I started playing through this game and wanted to see how far it would go, my curiosity leading me to see several weird things never seen otherwise in the Bomberman series (to my knowledge anyway.)

First there's the Balloon enemies. Now this is the only enemy in the game and it starts simple enough; stage 1 has 1, stage 2 has 2 etc. until you reach 4. Then the game just loops 4 enemies forever and nothing ever really changes. The balloons have behavior patterns which is quite weird. They begin happy, just floating around and being nonsensical, when their expression starts to change. The second face appears sometimes and is this simple line face, something like this: ._. and then into a worried face.

Finally they turn red and get this malicious face and will pursue you, being easily exploited in some cases because they want to charge you directly and are easy to trap. Then they reset to happy and it all starts over again.



Bizarre huh? The next big thing is half blocks. So you know the soft blocks that you can destroy right? Well our character here moves in half blocks, meaning every step is about half of a tile and he can lay bombs there too, inbetween two tiles. What happens is it will destroy half of a soft block! Not only that, but it changes the physics too! You cannot pass through a half block (nor the enemies) but a bomb blast can still penetrate the other side! This makes for excellent flanking maneuvers.




Isn't that weird? It'd be impressive to see mechanics like these return, although I'm certain most of this exists due to some weird limitations with the MSX. Next is the auto bomb levels. Every fourth level is an auto bomb level where the player repeatedly drops bombs without control. Basically you just keep moving and try to kill the enemies at the same time. It's a big nuisance and really doesn't add anything to the gameplay. It's similar to the effect the skull item can have on you in some games as well as the bonus stages in Bomberman (NES).



This leads me into game length. I was curious how long this game went on and decided to play to level 50, seeing as how traditional Bomberman games have ended there. Nope! It just keeps going. The stage counter only has two digit places in the corner so I figured I'd push on to 100 to see what would happen. Essentially, the game is endless. At 100 the tens place of the counter becomes part of an item sprite. This sprite represents the item hidden in the level (as well as the fact that you're over 100?) I played to level 102 and then decided to throw in the towel. I may check back on this later and go further.

These are levels 100, 101, and 102 from left to right. Notice how the item is the same as the sprite in the stage counter, what a spoiler!  


Oh, I haven't mentioned the items now have I? This game has a lot of weird stuff in it, from money bags to cocktails and bicycles. Just look at all this junk and try to tell me what it's supposed to be. (Edit: Fixed the cropping.)



It's all here folks. There's literally a can of coke! Every stage has an item in it and let me tell you, bomb one of those items and you get punished so hard.



That also reminds me, you can bomb the exits that appear in the levels too. Yes every level has an exit hidden somewhere and normally in Bomberman games you destroy the enemies and then find the exit? Well look what happens in this game.



All it does is reset the stage you're currently on, potentially losing progress if you've already killed enemies! Why?! I found no use for the exit, other than trying not to touch or bomb it. It's the most useless thing in this entire game, just a big fat hazard! What a waste!

Aside from a few other nuances, there's not a lot to say about the game. It was a fun experiment and interesting to see these weird and different rules/physics compared to the Bomberman games we're so accustomed to. More info will come later as I journey into the MSX, but for now, I'm dead tired!

I want to talk about something I call the Overlap Principle. Basically, if two or more balloon enemies are overlapping on the same space when a bomb goes off, only one enemy is allowed to die and the rest will survive. This must be some kind of programming error or oversight because it feels like it's not warranted the way it occurs.

See this example here. There are clearly three enemies on screen. All 3 are overlapping in the frame the explosion happens. After the smoke clears, it is revealed that one died and two survived! Guess they used him as a shield.


I included one more example here as well. By the time the bomb explodes, two balloons are completely overlapping with one balloon being halfway into the space beneath them. This causes only one of the two in the original space to die, while the balloon a half space below dies as well. This further cements the idea that a complete overlap will only allow for one death and that it must be perfect! Half space differences will still pop those balloons to bits!


The final bit of interest I found in this game was the timer. See the word Bonus up there on the top of the screen? Not only does it act as a score bonus for faster players, but it also works as a clock. Once that bonus hits zero, all soft blocks disappear and the balloons have free range to hunt you down. I'm not sure if they become more aggressive or not, but fighting off four of them was difficult.

The game is almost completely identical to the NES version, with the same enemies, items, and gameplay. It just runs slower and is more boring than the NES. I would like to note it only ever gave me one skate the entire time while I had about 6 bombs, 5 fires, remote control, soft block pass, and bomb pass. I was nigh invincible in that game but I was as slow as can be. It was torturous enough having the game move slow on account of the MSX but as we all know, Bomberman with one or two skates is way too slow. Sonic would be ashamed!

Anywho, I should note that the size of the stages are intact as well. Just that the stage has to push the screen in order to show the rest of it, kinda like it does in the original Legend of Zelda. Each stage has 3 sections like that and standing around, trying to bomb things on those lines can make you disoriented.



It takes a lot of patience to beat this game so good luck with that. As I write this post, I was going to mention the bonus stages. A bonus stage occurs every 5 levels, with 10 bonus stages in all. Each bonus stage uses a different enemy except for stages 8 through 10 which just recycle Pontan. I assumed this was different from the NES version but when I went to do a double check, I was incorrect! This bonus stage pattern IS the same as the NES version. I already uploaded all these GIFs so I'll just leave them because they look cool. Kinda like an exhibition of all the enemies.

These are bonus levels 1 through 8 in that order.



Moving on, one distinction though is level 50, which consists entirely of Pontans while the NES game has multiple enemies.



So after all my hard work, we get to see Bomberman become Lode Runner in all its MSX splendor right?



I've been duped again!   They didn't even have the courtesy to finish the sentence. By soft do they mean Hudson Soft or software in general? That makes one ending non-existent and one half complete on my scoreboard. I should hope the next game can deliver for me.

For those who don't know, Bomber King is the Japanese name of this franchise, while it's known as Robo Warrior in America. This particular MSX game was only released in Japan hence the Bomber King title. This game plays identically to the NES/Famicom counterpart, just a lot slower and crappier. The game often has moments of slowdown due to so many enemies on screen. It just can't handle it like the NES does but it's a valiant effort.



That said, I did find a handy map online! Beating this game is a strange and weird chore and you're going to need it. Bless the gentleman who created this because if it wasn't there I would've surrendered a long time ago.

Image: http://i.imgur.com/vkgz9A6.png

I suppose I should explain the game briefly but bare with me because it's a mouthful. You walk around and destroy these objects, collecting multiple items every few seconds. Most items are used for brief power ups like screen clearing bombs or increasing your walking speed for a time or to be able to walk across water; the basics really. Other items are way move valuable like batteries. Your life bar is technically a battery (since you're a cyborg) and it constantly drains. If you get hit by enemies, it also reduces, so finding those batteries is a must.

Speaking of limits, you need to keep up on your bomb supply. Enemies constantly bombard the screen and nearly all of them always drop a bomb. You can bump into them and kill them easily so you don't have to worry there, but running out of bombs is a distinct and real possibility.

Now in this massive heard of trees/bombable objects, you need to find a chalice first. This chalice prevents the screen from wrapping. If you don't get it, you loop until you die or lose your mind. Once acquired, you'll then reach an end screen to these areas where you must sniff out a key. The key opens the exit and off you go! Now the map makes it look pretty straightforward but what you learn in game is that, many hard blocks in your path are bombable, but only certain ones. Imagine trying to figure that out on your own, especially when said hard blocks take multiple bombs (often varying from stage to stage) to destroy. Commence internal screaming.

So there's the game for ya. Now let's talk story. Basically you're a cyborg who's going to this planet on the brink of ruination to save it from Xur, this weird half cyborg thing who's taking over the universe with his minions. In fact, he even appears right on the cover of the Famicom box.

Image: http://i.imgur.com/rFYWLLq.jpg
(Thanks to Plasma for scanning this.)

That's him in the background there, getting blown to all Hell. Here's some other weird images of him. Left is the NES manual and right is Famicom.



Since we're discussing story here, here's the intro and ending to the MSX game. Look how deep and riveting it is!


(The ending GIF is long and drawn out for two seconds of a ship flying really.)

Basically, go to planet to save planet and save planet then leave. About what you'd expect really. So Xur has all these weird minions working for him. So here's a bunch of GIFs of his horrifying, gruesome, and strange "Lords of Xantho" as the Robo Warrior manual calls them.






My favorite is the robot that spits out little blue piranha, whale things. It's entertaining to just watch all these going at once and see all their weird behaviors.

Also I should mention, this game is punishing despite all its weird rules. If you bomb yourself once, just once, regardless of health, you die. I can't tell you how many times I killed myself and cursed this game's creator due to such a handicap. Thank goodness we have save states.



The last item on our agenda is music. The Robo Warrior series actually has a theme song! Yes a full song with lyrics sung by a Japanese man! What a shocker! Here's the song, right there on Youtube. Isn't the internet great?

Because every video game needs karaoke

And here's the same song but instrumental. How obscure can we get?

Instrumental!

These songs were so cool, I downloaded them to listen to right away. I highly recommend that if you like these, download them right away, because as fickle as the internet and copyright is these days, you never know when they can disappear from Youtube. Thankfully your old pal Legato has you covered. Here's both tracks as mp3s.

Lyrics: https://www.dropbox.com/s/72hmdxan5ed3jrk/Bomber%20King%20THEME%20SONG%20%E9%AB%98%E6%A9%8B%E5%90%8D%E4%BA%BAver.mp3?dl=0

No Lyrics: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xj2jxex2kx0ataf/Hudson%20Premium%20Audio%20Collection%20-%2011%20Bomber%20King%20Theme%20%28Instrumental%20ver.%29.mp3?dl=0

First let's start with Special. One thing I neglected to mention last time was this weird item I came across while playing.



A bottle with a C on it? I have no idea what that could be. It's a complete mystery to me. Now for something more silly. So you know the animation when an enemy is hit with a bomb right? They turn into that funny yellow face and then disappear?



Well in this game, this MSX version, the enemies linger for quite a while as they disappear, as you can see above. While working through these stages, I noticed I could place bombs on the same tile they were disappearing on, resulting in something like this.



The sprite of the enemy dying is on top of the bomb. Now this doesn't affect the game in any way but it's quite hilarious to look at. I call it bomb face and it can be a lot of fun to dabble around with.



It looks like he has an eyebrows and mustache! I'd love to see someone draw a doodle on this silly guy. And now, to tie up my coverage of this game for today, he's a weird GIF where two enemies overlap.



Looks like a monster movie villain.

On the left we have the ZX Spectrum version and on the right is the MSX I showed earlier.


As you can see, the big differences are a few palette swaps including how Bomberman looks, the appearance of the exit and the bomb's color. Those are pretty minute details but overall, the game plays much faster on the ZX Spectrum. Take a look at these balloons moving around between the two versions. Even as GIFs you can see the difference!

Again, left is ZX Spectrum and right is the MSX.


Look at those differences in speed! The ZX Spectrum was much more difficult to play, considering how quickly the balloons could run you down. On that note, being the masochist that I am, I played the ZX version all the way through Level 100. So that means I've basically played the same game twice. I have a life I swear!  

As per usual, once you break 100, the game continues on infinitely. The same auto bomb levels appear every 4 stages as well just to drag out the festivities even longer. The counter up top does that glitch-becomes an item-thing too.



One other thing I did was keep track of the items as usual. I had a nearly identical run, finding all of the same items except for the weird 7 remote control thing. This time however I did find a tobacco pipe! Coupled with the cocktail we can see that human bomberman really enjoys his vices. Imagine that, a middle aged man handling explosives while smoking and drinking. Paints an entire new portrait of him doesn't it?

It's also worth noting that the Lemon is missing from the cocktail. I suppose his tastes have changed lately.



And lastly, just because I enjoy it so...



He dies even faster this time! It just keeps getting weirder.

This game is the same as Bomberman for the PC-E/TurboGrafx-16. It's the game where Black Bomber kidnaps Dr. Mitsumori's daughter and flies away to his castle. Here's som GIFs to prove it.




The passwords for the PC-E version also work for this version as well. I jumped straight to the final boss and beat him, so I haven't completely played through this game just yet. The ending is identical as well and had to be broken up into two GIFs there.

This game is largely without difference. One little thing I noticed was a company called SystemSoft worked on the port of this game? They have an animation for their company when the game starts up and are mentioned on the title screen as well.



Derivative work? I assume they mean port?

The final comment I have about this game for now is that one of the opening demos has the AI fail spectacularly at the game. The game even begins up like a normal bomberman stage, saying "Demo Start" like it wasn't obvious.

The game is called 3D but it's more of a first person perspective. I suppose this was how 3D a game could be for back in those days. FPS Bomberman just doesn't sound the same. Anywho, it's still more or less Bomberman. You walk around these mazes and hunt down the balloon characters so you can destroy them with bombs. It plays very closely to Bomber Man we saw on MSX earlier.



Not only is it disorienting, but the balloon characters have become terrifying! They've turned green and take up the entire space they occupy! How did they get so massive compared to us?



It's really creepy looking, especially when you see them barreling down the hall at you.



It's almost like a creepy ROM hack in a way. Anywho, so you have to destroy these balloons which increase in number with the level. Level 2 has 2, level 3 has 3, and level 4 has 4. Four appears to be the maximum and it turns into a real cluster trying to avoid one balloon while another cuts you off in a different part of the maze. Thankfully we have a few things that can help us out, like bombs!



Weird how the bomb explosion looks like TV static. It stands out, it just looks really weird. Speaking of, look at the animation when you hit yourself with a bomb.



For some reason bombing yourself runs the same animation as when you get caught by the balloon enemy. I suppose it was just because they lacked the time to put in a new animation, or perhaps the memory of the game. I do find it creepy that the balloons have literally have the words "You Are Dead" coming out of their mouths, wtf.

There's a few things you can find hidden in the maze to help you along, such as a bonus item!



Destroying a soft block will reveal a pile of gold coins. It's a perfect stack of gold coins/bars that are just hiding in the wall. It seems really weird when you view if through a first person perspective like that. Maybe there's gold hiding in the walls somewhere?

I should note, if you bomb those on accident, you get punished, as if Bomberman tradition by this point.



Imagine trying to fight off four more of those balloons. Talk about impossible. Not only is there free gold which increases your score, you can also find an exit.



If you find this blue ladder, it will take you to the next area which is extremely helpful! You don't even have to destroy all the balloons, what a steal! That's way more useless than some of the other Bomber Man games we saw earlier. As per usual, don't bomb it!!



What's really weird is the balloon enemies' teeth appear to use the same sprite as the ladder.

Image: http://i.imgur.com/yAzvSjo.png

Kinda makes me think they have braces. How bizarre.

Hm? Oh, what's that? I didn't mention soft blocks? Well of course there are soft blocks silly! It is a Bomberman game after all. But seriously, I had no idea either. The title screen eludes to there being an exit and a bonus item, but how would anyone know to learn that in game without being told. All soft and hard blocks are identical in texture and color, there's no differentiating them!!

You can use the map in the corner (which is extremely helpful) to help determine how close you are to the map's limits but it's still a blind run. It takes a lot of time to adapt to it. What's really interesting about soft blocks is the fact that you can destroy half of them, just like in the other ports of Bomber Man.

Here are some GIFs where I demonstrate a half block explosion and a destroyed half block.



Pretty crazy huh? How would anyone ever know that? I just happened upon it with excessive experimentation. I should also note that this game does have a time limit and once it's over, all soft blocks vanish and the balloons hunt you down. In this next GIF, time runs out and you can see a soft block vanish. It looks like I moved the character but I didn't. It's just a bizarre optical illusion due to the block disappearing.



This game is basically a first person version of Bomber Man in every way. Crazy right? I played up to level 19 and finally threw in the towel. The stage counter implies the levels can go up to level 9999 but I'm not that masochistic. I planned on reaching 100 at least but honestly, the difficulty became way too high. The balloons became so aggressive and smart.

They could take little side turns and hunt me down as I ran and their speed is ridiculous! Look at this GIF where a balloon is running alongside me on the map and he is the same speed as me. It's gotten so powerful now!



Speaking of, here's a speed comparison. The left is from level 1 and the right is from level 18.



They have become so fast that I can't handle it anymore. At the least, I have this giant pile of research to show you guys so hopefully this gives you a well rounded idea of what 3D Bomberman is like.



He's watching you....

What's this?! Why it appears Bomberman just became even more primitive! It's literally the same game as Bomber Man on MSX and ZX Spectrum (which I covered in a few earlier posts) except the graphics have been taken down a big notch here. Have a look at some gameplay.



Boy that is kinda hilarious. Such humble beginnings for our hero Shirobon. It's funny but also charming in a way, to see such a simple idea evolve into what we see today, no? Anywho, this game is almost 100% identical to the other Bomber Man ports and there's not a lot to say, except more of the same. I feel like I keep making GIFs of the same events over and over lol.

Here's what a normal bomb explosion looks like. Marvel at it with me!



There's something very peaceful about it. I just love watching those pixels go all crazy! It's such a fun, retro explosion.

Now let's run through the game. So, to explain, Bomberman is the green guy and the balloons are the other guys. In this port, they still retain their behavior patterns like we've seen before. The only way you can really tell is by their color. Yellow is their happy or normal color, blue is a transition phase, purple/pinkish is when they start to seem worried and red it angry. When they turn red they will pursue you, just like in the previous titles we've seen. Have a look.



Interesting how they retained that in this port. Those witty developers! Of course all the similar boring stuff is still here. There are items you can find which appear to just be yellow squares (blocks of gold I assume) and bombing them will punish you like always.



Notice that red, pyramid shaped thing? That's the exit and bombing it is just as bad.



And of course, we have half block physics returning. It's kinda funny to see the soft blocks are just a bunch of hashtags.



Another returning gimmick is the time over thing, where all soft blocks vanish once the bonus runs out.



One thing that does stand out though is Stage 4. Previous Bomber Man entries had an auto bomb mechanic where bomberman would just lay bombs without control and this occurred every four levels. In this game, it appears to be missing and is just a normal stage.



And lastly, just because it continues to be entertaining, the death animation.



Funny how it just seems to be a bunch of pixels rolling around like that. If we got any more primitive, it'd just be a bunch of binary everywhere.

Unfortunately this emulator lacked save states and my skill is nowhere near good enough, thus, I cannot reach level 100. I still learned quite a bit and it was charming to see such an old version of Bomberman out there. Amazing how different he was in the old days, going from pixels to a human to a robot who escapes a compound to become a human. So many forms for just one character!



This is a fun image showing many Bomberman sprites of the early days. In order from left to right we have the Sharp MZ-700, MSX, ZX Spectrum, 3D on MSX, Special on MSX and NES to finish it. I noticed that the Special sprite is more frumpy at the bottom than his NES counterpart. He must've been working out since then.

Image: http://i.imgur.com/u4IkyIj.jpg

How and why this exists is beyond me but it's strangely interesting. Here's what to expect. You begin an intro level where you play as Red Sentai (I have no idea what else to call them) and it plays a lot like Bomberman. You defeat the enemies and reach the exit. In this stage however, you only need to reach the exit.

Image: http://i.imgur.com/LO9497Q.gif

Now before I move on I should finish explaining. In these stages, there are a lot of new hazards. In the GIF above there are numbered panels. Stepping on them will automatically set your speed to that number, anywhere from 1 to 5. So you can go from full speed to low speed instantly, pretty tricky! There are more stages with weird gimmicks as well.

Also worth noting are the enemies. They look exactly like those silly monsters from Super Sentai. Pretty hilarious. Anywho, after the intro stage comes an intro boss! This guy is unbeatable and I'll show him off a little later when I cover the rest of the bosses. After your inevitable loss, there's this weird sequence where all 5 Sentais transform back into 2.5D Bombermen.

Image: http://i.imgur.com/4K9fkTm.gif

Weird how Red Sentai loses but they all get punished for it. I don't get it. So from here you must play through 5 classic stages for each of the Sentais, resulting in 25 stages to play. They play just like classic bomberman: kill the enemies, find the exit. The only real difference is the graphics which are 2.5D and decently interesting.

Image: http://i.imgur.com/d3YQnOg.gif

The areas are the same each time so it's a bit of a grind to do this much. As soon as the 5 stages are clear for one Sentai, you get this transformation sequence where they become normal again in all of their weird glory! Just look at some of these scenes.

Image: http://i.imgur.com/wlKtwtY.gif Image: http://i.imgur.com/0zn90n2.gif
Image: http://i.imgur.com/wyR8Dak.gif Image: http://i.imgur.com/j13OwCi.gif
Image: http://i.imgur.com/SBkJjSt.gif Image: http://i.imgur.com/kEC2mU3.gif

Scenes like these are where their personality starts to shine. They really are a weird bunch!

So from here you must go through 9 missions as the Sentais which are the same each time. This adds another 45 stages to our game and really increases the total here! As soon as you catch all the Sentais up to this point, the boss level opens for each of them. When you play as Red, you finally get a rematch with the big knight from the intro. Here's panoramics from the game of all the bosses.

Image: http://i.imgur.com/tfsljp5.gif Image: http://i.imgur.com/ZfvAkrc.gif
Image: http://i.imgur.com/Uzvqc37.gif Image: http://i.imgur.com/EtTK8zk.gif
Image: http://i.imgur.com/7XKGMF2.gif

What is it with Yellow?! First his transformation is weird and shows off his butt, but now he's fighting a giant frog sucking a pacifier?! Why?!   Seriously, I get this game is meant to induce some comedy but this is truly weird. Green's isn't any better. At least the other colors had Sentai/Monster things but nothing that weird. That was definitely a shock to see the first time.

Anywho, defeat all 5 of them and you get a fancy ending.

Image: http://i.imgur.com/qKy3KM1.gif

And that's really all there is to say. It has a boss rush/challenge mode thing but it's basically playing through all the stages for a high score. Overall it's pretty mediocre. It's interesting for the novelty of the 2.5D classic stages and the unusual Sentai ones but it's not a memorable title at all. It does include a demo of some other game that isn't Bomberman but I'm not sure what it's called.

To finish off, here's some GIFs that show the stats of the Sentais.

Image: http://i.imgur.com/H7Juc2r.gif Image: http://i.imgur.com/d9zZn6t.gif
Image: http://i.imgur.com/joyHVdK.gif Image: http://i.imgur.com/D01WcDK.gif
Image: http://i.imgur.com/WnLjD9R.gif

Run Yellow, Run!

Image: http://i.imgur.com/wFUtejs.gif