It's the Bomb, Man

Okay, that was about as predictable as a title for this post as one can come up with. I'd be shocked if there weren't other 100 other blogposts out there with the exact same title. But I'm sticking with it since I came up with it first.

See, I told you sometimes I only write on here to make myself laugh.

Anyway, Bomberman Live released on XBLA today at 800 points ($10) and it's worth every penny. I've never before played any of the Bomberman games and I now know what I've been missing: A lot. The game is easy to pick up and play, highly entertaining, and very difficult to master. Yet, at the same time, despite multiple last-place finishes, I'm still really enjoying the game.

Click here for the game trailer.

Bomberman Live pits up to eight players on a grid-based arena where they drop bombs to try and catch one another in the flames. Spread throughout the grid are hard blocks that offer protection from the bombs which explode in "+" shaped patterns. You're constantly on the move dropping bombs trying to catch opponents off-guard, while simultaneously watching out for opponents' bombs. There's also a bevy of power-ups that increase the blast size of the bomb, give you extra speed, or even give you the ability to throw bombs or detonate them remotely. A typical game has a 2:00 time limit, so even though there are times when I accidentally blow myself up in the first twenty seconds, I'm not left on the sidelines watching for too long.

In addition to the standard battles, there's plenty of arenas with trap doors and other nasty surprises, as well as other game modes. My favorite is definitely Zombie in which players are immortal and instead of trying to blow each other up, you focus on painting as much of the arena your color... via bomb explosions, naturally.

This is exactly the type of game that I love to play and yet another reason why I'm always raving about XBLA. I just wish they could have released it at a time when I wasn't so busy with work...

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