Old news: Bomberman bakufuu sentai bombermen

February 16, 2006, 05:33 PM

by tim, via sony computer entertainment -
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Everyone -- and I mean everyone (note: linked entry is just two slots beneath this) -- is guilty of going nuts over this new Bomberman game for Xbox 360. I do believe Brandon Sheffield and myself got all of the giggles out of our system after the Xbox 360 press conference at Tokyo Game Show 2005 (it took us about an hour of constant references to "(Insert Game Name): Act ZERO!!"). The first important thing to note about the game is that the Bomberman character as we know him was originally compromise on the dark sci-fi vision of the game makers, who, you know, had originally just wanted to make a game about robotic beings trapped in an underground arena, forced to fight against one another with bombs. Remember that, at the end of the Famicom game Bomberman, your character turns into a human. Meditate on that for a while; now realize that Hudson Soft is trying their hardest to get the Bomberman we know up to speed with their original vision. Or at least, just pretend, okay?!

Now see this. This is Bomberman Bakufuu Sentai Bombermen, which is a really dumb title. This game is being released by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan on the PlayStation Portable, uh, on March 9th, 2006. It is, essentially, Bomberman. It has apparently flown under everyone's radar, probably just because they hear the name and think, yeah, it's another attempt to cash in on people's money by putting a pseudo-popular puzzle game on PSP. Which, well, it is. However, what's most interesting is the character design. For me, at least, first seeing these characters was a bigger "What the hell?" than first seeing Bomberman: Act Zero. They're big, brawny, muscular, multi-colored "superhero"-like Bombing Men and Bombing Women. They recall some kind of "Power Rangers" aesthetic. Have a look at the screenshots at that Game Watch article and wonder. I'd thought originally that this game was some kind of knock-off, though no. Hudson is definitely behind it. Curious.

It's as though the character designs are positioned as the step between the Bomberman we enjoyed while listening to anime theme songs and drinking fruit punch, as children, and the Bomberman we're going to control while listening to black metal and drinking Mountain Dew, as bitching adults, come this May. Note that, in this game, you can choose an original Bomberman, though if you do, he looks overtly, artistically "pixelated." This is Hudson's way of telling you: "If you want to play as this little guy with a clear conscience, just play it on Sega Saturn. The future is here."

The game is being released simultaneously with remakes of Intelligent Qube and XI (aka Devil Dice 2). Each one includes a demo of the other; you can play the demo version of one game wirelessly against someone who has the full version. Hey, that's not money-grubbing at all!