Bomberman [Classic NES Series] [GBA]

When players hear the words "Bomberman," more likely than not what comes to mind is a wildly entertaining multiplayer extravaganza with several friends in a grid-like battlefield of vicious explosives. Versions of the game made it across several consoles, including the Super NES, Turbo Grafx 16, Genesis...even as a ten-player bombfest on the widescreen Sega Saturn edition. Multiplayer is what made the Bomberman franchise so darn popular, and is the reason why it shows up on so many people's Top 100 lists.

As one of the first games in the Classic NES Series, Hudson wants to give gamers the first Bomberman experience in this 1986 game emulated on the Game Boy Advance. Unfortunately, the original 8-bit design, while being the title that started it all (automatically giving it a "classic" status because of it), is not what gamers expect out of a Bomberman game. This original on the GBA is identical to what players got more than fifteen years ago on the Famicom and the NES, but in all honesty I'll put money down that this game wasn't the reason why people adore the Bomberman series.

This original is entirely Bomberman at its core: simply move through the block-lined grids, dropping bombs to destroy walls and enemies. Power-ups will pop up randomly after tearing down certain bricks, and these will generally help out in getting through the game. Some will increase the blasting zone of a bomb, while others will enable a user-controlled "trip" to time explosions perfectly. To advance to the next level, players will have to wipe out all enemies in the arena (not an easy task since they're all constantly on the move), and find the hidden exit. To make things more difficult, if players set off a bomb too close to the exit before the level's cleared, it'll trigger even more enemies to swarm the field. Peppered between five levels are bonus rounds for extra points.

That's pretty much all there is to it. And while the game is exactly as it was when it was released, it doesn't automatically make it a good one. It's challenging, absolutely, but the challenge slowly disappears since certain power-ups stick with you even after death. And there's just not a whole lot of variety to the design; apart from the different enemy behavior and which enemies show up in the different rounds, there's not much change from level to level.

I'll admit one thing: the long alphanumeric password of the original is no longer an issue since the cartridge save not only records the highest score achieved, but also the latest password received during the game. But, you're free to enter in any of the dozens of codes you may find for the NES version if you just want to get deeper in the game. But entering them in is such a drag since you can't even correct a mistake you may have made typing in the text.

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