Bomberman: Panic Bomber

Bomberman: Panic Bomber
Front cover of Bomberman: Panic Bomber for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² System, the first version.
Developer(s) Hudson Soft
Raizing (Super Famicom)
Riverhillsoft (NEC PC-9821, FM-Towns, Sharp X68000)
Publisher(s) Hudson Soft
Eighting (Neo Geo)
ASCII Corporation (NEC PC-9821, FM-Towns, Sharp X68000)
Konami (Wii U Virtual Console)
Director(s) Susumu Hibi
Producer(s) Masato Toyoshima
Designer(s) Hisanori Takeuchi
Hiroshi Yokoyama
Programmer(s) Hisanori Takeuchi
Artist(s) Hiroshi Yokoyama
Masayuki Taguchi
Masaru Fujinami
Composer(s) Kenichi Koyano
Jun Chikuma
Series Bomberman
Platform(s) PC Engine CD, Neo Geo, Super Famicom, NEC PC-9821, FM Towns, Sharp X68000, Virtual Boy, PlayStation Portable
Release PC Engine CD
  • JP: December 22, 1994
Neo Geo
  • JP: January 18, 1995
  • NA: 1995
Super Famicom
  • JP: March 1, 1995
NEC PC-9821
  • JP: April 5, 1995
FM-Towns
  • JP: April 5, 1995
Sharp X68000
  • JP: April 5, 1995
Virtual Boy
  • JP: July 21, 1995
  • NA: December 1995
PlayStation Portable
  • JP: June 23, 2005
Wii Virtual Console
Wii U Virtual Console
Genre(s) Puzzle game
Mode(s) Single-player, Multiplayer (Neo-Geo MVS & AES)

Bomberman: Panic Bomber (ボンバーマン ぱにっくボンバー) is a 1994 puzzle video game developed and published by Hudson Soft for the PC Engine (in Super CD-ROM² format) on December 22, 1994.

Gameplay

It is a "falling blocks" puzzle game based on the Bomberman franchise. The goal of the game is essentially to cause your opponent to lose by causing their gameplay field to fill to the top with objects. You do this by causing chains of bombs to explode, sending useless rubble over to your opponent's field, which they must then remove themselves. Bombs are earned by causing chains of three identical blocks to disappear. Bombs can only be blown up with an explosion from a lit bomb, which falls from the top of the screen every so often. If the player causes enough damage, they can eventually earn a giant bomb, which will remove a large amount of debris from the playing field, and cause their opponent a good deal of trouble.

The game's regular story mode revolves around Bomberman's hunt for the Golden Bomber statue. During his trek, he fights against several different odd characters, like Drifty the balloon, or Cecil the tiger. However, all that can really be earned from playing through this mode is a harder difficulty level, earned by finishing the entire story at the "hard" difficulty level. The player's progress is saved by a password system.

Panic Bomber was ported to:

  • Neo Geo,
  • Super Famicom (released in Japan as Super Bomberman: Panic Bomber World (スーパーボンバーマン ぱにっくボンバーワールド), stylistically as Super Bomberman: Panic Bomber W (スーパーボンバーマン ぱにっくボンバーＷ)),
  • multiple Japanese home computers such as Sharp X68000, FM-Towns and NEC PC-9821,
  • Virtual Boy (released in Japan as Tobidase! Panibon (とびだせ！ぱにボン) and in North America simply as Panic Bomber),
  • PlayStation Portable.

The Virtual Boy version uses a red-and-black color scheme and parallax, an optical trick that is used to simulate a 3D effect.[5] A mini-game similar to Panic Bomber was also included in Bomberman Land 2. The original PC-Engine CD version of Panic Bomber was later re-released on Wii and Wii U Virtual Console in Japan (with the latter release also being available for the first time for North America and Europe, albeit untranslated).

Reception

On release, Famicom Tsūshin scored the Super Famicom version of the game a 22 out of 40,[6] giving the Virtual Boy version a 20 out of 40.[7] The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Neo Geo version a 7 out of 10, describing it as a decent if unexceptional Tetris clone, with one reviewer commenting that "This genre is so flooded that it's hard to come up with a unique angle, and there isn't one for Panic Bomber", while the other three argued that the game "has enough originality to make it stand on its own."[8] GamePro remarked that the gameplay and graphics are too simple to justify the game's appearance on the powerful Neo Geo, but praised its play mechanics and addictive nature and concluded, "For a system renowned for fighting games, Panic is a refreshing presence."[9]

Reviewing the Virtual Boy version, a Next Generation critic said that while the game itself is "decent" and "addictive", it is poorly suited for the Virtual Boy, since it does not use the console's 3D capabilities and is less fun to play without colors to distinguish the different pieces. He gave it two out of five stars.[10] GamePro, in contrast, said the game "pushes the Virtual Boy engine to its max", while admitting the 3D effects are "a little timid". The reviewer hailed the gameplay as being "as addictive as Zoop or Tetris."[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110528204450/http://www.hudson.jp:80/searches/result.php?pf=vc
  2. ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.jp/titles/20010000018147
  3. ↑ https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/bomberman-panic-bomber-wii-u
  4. ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/TurboGrafx/Bomberman-Panic-Bomber-1315741.html
  5. ↑ "Backwards Compatible: The Virtual Boy". ABC Good Game. 2009-06-01. Retrieved 2015-04-13.
  6. ↑ NEW GAMES CROSS REVIEW: スーパーボンバーマン パニックボンバーW. Weekly Famicom Tsūshin. No.327. Pg.37. 24 March 1995.
  7. ↑ NEW GAMES CROSS REVIEW: とびだせ！ぱにボン. Weekly Famicom Tsūshin. No.347. Pg.30. 11 August 1995.
  8. ↑ "Review Crew: Panic Bomber". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 70. Sendai Publishing. May 1995. p. 36.
  9. ↑ "ProReview: Panic Bomber". GamePro. No. 82. IDG. July 1995. p. 69.
  10. ↑ "Panic Bomber". Next Generation. No. 15. Imagine Media. March 1996. p. 87.
  11. ↑ "ProReview: Panic Bomber". GamePro. No. 90. IDG. March 1996. p. 69.
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