Everyday Gamer

In Bomberman for the PsP, you’re tasked with restoring Bomberman Land, which has suddenly vanished under mysterious circumstances. By talking to different characters and acquiring numbered pieces from them, either through simple conversation or through mini-game challenges, you unlock different parts of the land that have disappeared. Each area has a gate with numbers and colors that you must possess the pieces to in order to proceed and unlock more of Bomberman Land. It’s a simple setup, but you eventually unlock a rather large area filled with characters and mini-games.

The main adventure portion of Bomberman involves the aforementioned quest, which unfolds through a series of minigames, which are the main gameplay mechanic of the adventure mode. The mini-games in Bomberman are pretty hit or miss, with some being genuinely fun and others being quite inventive. And yeah, some are lame. You can acquire special passes that actually make mini-games easier if you’re having a difficult time with any of them. The game can be confusing initially, and it’s important to remember that you may have to talk to a character multiple times, for no real reason, to get the item you need. The progression is pretty linear, though you will need to backtrack sometimes to reach areas that you passed up before because you didn’t have the right numbered pieces to get through the gates. Overall, the main mode of Bomberman Land is engaging and will offer plenty of challenge and things to do. You eventually unlock music and items that you can access later via a collectibles menu. You can also share the mini-games wirelessly with other PsP players to give them a taste of the game.

The graphics are simplistic, which is generally what a Bomberman game looks like, but they definitely could’ve benefited from a bit more detail. The map you use to travel around Bomberman land, in particular, is pretty lifeless and is mostly just wasted space. The cutscenes are also pretty bland, with a text scroll loosely matching the generic animations on the characters. Overall, the game could’ve easily benefitted from some more texture and character detail. Still, the colors are generally bright and the graphics maintain an upbeat tone throughout.

The sound in Bomberman is unfortunately forgettable. It features a mix of recognizable tunes from previous Bomberman games and some new sounds, but nothing ever stands out and the music never feels vibrant enough to match the colorful and playful nature of the game.

Thankfully, Hudson included the classic Bomberman game in this package, and that’s a very big bonus. You can play with up to four other PsP players wirelessly, and anyone who’s played Bomberman knows how much fun it can be with other people. Even better, you only need one UMD disc for ad hoc multiplayer. The classic Bomberman game contains forty seven maps and each map can be customized with different colors tiles for the bombable blocks. So all things considered, Bomberman Land is a competent package combining a new mini-game driven mode along with the classic Bomberman game. Fans of the series should be more than happy with Bomberman Land, and folks looking for some mini-game action would do well to see if any of the fifty featured mini-games are their cup of tea.

7/10