Bombermanland DS Preview

There may be a US release of Bombermanland DS, but they’ll need to fix the Wi-Fi.

Back in June 2005, Bomberman DS burst onto the scene in the United States. The single player mode was very reminiscent of the old school Bomberman games of the SNES. However, it was the multiplayer that caught the attention of many. Tons of modes and stages and 8 player single cart multiplayer combined with the addictive gameplay that people had grown to love over the years had translated over to the DS perfectly. Enter Touch! Bomberman Land, a sequel of sorts for our favorite pyromaniac. Things have changed this time around, with the addition of Wi-Fi play and a new single player adventure. Is it enough for an import? I spend some good old hands on time with this title to let you know how it is.

First and foremost, the single player adventure has been completely redone and is nothing like the previous single player of Bomberman DS. For someone thinking of importing, this is a big problem. The game looks similar to Megaman Battle Network now, as the screenshot to the right suggests. It also controls entirely with the touch screen. As you can see, the classic style went out the window for a more traditional adventure with solving puzzles and talking with characters and whatnot. With all the characters and dialogue in the game, unless you know Japanese, you won’t be understanding anything that is going on.

It’s not vital to know what they are saying early on, but as you get further into the game, you unlock more costumes and various bombs. These objects have to be equipped during certain points of the game to progress. You might need to wear a certain costume and talk to a person, or use a certain bomb in a special location. You’ll never really know unless you know Japanese, or take really good guesses. I’ve just about made it to the end on guesses, but now I’m stuck.

That doesn’t mean you can’t figure a lot of stuff out though. The bulk of the game is composed of completing mini-games. Completion of these mini-games unlock symbols that can be used to unlock more ares of the game. They consist of touch screen and microphone challenges that made me think of Feel the Magic from Sega. What’s even better, is all the mini-games can be played outside of single player which keeps track of your high scores, but you can also play them all with up to 4 people with one cartridge. An excellent feature to say the least, and the games are quite enjoyable.

Don’t fret about the classic play, that’s also included. You’ll still be having the same addicting fun with up to 8 other people on a single cartridge. The biggest addition to the classic style is the 4 player Wi-Fi play though, but its not all its cracked up to be. I don’t know if its because of it being the import version or if it was poorly implemented, but the Wi-Fi mode is very laggy. I tried the worldwide mode, and the game was lagging so bad, that it lagged out on several occasions. I then tried it with someone who also imported it from Japan who lives in the United States. The lag wasn’t as bad this time around, but it was still very noticeable and bothersome.

Wi-Fi is set up very similar to how the Wi-Fi Mario Kart DS interface is, where you must wait for people to join a game. Once the game can’t find any more opponents, each character selects a stage, and one is chosen at random. My biggest gripe with it is that you can’t adjust the options on Wi-Fi, including turning off the bots. There is always a combination of bots and humans playing, and I wasn’t all that happy. Teamed with the laggy Wi-Fi sessions, I couldn’t help but be disappointed.

So, what’s the final say on importing Touch! Bomberman Land? You won’t be able to understand the single player despite the interesting and fun mini-games, and the single-cartridge multiplayer is a lot of fun. Wi-Fi is a huge embarassment, and I hope that if and when this game is brought over to the United States, that they tweak up the online play.

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