Bomberman 64 (N64, 1997)
Graphics-7 Sound-8 Control-7 Challenge-7 Story-4
Level Design-6 Frustration-7.5 Fun-6.5/7?* Originality-6
Overall Score-6.5
*Battle mode
+
World select (linear progression between levels in the worlds themselves though)
Some new status effects (big/slow and tiny/fast form, disguised bomb which is a pumped bomb (charged up bomb), fire man form/doom - have to kill your enemy before the effect is gone or you die)
Minor-fairly complex puzzles here and there and somewhat more varied levels (no jumping but can bounce on bombs to move between platforms - using remote controlled bombs you can make repeated and longer jumps and reach teleporters to new parts of levels*, alter the level layout in different ways such as by destroying the pillars to open up the roof of a structure with bomb kicks, )
Can now stop kicked bombs by pressing R
Throw and kick bombs by default (SP mode). Can also charge up picked up bombs (regular bombs' timers actually stop while picked up)
Difficulty options in SP (normal/hard)
Some new battle mode level gimmicks
Optional ghost mode for MP battles (can interrupt players but not use bombs, disappear when 1 minute is left)
Shows how many cards are left to get in each level
Can stun and throw enemies here (throw bombs on top of them)
Extra HP (heart, one at a time) is dropped when hit and can be picked back up again - similar to rings in Sonic
Some decent bosses (world 2 - giant fish, world 3 - giant robot, world 5 cannon mini-boss and main mini-boss) and pretty good final boss (two phases), Mini-bosses
Some large scale environmental changes (world 2 water level lowering and aqueduct assembly, world 4 avalanche)
Pretty good use of verticality at times
Can walk up near 90 degree slopes
Unlockable secret final level (100 gold cards - 5 per level)
A few new battle mode mechanics (ghost mode where you can jump onto another player and control them however they'll get the win if you help them, spawning enemies after some time has passed, can throw other players)
+/-
Saves between levels (one slot per game but can copy your data) and pretty frequent checkpoints
Various exploration focused and maze-like levels (have to manually rotate the camera to see hidden things). Worlds 2-3 are generally more straightforward though
No permanent tools/abilites gained that let you reach new areas in previous levels or progress in new areas (you do find temporary upgraded bombs which let you explore further into the current level and get all the gold cards however)
Near TD view (high angle, limited camera movement - 8 rotation angles and can't be tilted on the x-plane/vertically, two zoom levels)
Getting touched by enemies tends to just knock you over for a bit here but it is annoying how long you stay down and can get hit over and over again (shorter cooldown in battle mode thankfully)
Found items disappear after a few seconds
Can find custom body parts but they're cosmetic only and can only be used in battle mode (head, body, arms, legs), no strafe or dodge moves, need to press 4 switches per level to open the exit here,
Your movement direction changes as soon as you rotate the camera
Can't pick up a bomb while standing "in" it after placing it (can hold a while placing one to pick it up right away but for some reason you're not taught this until the third world)
No camera control during the main boss fights
4-player vs. only
-
The slowdown gets pretty bad at times (sadly there's slowdown in battle mode too)
Some control/interface issues (not enough control over how far you throw a bomb - should've worked more like in an artillery game, can't see your avatar if it's behind a wall, annoying stun effect when hit by a bouncing bomb from above, can't pick a charged/big bomb back up after throwing it+can't kick or even push big ones, can't simply place a carried bomb without throwing it, pumping a bomb takes too long, no level maps, not enough control after getting whimsy while bouncing on bombs, no yaw control over the camera (sometimes overly top down angle); Battle mode - weird hit detection making it impossible to quickly lay down a bunch of bombs as you run like in the 2D games)
Some tedious aspects (dead end and teleporter back to the beginning in the final level, level 4-3 (upside down semi-reverse controlled segment followed by the parallel slippery slopes segment wich only lets you take one path at a time with long backtracking in-between), *while an interesting puzzle element it can get very tedious to pull off due to how finicky bouncing can be and how long it takes to charge each bomb (for creating staircases of bouncing bombs). Too hard to get to minor rewards at times even in the first level, opened paths and exits don't stay open when revisiting a beaten level - can still exit a beaten level at will though, bomb upgrades sometimes aren't common enough and it would've been better if some breakable blocks regenerated fairly quickly so you could reach a broken down path again without re-entering that part of the level or dying, birds don't give better rewards despite being harder to kill, some of the vertical segments - having to redo longer parts after falling down, the wind effect in 4-1 gets old after a while)
Somewhat slow movement and the overall pace in SP is kinda slow without remote controlled bombs. No movement speed power ups
Some trial & error (you're actually not supposed to take down the outdoors bridges in level 1 or you'll miss out on some gold cards and parts of the level, figuring out you can throw at an intermediate length between running and standing still, finding the stronger red bomb - have to blow up two specific blocks at once that are also hard in a part of a room that's tricky to get to (both the room and the part), ), the shallow death pits in the last world)
Sometimes uneven visuals (smudgy textures, dated 2D elements, overly basic geometry on some effects)
The game pretty much forgets about the puzzle platforming/bomb bouncing aspect after the first world besides an alternate path in the final level
Some enemies take too long to kill (turtles for example, breaks flow)
Somewhat few battle mode levels
Bomb upgrades don't carry over to the next level (a bit annoying when it takes so long to get some of them). You tend to be given the remote triggered bombs before the main boss fights however (which makes you feel like they might as well have let you keep what you found)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (much easier to get to the red bomb in level 3 than level 1)
Kinda boring mine level (don't get to ride any minecarts)
Generic story
Really shitty bad ending ("I'm disappointed in you")
Lacks various battle mode levels and power ups+skins from previous games (doesn't even have the classic first level, only 6 levels here unless you get 100+ gold cards in the SP game)
Level Design-6 Frustration-7.5 Fun-6.5/7?* Originality-6
Overall Score-6.5
*Battle mode
+
World select (linear progression between levels in the worlds themselves though)
Some new status effects (big/slow and tiny/fast form, disguised bomb which is a pumped bomb (charged up bomb), fire man form/doom - have to kill your enemy before the effect is gone or you die)
Minor-fairly complex puzzles here and there and somewhat more varied levels (no jumping but can bounce on bombs to move between platforms - using remote controlled bombs you can make repeated and longer jumps and reach teleporters to new parts of levels*, alter the level layout in different ways such as by destroying the pillars to open up the roof of a structure with bomb kicks, )
Can now stop kicked bombs by pressing R
Throw and kick bombs by default (SP mode). Can also charge up picked up bombs (regular bombs' timers actually stop while picked up)
Difficulty options in SP (normal/hard)
Some new battle mode level gimmicks
Optional ghost mode for MP battles (can interrupt players but not use bombs, disappear when 1 minute is left)
Shows how many cards are left to get in each level
Can stun and throw enemies here (throw bombs on top of them)
Extra HP (heart, one at a time) is dropped when hit and can be picked back up again - similar to rings in Sonic
Some decent bosses (world 2 - giant fish, world 3 - giant robot, world 5 cannon mini-boss and main mini-boss) and pretty good final boss (two phases), Mini-bosses
Some large scale environmental changes (world 2 water level lowering and aqueduct assembly, world 4 avalanche)
Pretty good use of verticality at times
Can walk up near 90 degree slopes
Unlockable secret final level (100 gold cards - 5 per level)
A few new battle mode mechanics (ghost mode where you can jump onto another player and control them however they'll get the win if you help them, spawning enemies after some time has passed, can throw other players)
+/-
Saves between levels (one slot per game but can copy your data) and pretty frequent checkpoints
Various exploration focused and maze-like levels (have to manually rotate the camera to see hidden things). Worlds 2-3 are generally more straightforward though
No permanent tools/abilites gained that let you reach new areas in previous levels or progress in new areas (you do find temporary upgraded bombs which let you explore further into the current level and get all the gold cards however)
Near TD view (high angle, limited camera movement - 8 rotation angles and can't be tilted on the x-plane/vertically, two zoom levels)
Getting touched by enemies tends to just knock you over for a bit here but it is annoying how long you stay down and can get hit over and over again (shorter cooldown in battle mode thankfully)
Found items disappear after a few seconds
Can find custom body parts but they're cosmetic only and can only be used in battle mode (head, body, arms, legs), no strafe or dodge moves, need to press 4 switches per level to open the exit here,
Your movement direction changes as soon as you rotate the camera
Can't pick up a bomb while standing "in" it after placing it (can hold a while placing one to pick it up right away but for some reason you're not taught this until the third world)
No camera control during the main boss fights
4-player vs. only
-
The slowdown gets pretty bad at times (sadly there's slowdown in battle mode too)
Some control/interface issues (not enough control over how far you throw a bomb - should've worked more like in an artillery game, can't see your avatar if it's behind a wall, annoying stun effect when hit by a bouncing bomb from above, can't pick a charged/big bomb back up after throwing it+can't kick or even push big ones, can't simply place a carried bomb without throwing it, pumping a bomb takes too long, no level maps, not enough control after getting whimsy while bouncing on bombs, no yaw control over the camera (sometimes overly top down angle); Battle mode - weird hit detection making it impossible to quickly lay down a bunch of bombs as you run like in the 2D games)
Some tedious aspects (dead end and teleporter back to the beginning in the final level, level 4-3 (upside down semi-reverse controlled segment followed by the parallel slippery slopes segment wich only lets you take one path at a time with long backtracking in-between), *while an interesting puzzle element it can get very tedious to pull off due to how finicky bouncing can be and how long it takes to charge each bomb (for creating staircases of bouncing bombs). Too hard to get to minor rewards at times even in the first level, opened paths and exits don't stay open when revisiting a beaten level - can still exit a beaten level at will though, bomb upgrades sometimes aren't common enough and it would've been better if some breakable blocks regenerated fairly quickly so you could reach a broken down path again without re-entering that part of the level or dying, birds don't give better rewards despite being harder to kill, some of the vertical segments - having to redo longer parts after falling down, the wind effect in 4-1 gets old after a while)
Somewhat slow movement and the overall pace in SP is kinda slow without remote controlled bombs. No movement speed power ups
Some trial & error (you're actually not supposed to take down the outdoors bridges in level 1 or you'll miss out on some gold cards and parts of the level, figuring out you can throw at an intermediate length between running and standing still, finding the stronger red bomb - have to blow up two specific blocks at once that are also hard in a part of a room that's tricky to get to (both the room and the part), ), the shallow death pits in the last world)
Sometimes uneven visuals (smudgy textures, dated 2D elements, overly basic geometry on some effects)
The game pretty much forgets about the puzzle platforming/bomb bouncing aspect after the first world besides an alternate path in the final level
Some enemies take too long to kill (turtles for example, breaks flow)
Somewhat few battle mode levels
Bomb upgrades don't carry over to the next level (a bit annoying when it takes so long to get some of them). You tend to be given the remote triggered bombs before the main boss fights however (which makes you feel like they might as well have let you keep what you found)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (much easier to get to the red bomb in level 3 than level 1)
Kinda boring mine level (don't get to ride any minecarts)
Generic story
Really shitty bad ending ("I'm disappointed in you")
Lacks various battle mode levels and power ups+skins from previous games (doesn't even have the classic first level, only 6 levels here unless you get 100+ gold cards in the SP game)