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Bomberman Jetters

In our tireless quest to give you, our dear readers, the utmost best in accurate news, reviews, previews and insane monkeys, we occasionally seek to share and impart the priceless gift of education. It’s true that all things academic are usually in stark opposition to videogames, largely due to a general unawareness of how much useful information can be obtained from our polygon-powered pastimes. Videogames can teach us so much about the world (jumping through sewer pipes can lead to exciting new environments), its many inhabitants (wild animals can be killed by jumping/stomping on them) and ourselves. To illustrate the latter point, let’s take a look at Abraham Maslow’s famous psychological theory of human needs.

Maslow proposed that in order to carve out a meaningful existence in this mad world, every human being needs to have certain needs met. Certain needs are more important than others, as evidenced by physiological requirements like food and warmth taking priority over safety, which in turn is more important than love and esteem. Consequently, all the needs form a hierarchy or pyramid of human desires. That’s all great, aside from one glaring omission that becomes highlighted after playing a videogame. We learn that at the bottom of that pyramid the most important need of all can be found, a necessity that is gloriously pampered by Bomberman games – The need to blow stuff up.

Here we have a character whose sole purpose is to explosively annihilate everything in sight. If those things happen to be your friends, you’ll get the most out of Bomberman Jetters. If solitary demolition is more your style, you’ll mostly just get bored. The game often feels like a loose affiliation between two games that just happen to share the bomb-toting midget, a ragtag union between single- and multiplayer. One side is clearly of more worth than the other and as such, it almost seems like they’re in direct opposition, like the case of the evil twin out to get the generally pleasant and more sociable sibling. Now that’s a psychological realm I don’t dare venture into with this review.

Planet Bomber is about to be smashed into tiny, unrecognizable pieces by Darkstar, an artificial comet constructed by those nefarious ne’er-do-wells, the Hige Hige Bandits. Passing on the more feasible solutions of evacuating citizens of the planet into a network of subterranean caves or launching Bruce Willis into space, the Jetters send in White Bomber (a super-deformed and horrendously cute Bomberman) to blow up the comet’s four engines and save the day. This paper-thin plot sets up your rather tedious trek across the comet’s four worlds, a trek that is fraught with problems. Gameplay problems, that is.

Presented from a 3D isometric perspective, the game has you running around and using your bombs in a limited number of ways to solve paltry puzzles and ultimately progress through the levels. As you’d expect, White Bomber has several different types of bombs at his disposal and can kick and fling them all over the place. The latter action is all the more impressive when one considers that the little guy doesn’t actually have any hands. He also moves incredibly slowly, which is why you’ll be immensely grateful for the various power-up cards you can collect from fallen enemies and destroyed objects. Apart from boosting speed, they can increase your maximum health, the number of bombs you can set at one time and the blasting power of each detonation.

Unless you’re a complete klutz, you’ll undoubtedly have collected enough cards after the first few levels to make your character the most powerful he can be, as the power-ups are very plentiful and enemy encounters are hardly challenging (taking damage makes you drop a card). Taking the guises of everything from gardeners to astronauts, the Hige Hige Bandits meander randomly through the level and attack in such straightforward patterns you’ll often have them beaten before they’ve even noticed you. When fighting enemies becomes almost a non-issue, the game has to rely on the strength of its puzzles to carry the game forward. Sadly, a decrepit old lady who thinks everyday is Tuesday can be seen carrying the game.

“White Bomber, kick your [type of bomb here] into the [pertinent object here]!”
“White Bomber, activate those switches by throwing your [type of bomb here] on them!”
A few of the puzzles may even go so far as to throw in a timing element, but the majority of boring situations call for you to use a bomb on something in order to open a door. In the most rare of cases, you’ll have to change to Max, the other playable and otherwise useless character, in order to break down special doors. If a switch is still unreachable, you need to resort to the Charaboms, odd Pokemon-esque creatures (“Sharkun! I need you!”) which allow White Bomber to cross rivers and chasms or perform modified attacks, amongst other things. They too can be upgraded by collecting fruit, though this is really more of an option than a necessity. In fact, you can get through most of the game without them, as they’re only needed in short bursts. The level design really should have taken more advantage of this aspect. As it is, puzzles and stages are always dreadfully simplistic, never rewarding and accompanied by an often-annoying camera.

Lining up a bomb with a door can become an exercise in frustration, as some of the environmental objects such as trees are placed so as to perfectly obstruct your view of White Bomber. You’re able to rotate the camera with the L- and R-buttons, but such attempts are usually futile. Even when your view is unobstructed, it can still be difficult to get your aim right, a problem that could have been remedied with a button that automatically centers the camera behind your character. Once you’ve managed to get the angle right, you’ll note that the game isn’t much to look at. Featuring very basic cel-shading, pathetically blocky levels and a color palette that has never heard of the phrase, “Tone it down”, the visuals should really feel embarrassed amid the other Gamecube titles.

The people behind the silly cast of characters deserve a similar feeling, as their high-pitched, overacting voices are enough to drive any person clear out of their mind. As for the music, well, it’s so awful it might just make insane people normal again. I suppose that means the total audio package keeps you firmly between the two mental extremes.

Bomberman Jetters finds itself caught between two extremes, namely the single- and multiplayer portions. As has been subtly established by now, the solo side is…not very good. On the other bomb-glove, however, the multiplayer is an absolute blast. With a huge number of exciting modes, arenas and an unparalleled sense of chaotic destruction, it’s hard to believe we’re still talking about the same game here. If you have friends, it’s imperative that you invite them over and kick bombs into their faces. If you don’t have friends, you should stop playing so many videogames and go make some. And then blow them up.

The reason behind the multiplayer segment’s success can be chalked up to the continued magic of the old Bomberman formula. Four people scurrying about, blasting through blocks and lobbing bombs at each other whilst desperately avoiding columns of flames and other disasters is a situation that delivers an obscene amount of fun. Hudson Soft have done well to keep the gameplay fresh by adding some very interesting modes, the best of which is Knockout Battle. All players start out with maximum strength bombs, meaning that the length of explosions is quite intimidating. The blasts won’t kill you though; they’ll merely push you around. Should you be close to the edge of the arena when a blast hits you, however, you’ll go tumbling off into the abyss. The sheer sight of four characters madly tossing bombs and sometimes teetering over a deadly precipice is reward in itself, never mind actually taking part.

Even the standard deathmatch mode is more entertaining in its final few minutes than the entire solo campaign could hope to be. The different arenas all have unique gimmicks, from crazy weather changes and speedy trolley riding to missile bombardment and liberal use of a shrinking ray. The matches can be customized to a large degree, making it easy to suit certain preferences or tinker around to make things even crazier. There’s also a decent number of characters to select, each with different special abilities, the use of which can easily turn the tables on an unwitting opponent.

Now, you can play all of these thrilling modes on your own if you wish, but you’ll have to deal with two annoying problems. Firstly, the game’s AI is absolutely and unfairly brutal, even on the easiest setting. It’s only a machine’s precision that can result in your opponents timing their movements exactly so as to miss each and every one of your bombs, all whilst sealing your fate with their powerful bombs. Before you even think of getting a certain power-up, chances are they’ll already have it. The second issue is a fairly obvious one – the AI isn’t nearly as much fun to be with as your friends. The core gameplay is so enjoyable because of the fun it generates between friends, and no AI can change that. Well, at least not until the Earth is conquered by robots and we’re all enslaved. Besides, Chess will no doubt be the game of choice at that time.

It’s better to think of Bomberman Jetters as a multiplayer only game, as its other half actually detracts from the overall experience. For once, it’s the singleplayer game that feels tacked on to something superior, not the other way around. Had it been constructed more in line with the classic Bomberman gameplay that we all love and not with such an illogical drive to shift the gameplay into a realm it doesn’t belong, the game could have been truly great. As it is, it’s best to simply ignore anything that isn’t part of the multiplayer section. If you’re planning on buying Bomberman Jetters for any reason other than to play it with your friends…don’t.

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Posted by Ludwig on Jul 12th, 2004 and is filed under Game Cube Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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