Gaming Target - GameCube: Bomberman Generation

Written by Tim McGrew on October 28, 2002

Full Review: It's better than blowing up your blow-up doll.

To start off, I'd like to say that Bomberman is at its best with three other friends and three other controllers. It's true that the game itself is fun and addicting for reasons I will explain further, but the meat of the game is in its multiplayer. If you're looking for a multiplayer game that is a total blast, no pun intended, then Bomberman is it and there is no reason for you to read further. Otherwise, keep reading and see if there's anything here that may interest you.

Bomberman starts off with a rather amusing cinema about a few powerful gems that are scattered all over the face of a single planet. As one would expect, it's Bomberman's goal to recover the gems and defeat the evil foes who try to foil him in his attempt. With the game's graphics entirely cel-shaded, Bomberman has a rather cartoon-like quality to it that is definitely appealing and fitting to our hero, but the game lacks the same voice talent that makes cartons perfect, but that is just a tiny fraction of the overall experience.

What Bomberman does do right with the single player experience dwarfs the rather mediocre presentation of the sound and story in the opening sequence. First of all, the main object of the game is to basically run through each level, constructed in a primary level with sub stages in the main level, and blast your way to the exit collecting all of the power ups and defeating plenty of enemies along the way. Although it does seem like the game is imbedded in action, there's actually a great deal of puzzle elements as well, making the final product that much more challenging.

As the game starts, Bomberman has a few limited abilities that can be increased and expanded on as you play. One example of this are the different types of bombs that you collect in the game. They vary between different elemental bombs that allow you to complete different tasks. A water bomb can extinguish fires when it explodes and an ice bomb can freeze water. These bombs make the game much more challenging as levels are geared towards specific bomb types that you collect through the game in hidden power ups. However, if you miss the power ups early on, then you'll have to back track to find it. A more Mega Man like system would have been preferred to this, in which Bomberman automatically acquires the power up and combines them after each level rather than have to go through each level searching carefully for a bomb merging station and spending far too much time exploring rather than advancing the game.

Although that does sound like a huge gripe, in practice, the whole single player experience is actually quite good with a number of different puzzles that remain challenging and fun even on the later levels of the game. It remains addictive from the beginning to end with its puzzles and unique boss fights. Each boss has its own special ability, but they are also crafted quite well and look very original. A six legged elephant is but one example of the game's artistic originality and each boss is particularly difficult, but they're more so in your way to provide a challenge rather than propose some type of deep character driven plot device.

A new addition to the Bomberman series is the all new Charabombs, which are basically an entire mini game in itself that takes place during the actual game. They serve as a break in the action when you find the game portal in the level. What's fun about the Charabombs is that they increase Bomberman's abilities as you upgrade them by feeding them a certain plant that can be found all over the levels. As the Charabombs grow in strength, so do Bomberman's abilities. he uniqueness of the mini game, and why they are likened to Pokemon in the first place, is because when the Charabomb portals are found, your Charabomb characters will have to do battle with another new Charabomb with varied attributes. Defeat them and they become a part of your arsenal that can be used against other Charabombs and also for increasing Bomberman's list of abilities. The mini game manages to be a great distraction from the overall game because it's so incredibly different from the base single player experience, but is greatly helpful in the scheme of things as the player progresses through the levels. Plus, players can create new Charabombs as well by mating two of them together creating yet another attribute to increase Bomberman's potential.

With mini games and boss battles galore, Bomberman Generations is actually a quite fun single player experience, but those of you interested who buy this game solely for that will be missing out on the much larger multiplayer scale that has been the game's apex since it was first created over a decade ago. As stated in the beginning, the multiplayer is THE reason to own Bomberman Generations for the Cube and I guarantee no one will be disappointed in it.

There are five different modes selectable at the game's outset called Revenge Battle, Standard Battle, Coin Battle, Reversi Battle, and Dodge Battle respectively. Each of these game types comes with their own options to better tweak the full experience. For starters, players can tweak time, teams, and number of rounds to team up beginners with experienced players and even the playing field rather than throw them to the hungry, skilled players. Although that's quite a bit to wade through, the best part is when you're actually on the board trying to blow your opponents right off of it with a few well placed explosives.

Not all of the multiplayer modes are just blast fests and actually offer quite a bit of variety in the multiplayer areans. For example, Reversi is a race to capture the most of the game board by detonating your specific colored bombs on the playing field and covering the most area as possible with your color and the one with the most area colored, wins. Although Reversi and Standard battle stick out far more than Coin or Dodge Battle, that doesn't mean they aren't fun in their own right.

As said before, the cut scenes in Bomberman Generations are all done in real time, but the graphics themselves aren't very impressive with its cel-shading technique. The graphics do fit the game well, but it's definitely not a show piece of the Gamecube's graphical prowess. Still, the final game has a consistent frame rate and manages to keep it in the exciting and hectic multiplayer areas. It's decent for what it is, but nothing spectacular when you get down to basics.

The sound is probably the most disappointing factor in the entire game. The voice acting is terrible with a flaky translation adding further to its laughable sound features. The music is also repetitive and boring with little to no charm whatsoever. Plus, the game lacks a surround sound component such as Dolby support which makes it that much more horrible. Still, players can always mute the volume and turn up some music on their CD players or stereos to drown out the noise.