SUPER BOMBERMAN R – HIDDEN GEM REVIEW

                                                         By Joshua Calderón

      In an era full of mediocre and overmonetized games, Super Bomberman R brings something really good and unique to the market. Developed by Hexadrive and Konami and published by the latter, it belongs to the action-maze genre. The game was released worldwide on March 3rd, 2017 on the Nintendo Switch, exclusively as a launch title for the console, and on July 14^th, 2018 for the remaining platforms. In an interview with Siliconera, Benjamin Kinney, a brand manager at Konami, mentioned that, “The team wanted the game to be fun for everyone, kids and longtime fans of the series.” Did Super Bomberman R deliver on that promise? I think it did, and very splendidly. Super Bomberman R is an unique game in this era, it shows that a maze-action videogame can be really fun, even for new players to the genre, but also demonstrates that a game can have a lot of content, and no microtransactions, during a period of time in which games are often filled with MTs, without enough content.

     The story and the voice acting are two of the best aspects of the game for many reasons. The story is simple: the Bomberman Brothers, our heroes, have to save the universe and stop Buggler and the Five Dastardly Bombers, the villains. While it is the typical heroes vs. villain type of story, but it also sows the seeds for a really fun and comedic story that entertains all ages, and even comes with some plot-twists here and there. The voice acting is really well done in both languages, Japanese and English for all characters; for the heroes, the villains, and even the additional characters. This may sound strange since most of the time the dubs of a game aren’t as good as the original, but in this case, the dub and the original are both really good. Also, each character has a different personality that makes each stand out from the rest and the voice actors, with their interpretations really show that difference. 

     The game stands out from the rest in both the quantity and the quality of its content. It includes a story mode, a DLC for the story, a Grand Prize mode, a multiplayer mode, (called Battle mode, which you can play locally with friends or in matchmaking), lots of playable characters, and tons of cosmetics you can wear. A game with this much content is uncommon to see nowadays, definitely a stand out game.

     The lack of any type of microtransactions made the game shine a lot more. The store has non-intrusive microtransactions, so one literally can’t spend real money on the game, and the only way to get coins is by playing. You can buy new battle stages, additional characters, and even cosmetics items that you can put in your character’s head, which don’t affect the gameplay. Regarding more in depth characters you can buy in the store, the most unique ones are those who come from other Konami franchises, such as Snake, from Metal Gear Solid; Bill and Lance from Contra, and even some other non-Konami, such as Atlas from Portal, and Arbiter from Halo. You can even get exclusive characters depending on the platform you play on; you can play as Master Chief in Xbox, Ratchet and Clank in PS4, P-body in Steam, and Max in Switch. Max is a very recurrent character in the Bomberman franchise.

      The gameplay is the real gem of this game. It is simple; after all, it’s a Bomberman game. You place a bomb and it explodes after a brief period of time, and with it, you can accomplish the objectives each stage tells you to complete. Some are about killing all the enemies on a specific stage, others are about activating a number of switches so you can enter the goal and get to the next level, some are about finding keys, and others are about bringing some innocent Bomber people to the goal. An interesting complement to the simple but fun gameplay is the existence of power-ups and power-downs, which increase and/or decrease the abilities of the player. These abilities are divided into 3 stats; radius of the bomb, number of bombs you can place at once, and speed of your character. Additionally, you can play as many additional characters. Each one has a unique special ability. There are also some changes in the gameplay, depending on the type of character chosen by the player. The types of characters are divided into five categories; Bomber, Attack, Speed, Assist, and Unique, which make them have different stats depending on the type they are.

       The soundtrack of Super Bomberman R is easily one of the best soundtracks in the Bomberman franchise and in the maze-action genre, in general. The soundtrack is very catchy. All the songs are going to stay in your head for a very long time. The music really sets the tone and always makes you stay hyped. The songs never get old. Also, there are a lot of songs in the game, as each world, stage and boss fight have a unique music and vibe to it. The main theme is so good that even I, (someone who doesn’t listen to main menu’s songs often), stay at the menu for a long time, only to hear it. I think it will become a classic for fans and non-fans of the series. 

       While you may think that the game may get boring at some point, and leave it, in reality, replay value is one of the most outstanding aspects of the game. This game has a lot of replay value, due to all the characters you can play, with everyone having different special abilities and that gives the player different ways to tackle the same level. Additionally, the multiplayer and Grand Prix give a reason to not only play the game a lot with other people all around the world, but play it a ton with friends in real life, due to the capacity of playing multiplayer locally. It may sound impossible, but Super Bomberman R gives the customer a reason to always get back into the game, thanks to the multiple modes and characters it provides. 

       As with any game, Super Bomberman R isn’t perfect; it has some flaws. Some levels have the property of creating an infinite number of enemies, making them impossible to beat without having to restart and try again, and completing them in very short time, so there is even an opportunity of beating it. Additionally, even in beginner difficulty, which is the lowest difficulty, some levels are very hard, mostly due to the level being too filled with enemies and the RNG involved in each enemy AI. This can be frustrating since none of this is the player’s fault. The levels where you had to save the people were the more frustrating ones, since they could be hit by enemies too, (which made them go back to their original position and obligates you to have to go back to pick them up until you get to pick up all the people and bring them to the goal.) This can be very tedious and frustrating, overall. The game suffers from bad design in some levels, it can be frustrating at times, and sometimes the difficulty can be a lot higher than it should be, due to the presence of an unlimited spawn of enemies and the randomness of the movements of those enemies.

      Super Bomberman R is really one of the most peculiar games of this present era, not only because it has a fun story and a lot of content, but also because there are no microtransactions, a very catchy soundtrack, tons of playable characters, and it can easily be an entertaining game for someone who isn’t a Bomberman fan. Again, of course the game is not perfect, but the good aspects really overwhelm the bad aspects. It is really worth a try.