Platform: Nintendo 64

Developer: Hudson Soft

Publisher: Nintendo

Release Date (NA): December 1997

Genre: Adventure, Party

Nerd Rating: 5.5 out of 10

Ohhhhh man Mr. Bomberman… This game was the shiz back in the early ’90s!  It had some great multiplayer action!  It didn’t stop with the SNES release though! I heard that on Bomberman Saturn, you can link up 2 multiplayer taps and play with TEN people!!!! 10!!!  That’s just insane!  But afterall, isn’t that what you remember about Super Bomberman and Super Bomberman 2?  Those original 2 (we’re not going to talk about  the NES one) offer up some of the most frantic and fun times I’ve ever had on the SNES.  The SNES games were a top down aerial view with a sort of isometric view of the sprites.  Bomberman 64 is very different in look, style, gameplay, and single player.  But what remains the same is the multiplayer madness and chaos of the “BATTLE” mode!  Except this time… it’s in 3D! WHOA! Mindbottling.

First, let’s touch up on the battle mode.  This mode offers up some great (GREAT) 4 player mayhem!  It’s truly a great time.  The goal behind battle is to blow up your opponents and be the last [man?] standing.  The real goal is to shamelessly show off your video game prowess and completely emasculate your friends in the worst way and ridicule them relentlessly for getting destroyed over and over.  There are multiple stages to choose from, each with their own unique characteristics that make that particular stage difficult. The ice stage is difficult to maneuver on because it’s slippery.  The “ruins” stage is difficult because of all the stairs.  The ship is difficult because it makes you sea sick (hence the name of the level).  And so forth.  The variety in stages keeps the multiplayer version of this game unique and always fun.  *NERD HINT: Get a GameShark and really have some fun with added levels and other cheats!

In each stage, 4 different bombermen (white, black, blue, red) duke it out to be the last bomberman standing. One thing that’s different in Bomberman 64 is that upon starting a match, right away you can pick up bombs, kick bombs, throw bombs, etc.  In previous installments you had to find the power-up to achieve such great bomb-mastery.  Power-ups are achieved by blowing up blocks, crates, boxes, etc and then power-up comes out.  There is a power-up that increases the blast radius of your bomb, a power-up that gives you the ability to lay down MORE bombs, and more.  In addition to the beneficial power-ups, there’s a skull that you best avoid and some other demonic thing that messes everything up (like reversing your buttons or making you run back and forth aimlessly).

So now that you are familiar with what battle is, you’re probably wondering how it holds up to its predecessors.  It does AND it doesn’t. While the fun factor is still there, it tries too hard to be too much.  The 3D factor is fun and adds another dimension, but it’s not as easy to navigate or fully understand where everything is like in Super Bomberman 2.  In Super Bomberman 2 there’s a sort of “grid” system that helps a ton in determining your whereabouts. Not in Bomberman 64 though.  It’s a little more free-flow.  This creates some difficulty, but I hope I still have your attention because I’m going to repeat again… THE BATTLE MODE IS STILL BALLSNUTS FUN WITH FRIENDS!  Just a tad bit more difficult to figure out.

Bomberman 64 battle mode can sometimes be too easy.  Sometimes I can just run around and avoid everything.  When you do this, the computer will just kinda duke it out with each other or do stupid things like lay a bomb and stand next to it.  The A.I. is spotty and can often be plain stupid. But again, FUN GAME!  Battle mode is truly best enjoyed with friends yet is extremely short-lived when playing by yourself.

Adventure mode plays like a, well, adventure game.  There are 4 different worlds you must complete and that will take you to the final “battle”.  The worlds are:

• Red Mountain (a volcanic world)
• White Glacier (an ice and snow world)
• Green Garden (a sort of earthy green world with some stone ruins), and
• Blue Resort (a world with a castle and some water).

Each world is unique but vaguely similar.  The camera angle is a top down isometric view and can be pretty friggin’ challenging sometimes.  Bomberman controls pretty well and the mechanics sort of remind me of Chameleon Twist.  I found myself surprisingly having a good time, but I was struggling mightily with my BIGGGEST foe… The camera angles.  Good thing I eventually started toying with some buttons and discovered that you can press LEFT or RIGHT C to rotate the camera angle around you.  UP C or DOWN C zooms in or out respectively.  But that didn’t make it any less hard.  It’s not convenient AT ALL to have to run around pressing left or right C just to move the camera.  If only it had a simple single-button press to fix the camera behind Bomberman like in Super Mario 64.  I must admit though that I was pretty impressed with the variety in each world.  There are different dangers to be had in each world.

Even though I enjoyed some of the Adventure mode, I found it to be pretty bland and uninspired.  The worlds are filled with bland textured walls, floors, trees, enemies, etc.  I feel like I’m being harsh because this game was created during a time when video games couldn’t do much better. But I’ve seen other N64 games ACTUALLY do better, despite the limitations.  My character only does one thing with one button… lay bombs.  He doesn’t jump.  He doesn’t block.  He doesn’t climb. Heck, he doesn’t even yodel and that’s just stupid.  If I press the button twice, he’ll kick the bomb he just pooped out.  And killing enemies feels pointless because they come right back in about 60 seconds.

Overall, this game cannot receive a high score.  Despite the super fun times in multiplayer battle, it’s not enough to save Bomberman 64 from the wrath of NerdBerry.  Bomberman 64 is loaded with “What if’s” and “if only’s“… I was hoping to step away from this game more satisfied than this, instead I have an empty feeling as I switch my system to the off position.  There was so much more Hudson Soft could have done with this game but I think they got too comfortable with their own brand recognition and got a little lazy.  Bomberman 64 is a little stale and lacking a true one-of-a-kind experience.  There is much to be desired.  I hope one day Hudson Soft can revisit the Bomberman series with some unique gameplay while retaining that classic 16-bit charm.  Regardless, at a fair price, this game might be worth the pick-up if you have 4 controllers and 4 friends you like.

Reviewed by NerdBerry