Super Bomberman Collection review

The Super Bomberman Collection takes us back to Bomberman's peak, a set of games all released on the SNES, and it's marvelous to see how the franchise evolved over time. This collection includes every numbered Super Bomberman including two games that were only released in Japan—Super Bomberman 4 and 5. Simply put: This collection is great quality.

My history with Bomberman started with Bomberman 64. I never had an SNES, instead going from NES straight to the N64 (thanks Grandma), so while playing this collection, I was most interested to see how the franchise evolved. Each game follows the same basic idea: You are Bomberman navigating what would now be considered escape rooms. You set, punch, kick, and throw bombs of varying explosiveness to destroy your enemies and find the hidden exit. 

Each game in the series plays around with this concept, but what's consistent is needing to destroy all the enemies first, though there's even a game that experiments with that concept. It's easy to understand why the franchise lasted as long as it did. The formula is so rock solid that it's hard to improve upon it without making it absurd. Hudson Soft repeatedly toed the line into zaniness by adding more in one game, taking away in another, and shuffling the rules.

Super Bomberman 2 was the most interesting game and looks like it was the game that inspired the direction for Bomberman 64 because it is extremely puzzle driven. You're not just blowing up blocks (or block-like) surfaces to find an exit. You're evading environmental hazards, obstacles, magnets that would drag your bombs to undesirable locations, and stepping on deviously placed switches that test your bomb placement expertise. I'm curious to know how people responded to it in the US because Super Bomberman 3 reverted back to the basic destroy-enemies-and find-the-exit concept. The never-released-in-the-US Super Bomberman 4 and 5 also did the same. But I conclude, without Super Bomberman 2, I'm not sure Bomberman 64 would have made the leap to 3D in the same way it did. The collection does a great job of allowing you to paint a picture of what Hudson Soft was thinking with each game.

I can't speak to the differences in ROM qualities compared to what's out there, but playing these felt like I was playing natively to the SNES. I've seen reports of audio desynching, but I didn't experience that. Each game played normally, even when too many enemies filled the screen and the framerate tanked—totally normal for that era.

Every game comes with up to three save state slots and a rewind feature that makes modern retro game playing so much easier in my time-constrained reality. This is the time when passwords were available, but these modern functions are obviously much better.

All the SNES games come with Boss Rush modes, which play exactly how you'd expect—sequentially beat each boss as fast you can. This mode is more fun with certain games than others since some of the bosses throughout the series are frustrating and rely on luck to get you through, but if you're looking for a challenge, you will get that.

If you really want to extend your experience, you can switch the region of the game, which comes with their own save state slots. Boss Rush times are tied to all versions, so it's more about the historical value than any achievement or gameplay difference.

The 1985 Japanese version of Bomberman and the 1991 Japanese version of Bomberman 2 are also available, which was really a trip down historical lane. Bomberman 2 was the first game to introduce multiplayer, and each game that has multiplayer can be played with others with the proper setup. I can't attest to how well they function, but online play should have been added—the most disappointing part of the collection.

Boxes, game carts, and instruction manuals have been digitally recreated. You can spin the boxes to view all the angles and unbox them to see the cart and booklet. They're faithful to the originals, and the freedom to zoom to take in all the details made it enjoyable to learn about the past. I particularly appreciate the instruction manuals. I used to collect manuals from any game I got, so being able to flip through them reminded me of the days when I sat at my table eating cereal and flipping through my booklets.

The gallery includes over 200 photos of mostly concept art and character art, but there are some comic strip panels included, as well. You can also listen to every song and even make playlists of songs. As a franchise, Bomberman is very simple, so having these gallery features adds to the museum-like quality.