Bomberman has been around since 1983 originally owned by Hudson Soft, and now owned by Konami. As you know Bomberman has had many outings on many consoles not including anime and manga, Bomberman is actually one of the most commercially successful genres of all time.
So a new console the Nintendo Switch comes a new outing for our fellow in Super Bomberman R. Bombermans core experience and fun comes from Multi-player, back when I was young, it was simple, grab some mates around, grab your control pads and kick each other butt, now it’s even easier thanks to online play, but this lacks the fun of friendship, in-house communication and just plain fun, and it just becomes about winning, not the enjoyment or fun aspect.
Bomberman R holds to its roots, with similar controls and gameplay to its predecessors, run around mazes, moving in four directions, planting, throwing and kicking bombs to eliminate your enemy. Removing blocks, reveal power-ups, that allow you to speed-up, drop more bombs and so on, there are also power-downs that reverse effects, and these suck balls.
Playing with friends is always the best way to play Bomberman, and Nintendo Switch has not let us down, apart from the price of two additional joy cons £79.99, OMG NINTENDO are you kidding me? If you move past the cost of additional Joy-Cons you get an awesome local multi-player experience with up to four friends when gathered around the tablet screen, or if you play on TV up to 8 friends, if you have that many, just ask them to bring around their own Joy-Cons, because damn having to spend £79.99 x 3 just to play with your friends, is a total joke. If you cheap like me, multi-player is really your only true option.
Online multi-player should be good on a great connection, how about a fibre broadband, super-fast high-speed line, that what I have, bloody awesome, just cost a little more than standard shitting broadband. Coming with Ranked and Unranked matches I suck compared to other players, but when matches go well, they are highly enjoyable to a degree, there is just the lack of communication and enjoy ability you have with friends around the TV.
Since the Switch comes with Two Joy-Con playing with your partner is super easy and playing two player modes with two AI Bots is super fun, as the AI bots kick my arse and my partner arse all over the place, I hate this game, or I suck, one or the other. It just takes time to get better at them, I guess. Almost forgot to mention, female games, that want to play a female character, Konami has not forgotten about you, you can play a female version of Bomberman with a bow in her hair as well, come on don’t go all feminism on me now, at least they are trying.
Moving on from the multi-player mode, how about Story Mode, yes you heard that right, Story mode, why is there a story mode in Bomberman? How about 50 levels of awesomeness, or should I say bombing-ness, with two playing co-op drop in mode available? Well get it sorted as you need the help, maybe, to take down the evil Emperor Zerg, sorry wrong game, Emperor Buggler, and his Dark Bombers. Five planets, many missions, all with their own mission goals, this is so much fun, my partner and I enjoyed this mode more than local-multiplayer for some reason, maybe because we were better at it for some unknown reason, maybe the bots where just dumber to a degree.
The comes to ultimate sections of each of the plants the Bosses, set in two stages, hit once win, and open zone, the goal is simple, hit there week spots in order to stun the boss, then inflict as much damage as possible in a certain amount of time. May sound easy, but it’s not, the first time you encounter the boss, can be tricky as the boss is a right b**ch, as they always know where to stand to not get hit my our bombs, so may take some time to kill them, the second time we meet them, they are dressed up as Ironman, well not quite Ironman a large robotic version of themselves, could be them in a robot suit.
The games overall is colourful and well designed, moving away from its top-down viewpoint to a more isometric view point does come with its issues, but that can be moved past over time. Making it 3D is not something new, but does make the game feel modern yet retro.
Overall I loved Bomberman R, even though the majority of the time I was getting my butt handed to me by the AI, the story mode is short and sweet, but rather fun nether the less, the game shines as always via its multi-player features, which to me, brings me back to my childhood, playing with friends in front of the TV with popcorn and soft drinks. The only issue I have is the price of the title £49.99, should be £29.99 in all honesty or cheaper, but that’s not for me to judge a games price, I am just wishing it was cheaper, and second having to spend £79.99 on more Joy-Cons, which is not Konami’s Fault but Nintendo for charging such a high price.
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