In 1985, Bomber Man was released on the Famicom and then got a sequel called Bomber King and then the series remained dormant for a couple of years. In 1990, the series got back on its feet and Hudson would keep it going strong. The notable one was the first PC Engine game which featured a lot of levels and even bosses. Bomberman II is basically a watered down port to the Famicom. It does have differences like the story but it does use that PC Engine game for a lot of things.

The game has 6 areas with 8 stages in each as you’ll once again be facing every enemy and then having to find the door along with other power ups to help. Getting stronger and not dying is the key to winning as this game will lay the smackdown on you if you lose them. It doesn’t help that powerups feel a lot rarer in this game and I never once saw the speed up which I know exist. It doesn’t help that later stages can have really strict time limits. Stages now vary from one screen affairs to ones resembling how the first Famicom game did them. There are bonus stages if you can find the Bomberman icon in stage 6 of each area and these will get you points and if you’re lucky, you’ll catch a running Bomberman to get an extra life. The game is a lot less generous with them this time.

If you’ve played Bomberman before you know what to expect and sadly this one is in a weird spot. It’s fun to play and does stuff like have even better music, keeping the awesome bomb sound effect, and even has neat little cutscenes at the beginning of each area, it has issues. Like I said, the game can feel impossible if you lose your stuff which feels pretty bad here. While there are passwords, it might not be enough. Also doesn’t help when you really want a new powerup and the game decides to give you invincibility when everything is dead or something lame like just points. Where the original Bomber Man was pretty good for the time, Bomberman II just feels like a confident game, it knows what it can do well but doesn't strive to do more unfortunately.

The game does have a battle mode but like the PC Engine game, it’s real humans only. Sadly I’m still a pathetic loser who can’t play with others so no multiplayer for me. It’s nothing special anyway as it’s one map and can only go up to three players. You have better battle modes available to you.

Not sure how to fully set in stone my thoughts here. I like the game but part of me wonders if I’m overlooking some issues. I think Bomberman II struggles more in the future sense. There really isn’t a good reason to play this game nowadays which is a shame as it’s a pretty well made game and besides some small issues and the difficulty thing, it’s worth putting in your collection. It’s just not something I could see someone going through a list of Bomberman games and wanting to come back to this one ever. Really I just have no ending words here that really make sense. At least we get to see christianity is canon in the Bomberman universe, that’s something.

For being the game that would start off the entire franchise, the original Bomberman, when compared to other entries in the series, was a basic, yet still enjoyable title. It introduced the staple gameplay that many would come to know and love, and there were plenty of stages to bomb through and mess around in, but with the lack of variety seen throughout these stages, along with the lack of any multiplayer mode to be seen, it is definitely one of the more middling entries in the series, and one that has no reason for anyone to return to with all of the other installments this series has. But anyways, after that game, there would be more Bomberman titles released, such as with Bomber King, or RoboWarrior as we would know it, and Bomber Boy, or Atomic Punk as we would know it, which both contained the same gameplay mechanics and gimmicks, but I figured, for the next game in the series that I tackle, I figure we may as well check out the proper sequel to the original first. RoboWarrior kinda scared me when I tried it out, and Atomic Punk seems… stupid, so instead, I settled with the official follow-up to the original game, Bomberman II.

So, the reason why I took so long to get to this game is for a similar reason that I brought up back in my review of the original Bomberman game. When it comes to Bomberman games, from what I know, most of them don’t really change all too much in terms of gameplay or features, so I don’t wanna sound like even more of a broken record then I already am, so I figured I should stretch these games out, not reviewing them too frequently unless they actually implement some new, interesting features. With all that being said, in terms of Bomberman II, it is an average Bomberman sequel, but for what we got here, I would say it is a good time. It may not change things up that much, but it does introduce new features in the series seen before to a much wider audience, and as a whole, it is still a fun, explosive romp.

The story is pretty simple, where one day, while White Bomber is just walking down the street, Black Bomber goes and robs a bank, framing White Bomber for the crime and getting him thrown in jail, so it is up to White Bomber to break out of jail and give Black Bomber some proper payback, which is a simple premise, but it is an entertaining one, and it does get you going straight away into the game. The graphics are an improvement from the previous game, with sprites of characters, environments, and items looking much better now, and it helps that the entire game isn’t coated in green all the time, the music is pretty enjoyable, with there not being too many tracks, but the ones that are there are catchy and energetic enough to where you won’t mind listening to them for a bit, and the control/gameplay is about the same as the previous game, but it does feel much better to play, and it is more enjoyable compared to the original.

The game is an isometric maze game, where you take control of the White Bomberman, go through six different areas featuring their own set of 8 levels, blow up any blocks around you, as well as the enemies you will find, while also making sure to not blow yourself up in the process (which will still probably happen), gather plenty of powerups to not only increase the power of your bombs, but also increasing your own strengths to give you an advantage over the enemies you will face, and spend way too long locating the door in each level to move further on while defeating all of the enemies. It is practically identical to the original game in almost every way, not introducing any new kinds of power ups, gameplay mechanics, or other common features like bosses whatsoever, but all in all, it still manages to not only be fun, but also an improvement over its predecessor through several small, yet meaningful means.

In terms of the single player mode, again, not much has changed, but it does fix some of the issues that the original game had. For one thing, there is actual variety to the levels, with them not only still introducing more enemies as you keep going, but there are also plenty of different environments you can play through as well, such as with a prison, a forest, a mountain, and several others. These environments don’t really add anything at all, not affecting the gameplay whatsoever, but again, I would gladly take that over staring at GREEN. Outside of that though, there is one major change that this game makes when compared to the original: the multiplayer modes. Yeah, this technically wasn’t the first Bomberman game to introduce it (that would be Atomic Punk), but this was the game that solidified it as a key essential element of the entire series. You can play against another person, blast away at whatever debris is on the map, and try to bomb the fuck out of each other until there is one man standing. Not to mention, you can also play with up to three people if you have an NES Four Score, so that is pretty sweet in case someone else wants to join in.

With all that being said though, at its core, it is still your typical Bomberman game through and through. It can still be fun enough, but not only does the single player portion drag out for a little longer than it needs to, but it doesn’t introduce enough elements to where I would say it is a massive leap in quality from the original. Also, just like with the original game, it is also severely outdated, with the different modes that are featured in this game being vastly improved and expanded upon in later games. That’s not to say that this game is completely unplayable by today’s standards, cause if you and two other friends are looking for some good ol’ explosive action, then this game is for you, but really, you would be better off with just sticking to any of the newer entries in the series.

Overall, despite its lack of major changes gameplay wise, as well as it being outdated when compared to what would come later, Bomberman II does manage to be quite an improvement over the original game, making the single player mode much more appealing and enjoyable to blast through, while also expanding the series multiplayer mode to a much wider audience, allowing for it to be cemented as a core feature in any game to come afterwards. I would recommend it for those who were fans of the original game, as well as those who are fans of the series in general, but for anyone else, again, you are better off just sticking to one of the later games in the series. And since I can’t think of any other way to end this review off, I guess I will show you all the ending of the game, where the Black Bomber does his best Dr. Wily impression. He nailed it right on the head, if you are asking me.

Game #517

Cleared with no continues or deaths.

Essentially a tweaked demake of Bomberman for the PC Engine. The audiovisual downgrade is understandable and the missing features are too (though the lack of bosses, including the final boss, is very noticeable), but most of the intentional changes are baffling, serving only to make the game harder and/or more annoying. In no particular order:

- An item which does absolutely nothing has been added to the pool, and boy is it annoying
- For some reason, homing slimes now also phase through walls and wall-phasing dragons now home in on you
- Both of these enemies appear starting from World 2; in ’90, the only enemy with both properties showed up in the final world and nowhere else
- Picking up a Bomberman icon takes you to a 30-second bonus game where you have the chance to earn an extra life instead of just giving you the life directly

In brighter news, a few new enemies have been added and the game is no longer obnoxiously long.

Turning up the difficulty wasn’t a bad idea in theory—once you know what you’re doing, Bomberman PCE can be tediously easy—but it’s too much. Too many levels have a bunch of homing, wall-phasing enemies attack you from all sides the second the level loads; if you get a bad spawn and lack the remote detonator powerup, this simply kills you, with very little counterplay possible. World 2 is particularly terrible for this.