Originally Posted July 16th 2014 on the Seafoam Gaming Forums

A long time ago, Hudson Soft used to make entries in a classic series known as Bomberman. However, they were dissolved by KONAMI, and Bomberman’s latest game on the 3DS was cancelled… Luckily, Sanuk games came out of nowhere to release their clone of the classic series, hoping to keep the general concept alive. As a person who’s never even played the Bomberman series, does this game do a good enough job? Find out right here, even if those Miiverse kids think the game is inappropriate.

Title: Bombing Bastards

System: Wii U (eShop)

Price: 7.99

Release date: 7/03/2014

The main game/story

As hinted above, this game is a Bomberman clone. In a day and age however where the series is essentially dead, this is actually OK to do, and in fact is a good thing as Sanuk games is essentially keeping the spirit of the series alive. There isn’t much of a story besides the fact you were built by a mad scientist who wants to take over the world, so it focuses on fun!

Graphics

The character models look very nice and well made, helping to make everything look fine. Menus are easy to navigate (With both stylus and controller being used to do so), and the stages themselves look allright. Overall, it works.

Music and sound effects:

There are a few tracks in this game, but for the most part they seem to be mostly renditions of  Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Which while fine in concept, kinda gets annoying after a while. Surprisingly, there is voice acting in this game, that the mad scientist will say at some parts throughout the game. Sound effects are standard and work well.

Gameplay

What you need to do in this game is to place bombs strategically to eliminate obstacles in order to destroy every critter on the screen. Rinse and repeat to win, just like in bomberman. However, there are many powerups that will help in your quest. Some can speed your robot up, allow you to grab and throw bombs, extend the range, ETC.

However, this game is not that easy… Some enemies will run away if you try to attack them, so you need to trap them in order to destroy them. You’ll often get stuck or trapped between the bombs, and will therefore most likely die quite a bit. But with practice, you’ll get better, and you’ll eventually get those 3 star rankings, as long as you don’t give up!

There’s also a multiplayer mode, similar to the frantic ones in the Turbografx Bomberman games. Unfortunately, there is no online multiplayer, which is a big disappointment indeed.

Luckily there is local multiplayer, and I found it to be a lot of fun when I played it with a group of friends. You can also add CPUs to fight against, as well. While unfortunately lackluster, it at least works and is still fun.

Conclusion

In the end, Sanuk Games did a good job with this game. While no clone is ever as good as the real deal, this game still does it in a way that’s enjoyable and fun, and keeps the spirit of the series alive! Considering there is no actual Bomberman game available on Wii U at all (Even the PC ENGINE and NES Bomberman games are unavailable at this time), this is a great alternative and will be a lot of fun in both single player, and local multiplayer! While there is unfortunately no off TV play sound for this game, it still is a decent and fun multiplayer game to enjoy with friends. I give Bombing Bastards a 7 out of 10.

Thanks to Sanuk games for the review code.