Bomberman: Panic Bomber is the first game of the Panic Bomber series. It was originally released for the PC Engine Super CD format in Japan, and the Neo Geo arcade hardware shortly afterwards. It contains puzzle-style gameplay and offers single player and two player modes.
The PC Engine Super CD version of the game was also included in the list of games available for the PC Engine Mini in March 19, 2020.
Story[]
Translated from the PC Engine version manual[1]
Battle for Peace, Bomberman!!
It is the near future. In the corner of the galaxy lies the star Nogisusu, naturally blessed with peace, where everybody lives quietly. But one day, of course, monster underlings of Maou Bugler began laying waste to the star. Bugler boarded a floating castle in the sky in order to get revenge on Bomberman, who lives peacefully on this star. To restore peace to Nogisusu, Bomberman must once again embark on an adventurous journey, heading toward the floating castle suspended above the northern mountains.
Single Player[]
In Story Mode, the player must defeat their opponent to advance to the next one. There are 16 opponents total (shortened to 9 in the Neo Geo port), and each one has a unique strategy that they use. If the player chooses easy difficulty, the bomb fire length goes to ten times more quickly, but if the player chooses hard, the fire starts in the smallest blast and the increasing power-up is harder to get. The difficulty switch is not available in the Neo Geo version.
List of Opponents in Order[]
- Baromu
- Kurin
- Buroru
- Pasu
- Funya
- BakeBake
- Peggi
- Zaurus Star dragon*
- Boma*
- Petan*
- Crystal Star native*
- Bugler
- Golem Bomber*
- Kurobom
- Pretty Bomber*
- Mad Scientist*
The Neo Geo version trims the roster substantially; foes marked with an asterisk were removed, although Bugler and Kurobom swapped places. In addition, the PC Engine version contains another mode in which the player must complete the instructions given (for example, pop a given number of bombers or perform a certain combo).
Multiplayer[]
In the PC Engine version, multiplayer exists as its own mode. It allows up to five players, up to five victories, and it also allows "Dokuro mode". If there are only two players, classic game fields and voices are used; if there are over two players, smaller fields are used for each player, each one with a different border color, and voices are not used. With this setup, if a player loses, he/she stops playing until there is only a single player left.
In the arcade, a second player can join at any time by pressing start (provided there is at least one credit). The computer-controlled player stops playing, and Kurobon will appear with some text saying "Here comes a new challenger!" Afterwards, a character selection screen will appear along with a 10-second timer; if the timer reaches 0, the game will start, so the player has to choose his/her character before 10 seconds. The second player will take the place of the enemy for competitive play for two trophies out of five. The winner continues where the game left off as Bomberman.
Trivia[]
- The game's setting, Nogisusu, appears to be neither Earth nor Planet Bomber.
- The map theme (enemy card in the Neo Geo version) is remixed from the PC Engine Bomberman.
- This is the only game in the Panic Bomber series that has the panic/warning theme when you or your enemy's field starts to fill up.
- The Neo Geo version removes a fair amount of content, such as almost half the roster and the extra game modes. It also offers slightly different graphics.
- This is the first Bomberman game to feature voice acting.
- Pretty Bomber appears on her own in this game for the first time, presumably to avenge the fallen Dastardly Bombers. In addition, Golem Bomber joined in, too.
Gallery[]
Neo Geo[]
