A Different Kind of Bomb?
Bomberman Land tries to mix things up... with explosive results.
Published: March 15, 2008
Hudson's little trademark mascot has seen more than a few visits to just about every gaming platform out there, which is something of an accomplishment. When most people think of old-school mascots, they tend to gravitate toward something from Nintendo or SEGA, but Hudson managed to establish a little dude that chucks bombs at other little dudes as one of the cornerstones of classic gaming. The reason, of course, is simple: Bomberman games are a blast (hurrr, punny!). Like so many basic concepts that formed the foundation of where games are today, running around a gridded arena while dropping explosive packages creates a kind of frenetic, adrenaline-wringing multiplayer experience. You never quite know how big a particular bomb's blast is going to be or if it'll do something unexpected, and that's the draw.
Luckily, Hudson is apparently keenly aware of this fact, to the tune of including more than a hundred different combinations of maps, modes and variables to keep Bomberman purists happy. The cornucopia of variable-size maps featuring pits, conveyor belts and plenty of power-ups is all Wi-Fi compatible (locally only, sadly; this would have been an amazing portable online game) and delivers exactly what most expect when looking for a Bomberman title.
Unfortunately, the main part of the game has almost nothing to do with that gameplay. Instead, a "story" that tries to take the Bomberman universe's cadre of forgettable characters (I don't care if they have personalities, I just want to blow them up) and wraps it all around a bunch of mini-games. Bomberman Land wants very badly to be a party game. And honestly, it would probably work... on consoles, but on the PSP, the simple act of constantly running around a map, collecting little tokens that open up more places on the map just so you can (wait for it...) get more tokens feels like busywork.
The games themselves range from tolerable to unabashed clones of stuff like Buster Bros. to games of chance that you can actually bet on (and actually end up being the most fun of the bunch). The mini-games I don't have a problem with, but the lazily strung-together storyline and seemingly endless repetition that comes from visiting a new place, talking to (or skipping past) conversations with the same amnesiac mini-game operators, collecting rewards with the same complementary dialogue and doing it all over again just strikes me as a bunch of weak sauce filler.
A smattering of simple sound effects (though thankfully no real dialogue) and fittingly basic colors, animation and visuals keep things firmly rooted in the game's trademark style (even if updating the characters to 3D didn't really do them any favors), but even with all the variety in the mini-games (which, again, aren't really all that bad, it's just the surrounding stuff that is), things are kept intentionally simple. On the one hand, it means the game can't really offend by overstepping its bounds, but a visual kockout this game is not.
I wish I could muster more to say about the game, but honestly there's not really all that much that needs to be mentioned. Get it for the multiplayer modes (in fact, you can Game Share with up to three other people), get it for the mini-games (which sport an impressive amount of variety and admittedly are at the very least mildly entertaining and often are a little addictive), but unless you like pain, just hammer through the storyline whenever possible. Or, better still, just wait until Hudson gives this another go on whatever future consoles arrive in the next few years. Hopefully by then they'll have thought to strip out all the fluff.
Luckily, Hudson is apparently keenly aware of this fact, to the tune of including more than a hundred different combinations of maps, modes and variables to keep Bomberman purists happy. The cornucopia of variable-size maps featuring pits, conveyor belts and plenty of power-ups is all Wi-Fi compatible (locally only, sadly; this would have been an amazing portable online game) and delivers exactly what most expect when looking for a Bomberman title.
Unfortunately, the main part of the game has almost nothing to do with that gameplay. Instead, a "story" that tries to take the Bomberman universe's cadre of forgettable characters (I don't care if they have personalities, I just want to blow them up) and wraps it all around a bunch of mini-games. Bomberman Land wants very badly to be a party game. And honestly, it would probably work... on consoles, but on the PSP, the simple act of constantly running around a map, collecting little tokens that open up more places on the map just so you can (wait for it...) get more tokens feels like busywork.
The games themselves range from tolerable to unabashed clones of stuff like Buster Bros. to games of chance that you can actually bet on (and actually end up being the most fun of the bunch). The mini-games I don't have a problem with, but the lazily strung-together storyline and seemingly endless repetition that comes from visiting a new place, talking to (or skipping past) conversations with the same amnesiac mini-game operators, collecting rewards with the same complementary dialogue and doing it all over again just strikes me as a bunch of weak sauce filler.
A smattering of simple sound effects (though thankfully no real dialogue) and fittingly basic colors, animation and visuals keep things firmly rooted in the game's trademark style (even if updating the characters to 3D didn't really do them any favors), but even with all the variety in the mini-games (which, again, aren't really all that bad, it's just the surrounding stuff that is), things are kept intentionally simple. On the one hand, it means the game can't really offend by overstepping its bounds, but a visual kockout this game is not.
I wish I could muster more to say about the game, but honestly there's not really all that much that needs to be mentioned. Get it for the multiplayer modes (in fact, you can Game Share with up to three other people), get it for the mini-games (which sport an impressive amount of variety and admittedly are at the very least mildly entertaining and often are a little addictive), but unless you like pain, just hammer through the storyline whenever possible. Or, better still, just wait until Hudson gives this another go on whatever future consoles arrive in the next few years. Hopefully by then they'll have thought to strip out all the fluff.
