Bomberman: Act Zero

Written by Matt Swider  on December 18, 2006

Review: As close to a big 0 as an Xbox 360 game has come. Truly a bomb.

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Bomberman sat on a wall. Bomberman had a great fall. All the developers and all the producers in the next-generation couldn't put Bomber back together again. This old school nursery rhyme rings true for Hudson Soft's new school Bomberman, as the pink, white and blue title character was blown up and rebuilt for his Xbox 360 debut, Bomberman: Act Zero. Instead of cute and colorful themes, the game is full of dark and sterile tones that are a shock to the system after 23 years of looking the same. The futuristic graphics aren't the only broken piece to the resembling of this series. Shallow and repetitive gameplay cause it to become boring in less than ten minutes. The result is a briefly fun idea and commendable effort to try something new, but a nearly-unplayable УbudgetФ game after a couple of rounds.

The gritty, futuristic graphics are advanced for the Bomberman series since the camera angle is closer and the action is more detailed. At the same time, however, the visuals aren't close to comparing to other Xbox 360 games. In fact, they hardly meet the Xbox's standards. But, that's not the real problem with the design. The look goes against everything that has made past Bomberman games so charming. Sure, you get improved explosive effects, 3D robot models and chaotic action on screen. You even get small touches such as robots automatically reaching their hand up to shield themselves from adjacent fiery blasts. None of that really matters to the Bomberman fan club, though, as they're going to be offended by the drastic changes that sound better because of increased pixels, but are just plain ugly and ineffective.

The zoomed-in and more detailed camera is a part of the Single Battle Ц FPB mode, or First-Person Bomber style of gameplay. Foolishly, the name doesn't even correctly describe the mode because the camera is positioned behind your Bomberman. It's really from a third-person perspective with the left analog stick used for character movement and the right analog stick used for camera rotation. Not all of the level is in sight at once because of the closer perspective, so it's important to keep up with the additional chore of controlling the camera in this mode.

The Single Battle Ц Standard mode presents the same gameplay at a fixed angle that is reminiscent of the classic Bomberman games. This static view frees up the need to manually control the camera, but the murky visuals make it difficult to immediately recognize everything within the maze compared to the game's simplistic and colorful predecessors. Consequently, neither view mode looks good or plays well, whether it's from the manually controlled camera or the dirty and farther away vantage point.

The only other difference between the two modes is that FPB features a health meter and Standard is a one hit kill unless you have a heart to act as a single hit point. Dying once in Act Zero means that the game over and you must start from the first of the 99 levels (which are all the same). There are no save points, checkpoints or lives. The idea here is to make the game a single-sitting, hardcore challenge for everyone, including Bomber vets, with a ton of endurance. But no matter how much patience a gamer has, this makes the game more frustrating than it does fun.

World Battle is the remaining mode that includes up to eight players via Xbox Live. Multiplayer only takes place online as the game is without an offline counterpart, which is extremely disappointing. But that might be for the best. While both FPB and Standard game types can be chosen online, it means that you're basically sharing in the paper-thin gameplay with other people now. Why would you want to share in this awful experience with friends that you actually know? They'd just end up hating you. Blowing each other up by lying bombs and collecting power-up items just doesn't have the simple, yet fun feel anymore. More or less, it's simple and boring now.