Bomberman 64 (N64) Retro Review

This weekend sort of has a theme of reviews on SuperPhillip Central. Two games to be reviewed today (Saturday) and tomorrow for Easter, and one is retro and one is modern. Well, there goes one theory of how they're related out the proverbial window! Stick around for tomorrow to find and figure out the theme!

In the meantime, let's turn our attention to a Nintendo 64 classic: Bomberman 64. I absolutely enjoyed this game back as a younger superhero, and nowadays I can actually beat the game without the need of a Game Genie! Progress! Huzzah! Here's SPC's retro review of Bomberman's first N64 outing. 

Does whatever a Bomberman can (traditional jumping not included)

 
One of my first forays into the Bomberman franchise was Bomberman 64. I'm sure like many, a lot of us have approached and been introduced to a long-running series like Bomberman via different games and eras. That could be the original classic Bomberman games, the modern Super Bomberman R games, and yes, the era that one could argue debuted with Bomberman 64 and concluded around Bomberman Jetters. 

At any rate, Bomberman 64 starts with a devious villain named Altair who uses an all-powerful device called the Omni Cube to cause destruction in its wake. Countless planets have fallen victim to Altair's forces and the Omni Cube, and now poor Planet Bomber is under attack next. Unfortunately for Altair, the previous planets didn't have the White Bomber aka Bomberman to save the day! 

Upon seeing his home planet being bombarded and assaulted by this new threat, Bomberman is introduced to Sirius. This potential ally informs Bomberman that in order to reach Altair's base, he'll have to destroy the anchors in four different worlds to lower the force field surrounding the base. Thus, Bomberman and we, the player, have our goal and are ready to bomb and blast away.  

You can pull the camera in and out, circle it around completely, but cheap deaths can and still do happen.

Bomberman 64 was quite different to pretty much every past and previous Bomberman game at the time. Instead of battling in what were essentially arenas, destroying blocks, and all enemies in order to reach a goal, the objective in Bomberman 64 was to explore fully 3D areas, blasting away at baddies, yes, but most of the time Bomberman needed to solve some sort of environmental puzzle to open up the way to the exit of the stage.

Taking the very first level of Green Garden, the recommended world for first time players, it's here where the objective is to step on four green switches, some hidden away better than others. These unlock a force field around a large red crystal, which when removed, opens up the level exit. Now, sure, one can simply make like a speed runner and rush to clear the objective, but first-time players will most likely wish to explore the rather sizable level. 

After the four green button switches are pressed, your prize awaits.

It's here where Sirius serves as your tutorial's teacher of sorts, giving you advice and information on the controls and abilities Bomberman possesses. Pretty much everything that Bomberman needs to beat each level he already has at its beginning. Save for remote bombs that detonate manually as opposed to an automatic, timed explosion, but these are earned via temporary power-up. 

Pump up the jam and pump up the bombs to blow certain, otherwise invulnerable enemies away.

Regardless, Bomberman has all sorts of tricks to his trade. He can drop bombs, of course, but he can also kick them, pick them up, and with the latter, he can even pump them up to large size, letting loose a powerful explosion in its erupting wake. Obviously in true Bomberman series fashion, poor Bomberman--despite years previously of repeatedly doing so--he never became immune to blowing himself up, so both carefulness and caution are required when planting bombs all about.

Bomberman 64 also introduces a new mechanic that is touched on briefly around the beginning of the game, but it's not exactly mandatory to use until much later in the game--for instance, going for 100% completion. This is the bomb jump. Like the '90s movie said, "White Bombers Can't Jump." Or maybe I'm mixing that up with something else. EITHER WAY, Bomberman does not have the ability to jump in this iteration of the series, unlike his Bomberman Hero self. Therefore, to mind gaps and "leap" over them when it's necessary, Bomberman must drop bombs in the gap to bounce over. Needless to say, one should consider utilizing remote bombs here, but also that this takes some getting used to, as well. 

Feeling hot under the collar, Bomberman? ...Wait, do you even have a collar to feel hot under?!

Even in the first level there are warp pads that are totally inaccessible without clever use of bomb jumping. Usually it amounts to placing small and big bombs in various patterns to make a "staircase" (for lack of a better term) of bombs to bounce up or across to reach new areas. That said, even mistakenly placing or kicking a bomb just a smidge too far or too short can cause your entire bomb jump attempt to be a dud. Seeing Bomberman get smacked in the face or head with a bomb and become dazed, helplessly bouncing up and down, is just a demoralizing thing at best and the absolute worst at, well, worst.

While the first and third stages of each world are exploration and puzzle-based, the second and forth stages involve some form of boss battle. The first four worlds pit you against either Sirius or one of Altair's right-hand henchmen or hench-woman, as it were for one of the trio, for the second stage, and a big, bad boss to battle in the fourth and final stage. The former encounters are the pure Bomberman boss battle formula in essence. You bomb them and beat them before they can beat you, as you smartly drop, kick, or throw bombs to blow them up three times. With the latter battles, these require dodging attacks while waiting for an opening to blast the large boss, whether that be a blue dragon in Green Garden or a massive death robot in Red Mountain's finale.

Send Hades' (the henchman) mech back to Hades (the place) where it belongs!

After the initial four worlds have been completed with bosses battled and beaten, the fifth world opens up: Black City, featuring four more stages. Once the final level is reached and Altair is defeated, then the day is saved... right? 

Well, not so much. Taking a page out of the same rulebook that so many games of the era used, in order to get the true ending of Bomberman 64, you must do much more than the basics. What that amounts to is getting all 100 Gold Cards, five in each previous stage, before being graced with the opportunity to visit the final, true world of the game where Bomberman 64's real villain awaits.  

And THIS is where all that bomb jumping will come in. While a lot of the levels and stages don't require bomb jumping to acquire most of the Gold Cards that are scattered about, hidden in different locations, some are indeed placed in locales that DO require bomb jumping to reach. Hopefully you're not like me back in the day and either failed to learn how to properly bomb jump or the concept just alludes you completely. Otherwise, you might drop the game like middle school Phil did way back when. Honestly, it wasn't until a friend brought over his Game Genie that I finally was able to play the last levels! Fortunately, this time around, I, at long last, managed to get all 100 Gold Cards on my own--cheat devices be damned!

In the exploration-oriented stages, three Gold Cards are hidden in blocks located in out of the way places or secret spaces that are off the beaten path. A fourth Gold Card is always earned by defeating your 30th enemy, while the fifth and final Gold Card in each stage is acquired by beating the stage's target time. Trying to get all five Gold Cards in one run in one of these stages is next to impossible, but I'm sure speed runners are--and have been--more than up to the challenge! 

In the boss-based stages, four Gold Cards are attained from damaging or hitting the boss in a certain way. This can be bouncing a bomb off its head, exposing a secret weak point, damaging an appendage enough to make it completely worthless in battle, etc. The fifth Gold Card in these boss battles are also target time-related, and unlike the exploration stages, you need to earn all five Gold Cards at once in boss battles. Otherwise, only your best Gold Card score is saved.

Discovering the way to defeat bosses to earn Gold Cards is a bit of a puzzle unto itself!

Bomberman 64 is definitely a difficult game due to the bomb jumping aspect. The final world basically has you doing bomb jumps with essentially no safety net, so a mistaken jump will lead poor Bomberman to fall to his doom, death, demise, whatever horror you can think of! For a playthrough without necessarily rushing, but also having some prior experience and playthroughs under my proverbial belt, my run took about 8 hours to fully beat the game with all 120 Gold Cards. (Counting the 20 Gold Cards that are in the true final world of the game.) However, there's also goodies to unlock from beating the game in less than three hours with 100% completion, but suffice to say, your superhero pal was not up to that particular challenge in the slightest. Nor was the Hard Mode that appealing after all struggling I encountered, as well!

Bomberman will slip and slide away on this icy floor, so mind your footing!

Apart from Gold Cards, there are also hidden custom parts to discover in stages, and these are placed in even more fiendish locations than the Gold Cards. Thankfully, these are entirely optional, but they do unlock cool costume pieces to equip your Bomber with in the multiplayer portion of the game.

Yes, it wouldn't be a proper Bomberman game without a multiplayer aspect! (Yes, I know Bomberman Hero fans have a bone to pick with me right now, but I said what I said!) This mode forgoes the grid-like movement of traditional Bomberman games and instead uses full 3D movement, just like in the single player adventure component. Further going just like in the single player adventure component, bombs don't blow up in cross-like patterns like typical Bomberman games, and instead they explode in spheres. The game's multiple 3D arenas--all set to fit on a single screen with little to no camera movement--are rather fun, and it's really novel to play Bomberman multiplayer like this! Throw in the custom rules and custom parts you can outfit your Bomber with (the latter from the single player campaign), and you have a game that was a figurative and literal blast for party nights at the SuperPhillip household!

I lament that this era of Bomberman is over. I don't particularly mind the modern era that is a throwback to the classic era of Bomberman, but there was something to this adventure era that was so fun in its novelty, so cool, and so... explosive. While I certainly don't lament Bomberman 64's requirement for mastering bomb jumping or otherwise having a frost bomb's chance in Hell at succeeding at completing the Adventure mode, I do love this game to this day. It gets frustrating, it gets difficult, and it gets annoying at times, but with enough practice, enough patience, and enough perseverance, players will blast on through without hopefully blowing themselves up too much in the process. For these reasons and the absolutely novel multiplayer, I truly hope Bomberman 64 arrives on the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service sooner rather than later.

[SPC Says: B-]