This game had potential, but the goblin of hindsight and I don't know... a hatred of hobbyists everywhere from deep seated abuse or something, turned a good game into an infuriating roller coaster in a matter of minutes. Bomberman is unique from other iconic old timey games. It's overhead like Zelda typically, maze like like Metroid, and externally power based with power-ups like Mario. Bomberman is about strategy and patience more then speed runs or offenssive blitzkreigs. Trying to hurry in Bomberman is a good way to blow yourself up.

Graphics: 2.
The sprites themselves are normal Gameboy attire, but the color patterns are so weak, and the implementation of attacks so artificial, it looks like someone did this in paint overnight. Maybe they did. Some might say to give it leeway for probably being released during the early stages of Gameboy color, but even the first Bomberman had the bombs feel more natural in their environment. This puts a big ugly square white block over the bomb, or something similar like you're literally just putting other images over it in a paint edit.

Sound: 4.
Not the worst I've ever heard, but certainly not the best. Loud, high pitch shrills, signifying it's intended for kids, (Why are "kids games" always the most God awfully difficult and aggravating?) it's a big leap from where Bomberman was in his arcade days. Where he used to be in league with Dig-Dug and Spelunker as an adventurer type character, he was now basically becoming Kirby with weapons instead of powers.

Addictiveness: 3.
The problem is death. Death is to be expected in all games, but no one tells you that the first thing that's going to happen when you die is you're going to revert to a previous save point. So make sure to save often. We have the convenience of Vizzed's auto-save system using f2 and f4 respectively, but back then we wouldn't be so lucky. The only save point in sight is at the beginning of the game. So you know what that means? That means walking all the way back, just to save. That's ridiculous. I'm sure some signs here and there have save points, but that's a faulty design for a game so heavily devoted to items. Temporary items, permanent items, think of this game like Zelda, now imagine Zelda did not have the pause and save feature and instead had primitive saving points. Does that motivate you to want to play further?

Story: 2.
Old games were never known for stories. Originally Bomberman was to be a robot seeking escape from this mechanical prison in an attempt to become human. Now all of a sudden in Bomberman Quest... he's more like an alien cop riding a space police car to send all these monsters to space jail when something gets in the way and loots his engines. (Told Bomberman not to go down Space Martin Luthor King... I don't care how much faster it is, that neighborhood isn't safe.)

Bomberman has some potential as an alien cop, but it kind of seems weird he'd be "arresting" aliens when his first mechanism is explosive devices to combat them. Maybe it's a bit too much for children to absorb a cyborg alien destroying eldritch horrors from beyond the skies with weapons barred in most civilized nations. That's more of Halo's territory. Either way, it's fun to think about. But the game itself doesn't do any of the thinking for you.

Depth: 2.
There is four engines missing, so you can safely assume there is four maps and maybe one final boss map. Depth isn't just about level design, but the immerssion of those levels, and this game has neither of those qualities. It gives you the illussion of such. A map that demands to be filled up by walking around, but what are you hoping to find? More badly propped sprites? Death so you can lose all your progress and stuff because of save point systems?

Depth: 3.
It's not difficult, just unplayable. Those few things like how a game saves and the rareity of an item can greatly effect gameplay, and mainline developers rarely care cause all they were after was money from the get go. The fact is I could defeat those monsters with a basic bomb, or the super cool mega bomb. But why would I want to use the basic bomb, especially when I worked for the super cool mega bomb? Just because some idiot couldn't be bothered to incorporate pause and save? It also bares the striking flaw of all Bomberman games that move speed is incredibly slow. Which yes, is part of the "challenge" so to speak of placing down bombs. You have to not only consider the patterns of the enemy you're trying to bomb, but the momentum and radius of that explosion and if you'll be far enough away when it detonates. Bombings not something to be taken lightly in this game despite the cartoony graphics. I can't really say this Zelda like grid added a new dimension, Bomberman was always overhead view with about the same movement capabilities, it's just Zelda was more fluid with movement, and more so appreciated the player's efforts. Bomberman did not do that, so the transition was for nothing.


Overall: 2.6.
Hopes dashed, disappointment settles in. I expected Link's Awakening with unlimited bombs cheat. A new combat experience, coupled with more secret areas to be found and lots of loot to be had. Nope... the exact opposite. While indeed every enemy holds a power up or new weapon of some sort. It's like a boss battle everytime. Every fight requires precision and timing, every fight is going to take a while, and God help you if you screw up and did not save before fighting each and every single enemy. It's not that Bomberman was never meant to be Zelda, or can't be Zelda, it's just the developers chose not to do it that way. They wanted to trash all the parts that made Zelda good, stuff the Bomberman character in this canister, and say "it's lighthearted like Kirby!" No... Kirby forgives mistakes, Kirby doesn't really even need to worry about saves or lives, Kirby is intended for children. Bomberman should have either stuck to it's competitive arcade game play of high scores so everything matters, or made the conversion to an adventure game like Zelda and not punish the player, but it did not want too. It just WANTED to be bad.