I remember when this game came out many years ago for the Switch. I always thought it looked fun but I suppose it just wasn’t fun enough to go all the way and buy. Well that all changed now because I finally got to check it out for the PS4. It’s a pretty fun game but also certainly a very short one. You’ll have it conquered within a few hours no sweat. After that there is replay value but I would have liked it if the game could have been a bit longer. There’s a whole lot you can do with the bomb gameplay.

The story starts off with a guy who looks a lot like Dr. Wily deciding that he is going to take over the world. He isn’t going to do it slowly or subtly. No, this guy has hired the Dastardly Bombers to do his bidding. The Bombermen have to rise up to take them down but unfortunately only the main one is ready for action. The others keep slacking off and holding him back. Is there any way for them to come out on top or is this the end of the road?

The story is definitely on the weak side. I appreciate the fact that there are full illustrations and voice acting here but at the same time you can’t help but feel that it could be better. There’s a lot of fun you can have with a plot about the Bombermen but it’s definitely played more for laughs. The character designs are all good though. It may not be the story I had been waiting for but at least it did have a full story and you don’t want to take that for granted.

As for the gameplay, well Bomberman is all about dropping bombs along the map and making sure you don’t step in them. You have to maneuver carefully as you destroy debris and enemies without getting hit in the crossfire. It’s a pretty unique gameplay style that is also a good bit of fun. You have to go through 8 levels in each world before fighting a boss. There are 5 full worlds and then one bonus level. Each world will take you under an hour, maybe half an hour or so. This is a pretty short game as a result so personally I would have doubled the worlds. Alternately split up the levels so each one is a separate level and then do about 100 of those instead of the current number. I thin you could do it since in theory changing the layouts of the level for each mission shouldn’t be too difficult. At least it’s all using the same assets and character models so I feel like it should be really easy. You don’t want to extend the game for no reason but a few more hours helps it to really feel like a full bargain.

Although as mentioned there is replay value here in the form of bonus levels. You also have multiplayer mode and of course you can play as a bunch of different characters as well. All of that helps to really make Bomberman stand out a little more than it would otherwise. The production values all feel really high too. The character models look really sharp and everything is in very high resolution. The soundtrack is mostly forgettable with the exception of the end credits song.

That one definitely does stand out so big props to the game there. the lyrics are also really emotional, that’s the kind of heart you expect for this game. I think a sequel should really try to have the characters take everything at least a little more seriously. Do that and the whole game will absolutely benefit as a result. You already have cool visuals for the villains and a large cast so this is really the next big step. I’d definitely be encouraged to buy the game a lot sooner if that was the case. Seriously count me in there, it would be the right play.

The game can also be rather difficult with the boss battles in particular. You have to figure out how to hurt them while in battle and their attack range is really good. When you die you can revive as long as you have 300 coins left. I always had enough coins so I was good but it’s something to keep an eye out for. Otherwise you may find yourself at the dreaded game over screen and that would definitely be rough.

I recommend taking advantage of the few seconds of invincibility that you get when you first respawn. Trust me this is absolutely massive and helped me a lot with some of the bosses. Otherwise I’d almost say to button mash because it’s hard to really plan things out when you’re going super fast like this. Just throw a lot of bombs around and you should be fine. During the levels you can get upgrades to range and number of bombs as long as your speed. Go for all of them and blow up the negative power ups.

This can mean taking a little longer to complete a level as you blow everything up looking for power ups but it is really worth it for those boss battles. I was quite impressed with how tough those could be. I died several times but fortunately you get 8 lives for each chapter and of course with the continues you’ll usually have enough coins for 4-5. I only needed 1 continue for each chapter except the last one which helped for saving coins. I’m not totally sure how you earn coins. You get them for beating chapters but try not to put yourself in a position where you’re totally out of them or that could be risky.

Overall, Super Bomberman R is definitely a pretty fun game. It may be on the short side and the story wasn’t particularly impressive but at the end of the day I still had a good time. It’s a title that you can get for really cheap nowadays so there’s no reason not to get it. Hopefully Bomberman makes a return to the AAA home console games one of these days. There is a lot more you can do with the premise after all but until then we’ll have this game at the ready.

Overall 7/10