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ボンバーマン'94
©1993 Hudson Soft / vol.61
Release : 1993-12-10 (¥6800)
HuCard (8 Mbits) HC93065
Action game
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Bomberman'94 is the third (and last) episode of Hudson soft's flagship
and popular series released for the PC Engine system. Everyone on
Planet Bomber was at peace, thanks to the protective work of ancient and
benevolent spirits. But one day, an evil army of robots led by the malevolent
Bagurā (aka 'Burglar') appears and breaks the large sacred stone
tablets, source of the spirits' mystical powers. The very fabric of the
Bomberman universe is now at stake and Planet Bomber, under the
enormous pressure, splits into five different worlds. A team of Bombermen
is assembled to restore order to the universe and to retrieve all the sacred stone
fragments. However, they all fail miserably... except for Shirobon, the white
Bomberman, who must now save the Bomber World all by himself. Once again,
players come equipped with the trademark bombs, and these bombs must be strategically
dropped and only explode after a short amount of time, roasting anything within their
blast radius (including players if they linger for too long). Bomberman'94
is drastically more complex than its predecessors and the game features six different
worlds (each made out of several sub-stages) and several new gameplay twists.
Here, the game doesn't require players to kill all the enemies to
complete a level. Instead, each sub-stage comes with a piece of fragment enclosed
within an impenetrable force-field that must be deactivated, and in order to do so,
all the energy poles scattered around each maze must be blasted up (some even open
doors later in the game). Once all the fragments for a given world are reunited,
they serve as a key and activate an intense boss battle. As expected, Bomberman'94
comes loaded with new features, such as a fleet of colored kangaroos (called Rūi)
that players can ride. They hatch from colored eggs and can use special powers, such
as the ability to jump over obstacles or to kick bombs. They also double as shields
and take damage in place of the player (at the cost of their own lives though).
Additionally, nine different Bombermen are available to choose from in this
version, from the cute Bombergirl, to the Old-Bomberman or the
Punk-Bomberman. Finally, Bomberman'94 includes a multi-player battle
mode where up to five players can battle each other, and a password system gives
the player the opportunity to save a game in progress.
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Bomberman '94 was also ported to the Sega Megadrive and renamed
Mega Bomberman for the occasion (picture on the right). It was curiously never released in
Japan and was only available in the United States and Europe.
Although the game is fairly identical to the PC Engine version, it features
a slightly different soundtrack, only supports a maximum of four players (whereas
the PC Engine version supports five), several visual effects were removed
(such as the neat underwater distortion or
the falling snow flakes). Additionally, there are some small differences in the
graphics, they have fewer shades and are a lot less colorful overall - for
instance, the first level's background is plain brown and the pink Rūi
with the flower hat that appears when the player pauses the battle-mode has been
replaced by a simple "Pause" text message.
Finally, two other games are also worth mentioning. The first one is an obscure game
called Bomberman'08 and exclusively available for mobile phones in Japan. It
was released in 2008 was is straight remake of Bomberman'94 (with slightly
updated graphics). The other one is Super Bomberman 3 for the Super Famicom
(only released in Japan and Europe in 1995) which can be seen as a
remixed version of Bomberman'94.
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Two special/promotional editions of Bomberman '94 exist (picture on the left), and unlike
Bomberman and Bomberman'93 special HuCards, these were only
available on CD-Roms (probably cheaper to produce than cartridges). The first
one was
Bomberman '94 Special Version,
a Super CDRom² released
before the HuCard game tested here. It is not really clear as to where this
promotional version actually originated from (most likely from Hudson Soft's
exclusive fan club or given away at one of their popular tournaments) and only
10,000 copies are believed to exist. The game only includes the multi-player
battle mode (no CPU players though), one arena to choose from and only the white
bomberman as a playable character. The second special edition was
Tengai Makyō Deden no Den,
another Super CDRom² game released the following year where all the
Bombermen characters were replaced by the blue-haired
Kabuki Danjūrō, the eccentric Kabuki performer and swordsman from
the Tengai Makyō (aka Far East of Eden) series.
Deden no Den is fairly identical to Bomberman '94 Special Version
(except for the sprite change aforementioned), and only 20,000 copies are believed to exist.
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Game Staff (Copied from the end credits) :
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BOMBERMAN '94
STAFF
Programer
Yuichi Ito
Hideo Iwakawa
Kazuyuki Kimura
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Graphic Designer
Yakuyo Aoyama
Yuji Iwahara
Tomomi Tada
Sound Programer
Hajime Ohara
Takashi Morio
Special Thanks
Denki-Mirai Co.Ltd
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Music Composer
Jun Chiki Chikuma
Art Director
Shoji Mizuno
Producer
Hiroki Shimada
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Supervisor
Toshiki Fujiwara
Director
Yoshiyuki Kawaguchi
Basic Game Designer
Shinichi Nakamoto
Presented By
Hudson Soft
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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Sound Room:
At the title screen, first press Right, then press Left,
Left & Down, Down, Down & Right and then II (it
is technically a half-circle).
This is rather tricky to achieve, but this will activate
the Sound Room (picture on the right) where you can play all the music tracks and sound effects
from the game.
Secret stage select and boss room:
Text hidden inside the ROM indicates that a Stage Select and a Boss Room
were one day available. But these options were probably removed from the retail version...
The text for the Boss Room is rather interesting because it lists the names
for all the bosses - namely, Saru and Bananacher, Pyramid Gan, Grub Robs,
Komori Count, Queen Oyobee and Buglear. You can actually drop the
game's ROM in your favorite text editor to see the original hidden text!
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
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Bomberman'94 is a gem of a game and is definitively the best
Bomberman available for the PC Engine system (how come it
was never released in the United States ???). It simply takes the winning
formula already laid down by its predecessors, and intensifies every single
ingredient to deliver a grand performance. The story mode is incredible and
packed with tiny details, clever gameplay ideas and, well, is just plain fun
to play. The soundtrack is also the catchiest that my ears have ever heard,
and the kind that will stick to your brain for the rest of your life (and I am
not exaggerating this, it is playing in my head right now as I'm writing this
review). Freaky powerful stuff. Finally, Bomberman is one of the best
(if not THE best) multiplayer game ever made, and, of course, this version
boasts an incredibly addictive and fun multiplayer battle mode that will
bring countless hours of joy to you and your friends. Bomberman'94
is an unavoidable classic and a high water mark in the PC Engine
system library. A true masterpiece.
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