On Reflection

There aren’t many better ways to bomb the sh*t out of your nearest and dearest, so despite not being all that we had hoped, Bomberman Live is still the king of castle in this respect.

The Score

As luck would have it, we’re Bomberman connoisseurs here on X360. Standing proud through atomic madness, DS over-complication and even (ugh) one-player mode has showed us the route to explosive ecstasy. Unfortunately, that involves slipping Bomberman Generations into your GameCube and, after that point, there’s really no wrong turn.

It’s not that there’s anything massively stinking up the mix – after all, the concept remains a simple one. However, Backbone’s desire to stamp its graphical mark on an icon appears more important to the developer than how the game itself holds together. The massively view- obscuring ‘hurry up’ blocks, how Power Gloves become active at the end of their animation and not the start, even the weak underarm punching movements, all add up to form a videogame that makes a better screenshot than gameplay experience.

Of course, enough of the old charm shines through for the available eight online or local players to have a blast. This is especially true when blissfully unaware individuals are caught by a Live Vision gloating session (similar to Command & Conquer 3), which pops up on the results screen. Correctly timing bomb throws to explode the instant they land is also still an exquisite thrill. We just wish a little of the urgency anyone would show when handed a big black ball with the word ‘bomb’ on it would rub off on Hudson’s sluggish pyromaniacs. The fact a fair old proportion of the game has been withheld to sell later also gets our collective goat.

7 out of 10