It’s (Not Quite) Lit
On paper, Nintendo Switch should be an ideal platform for Super Bomberman R: it can be played on a big television or portably, it supports up to four players on one Switch (if you have extra controllers) or up to eight online, and it seems to stick to the classic Bomberman formula (sorry, but I’ll never not have nightmares about Bomberman: Act Zero). And while there’s plenty to like about Super Bomberman R, the Switch’s tiny tablet screen does not do the top-down, tiny Bomber avatar action any favors. And, at $50, it’s unreasonably expensive considering the amount of content when compared to past Bomberman games.
If you’ve somehow never seen or played Bomberman, it couldn’t be much simpler: blow up the destructible parts of the battle arena in order to find hidden upgrades and use them to immolate your human or AI foes. But that simplicity is what helps make it a thrilling party game, whether you’re barely evading an enemy’s bomb blast or trapping a foe in a corner to get the round-winning kill.
Super Bomberman R puts forth a noble attempt at an actual plot in the 50-stage, few-hour Story mode, complete with anime-ish cutscenes. They aren’t particularly funny or interesting, but they’re easily skippable if you like. Boss fights every ninth and 10th round are the highlight, with some truly tough (and enormous) opponents standing between you and the next of the five worlds (plus a sixth world’s final boss fight). Jump-in-anytime co-op is a plus in this mode. The camera, however, does its best to frame the action by occasionally zooming in or out automatically, but gets annoying in the process because tracked enemies sometimes go out of frame or become obscured by the HUD.
What Super Bomberman R absolutely gets right is multiplayer logistics. This 33rd-ever Bomberman game can be easily configured to play in a number of ways: solo (in the Story mode) on the tablet or TV, two players in Story co-op or Battle using the left and right Joy-Con, four players on one Switch tablet locally, eight on the TV locally, eight via four to eight wifi-enabled Switches in the same room, or up to eight online. That’s awesome, and the Joy-Con are a good match for Bomberman’s classic one-button gameplay – which, by the way, remains as simplistic and fun as ever. I did encounter a bit of lag in the couple online matches I could find, however.
Less awesome is multiplayer depth. Classic Bomberman rules are in effect here, but not much else. You only get eight maps unless you unlock more variants using the cumbersome in-game credits system, and round customization could be a lot deeper, as it has been in past Bomberman games like Bomberman Live. There, you could turn every power-up on or off individually to really tweak battles to your exact preference.
The Verdict
Super Bomberman R’s multiplayer versatility and boss-filled story mode are laudable retreads of classic gameplay, but its depth and customizability are disappointing. By contrast, the aforementioned Bomberman Live was a brilliant, fully featured Bomberman for Xbox 360 that came out 10 years ago, and it only cost $10. It’s reasonable to expect a bit more from a $50 Bomberman game in 2017.
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