A multiplayer puzzle/strategy game where players use bombs to destroy objects, as well as each other. This TurboGrafx-16 exclusive is one of the better regarded games in Hudson's Bomberman series.
On this episode of Octurbo Man Week, the concussive sounds of inevitability ring in our collective ears as we finally cover Hudson's most famous little bald guy. No, not that one, the other one. The one that drops bombs everywhere.
Bomberman '93 is one of those games people tend to list as the "best" of the early 2D Bombermans, alongside Saturn Bomberman and Super Bombermans 2 and 3, which is a comparative process that has always baffled me. I purport (with a certain amount of spurious bluster, granted) to be someone with enough game design knowhow to pick apart even the minor shifts and changes between one game and the next in a series, but the Bomberman series really do all seem like the same game to me. Even with the superficial additions of kangeroos or bomb gloves or whatever other inconsequential superfluousness has been added to justify another new game. Bomberman 64, for all its problems, actually felt like the first time Bomberman tried evolving and leaving its relatively uncharred safety zone.
So, in conclusion, this is just more Bomberman. For a feature focusing on a console where half the games are from Hudson Soft, though, it's not a franchise I can really ignore forever.
Thanks O'Bomberman
Welcome to Bomberman '93! Damn, that's a busy title screen.I dunno, I quite like this game's occasional use of heavy black outlines. This gaudy future city reminds me a little of WarioWare.I won't make the obvious joke about Bomberman's little snub plane, but I will say that they don't make that joke any easier to avoid by sticking a giant pink "P" on there.These are disputed planets. So I guess we've got to do some diplomacy? You know, the type of diplomacy that involves bombs.Hi Digger! He looks like a Tetris Battle Gaiden character. (As we'll find out soon, he's about as cheap as one too.)Yep, it's classic Bomberman. Run around blowing up walls and enemies and preferably not also yourself.As usual, there's a single upgrade per stage. Some, like the bomb-up and flame-up, remain with you forever. Others, like the incredibly useful Remote Bomb, go away once you lose a life.You also need to uncover the exit before you can leave. Accidentally blowing up the exit causes it to reroute to hell or something and spit out a huge number of enemies. Generally not recommended. Maybe there are some pro types out there that just do it over and over for high scores though. I dunno, I kind of don't want to imagine that there are people out there who play single-player Bomberman competitively.This game does throw you a bone by highlighting the rock that has the power-up after killing all the enemies, just in case you hadn't found it yet. Convenient, but they still make you search for the exit.I didn't think Digger would actually be this big. The heavy outlines kind of make it seem like he was scaled up for some reason. Probably so he'd be easier to hit. I won't argue.Of course, I'm not a fan of his little teleport clones. They appear and shoot their blue ghost fires very quickly, and it's certain death if you thought you could flank the main guy with a bomb.I eventually beat Digger. Didn't see him dig once. He mostly just teleports and shoots flames. I guess "Flamer" wouldn't have gone down well with the censors.He may be defeated, but to destroy him utterly body and soul I must cosplay as him. Brutal.
Bomberman is what it is, so I can't fault it too much. I can however fault the sheer output of Hudson's favorite character, and I have to imagine that leaning on that little pyromaniac so heavily is eventually what put them under. The TG-16 library demonstrates that while not all of Hudson's ideas were great, they still had a lot of them. They were practically competing with Capcom and Konami back then in the sheer number of franchises and memorable mascot characters they were churning out. I almost feel kind of bad for highlighting what is essentially the creative cancer that led to their demise.
Man, am I getting a little too melodramatic over here. Bomberman is a series of games where a little white robot blows things up. This was one of them. Thanks for stopping by.
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