YMMV / Bomberman

• Abridged Arena Array: Many players prefer the normal battle mode stage, as the stage has no disruptive gimmicks.
• Adaptation Displacement: How many players are aware of the fact that this series started life as "Bomber Man" in 1983 on the Japanese PC-8801, of all platforms — or that the European port for MSX and ZX Spectrum was called Eric and the Floaters? Honestly, can you imagine it becoming popular under that name?
• Alternative Character Interpretation: According to doesathing.com, Bomberman is the Only Sane Man, MAX is a drama queen, and Sirius is a lonely Idiot Hero.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Terrorin, the Final Boss of Super Bomberman 5, is one of the easiest bosses in the game, as his attacks are predictable and easy to counter.
• Archive Panic: Good luck trying to play every Bomberman game there is, let alone experience all related media.
• Artificial Brilliance: Anytime you face a Bomber enemy controlled by the computer be prepared for one heck of a battle, the Bomber bosses tend to be the most challenging enemies of the game and for good reason. The CPU can be ruthless, even the meekest CPU has a tendency to artfully find holes in your bomb placements and if they have the ability to kick, punch or throw bombs you can bet they'll put it to good use with devastating results against you - or to get out of hairy situations like any player would. Without remote bombs or something to break their AI you're not getting past these guys simply by randomly laying bombs.
• Awesome Music:
  • Bomberman Hero's Redial.
  • The music from the N64 games in general seems to have quite a few examples.
    • The first game features a wide variety of songs, from the relaxing themes for Green Garden and Blue Resort, to the fast-paced boss battle themes.
    • While relaxing, the first and second parts of the fight with Altair are pretty awesome.
    • Hero's soundtrack consists of many upbeat techno-y songs, like Zip and Redial.
    • Landlord, the theme for the fight with Bagular's final form and Evil Bomber.
    • The Second Attack!'s soundtrack was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, the same person who did the music for the Chrono games and Xenogears.
  • The boss music from Super Bomberman.
    • And the remix!
  • Saturn Bomberman. Here's a sampling. Of special note is the Master Mode tune.
    • Future World
  • Online's opening theme!
  • Most of Bomberman Tournament's music qualifies, but especially the boss theme, MAX's theme, and the final battle music.
  • The DS game has really good music, too. Once again, the boss themes deserve special mention.
  • Bomberman DS 2 has plenty of kickass music too: Town's Act 2 theme, Desert Act 2's theme, Theta's boss theme, Io's boss theme, Phii's boss theme
  • Super Bomberman R has Planet Technopolis, Planet Brainwave, Pretty Bomber's theme, and Dastardly Devices.
  • The outwardly sinister final boss theme in Bomberman '94: all three phases. The third sounds far more chaotic than the other two, more haunting tracks: but given the last-minute twist of Bagura being a Bomberman, it works very well.
• Best Boss Ever: Most of the ____ Bomber enemies fall into this, but special note goes to the Five Dastardly Bombers' appearance in Super Bomberman R, as they each end up becoming a One-Hit-Point Wonder like the player, but have insanely intelligent AI to compensate, leading to an intense one-on-one match that forces the player to devise an actual strategy, followed by a fight with a Giant Mecha with its own gimmicks that in itself is hard to beat.
• Complete Monster:
  • Bagura ^{also named} Buglear/Bagulaa/Bugler/Buglar/Buggler/Bugglar/Burglar/Bagula/Bagular is the Big Bad of the entire Bomberman franchise, Bomberman's most recurring enemy, and by far his most vile adversary. He makes his first appearance in Bomberman '94 by splitting Planet Bomber into pieces and attempting to send a comet on a collision course with it. In Super Bomberman 3, he resurrects the Five Dastardly Bombers and uses them to take over five planets, expanding his goals. Even after he's killed, his resilience allows him to live through a Brain in a Jar in Super Bomberman 4, assembling the Five Bomber Kings to throw Bomberman to the prehistoric age to ensure zero threats to his goals. In Bomberman Hero, he is the Man Behind the Man to the Devil Bomber, and possibly the reason for his evil, including brainwashing, as he had him locked away under a planet for being "too unruly". He's an Omnicidal Maniac and by far the Bomberman franchise's widest reaching and most evil antagonist.
  • Super Bomberman R: In this reboot of the franchise, Professor Buggler's new incarnation, Emperor Buggler, is as bad as ever. Starting off the game by performing a grandiose speech about his plans of taking control of the galaxy, while also threatening the lives of all that live there, he is revealed to have brainwashed the Five Dastardly Bombers into being his slaves, forcing them against to serve him by stripping them of their free will, and using them as part of his Giant Mecha in the final battle. He reveals his true plans at the end of the game: convert the sun into a black hole so that it would inhale the entire solar system, and later the universe. Vicious, manipulative, and sadistic, this new incarnation of the old classic villain manages to somehow be even worse than his origin.
  • For Sirius; Dr. Mechadoc & MAX; and Dark Koutei, see those pages.
• Critical Dissonance:
  • R. While most sites have a neutral/"meh" review of the game, the fanbase tends to have a more black and white reception to it.
  • On a lesser note, the 64 games. They tend to get middle-of-the-road grades on reviewing sites, due to their credence as a platformer but not a "traditional" Bomberman game, but are pretty much loved by the fans.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Regulus from 64, owing to his character design and Heel–Face Turn in TSA.
  • Machbom (the one shot Captain Ersatz of Ayrton Senna) and Racer Bomber (Mach's Expy in the PS2 Land era).
  • Team Gold, from Land.
  • The Saturn Fight!!-only and Hero-only cast.
  • Star Bomber, due to his cute magician act.
  • The new personalities of the Five Dastardly Bombers in R seemed to earn them a lot more traction and fanart.
  • R's Aqua Bomber seems to be the most popular, showing up often in online matches and fanart.
  • Dolphin Bomber from the Jetters anime, mostly due to her... assets.
• Even Better Sequel: Bomberman II improves on the original in pretty much every conceivable way. There's an actual story with cutscenes, six different worlds each with their own themes, smaller stages that limit the amount of time wasted searching for doors, nicer visuals and longer music tracks, and most importantly, the introduction of Battle Mode. While the first game introduced the core gameplay, Bomberman II established the formula that most of the rest of the series would follow.
• Fridge Logic: In the credits sequence of R, silhouettes of the eight main characters are all seen walking across different planets. In a shot with them walking towards the camera, their eyes are invisible due to them being silhouettes… however, when they get close enough, they suddenly open up their eyes as they look up at the stars. If that is the case, then doesn't that mean that they were all walking with their eyes closed the entire time?
• Friendly Fandoms: Formed a lighthearted acquaintanceship with the Breath of The Wild fandom due to both BOTW and R being two of the most anticipated games at launch.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Judicious use of the Remote Control allows you to blast through the game with minimal effort. Just try not to accidentally blow yourself up, okay?
  • Add in the immunity to your own blasts power-up in the original game and you're a walking angel of flaming death.
    • Literally, with the Bomb Walk ability. There's a glitch where you can move on top of your own bomb and you can hold down the lay bombs and detonate buttons and you'll be a moving blast area. There's virtually nothing that can touch you. Of course, without the Flame Proof powerup, you die as soon as you let go of the buttons. But with it, you're invincible.
  • Remote Control plus Bomb Kick, Power Gloves, or Punch Gloves, equals ranged death.
  • Super Bomberman gives invulnerability at the start of the level. When you collect Block Pass, and enough Speed Ups, you can walk all over the map dropping bombs, taking out at least half the monsters before you become vulnerable. Then, there's indestructible armor that extends the invulnerability period.
    • You can combine the Remote and Piercing bombs, giving you the ultimate game breaker!
  • Super R has the Pyramid Head Bomber. Though you have to close in on opponents, if Pyramid Head Bomber so much as touches other players, it's a One-Hit Kill. This makes farming for gems easier, but also makes multiplayer a nightmare if used right. His effectiveness translates well in Super R Online, where getting stuck with him when ending the moving phase guarantees you will lose due to how long the effect lasts.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • If the comments are any indication, this old Bomberman 64 commercial (the lyrics quoted at the top of the page) takes on a new meaning in a post-9/11 world.
  • Replays of R may make players feel awkward in the scene where Black gets flustered over Karaoke Bomber considering she's his older sister.
  • The whole concept of the series could be seen as this in the era of The War on Terror, especially thanks to the several terrorism-related jokes people make nowadays about Bomberman.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many fans play the series solely for its famous multiplayer matches, and usually ignore the single player mode.
  • As a result, at least two titles have been downloadable without their Story Modes: Bomberman Blast for WiiWare is taken from the retail Bomberman Wii game, and Bomberman Blitz for DSiWare is taken from Custom Battler Bomberman / Bomberman 2.
• Memetic Mutation: Constructor X and his Laser Blade.
  • BOMBERMMMMMMMAAAAAN.
• Older Than They Think: See Adaptation Displacement above.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • In the original, finding doors. Thanks to the huge screen, and depending on your number of power-ups and luck, it would end up being easy... or a far more time-consuming task than defeating the enemies. You could also end up finding the door early and having to blow-up an enemy that would station near, forcing you to fight Pontans that move really fast and can pass through blocks.
  • Gems in Super R. Multiplayer and singleplayer gives both in piddling amounts compared to the prices of what's actually in the in-game store. Single player gives more than multiplayer, but you have to shell out every time you want to continue.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer:
  • The Karabon battle minigame from Bomberman Tournament.
  • No matter what new features a new game adds, most people play Bomberman for the classic battle mode.
• So Okay, It's Average:
  • Bomberman Hero. Considered not a bad platformer, but also nothing special, especially in the platform-heavy Nintendo 64.
  • The general consensus on R. While most sites and fans have commended it for managing to be a decent comeback for the series with classic Super Bomberman gameplay, the price, the length of the story mode, and the online lag at release were very large drawbacks. Though future patches did address and fix almost all of the game's main criticisms, many still agreed that while the game was good overall, there were still much better Bomberman games out there.
• That One Boss:
  • Altair's overkill-obsessed robot guardian Cerberus in Bomberman 64; Natia in Bomberman Hero; Bomber Elite from Generation, as well as one in some of the other games.
  • Mantis would also qualify, since she fights you in two different stages. One in her cave and one her web... It's possible to not go down to the web, but good luck if you do. Also, Hades. Dear God, Hades.
  • The War Beast from the Jetters game was intended to be a fairly challenging Puzzle Boss based on the assumption that you knew that raising the Charabom Youno would give you remote detonation bombs. If you didn't know this, good luck tricking it into swallowing your bombs before they explode. Also, using Level 3 Ceedrun is pretty much the only way to not get hurt by its shockwave attack. The boss also has an attack where it chases after the player at speeds that outrun Bomberman and MAX's top running speed. No matter what, you will take damage in this fight.
    • And before that, Dark Force Bomber is enough to make you want to fling your controller. Don't get us started on Dr. Mechard, who is an extremely overdone example of a Puzzle Boss.
  • Karaoke Bomber's Elegant Dream phase in Super R has led to many a player tearing their hair out when faced with the mech's wonky hitbox, small windows of opportunity to actually damage it, and the ice littering a good amount of the stage making it even harder to place bombs in the correct spot. Throw in Karaoke Bomber's singing and more than a few attacks that take up a large chunk of the arena, and you have a boss fight that will sap up your gems from continues and annoy you to no end when doing so.
  • Magnet Bomber's first phase in R, despite being the very first fight in story mode. His incredible speed and slippery AI makes trapping or cornering him very difficult and he leaves chains of bombs across the map, some of which are magnetized to chase the player. By comparison, his second stage where he pilots a crab mech is much easier.
  • Phii from Bomberman 2 DS fought at F-5. For starters you fight her in a pitch black arena which either forces you to use Hacking gear, or the Light skill, to even see where you are going, but more importantly, see where Phii is because she has a 8-way attack that causes high damage and a random ailment that can make the fight FUBAR. Phii is also extremely agile and will lay bombs with very high attack power if the player gets too close, and, lastly, she also comes with two Elite Mooks that can dash to back her up.

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