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When it comes to iconic retro characters, Bomberman is certainly one with quite the history. Konami has decided to bring the iconic bombing hero as a launch title for the Nintendo Switch for its 33rd anniversary. Super Bomberman R takes the series back to its roots, but is that playing it too safe, or is it a proper way to bring the series back after a long hiatus?

Gameplay: 4/5

Super Bomberman R is a return to form. The series has focused more on adventure-like elements, and while those were well-executed, the team over at Konami wanted to celebrate the character’s return with a more traditional experience. If you’ve never played a Bomberman game before, let’s briefly touch base about the core mechanics. You control Bomberman via an isometric view, and have to navigate your way through maze-like levels, blowing up objects that block your path. Naturally, there are enemies that will be in your path that can be disposed of with your bombs. You have to strategically plant these bombs, hoping to trick the enemy into the blast, and being sure you’re away from the blast radius.

The game’s Story mode will have you (and a partner) venturing through five worlds (with a sixth world being strictly the final boss) to take on the five Dastardly Bombers. You can pick from several different Bombermen, each with a different personality. Each world comprises of eight stages, followed by a boss battle stage. Throughout the stages, you will have a variety of objectives to complete in the world. For example, levels start off with just defeating all the enemies and heading to the exit. Later on, it may change up to: finding all the switches in a level to open the exit, surviving for “x” amount of time, or even escorting characters to a safety zone before the exit opens. This actually helps change up the pacing of levels quite nicely. Levels will only take a few minutes as well, making this a solid pickup-and-play style game. The game is also paced very well with new elements incorporated into levels as you progress, and new twists thrown into world (whether it be multi-tiered levels, icy platforms, magnets that pull your bombs in, etc).

Throughout the levels, you will find power-ups that either let you plant more bombs at once, increase your blast radius, let you move faster, or even carry special bomb-types. While getting power-ups like these may sound like a benefit, the strategic element to consider is that there’s more of a challenge to being fully powered-up. You will be more prone to blowing yourself up if you’re not careful. It’s almost a case of, “With great power comes great responsibility”. However, you’ll even come across power-downs, which decrease certain power-ups you may have acquired for the level. These may help you if you feel your bombs have too much blast radius or you’re running too fast and having a hard time controlling the character.

Story mode can be played in drop-in/drop-out local co-op. Just pop out those Joy-Cons and have a buddy join in on the fun. You and your partner will share lives, and can blow each other up, so extra caution is needed when playing co-op. And of course, no Bomberman game would be complete without Battle mode.

Battle mode allows for up to eight players to join in on the fun, whether local, with multiple Switches in the same room, or online. This is where a majority of the game’s longevity will come from, as this has been the series’ staple for decades. And even decades later, this multiplayer is still as chaotic and engaging as it was back in the day. You have a variety of stages to choose from, as well as more that can be unlocked with gem currency accrued from playing through the campaign. You can choose to play either four-player or eight-player battle, as well as incorporate bots to go up against. When playing Battle mode online, you can choose between League Battle and Free Battle. League Battle has you competing with others to earn BP to level up your rank in set conditions, while Free Battle lets you go up against friends and newcomers with customized parameters to your liking.

Now there are some issues to be found in Super Bomberman R. First off, the online mode. During our online sessions, every match has a half-second lag input for the controls. While you can get by and still play, it’s just not a smooth experience at all. Luckily, Konami is already aware of this and are looking into fixing it. Also, if lag input wasn’t enough, there are lag spikes during matches that we’ve come across a few times. Second, boss battles contain two phases each, with the first phase always being a cat-and-mouse bombing each other game. The problem with this is the AI is always a step ahead and you can never cleverly take them out. Instead, it just resorts to constantly planting bombs like crazy and hoping for the best. These made boss battles a bit frustrating. Thankfully, the second phase of a boss battle is significantly better and more entertaining, giving you more freedom of movement and interesting scenarios.

Graphics: 3/5

Super Bomberman R is a colorful, vibrant game, with a simplistic style that gets the point across. Bomberman and crew are animated precisely as they should be, and enemies move as they would in previous games. Bomberman was never a visual showcase, but rather relied on its cutesy, fun style. It’s got a charming look and is easy on the eyes. Backdrops look pretty solid for the levels and help flesh out the game’s aesthetic. Oddly though, the game’s main menus run at 60 fps, but the game itself is locked at 30 fps. While 30 fps is more than playable, there’s nothing happening on screen here that shouldn’t have it running at 60 fps. That being said, Super Bomberman R’s visuals are still quite good and certainly do a good job of bringing Bomberman and crew to the Nintendo Switch.

Sound: 3/5

Super Bomberman R has a catchy, chipper soundtrack that accompanies the action on-screen very well. You may even find yourself having a few tunes stick with you after taking a break from the game. Sound effects are done well too, between the icon pickups and explosions going on. The audio here is actually a well suited package…except for the voice acting. While not overly cringe-worthy, it’s certainly very campy and cheesy. The voice actors tried to do what they can to provide personality to each of the Bombermen, but it ultimately falls flat for the most part. Aside from White and Red Bomberman being the better of the bunch, everything else doesn’t fare as well. You can switch the game’s language to Japanese…but then the text is Japanese as well. Thankfully, you can shut off the voices altogether if it begins to grind your gears.

Replay Value: 4/5

Battle mode is clearly where the game’s longevity is going to be. Whether you have some friends over or jump online, there’s no question that you’ll have people gathering around. While the online does have lag input and spikes at the moment, there should be a patch in the near future to fix this issue. Aside from Battle mode, there are plenty of unlockables too. You can go to the Shop area and acquire new Battle mode stages, new characters and new outfits for the characters. There’s an ample amount to unlock and doing so will certainly take some time. Also, the campaign can be replayed at multiple difficulties and once beaten, you can replay any world again. There’s even a ranking system from one to three stars to see how well you did in each world.

Overall Score: 14/20 = 7.0 out of 10

Super Bomberman R is a return to series’ roots without question. Between the maze-like structure of maps and competitive Battle mode, it’s the Bomberman we’ve come to know and love. While the game has its fair share of issues, it’s still a game very much worth having in your Switch library. This is a solid return for the character and great to see the series can still pick up where it left off and play as well today. Here’s hoping though that Konami sees the potential of this classic IP and continues to further build on it (and other classic IPs they have). Maybe we can see a new Bomberman in the style of Bomberman 64 on the Switch?

Pros:

+ Easy to pickup-and-play

+ Battle mode is still as engaging as ever

+ Catchy soundtrack

+ Campaign mode progresses well

+ Plenty of unlockables

Cons:

– Dull voice acting

– Online lag input and spikes

– First phase of boss battles are an exercise of luck

– Visuals seem capable of 60 fps but runs at 30 fps

– $50 price tag is a little steep