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.