Portable 8-player Bomberman for $15. Genius.
The graphics are simple enough. You're treated to some 3D on the title screen, but the action is all 2D, in a true 16-bit era sprite style. Music is as stupidly happy as ever. Sadly, they've also thrown in some cheesy high-pitched voiceovers that announce the powerups you collect and various other things. It would have been nicer if they were slightly less grating, like maybe the Cow-and-Chicken-(the cartoon)-esque voices from Atomic Bomberman.
The game plays pretty simply. You are Bomberman, scurrying about in a field divided up into a grid. Populating this grid are two types of blocks, hard and soft. By pushing A, you deploy a bomb into the square where you are standing. After a second or two, it will explode into flames in the shape of a cross, filling the spaces in the cardinal directions around it with fire. This fire will destroy any soft blocks, enemies or you's that are touched by it. In the beginning, you will only be able to lay one such bomb at a time, and it's flame will only reach one square in each direction. As you might expect, blowing up bricks could yield powerups that increase your stock of bombs, lengthen your flame, increase your speed, and a variety of other things. Bomberman's been around a while, and it's been a while since I played one, so to me it seems there are a great many powerups in all, some I didn't immediately recognize. Most of them are pretty cool. Well... that's the entire game. No real minigames, go-kart sequences or plot. Just bombing.
There are two play modes... and yes, they are singleplayer and multiplayer.
The singleplayer game follows the formula of previous Bombermans pretty much exactly. There are a handful of areas in the game, each divided up into ten stages. A stage consists of a field with blocks and monsters in it. You start in the top corner, and must blast your way to the enemies and murder them with your bombs. It feels like murder, anyway... most of them are quite cute. O.o The last stage contains a boss monster which is quite large and takes several blasts to defeat. One unique thing about this game is that when you pick up a powerup, you don't use it right away. You instead stock it, and activate it by selecting it from the bottom menu. Most of the powerups only last a single level, so you'll want to save them for when it counts. Unfortunetly, you have to use the touch screen to select and use the powerup, which is kind of clumsy. If you're in a pinch, you can pause the game to select the proper item. Pausing to use the Heart powerup has saved my life a few times when I got too excited. ^_^ It's worth noting also that like most other Bombermans... the singleplayer mode is quite easy. Most of the enemies are slow and take only a blast or two to destroy. It becomes quite routine to bait and trap them if you're clever. An experienced Bomberman player could sit down with this game and beat the singleplayer game in a few hours. Then again, the experienced Bomberman player is probably expecting that. There really isn't that much else to the singleplayer game. It plays a lot like Super Bomberman for SNES.
Multiplayer Bomberman has always been where it's at, and that's where this package delivers. You can start up a frantic 8-player match with just a single cartridge, which is an awesome feature. There are plenty of stages and multiplayer options, and a lot of them are interesting. It's not as full-featured as, say, Atomic Bomberman for PC, but all the basic stuff is there. Thankfully, the stocking system was removed for multiplayer. This game truly shines with a handful of guys blazing around at top speed, punching and kicking bombs, setting of triggers and filling the screen with massive fire. If you are lonely, you can fill in with PCs... just be sure to turn up the difficulty a little if you want a decent challenge. There are a few features from previous Bomberman games I would have liked to see in this though... like maybe a map creator or some different rule sets, or powerup frequency controls. The multiplayer, again, plays a lot like Super Bomberman for SNES.
The Verdict:
This isn't the first Bomberman ever, even for portable systems, but it is probably the best handheld version you can get. The dual-screen can make for some pretty big maps, and the 8-player single-cart wireless just sells the package. This game is cheap too... definently pick it up if you and your buddies are looking for a decent multiplayer game. Admittedly, the complete lack of variety and singleplayer challenge might kill the deal for people who don't find the gameplay addicting. If you've already played a Bomberman game semi-recently, there's little here you haven't already seen. You probably won't end up playing this game for months on end... for someone revisiting an old classic on their DS, it simply won't hold the collective attention of you and your friends as long as it did years ago. Bomberman fans and puzzle fans shouldn't pass this one up, though! Bomberman is always good entertainment for a night or two at the very least... alone making it worth the cheap ticket price.
Pros:
+It's Bomberman in classic SNES style
+It's only $15
+8-players with just one cartridge
+Somehow rediculously intense and absorbing, as usual
Cons:
-Singleplayer is way too easy, as usual
-Multiplayer could have had a few more features
-Stocking system is slightly clumsy
-Navigating menus can be a hassle sometimes without the stylus
-If you've played a previous Bomberman, there's virtually nothing new this time around