Super Bomberman R Review

Multiplayer:

Multiplayer is where any good Bomberman lives and dies, however, and I’m glad to say Konami have done a great job. Whilst the package isn’t as fully featured as the last Bomberman title I’d played – Bomberman Live on 360 – it still offers up incomparable multiplayer fun. Whilst extra maps, modes and options to create your perfect Bomberman deathmatch would have been nice, once you’re in a tense showdown between you and your last remaining mate, carefully baiting each other out or trying to trap them in a corner surrounded by bombs, you’ll forget that all the additional bells and whistles aren’t there.

It’s also great to see that the campaign mode is fully co-op, and I whilst I enjoyed the experience solo playing through with a partner was ten times more fun (and deadly.) We killed each other more times than I can count, and whittled our lives and coins down to dangerous levels, but the experience is so much more fun thanks to this mode that it’s completely worth the added stress.

Super Bomberman R also allows you to take the fight online or even allows multiple Switch consoles to hook up locally and have a massive multiplayer throwdown. Carting the experience around and splitting up your controller with the detachable Joy-Cons also mean this is another game to add to the Switch’s ever growing list of perfectly portable multiplayer experiences. I whipped out my Switch at a pub last weekend and had an amazing, instantly-accessible half hour of raucous fun between rounds of drinks with friends who hadn’t touched a gaming console in years. This is why Switch is going to be huge going forwards, and it’s pick-up-and-play experiences like Bomberman that are going to truly thrive on the system.

Presentation:

Whilst the animated cutscenes are great, I found Bomberman R’s visuals in game to a bit of a mixed bag. With a game as hectic as Bomberman, visual fidelity and clear graphics are important, and in that regard Bomberman excels. You’ll never die because you couldn’t see what was happening in Bomberman R.

That said, I think the graphics are a little too oversimplified. It’s not a phenomenal looking game, and the colours look especially washed out. Whilst I think visual clarity is of the utmost importance in a frantic game like Bomberman R, I would have liked to see the design team push things a little further than they have here.

Conclusion:

“Super Bomberman R” is a perfect little party game to cart around with you on the go. It’s easy to understand nature and timeless gameplay means that anyone can grab a controller and become a serious threat in just a few rounds, no matter their gaming expertise. It’s for this reason that Bomberman truly excels on the Switch – another Nintendo console that I’m sure will see unlikely individuals pick up a controller for the first time in a long time (if not their whole lives). It’s pricey as a retail game, and I’m hoping we’ll see some maps and game modes land in the future to extend it’s value, but as it stands, as long as you’re willing to drop the cash Bomberman R is a game I really recommend.