One of gaming's greatest cultural traditional is for friends to hover around in the living room and locking eyes on the TV screen as they battle to see who will win the match. Franchises like "Super Smash Bros.," "Street Fighter," and "Halo" all come to mind when it comes to notable multiplayer franchises.
Yet "Bomberman" was already making waves in the multiplayer scene before any of these franchises existed.
"Bomberman," created by Shinichi Nakamoto and originally owned by the now-defunct Hudson Soft (Konami currently own the franchise), originated on the MSX computers in 1983 before receiving a commercially successful port on the NES that sold over a million copies.
However, the gameplay that defines the iconic franchise would start at the turn of the decade in 1990 when Hudson Soft released "Bomberman" for the TurboGrafx-16, where you could have up to five people play in the same match.
"Bomberman" has a perfectly intuitive gameplay system in that you trap the other player in bombs in a grid-like setting.
Setting up a bomb is as simple as pressing a button and blasting the opponents out of the competition. However, setting the bomb in the wrong place can end up trapping the player, setting the bomb so one has to be wise with setting up the placement.
"Bomberman's" pick-up-and-play nature makes it perfectly accessible towards the casual audience. The fantastic game play results in Bomberman having impressive financial success, selling over ten million copies as of 2004.
The franchise has several firsts.
First, "Hi-Ten Bomberman" is the first HD game ever made with up to ten players playing on the screen all the way back to 1993. Considering how big of a deal HD gaming as recently as a few years ago, it's interesting to see a franchise that started it all. This would later inspire "Saturn Bomberman" for the Sega Saturn, which still has online play after two decades and is considered one of the best Bomberman games.
Not only that, "Bomberman" also has a history of crossovers.
In 1994, "Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman" was the first-ever crossover game from Nintendo, preceding even "Super Smash Bros." This was a big deal seeing as Wario was already becoming a prominent Mario character, being the antagonist of the highly successful "Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins" and the anti-hero of "Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land."
He also appeared in a few German Club Nintendo comics during the 1990s and appeared in the rather interesting Hudson Soft, Konami, and Takara crossover "Dreamix TV World Fighters." Not only that, "Super Bomberman R" also has a plethora of crossovers, featuring characters like Simon Belmont from "Castlevania," Snake from "Metal Gear Solid," Vic Viper from "Gradius," and console exclusive guest characters depending on which one of the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam the game is playing on.
Bomberman will also be in "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" as an Assist Trophy that playable fighters can unleash, giving his franchise lots of exposure.
Speaking of the new game, "Super Bomberman R" represents Konami's entrance into console video games away. Even though that Konami said that "mobile is where the future of gaming lies," their successful experiment with bringing "Bomberman" back has resulted in the game selling over a million copies.
You can bet that Konami will eventually plan a sequel, especially since they confirmed that "Hyper Sports R"is in the works for the Nintendo Switch.
Pick up a "Bomberman" game and blast the competition today.
