Bomberman Generation Review

This is long overdue, particularly since its sequel is already out, but I wanted to have a review on file for this game so I could refer back to it in my Bomberman Jetters review. This game is truly one of the best of the early GCN titles, beaten out only by Super Smash Brothers Melee and possibly Super Monkey Ball.

Bomberman Generation is the first Bomberman game on GCN, and in fact, the first Bomberman game I had ever played. To be honest, I almost didn’t. Having never played a game in this franchise before, I was hesitant to try it. That hesitance died fast, however, when I found this game on clearance for $15 at Target. It was a steal at that price, as I came to find out.

The graphics in this game are very good for the early point in the GCN’s life, which is when this game came out. They are a bit cutesy, but that is hardly anything to complain about. Both the graphics in the 2D multiplayer and the 3D one-player modes are done very well for when this game was released. They were not quite up to Luigi’s Mansion or SSBM, but they were close.

The sound in this game was admittedly a bit grating, at least the voice acting. The music gets somewhat repetitive in the multiplayer, but changes enough in the main game not to be so annoying unless you get lost in a level. Given the length of the levels, it would have been nice if the melodies had been a bit longer, but that is a minor gripe. The sound effects are pretty good, but not spectacular.

The gameplay is really what makes this game though, particularly in the multiplayer. In the single player mode, you basically traverse around a 3D environment dropping bombs and solving puzzles that are admittedly not difficult to solve. The basic problem in the single-player mode comes in the form of the bosses, who occasionally have cheap maneuvers in their attack patterns that either prevent them from getting hit or cause you to get hit whenever they do.

The multiplayer is where all the action is at really. Two to four players (including the option of computer opponents) get in an arena and try to blow each other up. The gameplay is arguably simplistic, but it is remarkably addictive. And this is just one of the multiplayer modes. There are others, such as the dodge battle, coin battle, and revenge battle to go to if you get tired of the standard multiplayer. The dodge battle is like a standard battle, except the bombs come from the sky rather than the players, and I have not actually played the other two multiplayer types enough to give an adequate description of them.

This game is just another in a long line, so creativity is likely low, but the replay value of this game is top-notch, rivaling even my favorite game of this generation, SSBM in multiplayer. For a single person, don’t expect this one to last you much beyond one beating of the single-player mode.

My recommendation even a couple months ago would have been an emphatic “get this game”, but with Jetters out, my recommendation is going to be read both reviews, and get one of the two. With Jetters being a budget game, the price point won’t be drastically different, and each of the two games have distinct advantages and disadvantages.