have any feature worth whatever price they charged this game at launch compared to Bomberman '90.
In conclusion, yes I do think this game is an upgrade from '90 but I also think this franchise should stop relying on being just "Bomberman" and try to come up with more ideas.