I thought about just posting this in one of the existing topics, but the article covers several games, and I plan on covering a lot more stuff in the future.

Anyway, I've written an article about weird beta stuff in Bomberman. You've probably already seen most of it, but the final entry introduces some information on Virtual Bomberman (Virtual Boy) that has, to my knowledge, never been fully translated before. That is the main reason why I'm posting here.

Additionally, I put forth a new theory involving the unused characters in Neo Bomberman. The other two entries don't really have any new information from my perspective, but maybe you'll find them interesting as well.

4 Beta Mysteries of Bomberman

The series may be defunct, but there's still so much to talk about.

EDIT: All Bomberman articles at TandemShock (tag listing)

Topics include beta content, keshi catalogue, trivia, and more.

That was a really well written, and awesome article! I'd love to learn more!

Have you written any editorials before this? If so, please link them here, but especially any future articles you write.

I'm still heartbroken over Bomberman 3DS (obviously) but especially the life bar thing. I thought that was the coolest part of Act Zero, and to see that mechanic in a not so terrible Bomberman game would've been amazing.

None of my previous articles have anything to do with Bomberman, but I do intend to write more Bomberman articles on things like trivia, canon speculation, and analyses/comparisons of the games themselves. Due to time I only post one article every Wednesday, so it might be a few weeks before I have another in-depth essay like this.

I never played Act Zero, so I don't know how the life bars worked. My question is how they would differ from the old heart-based handicap settings. Would characters take more or less damage depending on where in the blast they stand, or would they take more damage the longer they stand in the fray? Or what?

I've given it a 'little' read, more like reading everything on that article when I could, and learned some new things that I've never known before. How interesting!

Bomberman 3DS' cancellation still stings me, but I wasn't aware of a life bar system for the Battle game!
Makes me wonder if there were any plans for character customization too, but that's just me wildly dreaming.

A good article nonetheless, I enjoyed reading it. ^_^

the way bombs explode in Act Zero is much slower than other Bomberman games, so you have a second or two to get out of the fire if you've been caught in an explosion or trapped. The longer you stand in the fire the more your health bar depletes, it's honestly a brilliant mechanic that I love to pieces. I swear, if that game just had local multiplayer it would've been much more well received, but that's discussion for another time.

The mechanic was also used in Bomberman 2 for DS (Probably my favorite Bomberman game ever, if you couldn't tell by my avatar   ) but only in the campaign, so while still brilliant, it's not quite the same as it would be in a multiplayer setting.

I love the concept of a health bar in Bomberman, it adds a totally new level of depth for me, and knowing that it was going to be in Bomberman 3DS just makes me hate Konami even more.

You probably won't ever hear another Bomberman fan recommend this game, but Act Zero is worth playing at least once. It's got a lot of issues, sure, but it is at least on par with the Bomberman for NES. So while it's not great, and pretty much every other Bomberman game is better than it, it's still Bomberman, and it's still worth a good hour or two of fun. This video explains the game pretty well, and talks about the life bar system too, so at least watch that if you're never gonna play it.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyZCagIuRJ0

I played Bomberman 2 for the DS, but it's been so long that I forgot about the details.

Interesting video on Act Zero. I've already punished myself with Bomberman Jetters (and will someday continue to punish myself with Bomberman Generation) so if I ever get the chance, I'll probably do the same with Act Zero just for the experience/knowledge. Good to know that it at least plays properly. And yeah, this makes me even more curious about the lifebar mechanic.

@Evi: Based on the Battle Game screenshot, it looks like there were either customizable characters or selectable characters, as the characters are definitely not ordinary palette swapped Bombermen. No idea what they were though.

Nicely done, dude. I definitely look forward to reading more of this kind of thing from you! The technical aspects of the games doesn't normally interest me quite as much, so I don't delve into it anywhere near as deeply as you (and I think Ragey) do.

Now excuse me while I go sulk for the umpteenth time over Bomberman 3DS being canceled...

_________________


AO3 | deviantArt | Tumblr
Bluesky | Twitter | Ko-Fi
Bombermanga | Bomber Base | B-Daman Now, Dog!

If I don't wield the bomb, I can't protect you. If I keep wielding the bomb, I can't embrace you.

I also really liked the lifebar mechanic of Bomberman 2. I hadn't thought about it in a multiplayer setting, though. That would have been a sight to behold (I think; I hope).

KONAMIIIIIII

_________________


AO3 | deviantArt | Tumblr
Bluesky | Twitter | Ko-Fi
Bombermanga | Bomber Base | B-Daman Now, Dog!

If I don't wield the bomb, I can't protect you. If I keep wielding the bomb, I can't embrace you.

Hey man. Finally got around to reading your article. Very informative! That's pretty cool that so much stuff from Virtual Bomberman got moved over into Bomberman World. I don't know why more game companies don't do that kind of stuff. It's truly saddening when they let good ideas go to waste. Yeah I look forward to more of these. Out of curiosity (and laziness) what kind of subjects do you generally cover in your articles?

@Sora: I intend to focus on a lot of technical stuff, but I'd like to delve into cultural references and plot/universe analysis as well.

Somehow, I knew that bringing Bomberman 3DS would elicit this sort of response in everybody. Hahahah.

@legato: Most of my articles so far have been reviews of indie games, mainly old ones. I've been kept really busy and I generally only reserve a day to work on stuff for this site, so it was just easier to make articles of those sorts. It's likely that I'll continue to focus on gaming in general (reviews, analyses, Bomberman stuff, sprite/pseudocode tutorials/explanations). Basically, though, I just do whatever seems interesting at the time.

If you're interested in overanalyzing terrible, nonsensical time travel in fiction, and/or ridiculous romantic comedies, I did a review of The Lake House once. You know, the one with Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, and the mailbox.

Otherwise, here's a list of my articles.

I'll probably be doing some offbeat articles in the coming weeks for Octoberness, but I'm slowly preparing more Bomberman-related stuff. Some of it you probably know, some you might not.

I skimmed through some of your articles and I was thinking: you'd make a great writer for Cracked.com. You word things in an interesting way and with some sass sprinkled in, you'd probably be right at home.

Feel free to run translation/cultural/plot stuff by me if'n ya need.  

_________________


AO3 | deviantArt | Tumblr
Bluesky | Twitter | Ko-Fi
Bombermanga | Bomber Base | B-Daman Now, Dog!

If I don't wield the bomb, I can't protect you. If I keep wielding the bomb, I can't embrace you.

@legato, Thanks, but... Fern (my partner at the site) used to tell me I should write for Cracked, before we started this site, but I don't feel like I'm quite cut out for it. They have a fairly specific way of doing things, and I doubt I'd be able (or willing) to try to come up with those types of articles, especially not on a regular basis... I honestly have no idea what I'd even write about. I guess I just prefer the freedom of publishing whatever I feel like publishing on my own, and not trying to fit someone else's standards for content and style.

I'm comfortable doing certain work for people like Fern and DarkFire because the work I do for them is specifically requested (art, scripting, music, etcetera) and thus is more task-based. Few endeavors are wholly fun, or even mostly fun. If the fun is largely outbalanced, then I'd rather be taking orders.

Digressive musings...

@Sora: Thanks, I'll keep that in mind in case something comes up!

It will almost certainly be at least November before another Bomberman article goes up, but in the meantime, in somewhat unrelated news, I have been preparing a Halloween-ish gift for you all. Hopefully, it will be ready before October is over. If not, it might be partially ready...

     

Such suspense!

much excite!

Here's another article, which I prepared some weeks in advance. It's about the mythical and cultural origins of some Bomberman enemies.

Culture in Bomberman - Myths and Monsters

A pretty good read. Japan has so many strange stories and legends that some are just downright freaky!   You'd probably enjoy the Gaijin Goomba on youtube. He does a lot of cultural differences in video games.

Thanks. Yeah, I've seen some of his videos in the past. I'd never imagined that I could learn something from a man pretending to be a mushroom, but I did.

Here's an article about five of the worst bosses in Bomberman history, complete with videos:

http://www.tandemshock.com/editorial/5-of-the-weakest-bosses-in-bomberman/

This may be my last Bomberman-related article for some time now. I am really busy on other stuff and these articles take a lot of time out of my schedule.

Having fairly recently played Super Bomberman 4, can confirm that bosses are terribly easy due to bad AI (and the ridiculous amount of hits you can take in that game due to ridable enemies) I mean it's not like the technology wasn't there. Pretty sure the battle AI is better than that.

Surprised Pretty Bomber isn't up there, since she can kill herself pretty fast, and pretty consistently from what I remember. But it's been a while since I played either SB2 or Quest so dunno.

Also you started with 6, then skipped 4. Was Super Bomberman 4's bosses so bad that you're making a statement, here and now? Not sure if that's the way to go about it in my opinion. (also funny how the Shitennou are supposed to be #4 on that list)

There were originally 6 entries, but I cut one back when I wrote this. I must have missed the numbering when I was giving it one last edit this morning. Fixed it now.

I excluded the SB2 minibosses because the SB4 minibosses were so much worse (despite having more complicated AI) and there were other cases to examine instead; it would have felt redundant. But yes, Pretty Bomber is poorly designed as well. Interesting concept, bad in execution.