Clad with a helmet on his head and a bomb in his hand, the iconic Bomberman series makes its debut on the Nintendo 64 with a title wildly different from any previous iteration. Bomberman was once a multiplayer legend with a simple premise: Drop players in a maze and wait for them to lay down bombs to blow each other away. Competitive gameplay was the focus while the single-player mode seemd a sideshow act. Bomberman 64 fights against the tide to modernize its formula with new mechanics, an adventure-driven single-player mode, and spherical explosions that break free of rigid lines. Levels are viewed from an overhead perspective with clumsy manual camera controls out-of-place post-Mario 64. Still, Hudson deserves credit for centering the experience around bombs. You can kick or throw them, bounce on them to gain height, or inflate them to demolish structures.

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Though Bomberman 64's greatest strength is its creative use of the bombing mechanic, these flashes of creativity are undercut by repetitious gameplay and linear level designs. Enemies rarely pose a serious threat and can be easily dodged, and bosses are sporadic highlights rather than consistent challenges. Tiny incentives like collectibles and time challenges do pull their weight in convincing us to return to old locales, but revisiting an area often means dealing with respawning foes. Its gravest sin is a depressingly weak multi-player mode. Four players can face off in one of six non-scrolling, zoomed-out, shallow arenas with hardly any cover to hide from bombs or any fun, gimmicky tricks to add flavor to the show. The frantic, skill-based chaos of yore has been lost with this translation to full 3-D. Is it all worth it to feel the shake of a Rumble Pak during explosions? No, no it is not.

Printed in Issue #44, January-February 1998