Written by Wayne Barker
Konami’s latest entry in the long-running Bomberman franchise is a refreshing new direction.
In addition to an abundance of game modes, Super Bomberman R2’s new Story Mode introduces large-scale sandbox levels, over the traditional single mazes from previous games.
R2 sees Bomberman and the rangers discover a gigantic black moon, but they’re not alone. It’s occupied by aliens that threaten to destroy the entire universe — who else but the Bomber Rangers to volunteer and save the day?
From the second I booted up the game, I was taken aback by the visuals. Super Bomberman R2 is cute, bright and colourful in all varieties. Animations, characters, enemies and levels – paired with a super catchy soundtrack – offer such a charming feel.
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Exploring the gorgeous worlds will introduce you to adorable little creatures called Ellons. These cuties bring the story forward, but mysteriously have a larger story to tell.
The more you collect, the more areas you unlock.
While rescuing Ellons, you’ll stumble across plenty of enemy encounters. There’s also secret puzzles and experience points to find to keep you busy.
Yes, I said find XP.
XP in Super Bomberman R2 is found, rather than earned. It’s a different way to do it, and since levelling up increases all of your stats, if you decide to spend 10 minutes looking for XP you can almost max out your level for that world.
It may be different but it’s a nice way to break up the monotony of level grinding. The game kicks you back down to level 1 for every new world you enter, which isn’t too bad but it’s an unnecessary mini-grind.
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Along your travels, you will find secret puzzles offering little explanation on what to do, which can be a nice brain-flexing moment, but some of them absolutely required explanation.
To move from world to world you must save enough Ellons to unlock enemy lairs, then attack and conquer. When attacking the enemy lair you and all other 7 Bomberman siblings must collect a key and take the enemy’s Ellonite resources. This is the most chaotic and confusing gameplay I’ve ever experienced.
Instead of working as a team to defeat the enemies, all siblings are fighting for themselves, so while dodging traps, bombs and enemies you are also dodging 7 Bomberman worth of unique attacks.
In Super Bomberman R2 you also take up the defensive side of battle.
You build up and defend your Ellonite against a wave of enemies, unfortunately the AI for these battles is way down low.
A mess of enemies running into walls instead of walking around them, pacing back & forth instead of progressing and then attacking empty areas. But if one manages to realise what it is supposed to be doing it is incredibly hard to hold them back.
Super Bomberman R2 took a new approach to the 40-year-long franchise and made an incredibly fun game that just lacked a little more substance and engaging storytelling; repeated XP collecting, Ellon collecting, puzzle solving and enemy lairs with not much in between.
But with all that said… I had a BLAST playing it.
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Super Bomberman R2 is a great game to play in short bursts, even though the difficulty and challenge is quite low, the sense of accomplishment you get blowing up an area full of complex enemy placement without dying is still as satisfying as ever.
Lifelong fans of the series will enjoy their time with R2. The familiar gameplay mechanics and amazing soundtrack will keep your head bopping from start to finish. But if you’re new to Bomberman and chasing something with a bit more story, it may be a struggle.
