Bomberman '93

aka: Bomber Man '93
Moby ID: 16518
TurboGrafx-16 Specs

Description official descriptions

Black Bomberman has cut power to the galaxy's own power station, which resulted in disputes between seven planets, and it is up to White Bomberman to restore power to the station and bring peace to the planets again. The objective is the same as in Dyna Blaster: use bombs to destroy all enemies in a level. Once you have destroyed them all, find the exit hidden in a block so you can be transported to the next level. A block will also flash yellow to let you know that a power-up can be obtained there. Power-ups include more bombs, manual detonation, extra lives, and extended flames. Occasionally, you also get the ability to walk through bombs or walls, or to kick bombs.

If you manage to reveal the exit before all enemies are destroyed, it remains in an "inactive" state, meaning that you cannot be transported to the next level until you blow up all the enemies and therefore making it "active". If you accidentally blow up the exit, whether it is active or not, or if time runs out, you will unleash a few enemies that you also need to destroy. After every eighth level, there is a boss that you need to destroy to proceed to the next planet.

Besides this Normal mode, there are two other modes: Battle and Versus. In Battle, you can play against four human- or computer-controlled players in one of seven stages, each with different features like warp holes, conveyor belts, revolving doors, and much more. In Versus, you play head-to-head against a friend using the TurboExpress for non-stop action. Regardless of these two modes, you can still obtain power-ups to give out some punishment against your fellow players, and the maximum number of wins can be set before play.

Spellings

  • ボンバーマン'93 - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (TurboGrafx-16 version)

61 People (54 developers, 7 thanks) · View all

Game Designer
Programmer
Graphic Designers
Music Composer
Sound Programmers
Sound Director
Special Thanks
Game Director
Original Game Design
Bomberman '93 Idea Staff
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 19 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 17 ratings with 1 reviews)

1993: Bomberman released at the peak of the "Console Wars"!

The Good
You control "Bomberman", and the addictive nature of this game is in the satisfaction of clearing out (very stupid) enemies, and then finding the exit to the next world. The play mechanics being so simple and addictive excuse the fairly poor presentation in this game. Sure, the colours are fine, the sprites fairly lively, but you cannot help but begin to notice that the levels are very repeated, and the fairly uninspired environments. But as I've mentioned, it doesn't really affect your play experience - the focus is on exploding your way through the levels. You are clearing your way through bomb-able bricks as to gain access to various enemies (some ugly, some pretty cute). You can put most of them away with a single blast. It's fun.

Which brings us to the boss fights. After a number (seven, I think), of lead-up stages, we are pitted against various overgrown enemies with much more complicated attack patterns than what the drones throughout the levels have previously used. These are challenging levels, sometimes frustrating, but once the pattern is determined, the bosses are fairly easy to dispose of. They are a nice round-off to each world that Bomberman finds himself in.

The best this game to offer is in it's enemy-blasting and power-up system. Upgrades include increasing your blast-radius to ridiculous degrees, auto-ignite bombs, kicking ability, and a few other special upgrades that are sadly, a little too infrequent in their spawning. Nevertheless, upgrading your man is a fun investment - but it can all come crashing down with one of those classic sudden Bomberman deaths.

The multi-player mode is a great addition too. Going up against human opponents is probably a little more satisfying that exotically drawn drones who simply circle or patrol mindlessly. The neat thing here for me was the ability to mix the Wiimote functionality with the Gamecube controller. Nice flexibility here in these modern times.

The Bad
Of course, modern gamers will see the flaws this game presents quick-smart. The variety in the gameplay (something which good companies think long and hard about today) is virtually non-existent. As mentioned above, the only real break-up the game offers is in it's boss fights - which admittedly are not significant enough to bring refreshment.

Bomberman is arguably a multi-player experience chiefly, but one gripe I had with this mode is that I wish you could round-robin the level you were battling on - you can't. And, the three-to-five battles must take place on a pre-determined level selected pre-game. It seems a bit petty, but you do get sick of re-starting even twice on the one play field, especially when the screen fades to black after each round, as if it were ready to take you onwards to a new area.

The Bottom Line
I downloaded this because I heard that it was the best 16-bit Bomberman available. I don't agree with that, (Bomberman 2 on SNES is a better game), but nevertheless, this is a nice obscure adventure of Bomberman's single endeavour onto the TG16.

Wii · by So Hai (261) · 2008

Trivia

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • April 1993 (Issue 45) – Game of the Month

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 16518
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Katakis | カタキス.

Wii added by Corn Popper. Wii U added by Michael Cassidy.

Additional contributors: Alaka, o0pyromancer0o, Grandy02.

Game added February 9, 2005. Last modified December 17, 2023.