Super Bomberman R (スーパーボンバーマン R, Sūpābonbāman R, in Japanese) is an entry in the Bomberman series developed as a launch title for the Nintendo Switch as a timed exclusive, then later ported to other consoles in June 2018. It is the first console Bomberman entry since 2010's Bomberman Live: Battlefest.
The development team was made up of former Hudson Soft staff, who were taken on the project after Nintendo approached Konami.
Plot[]
The evil Emperor Buggler reawakens the Five Dastardly Bombers, and uses them to seize control of the five planets of the Starry Sky Solar System. He welcomes anyone who disagrees to challenge the Five Dastardly Bombers themselves. White Bomber takes his seven not-so-enthusiastic brothers and sisters with him on his quest to defeat the Buggler Army and save the universe!
Gameplay[]
This game includes two main modes as of 2.0: Standard and Grand Prix Mode.
Standard Mode[]
Story Mode[]
This mode features over sixty playable stages and can support two players cooperatively.
Battle Mode[]
Plays exactly as the same as any other traditional games in the series. Players will go through a 2D grid based platform and perform to drop bombs to defeat opponents. The last bomber standing will be the winner of the game. A team battle mode was added in patch 1.4. It can support up to eight players competitively.
Battle Mode can be played locally, but also online with other players worldwide.
Grand Prix Mode[]
Grand Prix mode offers new features from normal battles. Each battle is 2 rounds and the team with the most total points wins with each character having different power-ups. When players lose a life in Grand Prix mode, they are resurrected after a certain time instead of turning into a revenge bomber. Additionally, soft blocks will start falling after a certain time has elapsed. There are four rulesets available:
- Crystal: Get points by collecting the crystals in the stage. Knocked out players will respawn but will leave behind half their collected crystals. The team with the most points win.
- Basic Bomber: Compete for points by defeating the opponent team. Players have a set number of lives and will be unable to respawn if they run out.
- Checkpoints: Control strategic areas of the map for a certain time to get points. All stages featured in this mode are heavily inspired by the Metal Gear Solid series and feature a remix of the popular theme.
- Civilians: A battle in which you capture Balloms and take them back to your base. All stages featured in this mode are heavily inspired by the Castlevania series.
Since the Bomberman Bros. lack special abilities, they can equip a cartridge to gain features and special abilities of other characters, such as Simon Belmont's whip. Up to 6 Nintendo Switch can be connected in this mode for a network battle.
Both Standard and Grand Prix Mode have access to an in-game shop where players can purchase additional characters, stages and accessories for in-game currency called gems. Gems can be acquired by playing any mode.
Characters[]
All main Bombermen are playable and feature new unique personalities among them. Despite being called the Bomberman Bros., Pink and Aqua are female. The Five Dastardly Bombers and Buggler return as the main villians of the game, the latter features a more humanised look.
The vast majority of characters are available for purchase through an in-game shop. The Five Dastardly Bombers become available after completing the main story mode of the game, and each one has their own unique abilities. Every platform the game has been released on has an exclusive character tied to it. Additionally, many characters hailing from either past Hudson Soft or Konami IP have been released as free updates.
On patch 2.1, characters were classified into 5 types: bomber, attack, speed, assist or unique.
Worlds[]
- World 1: Planet Technopolis
- World 2: Planet Timbertree
- World 3: Planet Brainwave
- World 4: Planet Lalaland
- World 5: Planet Scrapheap
- World 6: Black Hole
- World 7: Planet Bomber (Added in patch 2.0): Features a side-story and an additional ending sequence with the English version of the ending theme, HERO, performed by Aimee Blackschleger.
Stages[]
The game features 8 basic stages and as of patch 2.2 has 14 additional stages available for purchase with in-game currency. Unlockable stages cost 4,000 gold each. There are "special" variants available for purchase for all the 8 basic stages which cost 2,500 and feature a different background. A "random" stage select option was added on patch 2.2.
- Pitfall Zone (also available in special variant)
- Old-School (also available in special variant)
- The Great Wall (also available in special variant)
- Magnetic Sphere (also available in special variant)
- Medieval (also available in special variant)
- Slippery Garden (also available in special variant)
- Junkyard (also available in special variant)
- Labyrinth (also available in special variant)
- Arabian Palace (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock)
- Pixel Land (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock)
- Circular Maze (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock)
- Toy Box (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock)
- White Cross (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock, added in patch 1.3)
- Lagoon (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock, added in patch 1.3)
- Speed Zone (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock, added in patch 1.3)
- Power Zone (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock, added in patch 1.3)
- Classic Conveyor Belt (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock, added in patch 1.4)
- Panic Factory (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock, added in patch 1.4)
- Plain Floor (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock, added in patch 1.4)
- Desert Fort (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock, added in patch 1.4)
- Critical Path (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock, added in patch 2.0)
- Nine Areas (Costs 4,000 gold to unlock, added in patch 2.0)
Accessories[]
The game features (as of patch 2.2) 38 different sets of accesories all characters can wear. Each accesory set has 8 different items or "tiers" that can be unlocked (i.e. the top hat series has 8 different hats available), meaning there are a total of 304 items available for purchase.
Ballom Set 1 and Ballom Set 2 are unlocked once the player beats World 7 and manages to get three stars on it, respectively. The last accessory on the Ballom Set 2 set features a classic, pixel Ballom from the original Bomberman.
Reception[]
While the game was initially met with lukewarm reception by critics, sales exceeded Konami's expectations and it has been updated several times to include additional characters, stages and battle modes, as well as to correct many of the gameplay bugs and glitches that were present at release.
In March 2018, Konami announced that the game would be re-released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam.
According to a financial report by Konami, the game has been enjoying a stable performance since its release, selling over a million copies of the Nintendo Switch version alone.
Voice cast[]
English[]
- Peter von Gomm - White
- John Sabay - Black
- Jeff Gedert - Blue, Golem Bomber and Great Gattaida (Golem Bomber Voice)
- Jeff Manning - Red and Narrator
- Greg Dale - Yellow
- Sachiko Hara - Green and Worker Kid
- Soness Stevens - Pink
- Hannah Grace - Aqua, Bomberman Spaceship Sequence Voice and Female Reporter
- Chris Koprowski - Plasma Bomber and Great Gattaida (Plasma Bomber Voice)
- Jack Merluzzi - Magnet Bomber, Great Gattaida (Magnet Bomber Voice), Anubis Bomber, Dracula Bomber (Cutscenes), Goemon Bomber, Lance Bomber, Max Bomber, Pyramid Head Bomber, Vic Viper Bomber and Vic Viper Zero Bomber
- Carolyn Miller - Karaoke Bomber / Pretty Bomber and Great Gattaida (Karaoke Bomber Voice)
- Vinay Murthy - Phantom Bomber, Great Gattaida (Phantom Bomber Voice) and Dracula Bomber (In-game)
- Michael Rhys - Buggler
- Blake Crawford - Smuggler, Bill Bomber, Caesar Bomber, Ebisumaru Bomber and Octopus Bomber
- Chris Nelson - Alucard Bomber
- David Hayter - Solid Snake / Naked Snake
- David Kaye - Clank
- Dee Bradley Baker - Atlas and P-body
- Diana Garlet - Ayako Katagiri Bomber, Jehuty Bomber, Nyami Bomber, Princess Tomato Bomber, and Reiko Bomber
- James Arnold Taylor - Ratchet
- Joseph Staten - Grunt
- Keith David - Arbiter
- Quinton Flynn - Raiden
- Ryan Drees - Simon Belmont Bomber
- Tomomi Shimada - Bubble Head Bomber, Mimi Bomber, Shiori Fujisaki Bomber and Upa Bomber
- Steve Dowes - Master Chief
- Xavier Woods - Himself
Japanese[]
- Keisuke Koumoto - White
- Shunsuke Takeuchi - Black
- Genki Okawa - Blue
- Yuuma Uchida - Red
- Yuki Yonai - Yellow
- Ayumu Murase - Green
- Mikako Komatsu - Pink
- Minami Takahashi - Aqua
- Yuto Uemura - Plasma Bomber and Great Gattaida (Plasma Bomber Voice)
- Tetsuya Yanagihara (America Zarigani) - Magnet Bomber and Great Gattaida (Magnet Bomber Voice)
- Yoshiyuki Hirai (America Zarigani) - Golem Bomber and Great Gattaida (Golem Bomber Voice)
- Hitomi Harada - Karaoke Bomber / Pretty Bomber and Great Gattaida (Karaoke Bomber Voice)
- Hozumi Gouda - Phantom Bomber, Great Gattaida (Phantom Bomber Voice) and Narrator
- Kotaro Nakamura - Buggler
- Hiroshi Shimozaki - Smuggler and Other Bomber Voice
- Akio Otsuka - Solid Snake / Naked Snake
- Hiroki Matsukawa - Other Bomber Voice
- Kenyū Horiuchi - Raiden
- Makoto Tsumura - Ratchet
- Manami Hanawa - Other Bomber Voice
- Miho Tabata - Other Bomber Voice
- Rikiya Koyama - Master Chief
- Suzune Okabe - Other Bomber Voice
- Takayuki Nakatsukasa - Other Bomber Voice
- Tōru Ōkawa - Clank
- Yoshimi Komiyama - Other Bomber Voice
Ballom Voices[]
- Gail Emiko Hoshizaki
- Jiro Oishi
- Menami Kato
- Shiho Nagata
- Suiko Seto
- Tatsumi Adachi
- Yui Takahashi
Original Sountrack[]
Super Bomberman R had an officially released 2-disc soundtrack featuring the game's in-game music tracks composed by Seima Iwahashi and Daisuke Kikuta of Elements Garden. More information can be found here.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This is the first Bomberman title released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam.
- It was also to celebrate the Bomberman series' 35th anniversary.
- For the first time in the series, the game features a vocal song during the credits. While originally sung in Japanese once the player beats World 6, the song was released in English as part of patch 2.0 and can be heard if the player beats World 7. The song title is HERO. It is performed in Japanese by Hitomi Harada, the Japanese voice of Pretty Bomber, and in English by Aimee Blackschleger.
- This game was released to celebrate the Bomberman series' 33rd anniversary and it is the 1st title in the Bomberman series to be published and devloped by Konami on console after the merge with Hudson Soft back in March 1, 2012.
- According to the developers, the R in the title stands for "Rangers", referring the name of a team of 8 Bombermen, It is also a throwback to when games could simply have a letter and allow that letter to carry many meanings, such as "Return" or "Reborn". The game is a homage to Super Bomberman 3.
- In 1999, an unrelated Super Bomberman R game appeared as a bootleg game for the Sega Saturn.
- In April 2018, the Konami subsidiary, Konami Cross Media NY Inc.(formerly 4K Media Inc.) licensed the game. Meaning the game will have different media.
- During the story segments, it is revealed that the Bomberman Bros. are based off of the original Bomberman who apparently was known as a hero. This is likely to be the Bomberman featured as the main protagonist for the games in the series released before Super Bomberman R.
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Shiny variant available for "Shiny Edition" owners. Free on Switch once updated to version 2.2.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Costs 10 gold to unlock, added in patch 1.4 Nintendo Switch version, available at release for Xbox/PS4.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Costs 1,000 gold to unlock. Available since patch 2.0 for Nintendo Switch / available at release for PS4 and Xbox versions.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Costs 1,000 gold to unlock. Available since patch 2.1 for all versions.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Costs 10 gold to unlock, added in patch 2.0 for Nintendo Switch / available at release for PS4/Xbox versions.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Costs 1000 gold to unlock. Added in patch 2.2 for all versions.
- ↑ Costs 10 gold to unlock. Available since patch 2.1 for all versions.
- ↑ Exclusive to the PS4 version.
- ↑ Exclusive to the PS4 version.
- ↑ Exclusive to the PS4 version.
- ↑ Can be bought for 30,000 gold after getting 3 stars in Worlds 1-6 in any Difficulty
- ↑ Costs 10 gold to unlock. Added in patch 2.2 for all versions.
- ↑ Exclusive to the Xbox One version.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Can be purchased for 5,000 gold after clearing World 6
- ↑ Exclusive to the Steam version.
- ↑ Exclusive to the Steam version.
- ↑ Exclusive to the Xbox One version.
- ↑ Japanese soundtrack preorder exclusive. Since the code given only works with the Nintendo eShop, this character is also Switch exclusive.
- ↑ Exclusive to the Xbox One version.
- ↑ Nintendo Switch exclusive.
External Links[]
- Super Bomberman R Official Website (Japanese)
- Super Bomberman R Official Website (English)
- Super Bomberman R Official Konami Shop (limited to America only)
- Super Bomberman R Steam