Classic bomberman fun but,
You would control what i would say is a spaceman who's goal is to be the last man standing during a game, there would usually be three other bombermen with the same goal as you (usually playing multiplayer), the bomb would detonate and the resulting flame that erupts (in either up down left right fashion not all directions including diagnoal) could destroy blocks that block your movement.
Furthermore when a block was destroyed there would sometimes be a powerup icon, a flame icon would increase the strength of your bombs making the fire go out further, a rollerskate icon would make you move faster, a bomb icon would give you the option to place another bomb (after placing a bomb there is a delay until which you can place another on - after the first has gone off, but with an extra bomb icon you can drop another straight afterwards and so on).
You could also get other powerups such as the ability to kick a bomb across the map or random powerups or even negative ones such as the dreaded 'reverse controls' powerup.
You would eliminate a rival by placing bombs around usually entrapping them so they could not escape the fire from your bombs, if you were the last one standing you would win a round, also the map would close up getting smaller and smaller.
In bomberman the psp version its largely the same, so it retains the bomberman goodness weve come to love, there are a few new elements , theres revenge setting were if youve been eliminated (or a rival) they can now move on a platform around the edge of the map and occasionally throw a bomb into the arena.
There are also a few levels which can affect gameplay, for example there can be conveyor belts which can take your bombs through the level so you could end up killing someone on the other side of the map with minimal effort, there could be directs on the map where if you kick a bomb it could travel throughout the map, theres ice which affects movement and so on.
And theres also a singleplayer 'story' mode where you can select to play stages on various worlds within the bomberman universe, each one has different stages which affect gameplay just like in the superior battle/versus mode and there are even boss fights but ill explain more later on.
Graphically the game is pretty good, everythings nice and colourful, the viewpoint is classic bomberman and serves the game well, theres enough details aswell to keep most happy its just not spectacular looking but decent none the less.
Music is quite good aswell, there doesnt appear to be many tracks but theyre certainly varied and dont get too boring, the battle sounds are fine aswell again its decent not spectacular.
Gameplay wise, well its bomberman so battle/versus mode is great and there is multiplayer over wireless (ad hoc) , ive detailed the gameplay eariler and it really is frantic and fun with games maybe lasting 5 minutes each so its ideal to the portable platform, however its battle/versus mode you'll be using most often i imagine as the singleplayer 'arcde/story' mode is awful.
You have to kill a few slow moving creatures on the map, or you could be unlucky and blow up a block covering a spawn point whcih unleashes a weird looking heart shaped creature which moves really quickly and through all obstacles including other blocks... yea great fun trying to kill that, and it can spawn continuously. Also the item inventory is irritating in singleplayer mode, you collect an item but unlike the battle/versus mode it needs to be manually activated (and you can stack the activated items up so load sof ifre and bombs all at once just like in multiplayer/batlte/versus) and you need to do this with the L and R buttons but its a rather poor element to a already bad singleplayer game.
And theres nothing in the way of story other than a weird brown fog covers the planets as bomberman flies through a star system so dont expect a compelling gaming experience, just stick to the battle/versus mode.
Another criticism i have for bomberman is that there are so few stages avalible to be selected, and alot are just repeats but maybe one smaller than the other or a few features moved about, it wouldnt have been difficult to have included a level creator or random level select but as it stands theres very few levels to play on which kinda hurts the longevity of the game.
The AI on the bomberman is also a mixed bag, even on normal the bomberman the AI controls will occasionally commit suicide even if theres no blocks or bombs blocking them ,they may stand still as they drop one of their own and die from it, i have to say this doesnt happen all the time but enough to be noticed.
Furthermore the loading screens are also a noticeable problem, when you just want to set up a quick game against the AI you have to go through several loading screens, ok theyre not too long maybe 3 seconds each but it gets tiresome when you go forward a screen but then want to go back one and change an option be it the item settings or level and face yet another loading screen.
And its because of those faults that I cant say this game is great, but i can say it is good, one to get if the price is low.
Pros:
Good graphics
Ok sounds
Fun multiplayer/versus mode
Cons:
Terrible singleplayer storymode
And bad singleplayer item mode
Quite a few loading screens when setting a match up.
AI could be better
Too few stages to select from.