Games Beaten 2023

[PartridgeSenpai]

Partridge Senpai's 2021 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
* indicates a repeat

1. Super Hero Operations (PS1)
2. Lil' Gator Game (PC)
3. Disco Elysium: The Final Cut (PC)
4. Dragon Quest VII (PS1)
5. Dragon Quest III (SFC)
6. Dragon Quest VIII (PS2)
7. Dragon Quest Monsters (GBC)
8. Mario Party 6 (GC)
9. Last Bible 3 (SFC)
10. Mario Party 4 (GC)
11. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)
12. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (SFC)
13. Chrono Trigger (SFC) *
14. BoxBoy + BoxGirl! (Switch)
15. The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog (PC)
16. SaGa (GB)
17. Wario Land 3 (GBC) *
18. Sutte Hakkun (SFC)
19. Kane & Lynch 2 (PC)
20. Burger Time Deluxe (GB)
21. Super Mario Advance 4: World e+ (GBA)

22. Bomberman GB 2 (GB)

Known very confusingly in English as just “Bomberman GB” (as our Bomberman GB was called Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman in NA and EU), this was part of the pile of GB games I nabbed for 100 yen a piece at Book Off around the time I picked up my Super GameBoy. I’ve been a fan of Bomberman for a long time, but I’ve never gotten around to trying out his GB games. This seemed like a good a time as any to give it a go~. At 100 yen, even if it was terrible, I’d hardly feel like I wasted my money. It took me around 3 or so hours to beat adventure mode over two sittings. I played the Japanese version on real (Super GameBoy) hardware.

The story of Bomberman GB2 is pretty darn simple, as you’d expect for a Bomberman game. Indy Bomber (who’s dressed exactly as his name suggests: coat, hat, and whip as well) is off searching for a legendary treasure called the Ring of Wishes. He’s getting closer when he suddenly falls into a chasm that opens up beneath him! He’s gotta get out of that cave and continue his search for the legendary treasure. It’s a very one-dimensional story, but that’s all it has to be. This is just Bomberman, after all. No need to reinvent the wheel for it.

The gameplay is pretty standard 2D Bomberman but with a twist here and there. In the each world (sans the last) of the adventure mode, you get to pick either an A mode or B mode upon entering, and that mode will change the objective of the 5 levels you’re about to do slightly. It’s usually just a difference between like, “kill all the enemies while dealing with this trap” vs. “kill all the enemies in a specified order”, but it’s a cool way to vary up the gameplay a bit. It’s a bit of a pain that you can’t know the details of the A or B modes while you’re picking them, but a very cool feature is that on the main screen you have a “Lesson” mode that lets you try out and practice the different modes for each of the 7 worlds before you set out on your quest. Very cool!

Each world’s five levels is followed by a boss fight, and they’re all quite well designed and pretty self explanatory. I was honestly really delighted with how this game’s level and boss design is handled. Compared to its console contemporaries of the time, GB2 has some extremely player-friendly design for when you fail. You have 3 lives, and a game over gives you a 4 digit password to start at the start of that world again, or you can just press start to continue from the level you died at, just with one less fire power and bomb power up each. It’s a system so forgiving it makes me question why even bother putting in the penalty of powering you down with each game over, but it’s a game that I found easy enough in its difficulty that I didn’t mind it at all. Even better, you always have your maximum power level in the final world, so even though the final boss is a real jerk (who took me easily dozens of tries over two sittings), you never have to worry about replaying anything to get powerups back to fight him at your full potential again. The whole thing overall has a really well done difficulty curve for a Bomberman game of the time, and it makes the whole game much more fun as a result.

The presentation is really nice as well! Given that this is 1995, devs knew how to get some pretty beefy sprites and animations out of the GameBoy by then, and they show it. Bomberman and the enemies he fights are delightfully expressive, and the big sprites they use for the cutscenes are super cute too. The color added to those big cutscene pictures via the Super GameBoy is also very cool, and so are the *several* borders that it provides for you as well (with my personal favorite being the “Bomber Theater” movie theater that it gives you for watching the intro and ending cutscenes). The music is very fun and Bomberman-y too, as you would expect for a Hudsonsoft game. They’re not exactly all-timer great songs, but they fit the action very well and they’re fun to listen to. One last note, speaking of the Super GameBoy, is that not only does this game support multiplayer via link cable on your GameBoy, it actually even supports local multiplayer with only one cart via your Super GameBoy! It can even use the big 5-player Bomberman multi-tap! The power of technology truly is staggering :O

Verdict: Highly Recommended. If you like Bomberman and want something a bit more actually completeable and player-friendly than so many of his retro console games are, then this is right up your alley. It’s honestly one of my new favorites so far as classic single-player Bomberman goes because the more forgiving difficulty just makes it so much more nice to sit down and play with. The local multiplayer feature doesn’t hurt too, of course~. This is a really great Bomberman game to sit down and enjoy, and easily one of the stronger classic experiences with him that Hudson gave us back in their glory days.

[REPO Man]

Am I crazy or am I the only one who can honestly say they're a Bomberman fan? Seems like at best everyone else can honestly say they enjoy playing it but hardly anyone seems to go to bat for it.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Am I crazy or am I the only one who can honestly say they're a Bomberman fan?

I’ve been a fan of Bomberman for a long time

Afraid to say it seems like you're crazy <w>

[marurun]

Am I crazy or am I the only one who can honestly say they're a Bomberman fan? Seems like at best everyone else can honestly say they enjoy playing it but hardly anyone seems to go to bat for it.

Really? Right after a glowing review of a Bomberman game? I will note, the only two posts you’ve made on this forum about Bomberman were after glowing reviews of Bomberman games, so I don’t know what your takeaway is.

This forum ain’t about you, bro.

[REPO Man]

I mean I know that people either do or don't like it but hardly anyone ever says they're a fan.

[marurun]

I mean I know that people either do or don't like it but hardly anyone ever says they're a fan.

This statement makes no sense. Pidge literally said they were a fan.

[REPO Man]

I said "hardly anyone", and aside from me and PartridgeSenpai I've hardly heard anyone openly call themselves a fan. It's like grape soda. Some folks love it but it's easier to find people that revile it, are neutral to it or enjoy it from time to time.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I said "hardly anyone", and aside from me and PartridgeSenpai I've hardly heard anyone openly call themselves a fan. It's like grape soda. Some folks love it but it's easier to find people that revile it, are neutral to it or enjoy it from time to time.

Am I crazy or am I the only one who can honestly say they're a Bomberman fan?

You didn't say "hardly anyone" first though. You explicitly said only yourself ^^;

[REPO Man]

Figure of speech. Like how forever doesn't necessarily mean forever.

I was pointing out what it seems like to me, a Bomberman fan who hardly hears anyone mentioning it as much as omand/or in the same way I do. It's like loving grape soda in a world of cola stans, ginger ale buffs, orange soda devotees and root beer sluts. You're not alone but more often than not it can seem like it.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Figure of speech or no, is it not very weird to wax metaphorical about how you're the only fan of something right after a glowing review I leave of a game in a series I explicitly say I'm a fan of?

Idk. Just feels like you're saying other people don't actually like Bomberman but are only pretending to, or like only your feelings on it matter.