Pocket Bomberman

US box art.

Pocket Bomberman is a Bomberman game turned into a platformer developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy on 1997-12-12 and later ported to the Game Boy Color on 1998-12-14. In the game's story, the sun is shrouded in darkness by a huge monster and only Bomberman can save the day by climbing an evil mountain, defeating five monsters to retrieve their power stones and retrieve the Sword of the Sun. The game features two play modes: Normal Game, where you can jump at your leisure, and Jump Game, where you constantly jump.

Personal

I learned about this game because it was on a list of the best games for the Game Boy Color. I've always enjoyed playing Bomberman games with friends, but I had never really tried to beat any of them because they usually go on for far too long. Since Game Boy games tend to be a lot shorter, I decided to play this game. When I first started playing it, I was shocked to see that it wasn't a top-down like every other Bomberman game I had played. I played it through and beat it on 2020-02-21.

Status

I don't own this game, but I've beaten the Normal Game on the Game Boy Color port.

Review

Good

• It's very interesting to see Bomberman turned on its side, and I enjoy the new mechanics like a flying power-up.
• Being able to drop bombs and use them to reach higher platforms was a clever mechanic, and becomes a necessary skill to master in later levels.
• The graphics are drawn well, but, when they were converted to the Game Boy Color, the designers didn't do a very good job accommodating the attribute clash.
• The game's music uses remixed older Bomberman tunes, but also includes some new ones. They're very fitting for the game and enjoyable.
• The Game Boy release has support for the Super Game Boy.

Bad

• The bosses are pretty much all the same. There are only a handful of differences between them.
• The Sword of the Sun seems tacked on. You don't get it until you defeat all the bosses, which leaves nothing for you to fight with it.
• The game has the clogs item which slows you down. While bad items can be fun in multiplayer, they're just annoying in single player.
• Pause hides the game display, something I never like in games.
• Both the Normal and Jump games can be finished pretty quickly, and, with infinite continues, you don't get much play out of the game. I would have preferred to see an endless mode or randomly generated levels.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The original Japanese game was for Game Boy and came in a tin. It has a logo similar to the later Super Bomberman titles. The art shows Bomberman holding a halberd, which he never does in the game.

• 

  The USA release, which was ported to the Game Boy Color, uses the Japanese logo, but uses art from the manual. The art has been modified to include Pterastone, the boss of world 3. Because of this, the art is a little weak.

• 

  For some reason, the box art was completely re-created for the European release even though it looks very similar. My guess is they didn't have access to the original art, but, because it's so basic, they were able to recreate it by hand.

Videos

• youtube.com/watch?v=G3y-fu6XqvI - Longplay, Normal Game.
• youtube.com/watch?v=2QoeO175ZCs - Longplay, Jump Game.
• youtube.com/watch?v=fuIcSN18Dkk - Speedrun, Normal Game.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Pocket Bomberman
Japanese	ポケットボンバーマン	Poketto Bonbaman	Pocket Bomberman

Links