REVIEW: Super Bomberman 3 1995 SNES
	By: Hudson Soft Type: Action Players: 1 - 5 Difficulty: Medium

I don't need to explain what this is all about, you know the typical Bomberman formula by heart. In case you need a quick memory-boost; it's basically little blokes running around in top-down arenas blowing each other up with bombs. And it's brilliant. The Bomberman franchise stands tall alongside Mario Kart as one of the best multiplayer experiences known to man, and it fully deserves this reputation. The wonders of Bomsy's 16-bit outings are ample reason for the little explosives maniac to hold his huge head up high in spite of his recent 64-bit flops.
 
A game this good deserves to have it's every aspect thoroughly looked at, so here goes. The single-player game is often overlooked in favor of the thrills and spills of multiplayer Bomberman. Can't say I blame anyone for that, but still, Super Bomberman 3's 1-player game does have quite a few merits. There's a generous helping of levels to plough through. In order to complete a level, you must locate and blow up a certain number of orange spheres (usually three or four), which unlocks the exit gate through which you can escape. After every four levels there's also a big boss for you to duke it out with, and each level is infested with a rich selection of pretty clever nasties that persistently get in your way. It gets quite tough later on, and the whole thing is pretty enjoyable. It's good yes, but we all know that mulitplayer is what Bomberman is all about.
 
And this version's multiplayer has a lot going for it. The tried-and-tested Bomberman formula works as superbly as ever, but there's a whole host of extra options and graphical touches to enhance it even further. You can play as a selection of different Bobermen (and one Bomberwoman), all with their own outfits and facial expressions, roughly representing the major nations of our fine earth. Just a graphical touch, perhaps, but it's nice.

The games' 5 worlds...

The arenas are simply ace. There are loads of colourful battlegrounds for you and your friends to fight it out on, and each stage has it's own distinct hazards and features. The best bit is probably the cave level, which has it's very own mine cart that the Bombers can actually use to drive around with and run over other B-men. Other arenas feature such gimmicks as see-saws which serve to hurl bombs and your fellow players about, holes in the ground, rolling snowballs and so on. Just another great touch that adds plenty of variety.
 
Hats off to the power-ups as well. This version introduces a lot of very clever new items for you to collect and use, including the ability to hoist bombs above your head and lob them around, a special "jelly bomb" that keeps bouncing about the arena and many others. There's also Bomsy's answer to Yoshi; the kangaroo Louie. Should you be so lucky as to uncover a spotted egg (which always produces cries of "you bastard!" from the other players, I've noticed), grab it as rapidly as possible. A colourful kangaroo will hatch from it, and your bomber will immediately mount the animal. Not only does this mean you can get hit twice before dying (the first hit kills your Louie, the next hit kills you), you can now also exploit your new chum's special ability. Each colour Louie has it's own special move, ranging from the ability to kick blocks around to a sudden super-speed boost. Add a few more nice touches such as the option to play as teams and a little soccer bonus game after each battle, and this is as close to multiplayer perfection as you're likely to get.
 
A quick word about the grahpics and sounds: for the most part, the graphics are unspectacular, with not too much gloss and very little in the way of impressive eye-candy (there is a nice enough intro scene, though), but it works well enough and remains pleasingly colourful throughout. The music has it's moments, with a few nicely catchy and beaty tunes, and it's impressive how one can hear the battle mode music a million times in a row without ever really growing completely sick of it. The silly, high-pitched voice samples add a little extra zest to the already heated battles. Overall, sounds is a good enough job as well.
 
But why sould you care about such quizzical things as eye-candy when you already know perfectly well that this is one of the most superb multiplayer games out there? There's only one thing you should care about, in fact, and that is hunting down a copy. This is Bomberman at his finest, you are urged to gather some people around you and play this for ages. - Toasty 94%
 
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