I thought that Super Bomberman could not be improved upon. It had everything it needed and looked good doing it. Why, then, would you ever need another Bomberman title on the 1001 list? Because Saturn Bomberman is better.
Look at that map. That's the story mode. Saturn Bomberman has a story. So did Super Bomberman but it's crap when compared to this. The Bomberman grid is there but is hidden amongst trees and lamp posts and you're blowing up ice cream, for some reason. It doesn't matter, it looks fantastic.
It looks so good in fact that I resolved, there and then, to try and get Sega Saturn emulation working - or working better for me in any event - just so I could play Saturn Bomberman.
Did I succeed?
Fun Times
Hell yeah, I succeeded and was rewarded with an insanely animated anime intro to set up the adventures of Bomberman and some other fella as they try and save the world from another guy by retrieving crystals of some kind or something. I was distracted, alright?
The story is split up into stages and levels and each is themed, opening with an amusement park set up. That'd explain the ice cream and the enemies that don't look threatening but most certainly are.
If you're familiar with Bomberman, you're already familiar with the gameplay. You'll navigate yourself around the level blowing up objects and enemies with well-placed bombs. Each level has a few Zarfs for you to destroy, a Zarf being an orb on a pole, obviously. Destroy all of these and the level exit is revealed, and walking into said exit completes the level.
Destroy everything, including the enemies, and you'll not only be rewarded with points but also powerups, allowing you to kick your bombs, grab and throw them, or have much more powerful and dangerous amounts of explosives in them, meaning you best get out of the way fast.
What you'll also have are dinosaur eggs, which, just like Mario and his pal Yoshi, change up the gameplay just a little, and add life-giving sacrificial character to your arsenal for when you inevitably balls up your bomb placement.
You'll note that no dinosaurs have been present in these images, though you can see that I've set off a cannon and will score a few more points if the cannonball hits that fish in the background...
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| It's like a Stegasaurus type thing. Honest |
Frustrations
With the exception of the back of a dinosaur visible somewhere in this still from the intro movie, there are no dinosaurs in these images because I was too stupid to get dinosaurs. If I didn't get out of the way of a bomb blast quick enough, then I was spinning myself into certain death by placing one of them in the wrong spot.
As well as each enemy you walk into losing you a life, so does blowing yourself up, and like many a game before Saturn Bomberman, once I made one mistake, I kept making more and more. Each time you cock up, the level restarts without your power-ups so it can be costly and frustrating if you need a certain power-up to make a boss fight easier.
You'll see no screenshots of bosses because I haven't managed to actually reach the bastard yet. I've rushed into it, made silly mistakes, and then gotten too fed up at my own actions to continue playing, even though it's dead simple to hit continue and start with three lives from the point at which you lost them all.
Each time you fail one way or another, the level resets with slightly different bombable stuff configurations, so that things are a little more varied and you aren't completing levels on auto-pilot, which is nice.
I only found that out by dying enough times, but there you go. Find the positives...
Final Word
I'm going to be going back into Saturn Bomberman for sure, with a calmer head, taking my time and doing things slowly. Not too slowly, though - there's a timer and I don't know what it's keeping track of, so I've got to keep it in mind.
The graphics have barely aged and are a delight to look at, and there's multiplayer support for those who want it. Something about hooking up a couple of multi-taps for 10 players in widescreen fighting a mini-Godzilla, so I hear. Might interest you.
More needs to be played to really see what I've got on my hands here, but for me, the only reason I still like Super Bomberman is that that was the version I played as a kid. The nostalgia goggles work wonders, but Saturn Bomberman has perhaps knocked them off my face.
Try it out for yourselves, especially if you've never played a Bomberman title.
Fun Times
This game also had online and co-op modes, making it quite the package for those who went all in in the mid-1990s.
Saturn Bomberman, developed by Hudson Soft, first released in 1996.
Version played: Sega Saturn, 1997, via emulation.
Version watched: Sega Saturn, 1997 (Ryroe, Randomised Gaming)