Saturn Bomberman Fight!

	SATURN BOMBERMAN FIGHT! T-14321G Copyright © 1997 Hudson Soft 1-2 Players Sega Saturn ¥4800 — by Charles McCarter		The BOMBERMAN franchise seems to be like the Universe—expanding out in all directions at once. There is BOMBERMAN 64 for the Nintendo 64 and soon there will be BOMBERMAN WORLD for the Playstation. In the meantime, however, SATURN BOMBERMAN FIGHT! has been released for the Sega Saturn. This is the second BOMBERMAN game for the Saturn, and it is very different from SATURN BOMBERMAN. Criticism of the last BOMBERMAN game included that it hadn't improved much graphically from the Super Nintendo version. Perhaps that, and a desire to keep pace with the N64 version, led to this new look. BOMBERMAN FIGHT! is rendered fully in 3D, which makes it look very different immediately. Three-dimensional gameplay also requires a bit of getting used to, as one moves his character around the playing field. Characters include White and Black Bomberman (of course), as well as characters from other Hudson games, and several new characters, such as Pump, who is a mysterious pumpkin-headed creature. Other characters include PuiPui, a monkey; Pegii Jr., a penguin; the Golem Bomber; and a couple of cute girl characters, Mami and Ruisha.
			Story mode puts the character on a quest to defeat a boss named Deral and win a golden cup. It doesn't sound very complicated and it really is not, unfortunately. The game is not that difficult. Story mode consists of a series of one-on-one (or in some cases two-on-one) encounters with other characters on a contained three-dimensional playing field. Different levels on the playing field add a new twist to the game play, and also sometimes make it hard to see where you are. But Battle Mode, which has always been the great strength of the BOMBERMAN games, is still as strong as ever. Each player now starts with the ability to catch, throw, and kick bombs, in addition to jumping and super-jumping, which comes in handy to avoid blasts. Also, the one-hit death has now been replaced by a life bar, enabling players a second and even third and fourth chance to recover from stupid mistakes. There is also a power bar under the life bar. The more bombs the player lays, the faster the bar fills up; when it is completely full, the player can throw a Super Bomb, a very large bomb with great destructive power and range. Now players no longer need to have good aim to do damage. Power ups are available, as always, and some new ones include vertical-stacking bombs, a giant MegaBomb which covers half of the playing field, and a horse to ride that eats bombs. Of course, there are negative power-ups as well, such as the dreaded geta (which slows your character down), no jump, and reduced bomb power. And the dreaded poison is still around as well. This game is different from the previous BOMBERMAN versions, and different enough to warrant owning it if one is a fan of the series. However, the game suffers from several problems, most notably the fact that it is too easy. It just seems that there should be something more to this game, something harder. It almost seems as if the game was released before it was fully complete. Still, it's a good game and very addicting, just like its predecessors. Rating: * (out of 4)**