Bomberman Land Touch Review

Bomberman has had an interesting past. While the series is as classic as they come, it keeps trying to change its core mechanics and always fails to take Bomberman to the next level. But for Bomberman, there is no next level. The game works best when it is itself, which is why the Bomberman games for the Nintendo 64, Bomberman Jetters on GameCube, and Bomberman: Act Zero for the Xbox 360 were all terrible. They messed with the classic battle mode. You don’t do that! Bomberman Land Touch tries to accomplish both–sticking to its roots and offering up a new kind of adventure mode–but it still doesn’t quite “get it.”

Bomberman Land Touch is split into two parts: the story mode and the classic battle mode. When they say classic, they mean it. This takes Bomberman back to the very basics. The only powerups available are the standard speed up, bomb up, fire up, and bomb kick. All the great weapons from past Bomberman games (such as Bomberman Generation) are missing. No power glove. No remote bomb. There aren’t even any of those hilarious poison “powerups” that make you run super fast or drop all your bombs at once. While I remember playing a Bomberman clone that was even simpler than this on my TI-86 graphic calculator–and having quite a bit of fun in the process–the item selection here is hugely disappointing. You have the option to customize the match all you want, so I don’t see why they couldn’t have just thrown in a few of these items and let you turn them on/off if you want.

As has been the Bomberman tradition, this game also incorporates a single-player adventure. This isn’t anything like the adventure mode in Bomberman Generation and Jetters, though. Bomberman is now a mini-game compilation, for better or worse. It’s like a mix of Big Brain Academy and Warioware, and it’s all stylus-based. There are your typical “slide the stylus back and forth as fast as you can” games and those that want you to blow into the microphone. There are slightly better ones, though, where you draw a fuse from a bomb to the appropriately colored spark or tap falling notes as they near the “sweet spot.” Some of these games are amusing, but most of them are not, and it never feels like a big enough improvement over what Bomberman used to be. The adventure aspect comes into play, because the mini-games are actually booths on a series of islands. When you complete a mini-game, you receive a card that correlates to the island it came from. These cards are then needed to open gates and shortcuts to other areas. Along the way, you can talk to (and battle against) fellow bombermen, collect costumes to trigger different events, and earn new bombs to solve puzzles. There aren’t any monsters to deal with, either, keeping the atmosphere very friendly and casual. It’s a fun setup, and I actually enjoyed dashing between islands, looking for secrets. It’s too bad the mandatory mini-games are lame.

The adventure mode is surprisingly long, requiring plenty of running around and solving puzzles as well as a total of 36 different mini-games. But much of this “length” comes from being forced to replay the same mini-games over and over. Every game has to be played at least three times: once initially for a card, then against a rival, and a third time to top the high score and win a token. So those games you hated and hoped you would never see again? Well, you’re going to see them again. And they’re even worse when you’re battling against the computer, because the computer players don’t make mistakes as often as you think. In just a few hours, you’ll reach a road block; the only games available to play are all the ones you hate, and suddenly you’ll have no desire to continue.

That’s when you tune into Bomberman’s multiplayer and forget all about that “other” mode. Multiplayer comes in two flavors: the mini-games from the adventure and the classic battle. All of it is up for single-card download, too, and the mini-games, when played with more than one person, are actually kind of fun. The only downside here is that every time you want to change, everyone who doesn’t have their own cartridge will have to reset their system and download the new game. The classic battle, however, doesn’t have this setback, and this is where Bomberman Land Touch starts to feel like a good investment. Up to eight players can duke it out on a wide range of maps, including single-screen and double-screen arenas. With the ability to form teams and get back in the game after you’ve died thanks to the super revenge option, this is about as good as it gets. Almost. The lack of more items is, again, a surprising omission.

And finally, Bomberman Land does what we have all been pining for: online play. Unfortunately, the online setup takes after Mario Kart too much, and the problems in that game are present here. It still takes a painstakingly long time to connect with other players, and which arena you play in depends on how players’ votes were cast. Matches take place either with friends, rivals, regional players, or worldwide players. Going with worldwide nets you a better chance at getting all four players in, but the lag you have to deal with is ridiculous. Bomberman starts running at a third of its normal speed, making it impossible to enjoy. Regional matches also suffer from a bit of lag, though not nearly as much, but playing regional means you will probably never have more than one human opponent. Not very many people are taking this Bomberman online. And I don’t blame them. The lag in Mario Kart DS was excusable, because you could still race. Here, the lag cuts too much into the gameplay and ruins what is supposed to be a frantic, quick-paced game of drop and run.

Final Comments

Bomberman and Nintendo DS go hand-in-hand. They were meant for each other. But now you’ve got two options, Bomberman DS and Bomberman Land Touch. Which one should you get? Touch’s adventure mode is fun on its own, but the mini-games involved are mostly dumb and pointless. Both games feature great eight-player support, but this one’s a little too basic for those who love the newer items like the power glove and the remote bombs. And the online play, which was going to make Touch the clear winner, doesn’t work all that well. Either way, you’re getting a great multiplayer experience, but I think you’d be better off saving a couple bucks and buying the first Bomberman.