E3 06: Bomberman Land Hands-On

LOS ANGELES--Hudson's loveably explosive mascot is coming to the Wii in Bomberman Land, and we were able to get our first hands-on time with the game in Nintendo's booth at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2006. Though the game stars the upbeat demolitionist made popular with a long-running series of manic, multiplayer-focused puzzle action games, what we played of Bomberman Land was a far cry from the gameplay that people might associate with the name.

The demo on display consisted of three simple minigames, each of which made use of the Wii controller in a unique way, though all of them only used the remote, and not the nunchaku controller that we've regularly seen attached in other Wii demos. We started off with Mountain, which was a stationary shooter where we had to use the remote to shoot down flying balls of hot magma that appeared to be spewing out of a gigantic volcano in the distance. Though there have been other Wii games where using the remote as a pointer seemed a bit twitchy, in here the targeting reticule seemed to move rather fluidly across the screen. Things started off easy enough, though we were rather quickly bombarded with a number of flaming balls that came from all over. Though there didn't seem to be any limit on ammo, the game definitely encouraged accuracy by giving you point combos for each consecutive ball that you shoot without missing. Just when we thought that we weren't going to be able to keep up any longer, we hit the maximum point limit for the game, thus ending that part of the demo. Hurray for Bomberman!

The second demo, Space Tube, proved a bit more challenging for us. We were given a behind-the-back perspective on Bomberman as he automatically raced down a cylindrical tube, and we could make the tube spin around him by simply tilting the remote to the left or the right. Making things tricky were barriers and spiked obstacles that we could avoid by jumping, which could be done either by flicking the remote up or simply tapping the A button. Again, a nice slow start, but as Bomberman picked up the pace, we soon found it difficult to keep up.

Lastly was Pierrot, a sort of Cirque du Soleil routine where Bomberman stands in the middle of the screen, holding up a long stick with a giant bomb balanced precariously on top of it. Once the game starts, the stick will start tilting back and forth, and you have to move the Wii remote in the direction that the bomb is falling in to keep the stick underneath it. If the stick tilts too much in either direction, the bomb explodes, taking out Bomberman along with it, which is never, ever good. Though we couldn't help but wonder why Bomberman would put himself in such a precarious position, that was only the start of things. As time progressed, the bomb itself started swelling in size, taking on more weight and making it more difficult to keep balanced. Also, a couple of little jerks sitting on platforms along the sides of the screen began tossing little yellow balls at Bomberman, which has a negative effect on Bomberman's balance. Though harrowing, we were able to keep the bomb up in the air long enough that the demo of this game ended successfully.

The Nintendo representative that helped walk us through the Bomberman Land demo didn't have anything to say regarding the overall nature of how the game will be structured, but we definitely got a Mario Party vibe from what we played. Though the typically colorful Bomberman look sat well enough with us, this definitely isn't one of the more technically exciting Wii games being shown on the floor, and certain elements, such as the bomb in Pierrot, looked quite a bit like 2D sprites. Still, a collection of fast and simple minigames seems right at home on the Wii.