It’s very hard to argue against the presence of Hudson Soft‘s Bomberman as one of gaming’s core franchises as the medium developed over the years. These games not only established some of the core elements that made multiplayer a thing back in the day and they did so without having to rely on bullets, but cartoonishly horrific bombs. Super Bomberman Collection feels like a commemoration of sorts as Konami has included a number of its signature games while leaving out some notable ones that would’ve made this the ultimate compilation.
Let’s not beat around the bush: where the heck is Saturn Bomberman, my dude? Yeah, considered the biggest Bomberman of them all, the game that had loads of people hooking up multiple controllers to their ill-fated Sega consoles in order to simultaneously compete against one another is nowhere to be found in this thing, so first foul there. It’s a crying shame, as it would’ve been quite a rescue as the original version is locked behind a dead console.
Second, there’s no online multiplayer. You can only play the included games locally, up to four people at the same time. Having the option to bring friends who are far away is something that’s vital to collections like this these days, so not having it feels like a huge compromise. Then again, what’s included works fine and to no surprise, playing Bomberman, any Bomberman, with actual humans is one of gaming’s greatest pleasures. Not the best of situations, but functional, at the very least.
Speaking of including games, the list is okay, barring the aforementioned omission, and others that I’m not personally familiar with that can make others scoff even more at Super Bomberman Collection than me. All three 16-bit era Nintendo titles are here to be played, from Super Bomberman all the way to Super Bomberman 5, with both Famicom versions of the original games included as bonuses under a different menu.
In that very same menu, you can find a surprisingly comprehensive gallery section that includes a whole bunch of material for all of the games, such as promotional pieces, sketches, full-color illustrations… the works. I always get a kick of seeing these things being included in retro compilations and what’s available in Super Bomberman Collection is very neat to sift through between matches. Same goes for the radio feature, which is where you can play the catchy music from all of the games without worrying about being bombed away by anyone.
Now, there’s currently a weird bug when playing the PC version of this game. If you happen to have V-sync turned on, the sound effects are all messed up. It seems to be something related to the framerate getting uncapped not going well with the original programming in all the old stuff on offer. When that’s off, all’s well. Not that there’s any screen tearing to be had when playing, so go ahead and untick that box when you first boot it up if you buy it on Steam.
All the games look crisp and sound authentic to my untrained ears as someone who isn’t a real stickler when it comes to emulating old games. Sure, nothing beats actually sitting down and popping carts into the real deal consoles, but when that’s made increasingly more difficult due to rising costs and the other hurdles of retro collecting, downloads like Super Bomberman Collection are the next best thing.
If you’re looking for lots of technical options to customize your experience here, you’ll be fresh out of luck this time around. Outside of a CRT mode that bends the screen and adds scanlines, there’s not much else to be changed outside of adding borders to the sides of your widescreen display. It would’ve been nice to see the same amount of care in this aspect of the experience as we’ve come to expect with other releases, but no dice here, sadly.
All in all, while it lacks vital multiplayer options and misses having some key titles from the franchise that would’ve made it the perfect pickup for nostalgic fans, its gallery feature and few games that are actually included help make Super Bomberman Collection still a fun distraction to check out, for as barebones as it can feel overall in the end.
