Relaxing Explosions: Bomberman

In summer/fall 1998. My mom bought me the my first Famiclone, and as far I as I remember I played my first ever video game there: Bomberman. I probably played it for thousands of hours, sometimes with my mom. The green background is still in my mind, dying to my bombs thousands of times, writing down overly long passwords to save my progress, setting up maybe millions of bombs for at least good 5-6 years.  So when I was gonna review it, I suspected a massive nostalgia bias. Thankfully, when I played it once again, it was still pretty great, perhaps I like it more than I did in the past in certain ways.

(Note that the American release has a different looking title)

Yes folks, this is one of those simple games I like. You walk around, set up bombs, kill the monsters and destroy the bombs. You need to destroy all the monsters and find the door before your time runs out, while touching monsters or getting caught up in your bombs fire will make you literally disintegrate. So, what's really great about this game?

(War, war never changes...)

1. Graphics

Despite the plain green background, the game looks pretty cute, mostly by great monster design. Especially for a 1985 title, monster design is very lively and full of personality, it's amazing how even turning eye balls around makes a whole difference. Embracing a cutesy design made it also timeless, 33 years later and the game looks still good as ever. Although I must say it makes me somewhat bad about killing them. I truly feel like the bad guy there, invading the world of cute monsters and make them literally explode, so what if you disintegrate if they run over you, it's not even clear they do it intentionally. Also I love them protagonist killing featureless enemies got accidentally swapped here, you are just a masked emotionless husk killing adorable monsters.

(Clearly I am the true monster here, just busting a party like that)

2. Bombs

Making things explode is always fun. But this game doesn't want you to just cause unrestrained mayhem. Quite the opposite, you need to set your bombs so that both monsters will explode and you will not caught up in the bomb's fire, of course you need to be also away from where monsters running around. Sometimes walls tactically benefit you, sometimes it will benefit monsters. You don't also want to accidentally bomb your power-up and doors, it will make i spawn enemy monsters, expect when deliberately calling them to kill some more monsters! You need to also be mindful of time too. I don't normally like time as a challenge feature, but here it mostly works well, forces you to just quick enough to not turning the game into a Sunday walk, but still not breaking the carefree, chill atmosphere of the game.

(Fire is always so pretty...And I am a well-adjusted person)

3. Progression

This is one of the game where early game is more difficult and also where the luck matters the most. Because levels are randomly generated when loaded each, it might take a lot of time to find the door, the power up and killing all enemies --as it takes quite a bit time to just do it with a single 1-tile range bomb -- and you are somewhat left to the game's mercy. But as you get more bombs, make your bombs stronger, get the ability of controlling bombs, passing walls and bombs, moving faster the game quickly picks up and gets into the real fun, in just couple of the game. The game is very forgiving with lives too, you get additional one at the end of the each level. But the risks are increasing too, it shouldn't be too surprising that it's rather easy to blow yourself up with having lots of bombs with long-range at your disposal. The game has quite a bit of levels, in fact maybe a bit too much, with levels get randomized it can get a little stale, however the levels can be short when you are strong enough and the game gives you a break every 5 levels with a bonus stage.

(Suprise your audience with your flashing performance)

4. Music

I think what truly makes this game is its soundtrack, which I mean it's 4 tunes. I really love the main background music, it's low-key, it adds to the cute and chill atmosphere a lot, it's a simple but memorable tune. I love how music changes when you get a power up too, it just gets faster and spice up just enough to feel merrier but still overall very chill, adorable and memorable. Listen until 3:29, then listen until level ends, the tone just changes a lot yet stays so similar too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ9Pu9Usk5o

(Also shout to the player who fights against the purple coins just with a single bomb, what a champ)

5. Try out these cool bombs

Overall, Bomberman is a very solid recommendation. An excellent game to just pick it up and relax when you are tired. Sit back and enjoy the simplicity!