Bomberman DS Review Phoenix AZ

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There are certain characters who more or less define a company and its attitude. You innately associate Mario with Nintendo, Sonic with Sega and dead hookers with blunt head tramua with Rockstar Games. In the same way, Hudson Soft may have produced other games titles, but they're inexorably linked with their mascot character, Bomberman. Over the years, he's appeared in just about every possible spin-off gametype known to man, along with endless iterations of his own block-blasting title. In Australian terms, the definitive Bomberman game was, up until now, Super Bomberman for the SNES. Good lord, it's been twelve years already. Super Bomberman introduced a whole generation of Aussie gamers to the joys of the carefully placed explosive devices and the chaotic multiplayer fun that could ensue just by hooking up four controllers to a suitable console.

Just as every console system has to have a version of Puzzle Bobble, every system has to have a Bomberman game, and it would have been rather easy for Hudson to put out yet another dull reworking of the same formula with the DS, perhaps with a few tepid point and click stylus minigames. Thankfully, that's not what they've done, and while Bomberman DS's use of the stylus isn't that innovative compared to games like Yoshi Touch & Go or Super Mario DS, it's still a must-have title for DS owners. More specifically, it's a must-have title for any DS owners whose friends also own DS systems.

The specifics of Bomberman should be well known to many gamers by now. For those new to the game, Bomberman is a cartoony little fellow with a prediliction towards things that go bang. The classic version of the Bomberman world is rendered in two dimensions, placing Bomberman in the corner of a map, armed only with a single bomb that blows up everything in four compass directions from where it's laid. Hidden powerups allow Bomberman to lay extra bombs, add to the existing blast radius and shift bombs around by kicking or punching them, with later entries in the series adding a variety of other powerups, up to and including some frankly ridiculous vaguely kangaroo-ish mounts. Thankfully, the roos have all hopped away from the DS version.

Look, there's a single player Bomberman game in Bomberman DS. It's very shiny, and you do the usual stuff of blowing up stupid pattern -based enemies for a few screens before taking on a boss character, over and over again. The DS-specific side of this sees your powerups activated at the bottom of the screen, meaning you don't waste powerups you don't need, and can plan somewhat for tricky challenges by stockpiling powerups. It's a reasonable but never terribly engaging way to while away a few hours, or to get used to not accidentally blowing yourself up by trapping yourself against a wall with a freshly laid bomb by your side.