There are some games with concepts and game play so unique yet simplistic that you don’t think there’s any way they can keep things fresh without alienating the original fans. One that comes to mind is Pac-man; I haven’t played any of the new games that aren’t just remakes of the original, but the idea of adding power ups and missions into it seems odd. Another game I thought would have also fallen into this category would be the original Bomberman; simple enough to start and it seems the only way you could improve on it would make things too needlessly complicated. Surprisingly though, this series continued and did change things, with games like Bomberman Tournament, Bomberman Hero and Bomberman 64. And though I plan to get to those eventually, today I’m going to take a look at how well Bomberman crosses over with Wario in the game Wario Blast featuring Bomberman for the Game Boy.
This game starts off using the original Bomberman game play; you place bombs to blow a path through destructible blocks to destroy all enemies. However not all blocks are destructible, enemies kill you with one touch and you’re bombs blow up in a cross pattern meaning you can kill yourself. You can also get upgrades to place more bombs on the field or get a larger range. Now, taking this basic concept, Wario Blast makes it slightly more difficult by giving your enemy (either Wario or Bomberman, depending on who you choose to play as) the same abilities as you, and made them much more intelligent (instead of just going back and forth). This is evened out by the fact that there a max of three enemies on a level.
Another thing that makes this different are the boss fights at the end of every section. Not too much to say about these, typical platforming boss stuff; figure out how to hurt it, and keep doing it. What really mix this game up though are the permanent upgrades. I’m not talking about the ability to place more bombs or the stronger blasts, those are temporary. No, these are things like the ability to kick a bomb as far as it can slide or ram your opponent so they are temporarily unable to move. This may sound like you get a major advantage, but remember, the enemies also get these abilities and WILL use them, so you’ll need to get skilled with them just to keep up. I like that they make this essential to learn and not just optional, so you get the full game out of it. It keeps things… interesting to say the least.
The plot is nothing special. Basically, Wario inexplicably find his way in Bomberman’s world and decides that he’s going to get rich (somehow). However, this has no impact on the game what-so-ever (there’s not even an opening scene, I had to look this up on wikipedia) and it actually raises more questions: why is Wario fighting Bomberman to get rich? How did he get in Bomberman World to begin with? Why are there several copies of both Bomberman and Wario? Though these things are never explained, I might have an explanation. Turns out, this game was originally called Bomberman GB, and didn’t feature Wario. But when it was ported to North American, they added him in for some reason (I figure they thought it would sell better). Later on, North American citizens did get a Bomberman GB, but this was actually the Japanese Bomberman GB 2. Just a little something to add to that growing list of why you’re chronologically confused by video game sequel titles.
Wario Blast is not the best expansion on the Bomberman series, but it is decent enough game. The game play is changed up quite a bit in interesting ways that still work; you’re eased into things and the bosses, though very different, are well done for this type of game. But as I’ve said at the start, Bomberman succeeds mostly due to the simplicity of it, and this is one of those games where the formula was either changed too much or not enough (I’ll explain in later reviews how this works). The concept of having fewer, more intelligent enemies was inspired, but can only take you so far if you remove the old type of levels. Plus with this style of gameplay, it’s disappointing that there’s no 2 player option. But still, it’s good to pick up and play the first few levels every once in a while, and if you want to continue, the passwords are only 4 numbers long. Also, the simplicity will probably make you forget Wario contributes nothing to this game, so it kind of works out. It’s an altogether good experience; just nothing ground breaking or omg amazing. I give Wario Blast featuring Bomberman for the Game Boy 7 levels out of 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment