Bomberman (NES)

When Bomberman was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987 (1985 in Japan), it started a series that would include a game on almost every system to come, all the way up to Bomberman Land for the Wii and Ultra Bomberman for the Playstation 3.

Bomberman was first released in Japan for several early computers in 1983.  Within 10 years, Bomberman would be a popular and well known franchise making huge profits from games across the game console board.

The story is that Bomberman is a robot who works in an underground bomb factory and is the best bomb maker in the factory, but he hates his job.  He heard a rumor that any bomberman who makes it out of the factory gets a wish, which he wants to use to turn all bombermen into human bombermen.  Apparently, the ballons, gum drops, and other strange enemies are some manner of security guard set on preventing his escape.  If you somehow manage to beat level 50 (I never got past level 43), you become human.

Bomberman for the Nintendo Entertainment System is definantly one of the more influential titles ever released, given that it spawned a massive series including games on almost, if not every system since 1983 when it was originally released in Japan. In the game, you are a robot who is trying to kill all of the security guards (who look like ballons and rain drops) in the underground bomb factory so you can escape. Once you defeat all of the enemies, you have to blow up random bricks until you find the exit, which gets really boring and stressful when you being to run low on time and still haven't found the exit. It's pretty much the same thing after every level , but it's a fun little game.

Presentation - 6.5.  The box art is pretty cool with some robot guy running out of an explosion, but it's nothing amazing or epic or anything.

Graphics - 7.5.  The graphics aren't anything amazing, but for NES standards, they're not bad either. Pretty average for the 8-bit era.

Sound - 7.  The music is REALLY repetative and REALLY monontonous. It gets stuck in your head and haunts you like Goatse. The sounds are all rather plain and unremarkable but not terrible.

Gameplay - 8.  The gameplay's not bad and pretty fun at first. It just starts to get old pretty quickly. It's pretty much just more bricks and more enemies from level to level.

Lasting Appeal - 8.  Bomberman is not one of those game you'll play over and over again like Mario or Metroid, but it's not one of those games that will haunt you to your grave like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Overall Score - 7.7