When Super Bomberman Collection was unveiled during this month’s Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, I got wide-eyed. Ever since I got my hands on Mega Bomberman on the Sega Genesis during the unfortunate but memorable days of the Sega Channel (yeah, I’m that old), I’ve been a big Bomberman fan. Little did I know that game would end up being the high point of the series for me until now, more than three decades after I was introduced to it.
Even picking a game from the menu is the bomb.
Super Bomberman Collection is exactly what the title says. It’s a collection of every Super Bomberman game, from the first Super Bomberman all the way to Super Bomberman 5. Making the package more enticing, aside from all the extra contents like art and sound galleries, is the fact that it includes Super Bomberman 3-5–none of them came to the west. The best part is not only were they solid games, but they came fully localized as well. To round the compilation out, the collection also includes the original two Bomberman games from the NES. To put it simply, at $20 ($25 on the Switch 2), it’s a fantastic value for fans new and old, so if you want to stop reading here, by all means.
If you’ve never gotten your hands on a Bomberman game, this is an amazing place to start. In each game, you play as the “white bomber” who is normally trapped on a top-down map, and you have to bomb yourself out of the predicament and clear each level by ridding the map of its enemies and finding its hidden exit. Each world in the game has around eight to 10 levels to beat, with the last one being that world’s boss, which mostly relies on your ability to stay away from it while laying out as many explosives as you can on their paths to you.
Simple, yet challenging–the bosses in Super Bomberman felt like puzzles on their own.
Every entry in the game features some sort of gameplay wrinkle to distinguish itself from the rest of the series, so for newcomers, ignoring the first two NES games, I’d definitely recommend playing them all in sequential order to better appreciate the franchise’s evolution over time. Super Bomberman 2 had a Story Mode centered around the Five Dastardly Bombers, Super Bomberman 3 brought back the Five Dastardly Bombers while introducing Louie (pretty much Yoshi, giving Bomberman another lifeline on top of other abilities depending on the Louie’s color), Super Bomberman 4 introduced new creatures to mount while its Story Mode transported your bombers to different time periods, and Super Bomberman 5 featured two endings while giving the story a non-linear path. Of course, each Super Bomberman game had its own multiplayer mode with varying rules and maps, which are each enjoyable in their own yet common ways.
Each of the seven games included in this compilation can be beaten in less than two hours, though I wouldn’t recommend marathoning any of them because the gameplay as a whole is tedious. In the original Super Bomberman, for example, as soon as you find the remote bomb power-up, things get incredibly easy since all you have to do is lay bombs out and trigger their explosions when enemies get in range. It wasn’t until I got to the last world where one of the levels forced you to get rid of enemies quickly before others respawned, and it actually resulted in deaths due to running out time, which is something you can’t solve with a rewind. Anyway, part of the reason why this review took as long as it did was I only played two worlds at most a day with whatever game I was playing.
That aside, ignoring the original NES games, I absolutely enjoyed my time playing through every game in the series especially considering the fact that I never played any of them before because I never owned an SNES during my childhood. The ability to rewind the ROM was also quite useful in times where I wanted to get more done, except for the scenario I mentioned earlier, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re going for the true Bomberman experience.
It wouldn’t be a good collection without compiling all the cool concept art.
As a fan of the series, I really appreciate the effort put into this compilation. The UI featured in the game selection screen is as colorful as you’d expect, and as you scroll through every entry, it’s nice seeing the short descriptions of what made them different. It’s also fun seeing the different packaging for each version of each game, digitally opening them to see the different cartridges and even their instruction manuals page by page. You can tell the developers at Red Art Games put some love into this one.
I don’t think it’s a controversial take to believe that Bomberman is one of the most underrated and under-appreciated mascots and characters in all of gaming. You rarely hear about him when people talk about the best franchises in the medium, even when talking about the classics, but Super Bomberman Collection really puts some respect on the franchise’s name. This is a series that’s been around for 37 years in the United States, and who knows if we’ll get another one? Grabbing this should help make that a reality and given that most of the best games in the series are in this seven-game package for the low price of $19.99 ($24.99 on Switch 2)? I’d highly encourage it.
Looking to get the game physically? In addition to the standard games, including a Standard Game Card on Switch 2, the devs at Red Art Games have an exclusive Collector’s Edition you can pre-order now.
When Super Bomberman Collection was unveiled during this month’s Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, I got wide-eyed. Ever since I got my hands on Mega Bomberman on the Sega Genesis during the unfortunate but memorable days of the Sega Channel (yeah, I’m that old), I’ve been a big Bomberman fan. Little did I know that game would end up being the high point of the series for me until now, more than three decades after I was introduced to it.
When Super Bomberman Collection was unveiled during this month’s Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, I got wide-eyed. Ever since I got my hands on Mega Bomberman on the Sega Genesis during the unfortunate but memorable days of the Sega Channel (yeah, I’m that old), I’ve been a big Bomberman fan. Little did I know that game would end up being the high point of the series for me until now, more than three decades after I was introduced to it.
Even picking a game from the menu is the bomb.
Super Bomberman Collection is exactly what the title says. It’s a collection of every Super Bomberman game, from the first Super Bomberman all the way to Super Bomberman 5. Making the package more enticing, aside from all the extra contents like art and sound galleries, is the fact that it includes Super Bomberman 3-5–none of them came to the west. The best part is not only were they solid games, but they came fully localized as well. To round the compilation out, the collection also includes the original two Bomberman games from the NES. To put it simply, at $20 ($25 on the Switch 2), it’s a fantastic value for fans new and old, so if you want to stop reading here, by all means.
If you’ve never gotten your hands on a Bomberman game, this is an amazing place to start. In each game, you play as the “white bomber” who is normally trapped on a top-down map, and you have to bomb yourself out of the predicament and clear each level by ridding the map of its enemies and finding its hidden exit. Each world in the game has around eight to 10 levels to beat, with the last one being that world’s boss, which mostly relies on your ability to stay away from it while laying out as many explosives as you can on their paths to you.
Simple, yet challenging–the bosses in Super Bomberman felt like puzzles on their own.
Every entry in the game features some sort of gameplay wrinkle to distinguish itself from the rest of the series, so for newcomers, ignoring the first two NES games, I’d definitely recommend playing them all in sequential order to better appreciate the franchise’s evolution over time. Super Bomberman 2 had a Story Mode centered around the Five Dastardly Bombers, Super Bomberman 3 brought back the Five Dastardly Bombers while introducing Louie (pretty much Yoshi, giving Bomberman another lifeline on top of other abilities depending on the Louie’s color), Super Bomberman 4 introduced new creatures to mount while its Story Mode transported your bombers to different time periods, and Super Bomberman 5 featured two endings while giving the story a non-linear path. Of course, each Super Bomberman game had its own multiplayer mode with varying rules and maps, which are each enjoyable in their own yet common ways.
Each of the seven games included in this compilation can be beaten in less than two hours, though I wouldn’t recommend marathoning any of them because the gameplay as a whole is tedious. In the original Super Bomberman, for example, as soon as you find the remote bomb power-up, things get incredibly easy since all you have to do is lay bombs out and trigger their explosions when enemies get in range. It wasn’t until I got to the last world where one of the levels forced you to get rid of enemies quickly before others respawned, and it actually resulted in deaths due to running out time, which is something you can’t solve with a rewind. Anyway, part of the reason why this review took as long as it did was I only played two worlds at most a day with whatever game I was playing.
That aside, ignoring the original NES games, I absolutely enjoyed my time playing through every game in the series especially considering the fact that I never played any of them before because I never owned an SNES during my childhood. The ability to rewind the ROM was also quite useful in times where I wanted to get more done, except for the scenario I mentioned earlier, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re going for the true Bomberman experience.
It wouldn’t be a good collection without compiling all the cool concept art.
As a fan of the series, I really appreciate the effort put into this compilation. The UI featured in the game selection screen is as colorful as you’d expect, and as you scroll through every entry, it’s nice seeing the short descriptions of what made them different. It’s also fun seeing the different packaging for each version of each game, digitally opening them to see the different cartridges and even their instruction manuals page by page. You can tell the developers at Red Art Games put some love into this one.
I don’t think it’s a controversial take to believe that Bomberman is one of the most underrated and under-appreciated mascots and characters in all of gaming. You rarely hear about him when people talk about the best franchises in the medium, even when talking about the classics, but Super Bomberman Collection really puts some respect on the franchise’s name. This is a series that’s been around for 37 years in the United States, and who knows if we’ll get another one? Grabbing this should help make that a reality and given that most of the best games in the series are in this seven-game package for the low price of $19.99 ($24.99 on Switch 2)? I’d highly encourage it.
Looking to get the game physically? In addition to the standard games, including a Standard Game Card on Switch 2, the devs at Red Art Games have an exclusive Collector’s Edition you can pre-order now.
by Danreb Victorio
