Bomberman Generation Reviewed

I have a tiny confession to make...I am not that a big fan of the Bomberman games. The NES game was bland, repetitive and very boring. The SNES games are a bit better, they have color and brightness to it...just not the fun. Now Bomberman 64 was a decent game even though getting a 100% completion was a horrible, horrible case of Guide Dang It. But Bomberman Hero, the second game for the Nintendo 64 was pretty awesome...even though I just rented it and never beat it, the memories still remain. Now how does Bomberman Generation, the first game for the Gamecube, stack up? Let's find out.

So the game's stories begins with some Bomb Elements that are the source of GREAT POWER that could be used for great good.....or great EVIL. But the spaceship that old Professor Ein used to transport the Bomb Elements was shot down and the Elements scattered all around the Planet Tentacalls waiting to be gathered by Bomberman's arch enemies, the Hige Hige Bandits. So Professor Ein has Bomberman go to the Tentacalls, bomb the living hell out of the Hige Hige Bandits and get those Bomb Elements back. And then there's this guy called Max who helps you whenever he feels like it....he's useless and a waste in the game.

The game plays like any other 3-D Bomberman game. You run around, bomb things and get power ups to increase your speed, bombs you can drop and the power of your bomb blasts. There is a little twist that you can get these Pokemon things called Charaboms that help you out by many things...like remote-detonated bombs, increased distance or remote-controlled bombs among other things. The main problem with the game is that it takes FAR too long for it too actually be fun and that's only when you get the remote-detonated bombs. Until then you're at the mercy of the bomb's natural life span and just stunning the enemies doesn't work cause they're only out of it for a couple seconds and the bombs take at least five seconds to explode which is unacceptable. Thankfully, when you the remote-detonated bombs things get fun real fast.

Bomberman Generation's graphics were the first Gamecube game to use cel-shaded graphics similar to Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The result for Bomberman is that it looks like a hyper-anime and considering that there is or was, whatever the case may be, a Bomberman anime out there so this may be based off of it. I know that Bomberman Jetters(which will be the next Bomberman game I'll review) was based off the anime. But the graphics here are fun in a nice over-the-top way that compliment the world of Bomberman.

A small but noticeable flaw in this is that most of the voice-acting is weak. The voice you hear most of the time is Professor Ein's and he's painfully average. Of course the things he has to say painfully obvious things like telling to go forward, destroy something or did you get these things yet. And he just won't shut up about it...you will come to dread when your communicator watch comes on. Most of the other voices are bland and forgettable but a couple of bosses are over-the-top enough to match the look of the game which is nice. Then there's the biggest waste of the game, Max. He has a cool voice, his musical cue sounds like the music I hear whenever I see Antonio Banderas(What? Can't I hear sexy latino music when I see Antonio Banderas without being gay?) but all he does is help you out on major boss battles whenever he feels like it and that's it...sigh.

So all in all, this game isn't so bad even if it doesn't reach the heights of Bomberman 64 or Bomberman: Hero. It looks great and more often than not it is pretty fun to play with little details that are pleasing to the eye. It's just takes unforgivably long to get going, they waste a potentially awesome character with Max and the voice-acting is weak. You can give this one a go, you might like it.

6/10