Please Note: As of 1st December 2022 the online servers for this game have been shut down and is no longer playable.
The Bomberman video game franchise was one of the big go-to party games that you would invite your best friends to play whenever everyone was in the mood for some huge 4 Player or 5-Player bomb blasting fun. It was the game series that encouraged people to buy a Multi-tap which was what you needed to embrace the enjoyment of Bomberman's addictive Multiplayer. Whether it was any of the Super Nintendo entries, the Bomberman 64 game on the Nintendo 64 or getting four Game Boy Advances together to play Bomberman Tournament on the Game Boy Advance with each of us a Link Cable and one game cartridge I always enjoyed having fun playing Multiplayer with my friends or my nephews on Bomberman. I would sometimes even invite my friends over, also during some of my friends over, especially during Birthdays to play rounds of Bomberman on Super Nintendo and it was all around incredibly good fun.
Many of the entries on the Super Nintendo as well as the Nintendo 64, PlayStation and the Game Boy Advance consoles were great, things did take a massive downturn when Konami took Hudson Soft and their IPs alongside the Bomberman franchise. Then the Bomberman series blew itself up in the face when the infamous Bomberman Act Zero released on the Xbox 360 and became one of the big contenders for Worst Games Ever. Eventually Konami tried to resurrect the series by going back to the Super Bomberman arc with Super Bomberman R which was actually the sixth entry of the Super Bomberman series. It was a good game that was liked by both fans and critics considering that it was a simple Bomberman game that was like the old 2D games and the issues it had were resolved through updates and patches.
So, after Super Bomberman R did reasonably well especially in sales Konami & HexaDrive thought of bringing the series into the online Live Service Battle Royale arena with Super Bomberman R Online. Bomberman was a series known for the coach Multiplayer experience and popularized the Multi-tap accessory so the developers next logical step was a Free-to-Play Battle Royale game and how long did it last? Well, it started life being released on the Google Stadia which was a failure of a game console in 2020 before it finally landing on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam on PC and the Nintendo Switch a year later in 2021. It had a difficult 2-year life span before the developers decided to end support for it and shut down the online servers on 1st December 2022.
Super Bomberman R Online was a Free-to-Play Online only game which focuses on the Battle Royale, the main game is the Battle Mode 64 which is where up to 64 players are spread out across multiple screen sized arenas with the objective to be the last player standing. The gameplay is like a Bomberman game where you place down your bombs to blow up blocks to reveal power ups as well as using them to destroy your enemies just brought to a Battle Royale game. After a minute of blowing stuff up it goes into Moving Phase where one of the arenas is cut off and players have to a different arena before spikes drop on the players inside killing them instantly, then it goes to Action Phase again for another minute allowing to blow more stuff before Moving Phase comes on again forcing you to move again. It's basically this game's version of the gas, storm or danger area where after a while the map gets smaller and smaller as time progresses and the players still in the game slowly dwindling away. It all takes place in one singular map with multiple areas that mostly look the same save for one or two areas that have some different layers to it but that's about it.
There are different power ups to collect from Bombs that allow you to plant more bombs, Power that increases the radius size of the bomb explosion, Shoes increase your movement speed making you go faster. There are also power ups that allow you to pick up and throw bombs back at your enemies, kick bombs out of the way, hearts that give you an extra life but you can have up two hits before being eliminated. There are Spike Bombs that can blow up through blocks and also Jelly Bombs that can be controlled remotely which all provide other ways of creating destructive madness on your enemies. You can also find a Louie who are rideable creatures which is also grateful for giving you another life but finding one of these are rare.
The Bomberman characters in this game have different stats and some of them start with a certain power up which makes some of them more useful while other characters can pick up the special power ups while some characters can't. White Bomberman for example can pick up all of the power ups and has the all-round balance stats, Red Bomberman starts with more explosion power, Black Bomberman starts with more stats but can't use the Power Glove power up and can only use up to two Bombs, Green has the lowest stats and can't upgrade but starts with Punch, Bomb Kick and the Power Glove power ups and so on.
Konami also added a bunch of characters from their other franchises which have been taken into the Bomberman universe as Bombers such as Simon Belmont & Alucard from Castlevania, Pyramid Head Man from Slient Hill as well as Naked Snake, Old Snake & Raiden from Metal Gear alongside a couple other franchises who have been given the Bomberman treatment which some people may like them that way or not. These are characters that you had to spend actual money on to be able to play as them in the game and some of them are quite decent to play as since they do have unique abilities over the standard Bomberman Bros. They even included the Fall Guy Beanie from Fall Guys into the game which is quite funny to add since the developers of Fall Guys would add the Bomberman skins into Fall Guys as well which was cool.
Matches last about at max 5 minutes and you are given two lives before being eliminated, you may last either a couple of seconds from players being better at the game than you or you might last more than two or three minutes before you get eliminated or make it to the last round and come out in second place. After a match you are awarded with EXP based on how long you lasted as well as completing some challenges and then it is time to rejoin the game. It usually takes a couple of seconds to find a server of players but there are times the servers will take about more than two minutes or over to find a match, then it takes about a minute for you to pick a character and for the game to load the map before you jump in and start playing. It's not the worst amount of time you need to wait for a match to start just the loading times could have been faster especially when sometimes you just get yourself killed very quickly and have to wait for what time it takes to load the next match.
Super Bomberman R Online being a Free-to-Play Battle Royale game does have a lot of content on offer. On top of the Battle 64 Battle Royale Mode, it also has a Training Mode for you to get used to each Bomberman character, you can also play other modes only in Private Match which you play by inviting friends to. Private Match has the Standard Battle Mode as well as the Grand Prix Mode which players can play either 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3 and try to get the most points by getting the most eliminations than the other team but you need a Platinum Pass which costed real life money to be able to do so.
Oh yes Super Bomberman R Online had its share of microtransactions which on top of the Premium Characters that you could play as it also allowed you to set up Private Matches for your friends. Then there was the Bomber Pass which is this game's version of the Battle Pass which levelling up the Bomber Pass by completing challenges and doing well in matches allows you to get cosmetics for your characters. These included funny looking outfits, the look of your bombs, emotes, as well as text that you could use during the course of the match, just remember you weren't encouraged to spend real life money on any of the cosmetics as you can earn some good amounts of customization without spending money anyway. They don't affect your gameplay in any way but only affect the way you want to present your Bombers.
Did I enjoy Super Bomberman R Online while the online servers lasted? I will say that it was enjoyable. The simple gameplay mechanics translated really well into a Battle Royale game, the different stats and with what power ups that they can or cannot use on each of the characters helped make the game unique. Being able to use the different bombs and then being able to throw them at your enemies to get the eliminations is satisfying as well as trying to cause collateral damage by planting bombs in between everyone else's in hope to cause enough explosions to hit the other players and clear the area off. If you clear the area of the other players and you are the only one standing you get a massive pile of items all spread across the area to ready you for the next area of the current match, you're on. I even like that during the last phase of the match it goes into Sudden Death where the blocks drop down and cover the whole area cutting down the players chances of evading and inevitably crush one of two players to finally end the match off in the most satisfying matter.
As far as functionality goes Super Bomberman R Online plays pretty well, it runs smoothly and I experienced no performance problems or game crashes with no server lag, no disconnections from matches and everything ran perfectly. It even looks great and it has an incredible soundtrack.
So, what happened with this game and why did Konami decide to shut this game down? Well, the reason that Konami shut the game down was because the game first launched on a terrible console like the Google Stadia which not only caused the game to have a low player base at launch before finally releasing the game on other platforms a year after in hopes of getting a better player base. While it did have a better player base after and there was over 7 million downloads Konami just pulled the plug on it when there wasn't enough support for it for the developers to keep it going. Super Bomberman R Online still lives on however as the Battle 64 Battle Royale game mode as well as some other features would make into Super Bomberman R2 which is the sequel and a pretty decent sequel worth checking out especially if you enjoyed Super Bomberman R Online to begin with.
It was just a shame that Konami's poor decision making when it came to supporting the game and launching the game on the wrong game console single handily killed the game but at least it lasted two years which is better than lasting about a year but that is not saying much. So, what were your memories playing Super Bomberman R Online and did you enjoy it while it lasted?
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Game Score: 7.0/10
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Game Title: Super Bomberman R Online
Platform: PlayStation 4
Developer: Konami, HexaDrive
Genre: Action, Maze
Age Rating: PEGI: 7+
Release Date: 27th May 2021
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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