Together Retro Game Club: Bomberman 94′
Presented by the MegaRetroGeek
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Of any series that isn’t a franchise of one of the big console makers, Bomberman is one of the most familiar series in all of retro gaming. Â Â The pinnacle of the series, Bomberman 94′ on the PC Engine has been renowned as a must have for any collector and new comers to the series. Â Â The actual game itself, released in 1993 was the final HuCard game made for the PC Engine and it is not easy to obtain and play due to region lock out, but this has to be the finest of the series since probably Super Bomberman 3 on SFC/SNES.
The game features a unique story mode that has you traveling to six different continents to assemble the crest to restore order to the planet Bomberman has landed on, but it’s not an easy task when there are some impressive boss fights you must face. This was the first game in the series to introduce new power ups that you could ride, called Rooeys. Each Rooey provides you with various power up abilities, such as kicking bombs, jumping over blocks, and the bravest ability is taking a hit for you so that you may live. A true friend indeed if you ask me. The soundtrack is brilliant as always and I expected no less from Hudson Soft, you will be humming a tune once in a while I assure you.
Yet, the real reason you play Bomberman? The multiplayer! This PCE Bomberman 94′ featured a 5 player battle mode that still holds up to the test of time and I still strongly recommend gathering friends for it.
Bottom line, this is one PCE game that packs a punch and did everything the system had to offer, and shouldn’t be missed by a long shot.
Legacy
Bomberman ’94 was not nearly the first installment in the series, but it was also definately not the final Bomberman to show its face. Â Bomberman probably has more versions and ports than any other system — including Madden Football. Â So if you want to play a Bomberman on a platform that doesn’t have ’94 on it, you should be able to find something.
Recommended Ports
In addition to the original PC Engine version game, this incredible gem was ported to the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console for 700 Points (approx. $7 USD). If that’s not enough, there was a MegaDrive/Genesis port of it under the name of Mega Bomberman, but this port suffered from slow down issues and the multiplayer mode was brought down from five to only four players this time around. Makes me wonder what happened to all the wonderful blast processing if Factor 5 could do a great job on Mega Turrican, but mess up on Mega Bomberman? Oh well, it still rocks in my book no matter which verison you play, but PC Engine fans have the upper advantage by far.
Discussion
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I’d recommend the Sega Saturn port, hands down. 10 player Bomberman is awesome.
@Craig, I concur strongly. The Saturn Bomberman was the finest masterpiece of the series, I tried my best to exclude it since it’s a primary focus on the 16-bit era I felt for this review.
Saturn Bomberman, 10 player bomberman party is my best gaming experience, ever
If i’m not mistaken, there’s a bomberman for the wii that allows for 8 player offline multiplayer. It was quite cool too, although I could never get more than 6 people together to play.
I grew up with the MegaBomberman port crammed into my Sega Genesis. I still randomly get the tunes stuck in my head from time-to-time and really miss that good ol’ multiplayer fun. I only had a couple friends, so I didn’t miss out on the 5 – 10 player session (Although that sounds like a blast!).