Bomberman 64 (1997 video game)
| Bomberman 64 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64 |
| Release | November 271997 (E) December 11997 (NA) |
| Genre(s) | Platform game, puzzle game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
Bomberman 64 is a video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. The game was released in Europe on November 27, 1997 and released in North America on December 1 of the same year. The game is rated E by the ESRB.
Bomberman 64 is the first 3-D game within the Bomberman series.
The game has spawned two sequels on the N64. Bomberman Hero (1998) and Bomberman 64: The Second Attack (2000).
Story
Template:Spoiler Throughout the course of the game, Bomberman encounters a band of space pirates. According to the mysterious Sirius, they are bent on destroying his home planet by leeching away its energy and merging it with a mighty weapon, the Omni Cube! They consist of their leader, Altair, his subordinates, Artemis, Orion, and Regulus, and a slew of baddies and villains meant to make Bomberman's life a rough ride. However, thanks to Sirius' lessons, Bomberman makes short work out of them all: Artemis short circuits, Orion makes two vain attempts to stop him, and Regulus is humiliated in combat. With the three subordinates and the four guardians gone, what is there left to stand in Bomb's way?
In the Black fortress, Bomberman barely survives a barrage of military vehicles, a fully-armed battle robot, and the high-caliber security of Altair's tower. Eventually, Bomb encounters Altair himself, who immediately gives our little friend a good fight. Realizing that he is no match, Altair enhances his own abilities with those of his worker droid, and becomes nearly invincible. Fortunately, a few well-timed bombs save the day! Unfortunately for Bomb, the war is still not over.
When it seems like everything is done and over, Regulus re-appears to save his lost lord. Unfortunately for him, Sirius also joins this "family gathering," steals the Omni Cube, and blasts Altair with its enormous energy. In a last-ditch effort, Bomberman and Regulus mount separate attacks against the traitor, Sirius, and his Rainbow Palace. Bomberman challenges the combined might of Sirius and the Omni Cube, but is overwhelmed. However, just when all seems lost, Regulus comes, once again, out of nowhere and destroys the Omni Cube. Despite this loss, Sirius is still considerably powerful, so Bomberman and Regulus form a temporary alliance against him, and find themselves victorious. They escape from the Rainbow Palace, watch collapse onto Altair's lair, and blow up. Regulus tells Bomberman that he has a newfound respect for his abilities, but still dislikes him. They leave each other's company as rivals... The battle for Planet Bomber is over!
Gameplay
In both single player and multiplayer modes, Bomberman always has the ability to kick, pick up, and throw bombs. A unique feature of this game is that Bomberman can "pump" a bomb while holding it, which will make the bomb's explosion more powerful. Unlike most platform games of its time, Bomberman cannot jump, nor can he swim in water, although he can wade in shallow water.
If Bomberman runs into an enemy NPC, or is hit on the head by a small object, such as an unexploded bomb, he will get knocked out temporarily (he will sit there with "X" eyes and stars rotating around his head). While in this state, he can get picked up by an enemy and thrown around or even off the map. Conversely, Bomberman can do the same to an enemy.
When Bomberman takes damage, he dies. If he has a "heart" powerup when he's hit, he will survive, but he will lose that powerup. When he dies all powerups that he had obtained will scatter all over the place.
Game progression
Template:Spoiler At the start of the game, Bomberman can enter any of four anchors, which are terrariums of other planets (that were probably drained by Altair). The starting worlds are: Green Garden, Blue Resort, Red Mountain, and White Glacier. In each anchor there are four stages. The first and third stages are adventure stages where Bomberman must navigate through the stage by solving puzzles and blasting his way toward the "Goal Arrow." The second and fourth stages are boss stages, Bomberman must fight Sirius or one of Altair's subordinates in the second stage, and he must fight the world's guardian in the fourth.
After Bomberman beats the first four anchors, he can enter the Black Fortress. Like the previous worlds, the first and third stages are adventure stages, but this time Bomberman must fight the guardian in the second stage and Altair himself in the fourth stage.
In every stage there are five gold cards to collect (100 total). Once all gold cards have been collected, the player can unlock the secret world, Rainbow Palace. After all the gold cards have been collected from there (an additional 20, making a grand total of 120 Gold Cards) the player unlocks more courses in multiplayer mode plus the "Full Power" cheat option. With the cheat activated, Bomberman starts with 8 bombs, 5 flames, power bombs, and remote bombs.
Multiplayer battle
Characters
- White Bomberman
White Bomberman (commonly called simply "Bomberman" as he's the original) is the main hero of "Bomberman 64," as well as the "Bomberman" series as a whole. In this installment, Bomberman finds his home planet relentlessly assaulted by the forces of Altair, bent on harvesting the rich energies of the planet for their "Omni Cube." Desperate, he finds an unlikely ally in space traveler Sirius, whose motives are, at first, unknown. Sirius is willing to not only teach Bomberman newer and deadlier techniques, but will even spare with him in Stage II, "Friend or Foe?"
"Whew! That was close!" ~Bomberman
- Sirius
The story of Sirius starts before the beginning of "Bomberman 64," and is not fully explained until near the end. Sirius is an evil space villain who uses the powerful Omni Cube (it is unknown if he found it, stole it, or created it himself) to harvest and manipulate a planet's natural energy. With this artifact, Sirius finds himself to be quite strong, but not great enough to counter resistance. Enemy space pirates Altair, Regulus, Orion, and Artemis band together under Altair's leadership to defeat Sirius, and steal the Omni Cube. Although their combined force is still not as great as his, they still sneak away with the 'cube, as well as their lives.
When Altair's greed and lust for power takes him to Planet Bomber, Sirius seizes the perfect opportunity: combine his powers with that of the planet's champion, Bomberman. Sirius presents himself as a good guy, and deceives Bomberman into taking back the Omni Cube. Sirius steals back his property, and escapes to his Rainbow Palace. Despite the overwhelming might of his Card servants, his second-in-command, the Trick Master, and the Omni Cube itself, nothing was truly able to stop the will of Bomberman and Regulus, and thus this alliance led to Sirius' demise.
"Altair thinks that your people are dust. If that makes you angry, go finish him!" ~Sirius
- Artemis
Of all six characters, Artemis is arguably the least important. She joins in Altair's struggle against Sirius, and the four space pirates begin to pillage planets in the galaxy. Unlike the others, she actually leads the assaults, her most recent being against another planet, later reincarnated into the Blue Resort.
... So, it's no surprise that she challenges Bomberman here, and being the weakest of the four pirates, she finds herself defeated very quickly.
"You're mine!" ~Artemis
- Orion
Orion, although not being as powerful as Regulus or Altair, is still a brilliant character in his own right. He joins the alliance between himself, Artemis, Regulus, and Altair to steal the Omni Cube from Sirius, and they are successful. He is the mastermind behind many of the machines found in the game, most notably his ex-mining machine Hades, which he uses to nearly defeat Bomberman at the end of his lair, the Red Mountain.
Unlike the other subordinates, he actually is persistent enough to mount two attacks against: one without any help, and another with the power of his Hades robot. The first time he is simply humiliated, but the second go around leads him to his molten grave.
"HUH!!" ~Orion
- Regulus
Regulus is not just another subordinate to Altair; he's his right-hand man, and was the biggest proponent of Altair's during the mission to steal the Omni Cube from Sirius. His home turf is the White Glacier anchor, and there he challenges the mysterious Bomberman, duped by Sirius. Regulus finds himself somewhat overwhelmed, issues Bomb a compliment, and flies off to who-knows-where.
Later, after Bomberman successfully defeats the space pirate leader Altair, Regulus attempts to evacuate Altair to safety. Unfortunately, their old foe, Sirius, comes and lays the beatdown on Altair, humiliating Regulus, and forcing him to once again retreat against overwhelming odds. With his leader's entire legion lost, Regulus has no choice but to wait and hope. This most certainly pays off when Bomberman attacks Sirius and the Rainbow Palace. Keeping the two-faced villain occupied, Regulus reappears to destroy the Omni Cube, the very thing he and his comrades fought for from the beginning. Without the power of the Omni Cube, Sirius is forced to take on both Bomberman and Regulus with no backup. This unlikely team defeats Sirius, and narrowly escapes the collapsing Rainbow Palace. Regulus then explains the background of Altair's operation, and an ominous message to Bomberman, keeping their rivalry alive and well. He reappears in the sequel, Bomberman 64: The Second Attack, but his current whereabouts are unknown...
"We were barely able to keep the Omni Cube from him..." ~Regulus
- Altair
Altair is the leader of the space pirates who joined together to steal the Omni Cube from Sirius. He leads a campaign of terror, and destroys/harvests four planets, which eventually become the anchors of his base. They are, "Green Garden," "Blue Resort," "Red Mountain," and "White Glacier." Altair then sets his sights on Planet Bomber. Unfortunately, not only does his old nemesis, Sirius, aid the planet's greatest hero to assault the Black Fortress, but all of his subordinates are easily dealt with. It is at the very top of the Black Fortress where Altair chooses to do battle with Bomberman.
... And battle they did. Although Altair had an early disadvantage, he quickly rebounded after fusing with Vega, his servant robot, to exponentially gain in speed and power. All seems lost for the Bomber... Until a little luck caught Altair off guard, and he was defeated. Although Regulus attempted to save Altair from danger, Sirius arrived on the scene to reclaim the Omni Cube and blast Altair to kingdom come. However, Regulus would avenge him...
"You... PIG!!" ~Altair
Powerups and items
- Bomb — Bomberman can place more bombs at once
- Flame — The Bomb's explosion size increases
- Power Bomb — (a.k.a. "Red Bomb" a.k.a. "Ultra Bomb" a.k.a. "Cherry Bomb") increases the bomb's destructive power
- Remote Bomb — Allows Bomberman to safely detonate a bomb remotely, however bombs are still vulnerable to open flames.
- Heart — Bomberman can survive one hit, he can only carry one heart at a time. In single player (normal mode) and multiplayer, the heart will "jump" out of Bomberman (or sub-boss) when hit, and can be picked up again by any player. In single player (hard mode), the heart will "vaporize" when he takes a hit, and can't be re-used.
- Gold Card (single player only)
- Crystals — In single player mode, collect fifty to receive an extra credit. Credits in turn allow bomberman to continue playing after a game over. In multiplayer team battles, crystals belonging to the other team need to be destroyed in order to win.
- Custom item (single player only) — Add custom items to the customization part of the game, allowing the player to dress up Bomberman with the custom items. The player can use their own costume for multiplayer mode after saving the customization data to a memory card.
- Skull (multiplayer only, with the exeption of one boss battle) — Infects the player's character with a random curse or 'disease.' Sometimes the curse can be advantageous to the player the gets infected. Most of the skull's effects can be passed onto another player by touching them, and most effects will go away after some time. The possible curses are the following:
- Quick Bombs: The player's bombs take a lot less time to detonate.
- Disguised Huge Bombs: The player's bombs are all at maximum explosion range, but have the same appearance as regular black ones.
- Small Bombs: The player's bombs are all at minimum explosion range.
- No Bomb: The player is no longer able to drop bombs.
- Speed Reverser: The player's controls are altered so that when the control stick is at rest, Bomberman moves at full speed, and when the control stick is moved all the way, Bomberman stops moving.
- Big: The player's character increases in size and moves slower. Can kill other players by stepping on them.
- Small: The player's character decreases in size and moves at a more rapid speed. Can be killed by being stepped on.
- Fire: Bomberman is set on fire. If he touches other players, they are killed. If Bomberman touches a bomb while in this state, the bomb explodes. The fire will eventually kill the player's character. The player cannot drop any bombs while in this state.
- Evil (multiplayer only) — Looks like a purple mask and found only once per stage. Creates a 'curse', like a skull, but this curse will affect everyone on the stage. The possible effects are the following:
- Tornado: A huge tornado appears in the stage blowing away everything that comes near.
- Big Mode: Every character becomes really big and slow.
- Knockout: Everybody is randomly knocked out every once in a while.
- Disco Mode: The whole screen is engulfed in bright colors that make it a lot more difficult to see the game.
- Full Power: Everyone's bombs are red and explode at maximum range.
- Disguised Full Power: Everyone's bombs are black and explode at maximum range.
- Throwing-mania: Everybody picks up and throws anything they touch, including powerups...
- Teleport: At regular intervals, some characters randomly switch places
Advertising
For the promotion of Bomberman 64 in the 1997 holiday season, Nintendo of America released a commercial featuring an altered version of the theme song of the Spider-Man cartoon TV series. The lyrics are below:
"Bomberman, Bomberman, mass destruction across the land.
Makes a bomb, any size.
And he's yours to customize. Oh yeah! Your very own bomberman!
Cross his path, you'll explode, in the brand new adventure mode.
Different levels to explore, on Nintendo 64.
Watch out! It's the new BOMBERMAN!"