BombermanBoard

DragonBomber · #31 Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 9:36 am

I would disagree on the GameCube titles being "meh" overall, to some people at least. I have found in my exposing friends and family that a few of the games work best, don't ask me why. Saturn Bomberman, as much as I love it seems to be too much for some of my friends. I don't know if it's the GIANT screen of bricks or way too many people for them or what, but they don't much dig it. Visually and gameplay wise, I love that version. The sprites and blocks and effects are exactly the way I expect them to look without too much glaring, shining textures floating around giving me headaches. The Super Famicom versions, 2, 3 and 5 in particular work really well to get them interested. Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Mega Bomberman was a MONSTER is getting my cousins and visitors to our house hooked. They just loved having the chance to pick the different types of bombers, and the board variation really sold them on the experience. It got quite competitive. n64 Bomberman 64 was also amazingly seductive to my friends, in 4 player mode, despite the fact I felt "closed in" at times. The size of the sprites VS the size of the gameboard seemed to be a problem for me. I love the game but I felt weird playing it as I was so used to the "smaller" alleyways of the SNES/SFC (by far the console I played the games on most thus far) full of more space to run around in, in my mind anyway. This is exactly why I first loved the GameCube ports as the battlemodes had much more confined boards with plenty of running room and soft bricks to blow up. The thing that my guests always seem to like about these games are the extra modes, including the Balom redemption and the coin battle. Not traditional battlemodes, but that small variation in Jetters and Generations is mixed in with traditional battlemode so they feel like they can win more, and they sometimes do. The Xbox ones always sort of mess with me in the same way, as I want less effects and less shining 3D this or that and more SNES/SFC/Saturn visuals for the boards themselves and the characters. I do not get headaches from Live or Battlefest, but I do from PS1 Bomberman Party Edition for some reason. Pretty bad headaches eventually.

Lately my biggest portion of bomberman serving has been emulators/VC titles via the Wii, using original controllers with that G-Tron multicontroller adapter for the GameCube port. Before that it was a bunch of touch bomberman on the NDS with Land 1, 2 and Bomberman 2, as well as my cart of Bomberman Jetters for pinball mostly. I tried Bomberman Land on my PSP, which btw my cousins in the National Guard LOVED playing in Iraq while serving over there, but could not really endure the game on the Wii. Bomberman Blast is interesting but I don't like that cheap escape tactic/control waggling move. Of the PS2 games, I got used to Bomberman Hardball/Battles a good bit, playing it with my wife, as well some of the Land titles. Bomberman Kart's steering was incredible compared to both Fantasy Race and Kart DX, yeah. I remember trying to show a student Fantasy Race after a karaoke event I did and he was pretty scared after a while...he was so annoyed by the steering, and I was suffering a headache from Party Edition so we both were in agony. I got into Dream Fighter a bit, usually try to play that along with the other Smash Bros clones, fliptop loaded, with friends when they get in that sort of gaming mindset. Bomberman Tournament was my favorite game for a LONG time in emulator windows, but have not played it as much since I bought it. Pocket Bomberman was sort of neat to me, though it made me feel like I was playing Bombjack more than Bomberman with all the weird jumping on platforms. I also really enjoyed Bomberman Wars and Bomberman: Fight! for Sega Saturn, as they were quirky enough to keep my attention. That huge bomb in Fight was just too fun. The whole idea of building up to bigger bombs, and that mega powerup for giant bomb made my friends insane. They panicked so hard when the flames came. Tried to explain...just move to that corner of the screen NOT enveloped by death flames. ;)

I have usually found some redeeming quality about most bomberman games I have tried over the years, all of them, somehow. Or I can see how someone could like them. I enjoy seeing how other people find the games of course. Works for me. I'm weird in my blind acceptance of so much of the content in the game. I am easy to amuse and please generally, however. The old ZX Spectrum, Atari ST, MSX versions for example are hilarious. Oh...the laughter it caused me playing them in emulators. I miss playing Virtual Boy Panic Bomber, though the SFC version and the NeoGeo one manage to keep me settled when I am in a "block drop" mood. I even somehow wrap my head around Xbox 360 Bomberman: Act Zero. I guess it's the whole, I'm so scared by over realistic bdsm torture dungeon gameplay, what with their robot bodies being chained up and hooked and carried about, and the screaming and other sound effects, I can see where Bombermen go to die... I really wonder sometimes why it had to be so realistic. I like my cartoon violence in Bomberman, thanks!