Saturn Bomberman

Saturn Bomberman
European cover art
Developer(s) Hudson Soft, Eleven
Publisher(s)
Director(s) Shigeki Fujiwara
Kazunori Yasui
Producer(s) Hiroshi Igari
Designer(s) Tatsumitsu Watanabe
Yōhei Nakata
Artist(s) Shoji Mizuno
Naoto Yoshimi
Composer(s) Jun Chikuma
Series Bomberman
Platform(s) Saturn
Release
  • JP: July 19, 1996
  • EU: May 1, 1997
  • NA: August 22, 1997
[1]
Genre(s) Action, maze
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Saturn Bomberman (サターンボンバーマン, Satān Bonbāman) is an action video game by Hudson Soft for the Sega Saturn. The twelfth installment in the Bomberman series, it was first released in Japan on 19 July 1996, in North America on 22 August 1997 and in Europe in 1997. It is best known for its multiplayer functionality for up to ten players.

The game received positive reviews upon release.

Gameplay

Saturn Bomberman start screen

Like most Bomberman games, Saturn Bomberman features a battle mode as well as a story mode. Along with them is a master mode in which the player races to finish a series of levels after which the player is given a rank based on time taken. This time is then saved to memory and kept on a scoreboard for future reference. The game also features several new powerups.

Saturn Bomberman utilises Dinosaur helpers, which are initially found as eggs released upon the destruction of a soft block. Dinosaurs come in three levels: babies (the weakest), adolescents, and adults (the strongest). Dinosaurs can only take one hit no matter how large they are. If a player is riding a dinosaur when this happens, the dinosaur takes the hit instead of the player. As powerups are collected, a special meter at the top of the screen slowly builds up. Once this meter is full, the dinosaur will grow one level, from baby to adolescent or adolescent to adult. However, in battle mode this system works differently. Whenever a player collects an egg while riding on a dinosaur, the dinosaur will grow. The player can jump off of the dinosaur at any time.

Story mode

Saturn Bomberman has a story mode which can be played single player or two-player.

The story mode levels involve blowing up poles with glowing red orbs on the top (which are known as Zarfs) while avoiding (or destroying) enemies, blowing up blocks and collecting powerups. Once all the Zarfs on a level have been destroyed, an exit appears. Upon entering the exit, Bomberman will do a victory pose, then a short cut scene takes place. The cut scene shows a piece of scenery moving out of the way, then Bomberman walks through, and something closes up the way he came from. After the cut scene, the next level begins.

Battle mode

Saturn Bomberman supports up to ten human players on battle mode with 2 multitaps,[2] 7 players with just one multitap, or two players without any multitaps. It is also possible to combat against CPU-controlled opponents in battle mode.[2]

If the number of players in a game exceeds eight, the game is played on a widescreen arena, shrinking the characters and blocks to tiny proportions, making the playing field very large. This also disables many of the powerups including dinosaurs.

The North American version also supports the Sega NetLink for up to four player online via two players per console.[3][4]

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGame[5]
CVG[6]
EGM37 / 40[7]
GameFan277 / 300[8]
GamePro4.5 / 5[9]
Game RevolutionA-[10]
GamesMaster90%[11]
Fun Generation9 / 10[12]
Player One95%[13]
Play Mag90%[14]
Saturn Power91%[15]
Sega Saturn Magazine90%[16]

Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Saturn Bomberman the 1997 Game of the Year awards for "Saturn Game of the Year" (beating Street Fighter Collection and Madden NFL 98) and "Multiplayer Game of the Year" (beating GoldenEye 007 and Mario Kart 64).[17]

References

  1. ↑ "Hudson - Action game [ Sega Saturn](Archive)". hudson.co.jp. Archived from the original on 6 February 1997. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Protos: Bomberman". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 92. Ziff Davis. March 1997. p. 34.
  3. ↑ http://segaretro.org/Saturn_Bomberman
  4. ↑ http://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File%3ASaturnbomberman_sat_us_manual.pdf&page=22
  5. ↑ Rovi Corporation. "Saturn Bomberman". Archived from the original on 10 December 2014.
  6. ↑ "File:CVG UK 186.pdf - Retro CDN".
  7. ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, issue 100, page 191
  8. ↑ GameFan, volume 4, issue 10, page 19
  9. ↑ "GamePro - Issue 109 Volume 09 Number 10 (1997-10)(IDG Publishing)(US)".
  10. ↑ "Saturn Bomberman Review".
  11. ↑ GamesMaster, issue 56, page 61
  12. ↑ "Saturn Bomberman (Saturn) - N.i.n.Retro (New is not Retro) v3+".
  13. ↑ Player One, issue 75, pages 86-89
  14. ↑ http://download.abandonware.org/magazines/PlayMag/playmag_numero006/playmag%20N6%20septembre%201996%20053.JPG
  15. ↑ Saturn Power, issue 1, page 75
  16. ↑ "File:SSM UK 19.pdf - Sega Retro".
  17. ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, issue 104, Editors' Choice Awards, pages 86-96
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