Bomber Man is a game that doesn’t really have much to explain. You play as the Runner from Lode Runner in a robot body as you dispatch bombs to destroy enemies and walls. Grab powerups and make it to the goal through 50 levels. As you all know, this game would be a good success for Hudson Soft and while it wouldn’t be till the PC Engine where he would shine more, Bomber Man is a good game despite the simplicity.
You have to remember that by this point, we were still in the Famicom era of games being somewhat simple and more arcadey. While not every Hudson Soft game was like this, there were some examples like Nuts & Milk and Binary Land which happened to release the same day as Bomber Man. I think if you look at it from that POV, it’s easy to understand what makes the game shine. There’s something about the simplicity of it all to the basic but charming sprites, the catchy minimalistic music that adds more to the melody if you grab the powerup of the stage, and who could forget that amazing bomb explosion sound.
That’s not to say Bomber Man is perfect because it can feel repetitive and once you get fully powered up and find the ability to be resistant to flames, you basically erase any challenge. The game lets you become powerful but can hurt all of your precious dreams if you make one mistake, you better be careful regardless. There’s also just a lot of depth like learning all of the enemies movement, being careful not to blow up the powerup or doors which respawns enemies, and some super obscure point items that you’ll probably never find without a guide though two of them did spawn for me which confused me. Another small issue I have regarding the enemies is that I wish the block placement didn’t lead their pathing to glitch out and basically be easy to defeat, making the game seem a little sloppy at times.
That isn’t even all I have to say but you probably all know but I wanted to write the review to let people know that despite some imperfections, Bomber Man is one of the better Famicom games of 1985. For a game that was (allegedly) made in about 3 days, it’s impressive it never really feels dull in my eyes. It would get a cheap rerelease on the Disk System in 1990 and it would also show up on the GBA twice, first in 2004 on it’s own and then in 2005 along with Bomberman II for their Hudson Best Collection series. It would also get a US release but sadly it came out in 1989 which feels a little too late for a game like it and oddly it uses art from the MSX version of Bomber King. While there will be later games that will obviously improve the experience, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to go back to a classic.
You have to remember that by this point, we were still in the Famicom era of games being somewhat simple and more arcadey. While not every Hudson Soft game was like this, there were some examples like Nuts & Milk and Binary Land which happened to release the same day as Bomber Man. I think if you look at it from that POV, it’s easy to understand what makes the game shine. There’s something about the simplicity of it all to the basic but charming sprites, the catchy minimalistic music that adds more to the melody if you grab the powerup of the stage, and who could forget that amazing bomb explosion sound.
That’s not to say Bomber Man is perfect because it can feel repetitive and once you get fully powered up and find the ability to be resistant to flames, you basically erase any challenge. The game lets you become powerful but can hurt all of your precious dreams if you make one mistake, you better be careful regardless. There’s also just a lot of depth like learning all of the enemies movement, being careful not to blow up the powerup or doors which respawns enemies, and some super obscure point items that you’ll probably never find without a guide though two of them did spawn for me which confused me. Another small issue I have regarding the enemies is that I wish the block placement didn’t lead their pathing to glitch out and basically be easy to defeat, making the game seem a little sloppy at times.
That isn’t even all I have to say but you probably all know but I wanted to write the review to let people know that despite some imperfections, Bomber Man is one of the better Famicom games of 1985. For a game that was (allegedly) made in about 3 days, it’s impressive it never really feels dull in my eyes. It would get a cheap rerelease on the Disk System in 1990 and it would also show up on the GBA twice, first in 2004 on it’s own and then in 2005 along with Bomberman II for their Hudson Best Collection series. It would also get a US release but sadly it came out in 1989 which feels a little too late for a game like it and oddly it uses art from the MSX version of Bomber King. While there will be later games that will obviously improve the experience, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to go back to a classic.