Bomberman Live

August 7, 2007

Despite entertaining a game called Bomberman Act Zero, Bomberman Live is the first real Bomberman game to grace the Xbox 360. When it was announced, I was quite happy that a real Bomberman was finally being released for my favorite, and currently only, console. As I waited for it to finally finish downloading, I had nostalgic thoughts about how much fun I had playing with my friends on the N64 back in the day. My expectations were high. In light of this, how did the game fare?

The game offers eight maps, and five game modes. The game modes depend on the level. Some levels don’t offer the same modes as others, to put it simply. These modes include: Arena Feature, in which you need to avoid the traps of the specific level; Zombie, in which you are immortal, and your goal is to paint as many tiles your color as you can; Paint Bomb, which is the same as Zombie, but once you die, it’s game over; Bombing Run, which is standard play, but much faster, and last but not least, Classic Mode, which I’m sure needs no introduction.

Some new features include power-ups and customization features of your Bomberman character. The powerups are standard stuff: increased speed, more flame, and so on. The customization of Bomberman probably seemed like a cool feature to add, but ended up being gimmicky and useless. The other people can’t really see what you look like, and I doubt they really care. This is Bomberman, not World of Warcraft.

Single player, for me at least, is just practice for online play. Bomberman was MADE to be played with other people. I highly suggest testing yourself on single (or local play as it’s called in the game), then go straight to multiplayer. In the end, Bomberman Live is not only loads of fun (especially on Live), but cheap, so I can only urge you to do one thing: buy this game!

Score: 5/5

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