After Bomberman Hero, fans of the series were waiting for the true sequel to Bomberman 64 to arrive. Of course, my brother and I were a part of that fanbase. On Christmas 2000, we unwrapped a fresh copy of Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! In excitement, we ran around the house a good two to three times with the box, quickly opening up the side flap to reveal a neatly tucked-away cartridge and full-color instruction manual. So does the game live up to the initial hype I had fifteen years ago? Let’s find out!
Single Player / Co-op Mode
Well fancy that! There’s an old save file I have on here that is 100% completed. Of course, this means I can jump around a bit and showcase some of the later levels. Keep in mind, that is why I go from having nothing to everything in a series of just a few pictures.
Like the previous installments, Bomberman 64: The Second Attack’s story is rather simple. One day, Bomberman is flying around on his little spaceship returning home from a trip where he found a strange egg. All of a sudden, a warp hole opens up and sucks Bomberman’s ship into it. It turns out that a group of space pirates (insert Metroid reference here) have captured Bomberman and took his Fire Stone which gives him the power to use the bombs.
Strangely enough, they didn’t take the egg which conveniently hatches to unleash what looks a lot like a clash between Klonoa from the Playstation game and Kirby from…well, Kirby.
Kirby, Pommy, and Klonoa in that order.
Pommy isn’t a newborn, but has the ability to hide in an egg whenever it feels like it. Strange, but an easy setup to bypass the intelligence of the first level’s guards. So the game begins, and right away you’ll notice Pommy loves to get stuck between ledges and occasionally feels like helping you. Thankfully, this mode has two players in mind, and a quick trip to the pause menu allows you to bring a friend along to help you out on your journey.
Pommy’s CPU AI loves to be helpful. His features include getting stuck behind crates, running into enemies without attacking, or just standing there watching you get beat by the first enemy in the game. Note the upgrades are maxed out here because I switched over to my completed save to save time.
The game plays just like Bomberman 64, but thankfully it feels a lot less floaty and the controls are much more responsive. The gameplay itself is pretty similar, although the levels are tighter and much more linear. There’s some exploration in the later levels, but mostly your goal is to defeat all the enemies in the room, press a button or pull a switch, or a combination of both. There’s the occasional sub-boss before you get to the big guy at the end. Its pretty simple and all the levels follow this format.
Later in the game, Bomberman receives additional stones that grant him different powers to put in his bombs. These are all the powers in the game, and a lot of these have extremely large hitboxes. The traditional bombs shoot a plus sign pattern, whereas some cause massive explosions of electricity, water, or even fire.
Wind is one of my favorite powers since the bombs cannot hurt you. Instead, they send you flying in the direction the projection emits from, which makes it a great tool to fight large amounts of enemies. You receive that power much later on in the game, which is a shame because it makes the first level much easier and should have been the first powerup you receive from the boss.
Some concept art of the various characters. I’m a fan of the anime-style art used in the series.
Speaking of powerups, the game is pretty picky on what it hands out. You start off with barely any hearts and you have to work your way up to powerup your fire power and the number of bombs you can place. You also have to pick up the ability to kick, pump, and control bombs though random drops that are given to you by destroying something or defeating an enemy. If you get a game over three times in a row, however, those items disappear and you’ll have to find them all over. Luckily though, there’s an in-game shop where you can buy some powerups and upgrades to aid you on your journey. This is a great feature that should have been in the first game, as it makes it easier to progress though the more difficult parts of the game.
Speaking of upgrades, Pommy can also upgrade his abilities by picking up special kinds of food or buying potions from the shop. The abilities of each type of Pommy are independent of each other and have their own strengths and weaknesses. There are plenty of tutorials and walk-through guides to building the perfect Pommy, and here is an example of a basic one that describes said strengths and weaknesses. It’s up to the player which Pommy is fit for the job!
Overall, the single player mode of Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! holds up well. It’s really sluggish in the beginning of the game, but once you get your powerups in order the game picks up in pace and becomes a lot more fun. The only downside is that you are basically required to have a second player with you, as the AI for Pommy is really bad and can cause several cheap deaths because he wasn’t there to help you out.
Multiplayer
Bomberman 64’s Multiplayer mode was okay; it offered your standard fare of free-for-all or team battle with a traditional square-shaped stage. Bomberman Hero was single-player focused, which made a lot of fans upset because Bomberman is known for its multiplayer experience. Thankfully, the developers heard the wants of the fans and delievered one of my favorite Nintendo 64 multiplayer modes of all time.
Where to start? There are now five different game modes for you and three of your friends to choose from: Survival, King & Knights, Battle Royal (isn’t it supposed to be Royale?), Score Attack, and Key Trial.
As to my knowledge, player characters can only be Bomberman(s). The other characters are for CPUs only, unless there’s some sort of unlock code. There were some options blanked out in the menu, so maybe? As a kid, my friends were constantly trying to “crack the code” to play as these characters, because who doesn’t want to play as the witch or the monkey?
There are lots of options to choose from both in the menu and before you start the game. Here’s the King mode mentioned earlier. Before you start, you choose who is on your team and how many lives the king has before the other team wins.
Like Bomberman 64, there are plenty of stages to choose from. Unlike that game however, some stages are larger or have different properties depending on which mode you play. In the king game, players work together to defend their king and themselves in a battle. It becomes very hectic easily and is one of the best team modes to play with your friends.
As you can see, choosing the Key mode opens up a few new stages as well as some alterations to previous stages. This mode has you finding hidden keys throughout the level. The one who finds them all wins. Oh, and you can steal keys from people and set traps, prepare to have your friendships ruined.
Oh, and that victory pose is pretty darn cute too (and is sure to make your friends super mad.)
Conclusion
Overall, this game holds up amazingly well. The controls are responsive, the gameplay is great, and the multiplayer and co-op modes make the game a blast at parties (literally). So do you have any memories with this game? Which game would you like to see in future retrospectives? Let me know in the comments!
Oh, and this concludes the 3D Bomberman Nintendo 64 retrospective. It’s been…a blast! (not again…)
Now You're Playing With Power! 