It's been so long, and now this old tired franchise has found a new style to revitalize it's single player fronts.

User Rating: 9 | Bomberman Story GBA
Bomberman...confused by none and heard of by almost every gamer around the world. It's kind of hard to miss a franchise that comes out on virtually every system out there, rarely missing it's chance to shine, and at times fail. Those who have begun to lose faith in this franchise will surprisingly be reinvented again with what Bomberman Tournament has to offer. Bomberman's single player quest mode brings a Pokemon esque like feel into the mix. If you’re turned off now, don't be; Acclaim does a good job of extracting what they needed from the Pokemon formula, and recreating the rest. Instead of Pokemon, you'll have Karabons, but don't worry, you are rarely forced to enter Karabon battles, but battles are really like a side thought to the game. Of course, Acclaim makes Karabon battles much quicker, more fun, and easier than any of Pokemon's battles. You'll be able to casually pick your Karabon's very limited moves, and then be able to watch the battle unfold in a paper/rock/scissors kind of fashion. This makes battles quick and easy, though they are almost pointless to engage in, unless you have to. The real use of Karabons relies on their ability to give Bomberman different abilities to solve puzzles and be able to advance further into the game. However, there really aren't tons of Karabons, there are around 20, which doesn't seem like much, but considering how important each one is to your library, it's just enough to keep the game interesting throughout. Don't expect to be short changed on the length of Bomberman Tournament’s quest mode, it matches up to the length of the average adventure game for any console (time will widely vary depending on how new you are to the Bomberman series). Acclaim also ditched the stadium stressed feel that most Pokemon games revolve around, instead Bomberman Tournament stays considerably old school and delivers a slew of dungeons, but it's not like old Bomberman games, Bomberman still keeps the world like experience of Pokemon by giving a whole world of towns and passages for Bomberman to sift through. As the single player experience will undoubtedly grab your attention, so will it's insanely fun multiplayer. There are a handful of mostly old rehash levels that barely vary from past games, but they're still really fun to blast through with 3 of your friends. It's really not as fun playing multiplayer maps against the computer, but still is overall an extra feature that you can use to kill some time. Probably the best addition to the multiplayer would be the chance to get yourself back into the game. Once you're blown up, your player appears in a navigable kart on the side of the screen. You find yourself jumping from one side of the screen to the other, moving your kart up and down while releasing rounds of bombs on the helpless contenders still fighting for the win. If you kill a Bomberman still in the game, you will be replaced with him and now it'll be his turn to try to get back in. You can surely toggle this on and off, just as well as every other little aspect of the match too. As for the representation of Bomberman, it really doesn't fail in any categories. The game looks great, especially the jaw-dropping last cinema scene and opening cg scene. As for the sound effects, it's your basic Bomberman's, blow everything up fan fare; the music on the other hand, the music is phenomenal, making great use of the GBA's tiny speakers with great fast paced tunes that any one will end up humming at one point or another. The overall control of Bomberman has not changed at all, accept for the fact that you can get switched up while navigating menus every once and a while. It's nice to see the Bomberman franchise has found a great spot to nestle into. All those craving for an actual single player experience from the Bomberman franchise will most definitely be pleased here. Even multiplayer fanatics will love the old school play with a new twist that gives more close calls to every match. To put it bluntly, get this game.