SFC/SNES Super Bomberman 2

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This incarnation of Bomberman is probably one of the best versions available to American audiences that a lot of people managed to play. Saturn Bomberman was better, but not as many people managed to play that in groups since you had to build up your taps and pads collection to make it happen. TurboGrafx 16 Bomberman is up there as well but it lacks the powerups here that some find so amusing and is great for an entirely different reason. So, for Bomberman bang for your buck in America, you are probably most likely to have joyously played this via rental or at a friend's house. A lot of people had Super Nintendos if I believe the cave dwelling trolls singing die Puhdys lyrics in my head while they mine for ore. Only communists and those with a fear of firearms would not enjoy this game…

SFC - Japan SNES - America SNES - Europe
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As you see above, even from the title screen, you can tell that there was an increased level of detail given in the graphic design stage. Things look more detailed and realistic while at the same time becoming more laden with the cutesy cartooney vibe that makes this series stick out so much to a wide range of ages. The days of more realistic looking drawn weaponry/explosions/characters on either packaging or in game are mostly gone by now, speaking from the year this came out. This includes ZX Spectrum's Eric and the Floaters, the Famicom/NES titles Bomberman, RoboWarrior, and Bomber King, as well as Arcade Atomic Punk. In those titles you either see realistic artwork with cartooney game graphics, or a bit of more realistic game graphics as well as less cutesy game artwork. Hudson Soft would go against this creed of cute cartoon years later and the mouths of hell would open up and swallow the souls of men and women alike. We shall not speak of it now. :( One day when my bravery is peaked and my debt is paid down perhaps…

This duality of more detailed design but overly cute cartoon is a hard balance to understand based on my butchering use of English, but what I mean is that while I see cartoon, I think real boom. Bomberman games at this stage in the series are represented graphically in an innocent cartoon reality where death is never really a problem, just waking up and dusting off the charcoal briquettes on your nose from being knocked on your ass by an explosion. However, the graphics used have a design flair that makes you believe they are really blowing each other up and are real people in suits running around like mad. It is a somewhat odd dynamic. Were they knocking each other out with water bombs, I would not buy it, but explosions, hell yes. This title plays well and looks really good with the various graphic effects applied to it. Little touches litter this game that make it a joy to play with other people, or even all by your little lonesome. Someone at Hudson Soft stirred it up and whipped out a nice one.

Story Mode - One Player Story Mode - Two Player BattleMode One-Four Players
sbman2a.gif Nice and shiny, with even more mechanical baddies to kill.
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Not Present. I sorely miss it, as it sometimes was very useful to have an ally against the war on invading terror. That and an extra body to lure away the lumbering meatsacks chasing me around the mazes.

sbman2c.gif When you dim the lights of your fellow robotic bombers, you are awarded thusly.

To rehash my own internal opinion again, Story Mode is much the loser for the deletion of the optional second player. If it was necessary to put in more detail in the one player and battle modes then so be it. If it was simply poor planning, then for shame! As you play through this title you will be greeted by enemies that are less biological than ones in the first game. The odds of you running across a creature who has been robotified are high, though it's not quite a Robotnic thing going on, although I can see the parallels being drawn between this and the calamity to befall Sonic's neighborhood livestock.

The main enemies in this game are the stereotypical evil genius bastards who rely on technology to take over and enslave some population of naive monkey people with fruitflies for brains. Where have I heard this archetype before? Hmm…anyways, it becomes a standard theme in the Bomberman titles in its own way with this guy or that guy after this treasure or that treasure. They find that their only tactic is to create themselves a crew of cyber-converted bombers from once decent individuals. Then, Bomberman aka Eric aka Shiro aka Shiron-bom aka Shirobon aka Cheerful White aka White Bomber must swoop in and save the day, usually with the help of others who are often his enemies at some point. This same theme carries over to most of the other titles in some way, with a planet or universe being taken over much like Bowser kidnaps the Princess for Pasta-slurping Mario to bound into the scene or Link being woken up from his wild dreams of skank fairies polishing his sword by someone because the Triforce and Princess Zelda has been taken by the warty wizard himself, Ganondorf/Ganon.

The major difference I see between those games and this is that unless you count the weird pokemon like charabons that Bomberman eventually befriends he does not get any real ladies for the trouble of sticking his neck out, unless you count Pretty Bomber and I hardly doubt that whippersnapper was ever in her league. Though it can be said and often is, that neither Mario nor Link scored with their dames either, so you have to wonder what they got out the deal besides the reward of eternal sacrifice and duty to one's Kingdom, not to mention the horrible PTSD from all the times they died by your hand and were brought back by a necromancer duo named Reset and Continue. And for the record, no, there are no weird sidekick animals in this title. That amusing yet torturous reality comes later in other Bomberman adventures yet to be unwound.

Unfortunately you almost need a play by play story compilation to understand how our hero went from dude robot escaping from his underground work prison in order to become a human in the earliest games to friendly alien from Planet Bomber forever training to be the best in the universe in such a short amount of time chronologically. I guess once Hudson sold enough units of each and it actually was a hit, they had to retool the story to not have it be about a human dude who used to be a robot but now is just a bomb-toting terrorist attacking anyone he sees as villains. No, instead he's a cartoon alien living in another universe who fights for the right causes and sometimes shows up at events to scare children with his massive gourd of a head. In addition, he just so happens to know how to make bombs appear out of thin air or is able to store a massive supply of them in a magical bomb sack. That or bombs in his universe operate by some strange physics much like the Acme Instant Holes.

You will notice below that the boxes keep getting better and better. You almost want to have them all sitting in a room together, drinking tea and talking about the weather. Well, one could do that but mine would have curry and peppers, as tea stains the packaging…

SFC - Japan SNES - America SNES - Europe
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And here we get to some of the small details that make this such a stellar upgrade from the first title. The stages themselves are mostly more innovative even though there are two fewer of them. You can no longer feign innocence when you blow up your supposed ally for fun or pretend it wasn't you that trapped the whole board in an alleyway behind a burning wall of fire and debris. No, your selected bomber color, a new feature as well will show up in your flames so the careful observer can tell which one of the assclowns must find revenge stamped onto their forehead. I prefer the rootbeer color myself. If colors don't tickle you, then mayhaps prizes will cheer you up. To the winner of the rounds will go a prize, the worst for your opponents being the extra life. I do not rightly recall if that extra life recycles as it does in some games, though all the other items do when you die. Do you need more revenge? Grab a disease and then tag someone, it goes to them instead, but not always the same disease you had. Should that not be enough payback, the choice to formally break into teams to wage war on one another is now an option as well.

Despite my glowing, practically effervescent review thus far, there are some things about this game I just do not quite enjoy. Mind you, some are so anal and moot that only a moron like me would even care. I grew very attached to remote detonators in the first game's Battle Mode so now I miss it. The music is great but there's only the one song to utilize and I'm too lazy to patch something else into the speakers. After six hours, you will think you are in the game because of that one song and may grab mellons from the fridge to try and set off in the front foyer so you can unlock the hidden powerups inside the closet. A big mess, I can tell you. Also a mess, now that poison cannot be destroyed, is the fact that people will get diseases merely to clear the board of powerups or advance in that direction should it be in their way to freedom.

The last two cons left unmentioned I feel the need to air are the most anal items I could think of, though I did not try too hard. This game is amazing, but it only allows four players to enjoy it. The later titles on the Super Famicom somehow squeezed out another player but this title did not? Maybe it was an issue of design and fitting it in the memory alloted them I don't know, tho the PC Engine sure managed it well on its tiny hucard format, so…blah. Why make a controller tap that can support five players but only utilize four? See? Anal complaining, common fandom though, so get over it. What is not common fandom however, besides the ability to detect this bug and know when it's coming, is a bit more involved.

So, you are playing story mode or battle mode and have a fair share of bombs in your mobile arsenal, ie your rectal cavity because there is nowhere else these bombs could be getting stored. Two conditions can set this into play. Either you get the bomb dropping disease better known by fans as the pooping disease and my rowdy friends as The Shits, the disease you love to hate or hate to love, or you are just awesome and luck out due to insane timing. Then you run around like mad dropping bombs and keep running, and the bombs go off. Somehow you have timed a chain to go off behind you, while you continue to run, screaming like a banshee to make sure everyone in the county can see what is happening to your ass on screen, and a tail of fire extends behind you and your finger naturally continues dropping more bombs to feed your love of mother fire (or the disease is duct taping your finger to the button in effect). This chain of k-rad continues until you either lose the timing and drop a bomb out of place, have a wiseguy place bombs to thwart you, or run out of room to run without double backing upon the wall of custom colored doom.

What happens then you might ask, because that sounds so amazingly awesome you want to try it out right now? Oh…the game locks up. This could happen on the last level of the game or in a tight competition where you only needed one more trophy to beat that smug bastard who keeps taunting you with wins. It's unlikely to bother you perhaps, but I have managed to see it happen so many times I was weary of it happening. Maybe it's just my copy of the game, who knows? It is awesome in Battle Mode though, to be honest, because I am normally that smug bastard who needs to be lowered down a peg or four. Well, quietly smug, gloating on the inside.

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Pros

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Cons

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Better Battle Stages/Gameplay

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No Remote Detonators

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Bomb's Blast in Your Color

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Music Gets Stuck in Your Head

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Prize Roulette for Winner

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Poison Cannot be Destroyed

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Powerups Recycle

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Only 4 Players

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Poison Can be Tagged Away

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No Two Player Story Mode

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Tag Team Option

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Weird Lockups/Glitch

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Powerups again paint an interesting story and dictate some nasty rules of allowable strategy. Some look at this game's powerups and feel there is nothing else necessary. Others find the volume of powerups present to be overkill and desire the simplicity of earlier versions on older consoles. I am somewhat of a powerup whore, myself, though I can make do with fewer options if the competition keeps me motivated to stay awake. You will notice more positive powerups in this title compared to the first Super Bomberman. The returning positive powerups act the same way as before, so no worries. The opposable Glove replaces the boxing glove from the last game, so you instead can run around with a lit bomb, and then get rid of it as you see fit. The free life has been mentioned above and is self explanatory, while the P-Bomb may not be. It can be seen as a sort of powder keg burst added to the first bomb in your inventory, but never to them all. The blast will extend completely in every direction until it is stopped by soft or hard barriers. This is a dangerous addition to your toolbox, if you forget about it and stand too close to its blast before it goes off, or someone is paying closer attention to your movement and sets it off behind you as you are trying to run for the hills.

Bomb Skate Flame Max Flame Glove Kick P-Bomb Extra Life
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Adds an additional bomb. Increases speed. Increase flame. Maxes out flame. Allows you to throw bombs. Allows you to kick bombs. Gives max blast to first bomb. Gives you an extra life.

I had decided to break the negative powerups, or powerdowns if you will, into their own table and will continue to do so in future reviews if it makes sense to. Clogs are a joy because they tempt confused greedy powerup whores to grab them but make you crawl at a snail's pace. It is one of the negative prizes on the overwhelmingly positive Roulette Wheel spin awarded to the Golden Bomber both for being better than you and because during their coronation and ticker tape parade with lots of confetti you can only get so much crap stuck in your helmet and tear-heavy eyes causing massive papercuts. You will find a room of absolute strangers who seek each others' blood unite to chant: "CLOGS! CLOGS! CLOGS!" at the tops of their lungs, if you are as lucky as me. Skates counter act the speed mire though, so don't be too proud when they do start with them.

Slime bombs are something new as well, though the icon changes in other games to make it clear that these are not as good a thing as you may at first believe. On first glance without playing the game, or even while playing and wandering about whoring powerups you might say, "Well sir, that is merely a different more powerful bomb I am to receive." BUZZER Wrong answer. You will get what is coming to you, though. Instead of wonderful new bombs, these bastards are jittery. That is the best way to explain them. If you place them and no one kicks them, no harm no foul, maybe a bit different visual before they erode. However, if you kick them, they jump like mad back and forth across the lane of corridors hitting back and forth off whatever surface they find and returning back at you. If you throw one, it is an entirely different sort of fit because you never know where they will land. These are great for causing mayhem though and I personally love them for mucking about in the dreams of my opponents. Poison serves much the same purpose and infecting whomever you feel deserves a dose of random hell is a good time had by all.

Clogs Slime Bombs Poison
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Gives you clogs. Gives you slime bombs. Infects you with a disease.

I will try to be brief in this area dealing with the Battle Mode stages though brevity has never been a skill of mine. I will to some degree allow your imagination to conjure up all the fun strategies you can devise based on the level's appearance of novelty, without crashing them down to the ground when I explain how some just don't work. If you have played the game you will know what I mean by that, because while a level may have fun holes serving some magic purpose, not every tool of yours may enter these holes successfully. This saves some enormously cheap moves at times but had the design been considered you could have turned these options on or off. At least, if I were designing such a game that would be my mission. It's a toss up which board is my personal favorite though, because each of them has its own draw. The boards we could have ended up with here could have done far worse function wise though, and they surely help make this game high on my list of all-time personal favorites. Even if most of that comes from the good times had while enjoying this game.

Screenshot Description
sb2_1.gif 1 - The normal and beloved grey block and green grass masterpiece.
sb2_2.gif 2 - Like to slip on ice, push blocks and use warps? Ok then…
sb2_3.gif 3 - Use the four exits to leave the screen allowing your bomber some privacy as he plots. You are not safe from blasts, however.
sb2_4.gif 4 - Someone left the gas line running, so please be careful!
sb2_5.gif 5 - If it weren't for the full power blast tiles you'd just be avoiding the shelters. Trust me, they are there.
sb2_6.gif 6 - Red to red and blue to blue will warp you through and through.
sb2_7.gif 7 - Run over the numbers and find out how fast or slow you truly are.
sb2_8.gif 8 - Four words: Bombs, Conveyor Belts, Controls.
sb2_9.gif 9 - Kick your bombs off into the arrows and watch the fun begin.
sb2_10.gif 10 - Shrooms people, loads of shrooms, and the ability to jump in order to bounce on them.
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When I first reviewed this game, before I began adding my epically long revisions for this new format, I originally awarded this title: cuprate1.gifcuprate1.gifcuprate1.gifcuprate1.gifcuprate1.gifcuprate1.gifcuprate1.gifcuprate1.gif 8 Golden Cups. I am unsure of that score to some degree, almost wanting to give it an 8.5 upon reflection, but in relation to other games I know are yet to be reviewed or at the very least converted over to this format, I may have to stay with that original rating. The game is good but the flaws it does have, as well as the things I have now come to expect with later games really alter my opinion on its graded value to me. In one sense, grading games based on their later cousins rather than their contemporaries is unfair, but in some cases these minor enhancements may been have possible within the design specs of the time and they were merely not options given you, the ever hopeful but never fully happy, gamer.

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