Not as bad as everyone says it is. Boring single player, but decent if playing over Live with friends.
The Bad: Single player is terrible, graphics look last gen, not worth full retail price.
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For those of you who read the review that I posted on 3-31 and believed that I really thought this was the greatest game ever: APRIL FOOLS, I GOT YOU!!!!!!
This is my serious review of the game. Bomberman Act: Zero is a half-hearted effort by the folks at Hudson and Konami to bring the classic franchise into the current generation of gaming. For the most part, it fails to deliver on most fronts.
The single player is pretty much terrible. As either a male or female bomberman, you are tasked with trying to make it through a total of 99 levels of classic Bomberman gameplay. Your mission is to eliminate every enemy bomber before you are eliminated. Pretty standard stuff for the series. However, unlike previous entries in the series, you only get 1 life. THAT'S IT! There are no continues, and no saving your progress. I've only been able to make it through 5 levels before dying...so imagine what frustration a person might feel if they were to make it to level 99 and die. Hours of time wasted yielding a kick in the teeth.
The best part of this game is the multiplayer over Xbox Live. If you are playing with a group of friends who just happen to have the game, you'll likely find about an hour or two of fun before the game just starts to wear on you. And this isn't because there are major functionality issues, lag, or such. Its just that this is Bomberman, and if you're familiar with the series, you understand what I mean. You may have noticed that I said the game is fun if you have a group of friends to play with. Its not that this game doesn't support the usual Xbox Live features like ranked matches, its just that it is almost impossible to find someone playing this game to even start up a match. Some of the additional features this game offers is a character customization system, but it is severely limited in options. You can choose either a male or female character in one of 8 different color options....that's it. Another feature is a half-hearted story that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where the planet's population are engaged in a global war. An unnamed scientist created the Bomberman program to breed the ultimate soldier, testing each subject's skills in battle. The ones who survive are said to be ready to end the war. However, its been decades since the program was begun and the creator is long dead, yet the program still runs. Enough of the story, you get the idea.
The game's graphics are decent, but nowhere near the capabilities of the 360. They appear to be closer to the late years of the original Xbox's life cycle. The player models are far removed from the bubble-headed sprites in previous games and look more like armored humanoid characters. There is no difference in how the male and female characters perform, but you might get a kick out of the female models' costumes. Scantily clad in bikini armor and a thong...complete with realistic breast physics. Too bad the developers couldn't use their talents to make a more complete game.
The game's sound is pretty lame as well, with a looping generic rock track making up the soundtrack during a match. Custom soundtracks are definitely recommended.
As for the standard Xbox 360 game achievements, this game has 50 of them for a total of 1020 points. You'll get achievements for hosting a set number of matches, killing so many people, laying so many bombs, and so on. There are also some achievements for dubious accomplishments like a certain number of suicides. Why there are an extra 20 points there, its hard to say.
In summary, Bomberman Act: Zero features some decent multiplayer with friends but suffers from nobody playing ranked matches, a lackluster single player, and subpar graphics and sound. I recommend that you at least rent this game if you ever were a fan of the previous games in the series. If you played Bomberman before and didn't like it, you'll certainly want to stay away from it. I originally rented this game thinking that it was going to be utterly terrible, but ended up somewhat surprised by it.