It's...............cute.....
The Story is terrible, and I don't mean just plain bad, I mean so cliche, that it'll bore you to death. Until you've played this game, you have no idea how cliche and uninspired a game's storyline can be. Basically, Princess gets kidnapped and Bomberman comes to the rescue ( pretty much a stupid excuse for an adventure ) .....Doesn't sound to bad does it. But where the story just takes a nose dive into eternal abyss is the cutscene dept. Aside from the opening movie, all of the cutscenes are terribly done. They're slow, boring, long, and badly animated. I guarantee, if you don't find the cutscenes to put you to sleep, you can PM me and I'll give you $50......Yes the cutscenes are that bad.
Now in terms of Game Concept, it's pretty good. The designers wanted to give this game a retro feel by adding in vehicles for our cutesy little Big headed Hero. You get a Hover Jet, Snowboard, Marine, Copter, and your very own adorable, green pet rabbit. This is definetly a nice touch concept for the series, considering how slow you were in previous games. You also get on foot levels which take up the bulk of the game. It's not from a top bird eyes view perspective. With more of a focus on single player mode, these concepts were able to come to life, which is good, because if I wanted to play mulitiplayer, I'd play the other Bomberman games.
GRAPHICS: Oh My GOSH........F**kin......F**kin Terrible !
Of all the games I've played in my life, this game has one of the worst eye candy. The sad thing is that this game takes about 10% of what the N64 is capable of. This was released in 1998, the same year Ocarina and Banjo came out. Even if this game was released in 1996, it would still be mediocre. And you know what the worst part is?........Bomberman 64, which was released in 1997, looked 10X better than this. Considering those two games came from the same company, and that this game was released after Bomberman 64, there is no excuse HUDSON SOFT!! The only redeaming quality in this dept. is the way Bomberman is modeled. Very cutesy, with a hand full of cute, stereotypical Japanese Anime influenced face expressions. The other redeaming quality in graphics are the Boss Battles which look awesome. The environments are either basic or just F**kin Terrible. While they are diverse looking, the texture quality is awfully done. Things will occasionally pop up........But atleast the framerate doesn't interfere. Thank Goodness for that.
SOUND: This dept. is pretty nice. The sound effects are cute and beepy. Bombermans jump has a cute little chime ot it. The Music is pretty catch and very techno-ish. It fits the fast paced gameplay. There are only 20 songs while there are 60 levels, so it can get annoying when tunes repeat during the levels, but the music manages to be heart pumping and memorable. In fact the first level of the game has some of the catchiest music I've ever heard in a video game.
GAMEPLAY: Controls are solid and the gameplay has variety. The on foot levels are pretty basic, get from point A to point B and blow stuff up! The vehicle levels are really fun. The Hover Jet is basically Star Fox styled gameplay as you fly and shoot down enemies with your bombs. Same with the Marine. Snowboarding is really fast paced, as you race down snow slopes collecting gems and running away from enemies as they chase you, jumping from slopes. A shame there are only 3 Snowboarding levels :(
The Bosses are very CHALLENGING!! They always offer a clever attack pattern. Blowing stuff up has never been so fun and simple in a platformer. Replay value is high as well. You can get a score out of 5 depending on how your performance was in the level. I also guarantee you'll love the boss battles or I'll give you $200 dollars. Especially if you LOVE challenges. Overall it's a decent game. It could have been So much more. But it's not trying to be the best game out there trying to compete with Mario. It's Bomberman from a different perspective.
Buy it on E-Bay at a low price. it's old school.:)