Super Bomberman: The Nintendo Switch first online game

Price is not something that usually affects our reviews very much.

Occasionally it can be the straw that broke the camel’s back, when it comes to deciding a final score, but usually it’s only a factor if the game is extremely cheap or extremely expensive. Super Bomberman R is mindbogglingly expensive, and we can’t begin to imagine what Konami is doing trying to charge £50 for it. Which is frustrating, because at its core it’s still one of the best multiplayer games ever made.

For some reason Super Bomberman R is filled with references to the 33 year anniversary of the franchise, which we feel must have some special significance that we’re missing. The original game first appeared on Japanese home computers in 1983, and was ported to a huge variety of different formats under various different names. On the Sinclair Spectrum it was Eric & The Floaters (!) and in Europe the NES and Amiga versions were called Dyna Blaster.

The 10-player Saturn Bomberman is still a version we get out and play to this day, but all the games are essentially the same. Including the fact that the single-player is either rubbish or non-existent. Super Bomberman R’s is particularly bad, and although ordinarily we’d say that doesn’t matter a £50 price tag doesn’t encourage leniency.

Super Bomberman R (Switch) – the boss battles are not much fun

Bomberman’s multiplayer perfection stems from its simplicity. You and your opponents are trapped in a small arena blocked off with a range of destructible and non-destructible walls; you drop bombs to blow up the destructible ones, and ultimately your enemies/friends. The maps are organised on a simple grid system and bombs only explode in four directions, so if you keep your wits about you it’s easy to work out where you can stand and avoid them completely.

Some of the walls expose power-ups when you blow them up, and although every game has its own unique ones the most important regulars increase your speed, the number of bombs you can drop at once, the size of the explosion, and the ability to punch or kick them out of the way. Even with these complications the concept and controls are extremely easy to grasp for anyone and it’s all just as playable now as it was 33 years ago.

Although the idea of a full-price Bomberman as a console launch title seems absurd it does suit the Switch very well. Using the Joy-Cons it’s relatively easy to get the maximum of eight people playing at once round the same TV. Multiplayer also works in tabletop mode and this is the first Switch game to have an online option. Although it only went live yesterday afternoon it seems to work fine, despite the lack of people playing at the moment.

And so we come back to the price. Given how much fun the multiplayer is, and how well suited it is to the Switch, we’d normally just ignore the story mode problems and lack of other innovation. But this costs £50. Fifty pounds sterling. It seems incredible. The last Bomberman game was less than £7 on Xbox Live Arcade and if this had been similarly priced it’d be getting an 8/10 or more. But it’s not, and unless money is no object, and you’re happy with a multiplayer-only experience, this is a bomb you definitely want to avoid.

Super Bomberman R

In Short: Bomberman itself is still a classic, and works very well on the Switch, but the insanely high price makes this impossible to recommend.

Pros: The multiplayer experience is as good as it’s ever been, and it’s very well suited to the Switch in terms of both local and online options.

Cons: The story mode is a horrible waste of time, even by Bomberman standards. Absurd pricing, especially given how similar it is to previous versions.

Score: 6/10

Formats: Nintendo Switch
Price: £49.99
Publisher: Konami
Developer: HexaDrive
Release Date: 3rd March 2017
Age Rating: 7

Source: http://metro.co.uk/2017/03/03/super-bomberman-r-review-price-explosion-6485929/