Bomberman. We all know Bomberman. He’s among the giants of video game mascots. He’s been around since 1983. He’s graced an amazing range of consoles. He’s provided hours and hours of fun for solo players as well as groups of players. He’s still relevant today, with a title coming this year to all current consoles.
And just look at him. He’s adorable. Even with a lit bomb. Adorable.
With the advancement of technology and the sheer processing power and online play of the PS3/Xbox 360/Wii generation, the fun and joy of Bomberman could only be amplified, right? Playing against others online would be reminiscent of those matches against friends on your couch, right? And that increase in graphical power would only serve to make Bomberman that much cuter, right?
Buckle up, ladies and gentleman. This is going to get ugly.
As stated above, Bomberman originally launched in 1983 in Japan for the NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6001 mkII, Fujitsu FM-7, Sharp MZ-700, Sharp MZ-2000, Sharp X1 and the MSX. It was also released in Europe for the MSX and ZX Spectrum as Eric and the Floaters…for reasons, I suppose.
Bomberman wouldn’t be released on the NES/Famicom until 1985. This release would catapult Bomberman to world wide popularity. Two fun facts about Bomberman: (1) The ending of the original reveals that Bomberman is actually a prequel to Hudson Soft’s Lode Runner and (2) Shinichi Nakamoto (Hudson Soft’s Director of R&D) thought very highly of the NES/Famicom release, stating in 1995, “I personally believe that the Famicom version of Bomberman is the one and only version of the game.”
The premise of Bomberman is quite simple. You, as Bomberman, lay bombs to destroy blocks and enemies, while trying to find the exit to each level. You can locate powerups to make your bombs stronger, have a larger areas of effect, speed up your character, etc… A fun wrinkle to this formula is that your own bombs can kill you, so you have to lay them and get out of the way of the plus sign shaped explosions that follow. Multiplayer mode pitted you against another player(s) trying to blow you up as you try to blow them up. Simple, but addictive and incredibly fun.
Bomberman’s addictive premise remained so popular that Bomberman saw releases on the NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Wii, GameBoy, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, Nintendo DS, TurboGrafx-16, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Jaguar, and PSP. I didn’t cover all the consoles here, but you get the idea. Another fun fact: Bomberman has a relation to Blaster Master, of all games. The game Bomber King, a spin-off of Bomberman, was released in North America on the NES as RoboWarrior (a personal favorite). A sequel to this title was released on the GameBoy as Blaster Master Boy, in spite of having nothing to do with Blaster Master. Go figure.
With the popularity of Bomberman, it was only natural for Hudson Soft to look at releasing an entry on Microsoft’s Xbox 360. For this title, it is clear that Hudson Soft was hoping to reboot the Bomberman franchise for a more mature audience. The title was helmed by Masato Shibata (Executive Producer), Kazuhiko Nonaka (Producer), and Shinichi Kasahara (Project Manager). A quick look at their credits will show that all three have worked on titles that turned out quite well.
Bomberman Act Zero ultimately was a reboot/loose remake of Bomberman on the NES, but with a darker tone and setting. Bomberman now appeared to have more inspiration from Resident Evil’s Tyrant than, you know, Bomberman. As for the story, Bombermen (or Bomberwomen) are created/born in an underground facility and must battle one another to decide a victor. Your particular Bomberman wakes and plots to work his/her way to the surface and escape. The setting is a room with blue lit electrified (?) blocks in a grid pattern. Essentially, the standard Bomberman room, but darker and with blue lit electrified (?) blocks.
Act Zero was initially announced at the Tokyo Game Show in 2005 along with a brief video showcasing the new design of T-Virus Bomberman. At E3 2006, Konami announced that they would be publishing the title. Act Zero was officially released in Japan on August 3, 2006, North America on August 29, 2006, with releases in Europe and Australia following in November.
Early previews of the game after E3 garnered some positive remarks, so the players clearly were not actually playing Bomberman Act Zero. Justin Calvert, writing for Gamespot, stated that “The game sports dark, action-game-style visuals that could hardly be more different from the cute and colorful Bomberman games of old, but we’re pleased to report that the classic gameplay appears to be largely unchanged.” Mikel Reparaz, writing for GamesRadar, noted that “after trying it ourselves, we can say that underneath that armored exoskeleton beats the heart of the same old Bomberman. It’s true that Act Zero adds a freely movable camera (intended to create a more claustrophobic feel), a life bar and the ability to hide or reduce the damage you take by crouching. But for purists, there’s also Standard mode, which features a fixed camera (with a view of the entire arena) and one-hit kills.”
In fairness, I can imagine how a brief snippet of the game would give someone some hope for a quality game. I think most people want to be positive rather than negative, so limited time with Act Zero could definitely leave a person with optimism. And it does seem true that, generally speaking, the gameplay is close to that of the classic Bomberman games.
Okay, let’s discuss the meat of the game, the gameplay (I’m ignoring the online multiplayer component here, other than noting that there was no localized multiplayer for this title). The single player mode of Act Zero consists of ninety-nine levels, one life, no save ability, and no continues. If you die once, you are done. It doesn’t matter how far you progressed in the game, one death equals a game over. There are two camera modes. The first is the more standard overhead view from previous Bomberman titles. The second is referred to as “First Person Bomber” which, as the name implies, places the camera behind your Bomberman for a third person viewpoint.
Upon release, the reviews for Bomberman Act Zero were not mixed. They were universally bad. Greg Mueller of GameSpot wrote of Act Zero, “In what could be a stroke of pure marketing genius on the part of Hudson, a new game for the Xbox 360, called Bomberman: Act Zero, has been released, and it somehow makes all of the mediocre Bomberman games of the past 10 years seem fantastic by comparison. In fact, the only purpose Bomberman: Act Zero serves, and the only distinction it achieves, is to take the series to absolute rock bottom so there’s nowhere left to go but up from here.” He also wrote that “Bomberman: Act Zero looks and sounds bad as well. The graphics look like an early generation Xbox game. If you play in high definition, you’ll see some shiny and bumpy textures, but the character models and environments still look ugly. And just when you thought the game couldn’t get any lower, you’ll see ridiculous and completely unnecessary bouncing breasts on the female character model. The fact that the developer took the time to program something as asinine as breast physics but couldn’t be bothered to fix the game is indicative of the quality of the overall effort in Act Zero.”
David S. J. Hodgson, writing for Gamespy had this to say: “This is a dire, half-assed attempt to update an admittedly long-in-the-tooth game that falters on almost every level. This isn’t just a bad game; this is a serious misstep for Hudson Soft. Actually, it’s more of a trip, stagger, and plummet.” He also wrote that “as all the stages are essentially identical, I’m not exaggerating when I state that this happens to be the single biggest tedious waste of time, perhaps in the entire history of gaming. In fact, this transcends proper gaming conventions and enters a weird, strange purgatory of monotony and blandness.”
Douglass C. Perry, in a review for IGN wrote that “Bomberman Act: Zero is badly designed game that throws out the best elements of the series in order to make the game “new,” “next-generation,” and “American.” In Hudson’s efforts to attract the next generation of gamers, they forgot to bring along the aspects of the game we originally fell in love with.” He adds that “The key to Bomberman is keeping it simple. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the cute, super-deformed little bomb thrower as a multiplayer game nor was the character design an issue. There is everything wrong with this new version in all regards.”
These reviews are not unique. In my research, I couldn’t find a single positive review of Act Zero, which explains its current 34 Metascore on Metacritic, along with a 2.3 User Score. Bomberman Act Zero was ultimately so bad that even Hudson Soft admitted that it was simply not very good in a YouTube video promoting Bomberman Live in 2007 (sadly, this video does not appear to be online any longer). Fortunately for us all, Act Zero proved to be a blip in the Bomberman timeline. Releases for the Wii, PSP, and Nintendo DS followed, though they received mixed reviews. Bomberman Blast, released on the Wii, returned the series to positive reviews, as did entries on Xbox Live and PSN. After a seven year break, Bomberman returned to home consoles with the release of Super Bomberman R. While this title received mixed to positive reviews, it was praised for staying true to traditional Bomberman gameplay. At the end of the day, it seems that change is not always necessary or needed, even in a franchise that’s been around as long as Bomberman. Sometimes, people want something they’re comfortable with. Minor tweaks are allowed, but complete overhauls, if not handled carefully, can completely turn off a fanbase. If nothing else, Bomberman Act Zero is a reminder that change is not always good and edgier is not always needed. Don’t mess with success, and certainly don’t mess with adorable Bomberman.
References:
https://www.gamesradar.com/bomberman-act-zero-10/
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3-06-bomberman-act-zero-hands-on/1100-6150324/
https://www.ign.com/articles/2005/09/16/tgs-2005-bomberman-act-zero
https://www.ign.com/articles/2006/05/10/e3-2006-bomberman-act-zero-announced
https://www.mobygames.com/game/28267/bomberman-actzero/credits/xbox360/
https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/bomberman-act-zero-review/1900-6157029/
http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/bomberman-360/729737p2.html
https://www.ign.com/articles/2006/08/31/bomberman-act-zero-review
https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/bomberman-act-zero
https://www.engadget.com/2007-07-05-hudson-admits-bomberman-act-zero-was-bad.html
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