Nintendo Gameboy Pocket Bomberman SKUGB6

Nintendo Gameboy Pocket Bomberman SKUGB6 is a platforming action game first released in 1997.  Pocket Bomberman features gameplay that revolves around using bombs to box in enemies and blowing them to bits. Once all enemies are defeated, Bomberman has to go to the door at the end of the stage to complete the level. There is a total of 5 worlds and 25 levels. These worlds include a jungle world, an ocean world, a wind world, a cloud world, and a world with the name of “Evil”. Each world has a boss fight at the end in which Bomberman must expose the boss’s weak points and bomb the boss until it has no health left.

Features:

• 5 worlds
• 25 levels
• All new power-ups
• Classic Bomberman gameplay
• Bonus mini-game
• For Game Boy and Game Boy Color

Pocket Bomberman has mediocre graphics. Playing on Game Boy Color adds the element of color, but it seems like the Bomberman franchises have froze itself in time. The graphics in Pocket Bomberman are not any better than that of Bomberman GB.

Game Boy doesn’t exactly excel in the sound department so Pocket Bomberman can’t exactly blow competing games out of the water. The music is rather standard fare. The musical scores fit the theme of the game and help pace it. In the end, it’s a neutral aspect of the game that neither helps not hurt it.

What really counts in a game is gameplay. The original Bomberman didn’t have the glitziest graphics on the NES and it still managed to capture the hearts and minds of gamers and Pocket Bomberman appear to have done the same thing. Hudson focused on bringing Pocket Bomberman up to speed with what is happening to its console cousins. Instead of merely presenting gamers with a series of puzzles, Pocket Bomberman attempts to wed a storyline and an adventure element into the Bomberman framework.

The story in Pocket Bomberman involves the theft of sunlight from Bomberman country and in an effort to restore light back to the country, Bomberman must venture to the top of a mountain and retake the Sword. The game is divided up into five worlds, each with five levels. Bomberman purists will be glad to know that Pocket Bomberman is still a puzzle/strategy game that forces gamers to think and make decisions.

The gameplay revolves around using bombs to box in enemies and blowing them to bits. Gamers must also decide thing like whether or not taking a full blast “power-up” that extends the range of Bomberman’s bomb explosion is worth the risks (Bomberman can be killed by his own bombs). After the completion of the five levels in a world, Bomberman will face boss characters, which unfortunately are extremely hard to defeat and feels out of place.

Length-wise, Pocket Bomberman delivers, and offers quite a diversity of worlds. The five worlds range from Forest world to Cloud World, although the different themes are just for looks, as the game plays the same no matter which world a gamer is in. Furthermore, a neat addition to the game is the “Jump Mode”. Bomberman will constantly jump in this mode and it is up to the gamer to try to help Bomberman steer his way to the top of a tower. Bomberman will beat bosses and crunch enemies on his way to the top and when he reaches his goal, the gamer’s performance would be evaluated. The “Jump Mode” certainly helps the game in the re-playability department and gamers can expect to get hooked if they are the type who likes to play a game over and over again to beat their own high scores.

Actual item pictured.