This is the first Bomberman game in history where you can personally tell your bomb to go blow itself.
The Bomberman series has always been one of the staples in multiplayer videogame history, and Bomberman DS doesn't disappoint in living up to its reputation. The concept of having a cute little guy with an oversized head placing bombs around in a grid-like arena, attempting to blow up another cute little guy with an oversized head has intrigued the gaming population for years. You can do that in the DS take on the series, only with eight people at once. Though there's not much of a single player mode to speak of, the multiplayer is sure to bring you back to the game, even if there aren't any of your bombing buddies around.
After starting up the game, you have the option of playing the single player adventure or the multiplayer battle mode. The single player mode is classic 2D Bomberman, wherein your explosives expert must navigate his way through 100 stages in ten different worlds. The goal of each stage is to defeat all of the enemies, then clear away the destructible blocks until you find the exit. Some of the levels are just as large as one screen, while a lot of the later ones are three times as wide and have maze-like block patterns. The last stage of a world is a boss fight, and once you've pummeled the area's overlord you can advance to the next area. Its simplicity makes the bulk of single mode pretty boring, but the new item storage system does help to make it a little more fun.
Instead of having an item activate immediately when it is collected, it is stored in an item bank located on the touch screen. What this allows you to do is keep a stockpile of power-ups and items to use at your discretion. Let's say for instance, one level is completely packed with blocks, and you don't have much time to get through them. You can equip the Blue Flame Bomb you picked up a few levels beforehand and cut through all of them in one shot. If you made a mistake and died in a level, losing all equipped power-ups in the process, you can simply re-equip bomb, fire and speed attributes back to where they were before you bit the dust. There are 21 different items to collect in the solo mode, all of which can be stored and used when necessary.
The items are pretty abundant, and you can build up a big cache of stuff through the course of 100 regular and bonus stages. This makes powering-up Bomberman easier, which in turn, makes staying alive effortless. This makes the single-player adventure way too easy to complete, and since there's no reward for completing the mode (you do get to see the credits), it's just about pointless. The only real neat thing about item storage is that you can play around with all the power-up combinations and use all the different types of bombs. The mode is rendered even more irrelevant due to the fact you can play the multiplayer battle mode by yourself.
What makes the DS version of Bomerman wonderful is battle mode. It's possible to play with up to eight Bombermen at once, whether or not all of them are human. The eight-man roster can be filled out with CPUs if you want, making it possible to play battle mode by yourself. (This actually makes battle a much more enjoyable single player experience than the level-based single player game.) If you decide to grab other humans to play with, they don't need a copy of the game to get in on it, and it’s very quick and easy to set up. After people connect, CPU bombers are added, item handicaps are set, and teams are assigned (if desired), you can get to selecting a game type and starting the match.
There are a ton of game types in battle mode. With 29 in total, Bomberman DS is just about the deepest multiplayer DS game out there today. A lot of the preset modes are the straight-up bomb-fests we all know and love, but with different initial power-up settings. For instance, Full Power starts everyone off with maxed out bomb capacity, fire range, and speed attributes. Shield mode starts each player with a shield that can protect a bomber from one side (as long as they pull it out in time). There are also battle arenas that are littered with Baroms (enemies from the adventure mode) or bomb-spewing cannons that make it a lot harder to find a safe spot with all the chaos going on.
The new, never-before-seen modes are what really make the game fun. For the longest time, all Bomberman games have been on a grid with rows and columns of blocks, so someone could hide from the blast of a bomb around the corner. Many new modes do away with these barriers. That is, once all of the destroyable bricks are gone, there's nowhere to hide. One of my personal favorite modes in this type of arena is Lotsa Items, where everyone is two bricks away from a goldmine of power-ups (110, to be exact) in the center both screens. With eight people going for everything at once, the action becomes very chaotic, very fast, and before you know it, half of the starting group is dead.
During battle mode, there are 20 different power-ups, items, and bomb types that can be picked up. Since bombing is the name of the game, the different types of bombs are the most important items. If your regular bombs aren't cutting it, you can find maxed-out Power Bombs, the handy Remote Control Bomb, Blue Flame Bombs that cut through all bricks, Rubber Bombs that bounce like crazy when punched or kicked, Dangerous Bombs that explode in an area pattern, and Landmines, which sink into the ground, then explode shortly after being stepped on. The last two bomb types are especially useful in some of the new modes, since mines can be hidden in connecting tunnels, and the skull-branded Dangerous Bombs can be hard to run away from in open arenas. In matches with all the different bombs flying around at the same time, the action becomes really crazy, and really fun.
The action happens on both DS screens at once, and some new modes are designed to take advantage of this. Crown mode has everyone start at the bottom screen, and at the top of the top screen, a single crown awaits. Whoever can survive the initial carnage at the bottom, blow through the blocks and get the crown on top first will win the round. The Trapdoors stage has no connecting tunnels in the middle, instead using trapdoors in the ground to transport Bombermen from screen to screen. This mode is fun because it's possible to bounce someone out of the stage as they come out of the floor by placing bombs where they land. Of course, if you're tired of using both screens, you can always setup a game in Mini Mini, where all eight players compete for space on just one screen. You can imagine what happens when you put twice the explosives in half the space.
The multiplayer in Bomberman DS does use the unique features of the system in good ways. Aside from using the touch screen to quickly navigate menus before starting a game, its primary function during gameplay is to throw bombs onto the field after you've been hit. By dragging your stylus or finger from the bottom of the screen, you can "flick" bombs onto the playfield, creating problems for those still in the match. The further you drag upwards, the farther the bomb will go. Even with your finger, placing a bomb where you want to isn't too hard to do. In fact, there is a good reason to throw bombs onto the field after you die; if you hit someone with your blast, you get to come back onto the field and go for the win, which is an awesome option.
Even the microphone gets in the act with voice-activated battle games. There are three different modes in which saying something into the mic will cause something to happen. You can speak to place a bomb in one, you can speak to raise your shield in another, or you can have everyone equipped with remote control bombs and speak to detonate them in the last of the three. Since it picks up any sound you make, fun can be had by uttering hilarious and/or inappropriate things to detonate all the bombs you've placed. For instance, if you have your buddy trapped by your bombs, you can say something like "SOMEONE SET US UP THE BOMB!" into the mic at your leisure to detonate them, winning you the match. In actual gameplay, though, the voice modes are a little impractical. You need to speak many times during a match (especially in the speak-to-place mode), and pretty loudly if you want to keep the system at a comfortable distance. The modes are still fun diversions to mess around with from time to time, and their inclusion doesn't hurt the total package at all.
I'm going to be frank: Bomberman DS is the best multiplayer Bomberman game ever. With so many different game modes, options, items, and arenas, there's enough variety that the game never gets old. While the DS version falls two short of the ten-player mark that the Sega Saturn version of Bomberman brought to the table, eight players at once is still a big number. If you want this game, it's probably because you have some friends that you'd like to play the game with, in which case, don't hesitate to buy the game A.S.A.P. But hey, the multiplayer can be played without friends too, so even if you don't know too many DS owners, the battle is good enough to hold up as a decent single player experience. Alone or with friends, if you like Bomberman, you will love this game.