There are a lot of good ideas presented here that seemed to improve an idea of the sequel to the first game, but the execution brings it down a bit to the point where I couldn't enjoy this as much as Bomberman 64. I still enjoyed and appreciated some aspects to it.
I really liked the original Bomberman 64. It had a few flaws in a couple of areas, but I was more forgiving to it considering it was the first 3D adventure-style Bomberman. The main issue I had with Bomberman 64 was that the level design was okay if you weren't fully exploring the level for the 100%. You could beeline it to the end of a level without much challenge. In Bomberman 64: The Second Attack, this is the main thing they addressed, but not to the degree I like.
As opposed to the open-ended nature of levels in the original, levels are now structured like Zelda dungeons. I like this idea for a 3D Bomberman game that is based around exploring and puzzle solving. The more intricate level design actually puts you to the test without the need to go for 100%
While the "Dungeon puzzle" designs are fine and clever. The execution is not. The game has a lot of backtracking, which is fine for a game like this, but the problem is there are a lot of rooms that are locked and won't open until you beat all the enemies in that room. That is also a fine concept, it is done in Zelda too. The problem is that every time you leave and re-enter a room (which you will be doing a lot) the enemies are reset and the doors are locked again. And this happens so much, I can tell you it probably adds an unnecessary extra 2 hours to your playthrough.
For every level, if you die you start all the way back at the beginning. Sometimes with some of the puzzles already solved, but you have to track all the way to the point where you previously were. It is real easy to die with the fact that there are bottomless pits everywhere (insta-kill), so this also heavily takes momentum out of the game.
The original Bomberman 64 let you move the camera around which was a godsend in a game where you need to properly see all your enemies and aim your bombs carefully. This game does the genius idea of removing all camera control, so now you're stuck with a fixed camera and worse bomb aiming because of that, with the prone-ness to easily die now due to falling off things because of the bad fixed camera. The fixed camera also makes the game feel much less grandiose.
In regards to the gameplay itself, everything here feels slightly worse than it did than the original. Movement, charging bombs, throwing bombs, kicking etc. Everything feels more sluggish and less accurate. They really messed up what was fine to begin with controls. The biggest sin is how bombs are charged. Originally, you had to pump them up by mashing the A button, which would give you a satisfactory pumping animation. The faster you mash the faster it would pump. Now for this game, you have to hold the B button and it will slow grow. Keep in mind if you are next to a well, or your companion, the bomb won't grow at all for some reason. This makes charging infinitely less satisfying and made me want to avoid doing it.
The act of boming itself is much worse too. In the original 2D Bomberman games, you bomb would blow up in a '+' shape. This made sense for how the game is presented. For a 3D game, the + shape does not cut it. Good thing this was addressed immediately in the OG Bomberman 64 with the fact that the explosion is circular, but in this game it has been reverted back to the + shape. This is a bad idea with the fact that enemies move in a free 360 degree motion, as opposed to just a vertical or horizontal direction. Because of this, your bombs will now miss like 60% of the time.
You are given different bomb types this time around which act like new Zelda dungeon items. Each bomb fulfills a different purpose for solving puzzles, and enemies are weak to some more than others, but you will be using your Ice bombs 90% of the time as that is the only bomb that will blow up in a circular shape without charging it.
On top of all the annoying gameplay quirks that heavily bring the game down. There is a lot of unskippable dialogue, which I'm normally fine with in RPGs, but this is a Bomberman game. Like I don't wanna spend 5 minutes reading dialogue about "deep" Bomberman lore, c'mon.
This game on paper sounds like my ideal kind of Bomberman game, but it shows how even with the best ideas, bad execution can ruin something good. I still enjoyed the game for a single playthrough, and the best parts were going through these dungeon like levels, and figuring out the puzzles as you go along, but with everything else bringing the vibes down I just wanted this game to end.
If you want a REALLY good Bomberman Zelda-like though, go play Bomberman Quest on the Gameboy. That shit is as good as Link's Awakening let me tell ya.
I really liked the original Bomberman 64. It had a few flaws in a couple of areas, but I was more forgiving to it considering it was the first 3D adventure-style Bomberman. The main issue I had with Bomberman 64 was that the level design was okay if you weren't fully exploring the level for the 100%. You could beeline it to the end of a level without much challenge. In Bomberman 64: The Second Attack, this is the main thing they addressed, but not to the degree I like.
As opposed to the open-ended nature of levels in the original, levels are now structured like Zelda dungeons. I like this idea for a 3D Bomberman game that is based around exploring and puzzle solving. The more intricate level design actually puts you to the test without the need to go for 100%
While the "Dungeon puzzle" designs are fine and clever. The execution is not. The game has a lot of backtracking, which is fine for a game like this, but the problem is there are a lot of rooms that are locked and won't open until you beat all the enemies in that room. That is also a fine concept, it is done in Zelda too. The problem is that every time you leave and re-enter a room (which you will be doing a lot) the enemies are reset and the doors are locked again. And this happens so much, I can tell you it probably adds an unnecessary extra 2 hours to your playthrough.
For every level, if you die you start all the way back at the beginning. Sometimes with some of the puzzles already solved, but you have to track all the way to the point where you previously were. It is real easy to die with the fact that there are bottomless pits everywhere (insta-kill), so this also heavily takes momentum out of the game.
The original Bomberman 64 let you move the camera around which was a godsend in a game where you need to properly see all your enemies and aim your bombs carefully. This game does the genius idea of removing all camera control, so now you're stuck with a fixed camera and worse bomb aiming because of that, with the prone-ness to easily die now due to falling off things because of the bad fixed camera. The fixed camera also makes the game feel much less grandiose.
In regards to the gameplay itself, everything here feels slightly worse than it did than the original. Movement, charging bombs, throwing bombs, kicking etc. Everything feels more sluggish and less accurate. They really messed up what was fine to begin with controls. The biggest sin is how bombs are charged. Originally, you had to pump them up by mashing the A button, which would give you a satisfactory pumping animation. The faster you mash the faster it would pump. Now for this game, you have to hold the B button and it will slow grow. Keep in mind if you are next to a well, or your companion, the bomb won't grow at all for some reason. This makes charging infinitely less satisfying and made me want to avoid doing it.
The act of boming itself is much worse too. In the original 2D Bomberman games, you bomb would blow up in a '+' shape. This made sense for how the game is presented. For a 3D game, the + shape does not cut it. Good thing this was addressed immediately in the OG Bomberman 64 with the fact that the explosion is circular, but in this game it has been reverted back to the + shape. This is a bad idea with the fact that enemies move in a free 360 degree motion, as opposed to just a vertical or horizontal direction. Because of this, your bombs will now miss like 60% of the time.
You are given different bomb types this time around which act like new Zelda dungeon items. Each bomb fulfills a different purpose for solving puzzles, and enemies are weak to some more than others, but you will be using your Ice bombs 90% of the time as that is the only bomb that will blow up in a circular shape without charging it.
On top of all the annoying gameplay quirks that heavily bring the game down. There is a lot of unskippable dialogue, which I'm normally fine with in RPGs, but this is a Bomberman game. Like I don't wanna spend 5 minutes reading dialogue about "deep" Bomberman lore, c'mon.
This game on paper sounds like my ideal kind of Bomberman game, but it shows how even with the best ideas, bad execution can ruin something good. I still enjoyed the game for a single playthrough, and the best parts were going through these dungeon like levels, and figuring out the puzzles as you go along, but with everything else bringing the vibes down I just wanted this game to end.
If you want a REALLY good Bomberman Zelda-like though, go play Bomberman Quest on the Gameboy. That shit is as good as Link's Awakening let me tell ya.
3 Comments
@robothing damn wish I knew that
@Doctorissa yeah i think it's only mentioned in the manual and the tutorial that plays if you wait on the title screen long enough lol
robothing
13 days ago