Game:

Super Bomberman R (2017)

Category:

Review

Duration: 3:41

134 views

4

It’s easy to want to give Super Bomberman R the benefit of the doubt; with its vibrant colors, quirky animations, and wacky sounds, the game has a prominent sense of style. However, even with those aforementioned qualities, the shallow single player story mode and limited game modes make this game hard to root for, especially with its launch price of $50 (It can be found for less expensive now).

The game does a good job of making the player smile, especially with the opening cut-scene, making the events of the story seem way more serious than they actually are. The story mode consists of 6 worlds with various levels for each. The levels all have different objectives, such as eliminating all enemies, finding all keys, surviving the time limit, or escorting civilians. Having these different objectives, as well as minor puzzle elements help break up the monotony of merely exploding blocks. And in typical Bomberman fashion, the player will be doing a lot of that. Amidst the blocks are many different powerups that assist the player. They range from giving the player extra bombs, speed upgrades, and even damage boosts. This feature gives the player incentive to explore the levels and collect all of the powerups that last the entirety of the world. Once the boss is reached, it’s entirely possible to be almost overpowered with all of the powerups collected.

And speaking of boss battles, that is where the game truly shines. Tackling giant alien robots is something that never gets old, even after three playthroughs. It’s more fun with a friend, but even solo, I would always look forward to the bosses. Contrast to the regular levels where blocks are destroyed, the bosses require the player to damage weak spots and take advantage of the movement patterns, while strategically (Or not, depending on your skill level) placing bombs.

The only problem with the bosses are the pre-boss mini games. These short levels require the player to catch the boss while he or she (Or it?) is moving quickly throughout the level. These parts are frustratingly difficult, and I often found success in just throwing myself at the boss and spamming bombs. Having the levels designed like this make for a more luck based experience, which is just not as enjoyable. Even still, I at least had the exciting boss fight to look forward to.

At the end of the world, the player is awarded a score and credits based on performance. These credits are used as currency to buy stages, costumes, and the ability to have more continues; And thankfully so, because my skill level is nowhere near experienced, so dying a lot was a regular occurrence.

In terms of the multiplayer, it’s a lot of fun. The Switch is the perfect platform for a game like this, especially with having two controllers right out of the box. Both the local co-op mode (The best way to play) and online competitive mode are a blast and as long as the player connection is decent, the experience should be enjoyable. Unfortunately, the online connection was usually okay at best, so playing online was much more disappointing than I had hoped. Sticking with local multiplayer is definitely the way to go.

Super Bomberman R is a quirky game, with a major sense of style. Unfortunately, the game fails to provide the depth in a single player that warrants a typical retail game, especially for the price. It’s probably not an awful thing that the main complaint is that I want more, but it does negatively impact the experience. Fortunately, the game is being supported with DLC that can hopefully give the players more content to make this worth the purchase.

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