Super Bomberman R

With the series turning 33 this year, Konami jumped at the opportunity to host the classic bombing game as a release day title on the Nintendo Switch. In hindsight, it seems to have paid off as Super Bomberman R has become the best selling game in the series from the past 20 years. You may be wondering- what makes this game so special? Lets dive in.

Super Bomberman R has two modes- the storyline and the multiplayer. The single player isn't very long and is presented in an anime style. The story features the classic white bomber, along with his

other companions as they go on a mission through space to save their home planet by defeating the dastardly bombers. Each of the 5 worlds has 7 levels which after completion leads you into a boss fight sequence.

I recently finished the story mode of this game and I have both good and bad things to say about it. None of the levels are particularly difficult, and I sped through the story in just under 4 hours. That being said, it was a bit boring at times. Completing each of the levels starts to feel like a chore without much action. This may be remedied by choosing to play two player, which is an option for the story.

Each of the bosses starts off in a typical Bomberman style playing field with each character trying to blow up the other. Some of these initial boss matches can be very tricky since the CPU rarely makes mistakes. On 3/5 bosses, I actually cleared the first phase of the fight by sacrificing myself kamikaze style. After the first round, the dastardly bomber then becomes a larger mechanized boss. Each

mechanical boss has a unique area that you must bomb in order to knock them down and deal extra damage. I personally found the first portion of boss battles to be more challenging than the second portion, since the map is more open and attacks from the mechanical bosses are easily dodged.

In the event of death, you have the option to pay gold in order to continue from the point that you left off. I really wish that Konami would have made the game to where each bosses health resets when yours does. At times, it seems a bit too easy to just be reckless and pay money to have tons of lives while whittling your foes health down.

Next I'll talk about the multiplayer a bit. In my opinion, this is where Super Bomberman R really shines. When entering the multiplayer mode, the user has the choice to choose between a ranked or free battle. Matches range anywhere from 2-8 players with varying grid style maps where each user must try and blow up the other player in order to win. I have had tons of fun playing the online ranked matches- even if I'm not very good at it!

Something that I particularly like about the multiplayer on Super Bomberman R is the revenge mode. While playing, if you happen to die early in the game you will appear on the side wall. From the top of this wall, you have the option to navigate around the maps perimeter and attempt to throw bombs to blow up the other players. If you manage to blow another player up, you will reappear on the map. The only downside to this is that you do not have powerups after initially dying, so it is in your best interest to stay alive. However, this does make the game more interesting for someone like me who dies a lot since you aren't simply sitting around waiting for the next match.

The multiplayer, much like the single player, allows you to choose between the different colored bombers to play as. One thing I really like is the customization features available in the shop portion. By spending your earned coins, you can purchase hats, maps, and even the dastardly bombers after completing the story mode. The only negative to this is that I have personally found the in game currency to be very hard to earn. Completing worlds in the story mode seems to be the easiest method, however each of these runs only nets you around 350 gold, and when the maps cost 2500 and characters cost 5000, it becomes tedious quickly.

As much as I like the multiplayer, it does have its cons. At times it lags VERY badly. To the point where it feels like your character is moon-walking in a sense. This can make it difficult to avoid

bomb explosions and there are times when the lag has even caused me to die prematurely in a match. Last week Konami released a patch that was intended to resolve this issue, however I have still found it to be present at times, just not as often.

The multiplayer also easily becomes confusing at times because of the size of the Nintendo Switches screen. When I started playing Bomberman R I repeatedly found myself getting confused about which Bomberman sprite was mine. This improved over time, but I still occasionally find myself making this mistake. It's just a bit too small to distinguish the characters easily.

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Overall, I'd say that Super Bomberman R is a solid 6. Even though the multiplayer is a blast, it is riddled with issues that cannot be overlooked. And seeing that this game has almost been out for a month, its a bit confusing as to why Konami hasn't fixed this issue.

The cost of items in the shop is another big problem, and in my opinion these prices should be lowered. Unlocking the extra maps and characters becomes a chore, and I feel that at a $50 price tag players shouldn't have to be annoyed to fully unlock the games content.

As fun as the multiplayer is, it does get a bit repetitive and I'm not sure that I will want to play this long term, especially after other multiplayer titles such as Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon 2 release on the Switch.