Game Reviews

Bomberman

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Bomberman
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| Bomberman

Blowing things up is as typical a practice in gaming as riding on a bus or buying a pint of milk is in the real world. There are countless titles where explosive destruction is the lynchpin of the game dynamics but nobody does it better than a little demolition guru named Bomberman.

Having spent close to 25 years executing countless controlled explosions, Bomberman is gaming's grand master of detonation and even though the franchise is somewhat long in the tooth in gaming terms, the simple and addictive gameplay has yet to lose its potency. In fact, like most 25-year-olds, Bomberman is in the prime of its youth and Living Mobile's latest version feels like a coming of age.

But before we get down to the nitty gritty, a brief history lesson of what constitutes Bomberman is required. Luckily, the first half of this two-part package supplies exactly that in the form of a pixel-perfect recreation of the very first version of the franchise, dubbed Bomberman Classic.

The set-up is simple. You're in a blocked maze populated by nasty creatures that kill you if you touch them. Your job is to navigate to them by blasting through the obstructions of the maze, and subsequently attempting to trap and blow your foes up, too. You do this by laying timed bombs which you can do one at a time.

Various power-ups that affect the power and range of your bombs, amongst other things, can be collected to help you on your way. Nothing has been added or taken away from this original version, and besides rounding off the longevity of the package, Bomberman Classic's main function is to set up the main act, Bomberman Supreme.

Bomberman Supreme improves upon the previously released Bomberman Deluxe in various ways. First, the two different difficulty levels really do offer genuinely different styles of play. In Novice mode, every item you select is automatically applied, whereas in Pro you're given the opportunity to choose when to use specific items via an inventory screen. It sounds like a minor tweak but it has a dramatic effect on how bouts play out.

Then there are the visuals. The levels are peppered with incidental details, such as animations on the blocks and around the periphery, giving all of the in-game graphics a real feel of polish, which extends all the way to the game's front-end. Interestingly, the front-end plays host to some of the most comprehensive game info we have ever seen in a mobile title: there's a full-blown history of the series to read, as well as some extremely detailed help sections, helpfully organized according to category.

But the addition that really shines is the lag-free and extremely addictive Bluetooth multiplayer mode. The set-up involved in getting matches up and running (which supports up to two players) is also pretty seamless and help is on hand throughout should you encounter connection problems.

Add to that a nicely designed WAP scoreboard and a selection of upbeat tunes that are never around for long enough to outstay their welcome, and you have what amounts to pretty much the best mobile Bomberman experience yet.

The Classic half of the game may serve more as a novelty that you won't actually spend much time with than an integral aspect of the game but its inclusion is nevertheless welcome, and overall this is an impressively well-rounded package. If you haven't bought a mobile Bomberman game before, this is where you should start.

Bomberman

Bomberman's latest outing on mobile is as good as we expect it to get. Great multiplayer and some serious polish make this content-heavy package a convincing prospect for fans and newcomers alike
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