Bomberman Live

Written by John Scalzo  on July 30, 2007

Review: Payback for Act Zero?

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Bomberman games go back nearly twenty years and in all that time it's safe to say the series has stayed very close to it's roots. A Bomberman starts in one corner of a grid maze that includes lots of impassable blocks. Blowing up those blocks creates an open path towards the other players (who also have bombs). Once everybody meets in the middle, the last Bomberman not blown to bits is the winner. This description could be used on the first Bomberman just as easily as it could be for the recently released Bomberman Live for the Xbox Live Arcade.

Bomberman Live takes the bombing online and doesn't add much to the core Bomberman experience. But really, what needs to be added to the experience when the core game is so perfect? Battles can now be played with eight players (one in each corner and one in each "inner corner" of a level), although this is online only. Local play is limited to four players. Although even with a game of eight, lag is not a problem. There's also a pretty extensive costume customization mode that will allow players to play as any kind of Bomberman they want (like a punk, a cowboy, a gladiator or any combination of mixing and matching body parts).

The game includes eight maps (each with their own set of gimmicks) and four different match styles to satisfy everyone's bomb cravings. Naturally, the original plain Bomberman map is included (and is far and away the most popular map on Xbox Live). Most of the gimmick maps are... well... gimmicky and several come down to "you can't move when you step on certain squares." Of course, others have teleporters and the best gimmick (Plunder Isle) is a mad race to the center of the board as it contains a treasure trove of powerups to bomb your opponents.

All of the match styles are equally fun with the original "last man standing"-style getting the most play online. Bomberman Live also includes a "Paint Bomb" mode that rewards the win to the player who "paints" the most tiles with bomb blasts. "Zombie" takes Paint Bomb one step further by adding a respawn option that brings players back to life to try to reclaim their tiles after they get bombed. Zombie can get a little frantic, but it is a truly inspired take on Bomberman.



Bomberman Live doesn't really have a single-player mode to speak of. There's no Bomberman versus the monsters story mode that most of the other titles in the series featured. Instead, the game features all of the same modes and maps of the multiplayer portion, but with bots instead of people. It's fun for a few minutes, but the appeal of Bomberman has always been the multiplayer aspects. I'm not asking for a completely original Bomberman versus the monsters scenario, but even a "best of" of some of the previous game's single-player levels would have been better than nothing. As a game, the appeal of Bomberman Live will hold out as long as it's vibrant Xbox Live community holds out.

The only reason to play the single-player mode of Bomberman Live is to unlock the costume balls needed to customize your Bomberman. There are sixty balls in all and at most, one will appear in each single-player round played. Your bot opponents are also interested in the balls and can snatch them away from you. This makes collecting all of the balls a tedious experience that has to be endured if you want all of the costumes.