June’s game for Game Club was this Bomberman spinoff, the second RPG-like of the series. It’s a light Zelda-style adventure game, with puzzley grid room dungeons separated by overworld sections and towns, plus a very tacked-on monster battling mechanic. The plot is poorly developed but it’s colourful and looks nice, and the mix of formulas makes a refreshing brew.
I’ve never developed an affection for Bomberman or his extended cast, which is unfortunate because Bomberman Tournament (Bomberman Story in Japan) assumes that I have, and doesn’t work too hard to introduce any characters. Karabons are a core mechanic in this game; they act like Link’s items, Samus’s upgrades, etc. but in the form of a silly monster which adds a nice touch, although the monster’s appearance rarely reflects their ability. Much like Super Paper Mario’s Pixls, these creatures get exactly one line of text to establish a personality then become a glorified action button for the rest of the game.
I liked accumulating a cast of strange monsters as buddies, but felt the concept could have been developed better. This goes double for the battling aspect, which thankfully is 90% optional. At certain points you can use your Karabons to fight others in tedious semi-random battles, which feel like an afterthought both in their simplistic design and their almost complete irrelevance to progressing.
Having the negatives out of the way, I’ll say that as with Super Monkey Ball Adventure, transferring the series’ foundational formula (in this case, grid-based action puzzle) into an adventure campaign makes for a more appealing conceit than “clear X rooms”. Roaming around swamps, snowdrifts, deserts, etc. and navigating the topography and obstacles while defeating enemies with bombs made for a fun experience, thanks to the particulars of bombs.
Of course, you can tell by the name that Bomberman’s chief and only way of interacting with the world is through placing explosives. Since they’re timed, they can hurt you, and you have limits on blast size and number, using them can get strategic, or easily backfire. This twist on an action-adventure format made it feel fresh. I wish the brief interactions with NPCs felt more meaningful but I was charmed by much of the rest of this game. Bombs away!
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This is a beautiful blend of informative, interesting and amusing writing. Inclusions such as, “Bomberman’s chief and...