Saturn Bomberman (Saturn) Playthrough
336A playthrough of Sega's 1997 action-puzzle game for the Sega Saturn, Saturn Bomberman.
This video shows all of Saturn Bomberman's game modes:
Story Mode 3:15
Master Mode 1:50:09
Battle Mode
-All battle maps shown in 8P mode 2:17:13
-10P wide mode 2:36:25
The Sega Saturn had some truly excellent games released for it over the scant few years it lived, but few managed to put the system in so positive a light as Saturn Bomberman did. The amount of content packed in, the production values, the general level of polish - all of its impressive - and yet, those things all still take a back seat to sheer fun that this one provides.
The fundamentals will of course be entirely familiar to anyone that's played a traditional Bomberman title, and that is its appeal. Explosions, strange blobby things with teeth, and a frenetic multiplayer mode - all the classic series' staples are here and accounted for.
They have seen some major improvements since the Super Bomberman series, though. It supports two multitaps and up to ten controllers (!) and the Saturn's high resolution mode for an insane party-style multiplayer experience which hasn't been matched in the twenty-five years since it was released.
Don't have anyone at home to play with? Well, if AI bots aren't your thing, it might please you to know that Saturn Bomberman was the first game in the series to support online modem play, and because it didn't rely on centralized servers, it can still be played this way today!
And if you don't like multiplayer games, worry not! The single player story and master modes will keep you busy for quite a while. The story mode is especially great - it feels like you're going through the animated pages of a story book.
The overhauled presentation is top shelf stuff. The graphics are phenomenal, especially given that they come from an era dominated by crude, early 3D graphics. I remember some reviewers complaining that the 2D sprites lacked the panache that they would've seen from a 3D version. I personally never understood that complaint - to me, this has always looked so much better than any of the 3D games that came out in the late 90s.
There is so much life packed into each environment and animation that you're not likely to ever encounter a static screen in game, and when it feels like showing off, the huge bosses dominate the screen with their cool scaling and rotation effects. The monsters have tons of little facial expressions, and Bomberman himself still makes me laugh when he fistpumps in celebration. The music is up there with the graphics, rivaling the quality of even the most classic of Bombermansoundtracks, and the voice acting and the animated FMV cutscenes round out the rest of the package nicely.
And all of this is done at 60fps without any slowdown whatsoever.
All in all, if you like Bomberman, you must play this. It might not have reinvented the wheel, but in terms of both playability and artistry, this still stands as the absolute pinnacle of 2D Bomberman games. At least, it does in my mind.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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