Let's stir up some Bomberman activity, shall we?

Hey! You are a bomberman fan too! I have only played heroe and 64 and I would say that 64 is the best.

Time to make a loooooooooongg post!


Of the three titles, I have only played two. Bomberman 64,and it's sequal, the second attack. Which one do I like better? Well, there is a lot to be said about both games, so, I'm going to take my time in making this. So, here it goes!

Bomberman 64 was Bomberman's big entry into the 3D world, and, like a lot of games, we see traditional isometric, or sidescrolling games being replaced by modern counterparts and formulas. Bomberman was no exception, and in 1997, the big game was released. What would this title bring to the table?

Well, frankly, I'd have to say everything!

Custom parts, single player adventure, and, that wonderful multi-player that you'll always come back to! The second attack would only have to follow suit! Or did it? Do both games tie into one another as sequals? Do they carry on the legacy of Bomberman? well, I'm going to try and show you! Let's start with level design.


Bomberman 64.

Taking full advantage of the 3D environments, gives us wide open areas to explore. Each world is vastly different, always sticking to a theme, often of a kind of Extreme. We have the fire world, and Ice world, yeah, pretty basic, but then we get the french resort- now that's kinda neat!

These levels have lots of secrets, containing gold cards. . . custom parts, and even red bombs, which make Bomberman super powerful!

But in the second attack. . .

Something changed.

Bomberman can no longer roam around huge level that feel 3D. In fact, although it very much is 3D, your stuck in little room, and you can't pass through to the next room unless you defeat all of the enemies, now, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against difficulty, but it feels. . . closed in.

Like you're dungeon crawling in a Zelda game. Not the feel that BM64 gave me. Honestly, it's a quite different feeling. I don't feel free, and running about having fun. It's not that that sort of feeling is bad, but It doesn't say Bomberman to me.

In fact, this game does try to be like Zelda.

Get these three keys to get past this room, push statue on top of switches etc. Not quite what I wanted.


The other problem with the game is a lot secrets have been removed. There aren't very many of them. :/ Something that I love about BM 64 was the clever secrets like the flower cave in white glacier, or the many, MANY secrets in green garden.

The Second Attack doesn't have that many secrets. :/

In Bomberman 64, there were bosses, quite a few bosses actually. Large, small, we have em all.

A dragon, whose wings you can burn off, and 5 enemy bombers with great AI for their time and one of them is so annoying, as he will knock you out and chuck you in the Lava!

The second attack has a bunch of small ones, but that's okay, cause we like the small bosses more then the large ones right?

Well. . .I'd like to give a good report here. And the bosses are difficult enough. . .

But they are done kinda poorly in TSA.

why?

Well, I guess that Vatical entertainment thought that it would be a good idea to make the bosses invincible 90% of the time. . .and I'd like to say I was joking. . .but what I just said isn't far from the truth.

Ya see, right when a boss shoots. . . . he's given invincibility, and it' lasts about a second and a half. Now, I know, that may not sound like much, but it sure is when you're fight it!

The thing is, it's really hard to his these bosses, but when you do, they are often unaffected by it because of their invincibility! And no, these bosses will not use bombs to defeat Bomberman, the just shoot stuff, or rip off Regulas's moves. . . and they all use a lot of the same moves. Kinda disappointing considering just how different the Masked trio was.


but. . .that's not all.

listen to Regulas's voice when he Get's hit in BM64. Now listen to Orion.

They sound different don't they?

How bout TSA?

Unfortunately. . . they reuse one another voices.


Just another thing that takes away depth from the characters. :/

In fact, let's move on to that topic.

Which game had a better story and characters?

Well, I think that BM64 had better characters. . . .

But that TSA had a better plot. the only way I'd consider BM64 better is if I got overexcited about a pre Bomberman 64 fanfiction that told the story of the forming of the Omni-Cube and the taking of each world and. . oh.

wait.

._.

right. . canon. that's what's important canon.

heh heh.

So, you can't really say the BM64 is better that the second attack, besides the Second attack has Alternate endings! Yeah! That was pretty smart I'd say. BM64 might have two, but I'm not really sure you can dub it that way. Oh well.

As for Characters, I wanna get into that a little bit more.

BM64 had serious villains.

Not corny ones with corny sound effects when they got hit. Now, this is more preference then anything I suppose, but It was awesome playing this game growing up, and how cool Regulas sounded every time you hit him, or he yelled, "REV UP" before charging you and you thought you were toast, (with burnt crust and butter, that kind of toast doesn't taste very well bye the way, so don't eat it!)

It's more of the fact that ALL characters are good and have probably a lot of backstory if we let them have it, that makes BM64 better than TSA, yes, TSA has good characters like Rukifelleth. . . though honestly. . .I find him more run of the mill. . .and Lilith. . . also kind of run of the mill. . . .and then there's Pommy, who was done very well.

So, as far as characters go, I'm giving it to Bomberman 64, but only because of the better, and actually unique voices. Well, I THINK that in TSA that all the voices were reused by male characters. would be nice if the knights didn't act so similar. (I swear Tael, and Zael, you're twins in different outfits.) XD

But anyways, what about music?

Certainly there are a few songs worth downloading in the Bomberman 64 album, there's Green garden, which sounds nice and is upbeat, I would say that it even tells the story of the place during that one solo.

Red mountain is stressful, and awesome. that's what the song is doing, reminding you of the sheer power of the lava.

The Final Showdown has A great theme, one that I love to listen too again and agian actually. There is even a little bit of rock influence in this game! listen to the song titled "masker" that nice boss theme that takes place while fight any of the masked trio.

But in the second attack. . . something is lacking.

The songs have no depth, they are all namby pamby, and weak it seems to me. I think that Mario does a better job.

It's just. . . exactly what I said! namby pamby. The only thing about most songs is if they get stuck in your thread- I mean head- annoying!

However, I did find one good song in here, it plays in the fire planet once you beat Moleck, and keeps going for the rest of the level.

There is one other theme that would have been good actually, If they hadn't ruined it. It takes place during the scenes with Rukifelleth, and it starts out great! All dark, and mysterious, militaristic. . .but. . . . .they thew in some sudden dorkiness and just. . . ugh. It could have been pretty good, but it wasn't maybe I'll redo it someday with my own tools.


So, basically, Bomberman 64 has good music in it's levels.

The second attack has average, or below average themes unfortunately. . . . and not ONE electronica song like BM64 or rock based song!


And that's almost it, all that's left is gameplay, which is good in both games, one bad decision for TSA was to make you rewatch each bosses's cutscene before you fight him. Really annoying. But Pommy and the elemental stones add a whole new thing to the mix, great additions that make the game definitely worth at least one playthrough. BM64 doesn't have any of that extra stuff, but red bombs are pretty nice. Both games have pretty decent enemies, TSA does that part right, they have lot's of variate and attacks, they also aren't as dumb as they were in TSA

I would have to say that TSA has it much better with Pommy and those stones, I think that they should be creative with bombs like this in future games.

And that- is pretty much it. I'm sorry to bash the second attack so much, but yeah. I am fairly disappointing by it. If it weren't for the slowness of the game with the boss cutscenes I would have liked it a lot more. TSA is definitely worth a go, BM64, I'll keep coming back too, the sad part is I got stuck at the fairgrounds in that game and never finished it, I guess I needed Regulas's bombs to continue past that barrier. But oh well.


If this were a sequal to the Sega Saturn games, then it would be fine, but It's the sequal to Bomberman 64, so I'm kinda disappointed by the formula changes.

Bomberman64 is my favorite Bomberman game.

. . . aaaaaannnnd I may come back and edit it for spelling and punctuation errors.

I hope that was insightful.