The Nintendo Switch Released Friday with a few different titles on hand at launch. What may have come as a surprise was the return of an old explosive hero, Bomberman! Super Bomberman R returns to some of its classic SNES style games in a top down style view with some villains from its classic days. The game has it’s pros and cons of course; We’ll delve into that and let you know if gives a bang for your buck (or KABOOM in this case!)
Right off of the bat, this game throws you into a crazy whimsical intergalactic adventure…that makes zero attempt to make itself seem realistic…and turn out that is good! One of the game’s fun points is how goofy it is and how it doesn’t take itself too seriously. This allows the player to relax, kick back, and have fun blowing up literally everything in sight (even when you don’t need to for that level’s objective). It’s a good thing too because Super Bomberman R is no cakewalk. On higher difficulties, even veteran Bomberman players will find themselves having a tough time making it through a level without accidentally blowing themselves to smithereens. I note that accidental death aspect because that is seemingly one of the hardest parts of the game.
While you can blow everything around you into space dust, you can also burn yourself when the bombs go off. This creates an interesting, cautionary aspect where you must be very conscious of how powerful each bomb you place is. Or, where can you safely escape the blast radius in a pinch should an enemy attempt to corner you, (or you accidentally place too many bombs at once.) On lower difficulty settings, it’s not hard to work around but as soon as you start raising that difficulty bar and enemies start moving faster and become smarter, you will want to be VERY cautious of not setting yourself for fiery disaster. That being said, the difficulty of the game is not really a deterrent to the quality of the game. If anything, it adds to its replayability and is great for players who are looking for a challenge in a nostalgic game.
The story of the game is, rather whimsical and ridiculous most of the time. While this might be more entertaining to a younger audience than it was to me personally, I still thought most of the characters were pretty hollow, one-dimensional. Not to mention, the story portion of the game itself was rather short. It is definitely a possibility to finish the whole game in one sitting. Most of the Bomberman Bros have one distinct character trait that informs their entire personality. The story itself is incredibly straight forward without much depth (Evil villain threatens galaxy with his army and 5 generals…Go blow them up). But that being said, I will admit that the game probably targets a younger audience who I do think will enjoy it and not care about my previous complaints.
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Super Bomberman R does have some great replayability as I mentioned previously; with it’s harder difficulty settings and given the unlockables that the game opens upon first completion. I would definitely say many players who plan to play online or in general, will put a good many hours into trying to obtain those unlockables. (It WILL take a while.) What are they you ask? I’m not going to spoil that for you! Go pick it up and find out yourself and be glad that they aren’t DLC instead.
Now that I have thrown some issues out there, let’s talk about some better points. Nintendo wants the Switch to be a system that lets their audience play with others easily on and this game excels at that (It should since most companies are straying from couch co-op and ruining good old fashioned multiplayer with IRL friends for everyone.) This is a game you can play with your friends who are both in the same room as you or online as well! In fact, You can even play this game with a friend without even having to pick up an extra controller for your Switch. the game in single player mode does operate using both joy-cons but the game is also compatible with the feature of the Switch that allows each Joy-Con to function as separate controllers, allowing for competition or co-op play right out of the box with no extra accessories required. If you do have 4 joy-con controllers however, you can have multiplayer battles with up to eight players which makes this a great game for parties and various gatherings.The online play is actually very functional and features a ranking system you can play in that will help separate veteran power players from people who may still be learning the ropes. All forms of play also allow you to choose your favorite bomber to play as, thus avoiding confusion of who is running around as whom on the map.
Graphically and artwork speaking, Super Bomberman R is actually quite beautiful to look at. It is incredibly cartoonish but the bright, vibrant colors and level design really set the tone well. The game does a good job of presenting some beautiful cartoon graphics without taking itself so seriously that it becomes an awkward blend of realistic images, 3D environments, and cartoon main characters. It balances all of its visual aspects quite well and creates an environment that helps ease the tension of the explosions and enemies that your character needs to maneuver around to avoid death.
Overall, this game doesn’t have a ton of depth to please any hardcore gamers. If you want a full complex and adventurous single player adventure for just yourself, we probably recommend trying something else. If you want a good solid casual game that you can play with all of your closest friends you don’t mind losing over a battle gone terribly explosive, then we definitely recommend this game for you. This game’s multiplayer is sure to provide hours upon hours of couch co-op fun for you and a friend (or 7 if you want to fight people,) and it’s battle mode will be sure to blow you and you closest friends away. (See what I did there?)
Super Bomberman R 7.5/10
(If the price lowers beyond $50.00 USD to say around $35.00, we recommend for all players … seriously, it would be the best casual game for that price.)