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Bomberman DS Review - DS

Bomberman is a gaming icon for the multiplayer crowd. Killing time on the DS just got a whole lot more explosive!

Gameplay

Bomberman is all about blowing stuff up. Dropping bombs to destroy blocks, collect powerups and blowing up enemies is what this game's all about, and if that sounds simple, it's because it is. It also sounds fun, and yes, it is...provided you have friends.

The story for Bomberman applies only to the single player game. A crystal explodes, scattering shards across the land. Bomberman does the honourable thing and begins to blow stuff up, and perhaps put the crystal back together after the fact. The controls for Bomberman are simple. The A button drops a bomb, the d-pad moves you around. That's about it. Special functions are handled with the B button and using power-ups in single player is handled via a simple touch screen interface, which seems to have been added on as an after thought.

The single player portion of the game is simple. So simple, in fact, that it's very easy to get bored and not continue with the adventure. The level design is boring, and the enemies don't offer much of a challenge. The in game AI is lacking. The single player enemies merely wander back and forth, randomly changing direction on occasion. The bosses are pattern based and easy enough to get around. The single player game is barely worth playing for any extended period of time, though it's certainly not worthless.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is a completely different story. Arenas are lined with hazards, teleporters, conveyer belts, all sorts of things to keep it fun. People don't play Bomberman for the single player content. It's boring and repetitive. Thankfully, some of the greatest multiplayer action ever is made available for eight players wirelessly on the DS, and with multi-boot functionality with no options lost, it becomes the greatest multiplayer game on the system.

In the multiplayer section, both screens are used to display the action, one in each corner for a total of eight players. Keeping track of both screens can be tricky, as explosions can travel from one screen to another. There is a new option made available thanks to microphone functionality. Yelling into the microphone can be used to detonate your bombs with a special power-up. As a matter of fact, there is an entire multiplayer section devoted to it. It does look a little silly, but as long as you're in good, and similarly crazy company, you'll find it can be ridiculously fun.

The multiplayer bots, that fill in for any of the eight human players not connected, used precognition to achieve their goals, which isn't very realistic. You're better off playing with real people. The multiplayer is enjoyable but only if you have friends to play with, as the bots aren't exactly brimming with personality. As long as you have friends and a copy of BDS, you will keep on playing. It's just that good.

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