Feature

Inside PlayStation Network – Bomberman: Party Edition

The digital delights of Sony’s scrumptious PlayStation Network service know no bounds. Aside from letting punters compete in online gaming, stream films, browse the Internet and more, its premier attraction rests in the copious supply of downloadable games ripe for the picking. From PSN exclusives to PSOne Classics, minis and plain old add-on content, Sony’s online space is chock full of goodies battling it out for your hard-earned digital dollars.

Welcome back to another installment of Inside PlayStation Network, where every Monday – Friday we’ll pluck a PSN release—be it new or old—and put it in the spotlight for a thorough dissection. Fancy getting a new PSN game but don’t know what one to plump for? Perhaps this feature will help. Didn’t realize that a game was available in your region until now? We’ve got you covered. Or, perhaps you were musing over what those lucky Japanese folk were tucking into over in the Land of the Rising Sun? You can be sure our coverage will extend to those rare regional exclusives as much as those firmly embedded on the public consciousness.

Today, we turn our attention to the classic PlayStation outing, Bomberman Party Edition.

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Developer: Metro
Region(s) available: North America, Japan
Players: 1-5

At the time of Bomberman: Party Edition’s release back at the tail end of the 90s, the venerable blow-em-up franchise had been going through something of a rough patch. With a deluge of dodgy outings including various 3D games and a rancid racing effort, Bomberman needed a swift kick up the backside, and sharpish. Fortunately, that arrived in the shape of Bomberman: Party Edition, a return to the series lauded, top-down mechanics of old that reinvigorating the fledging series and introduced it to a whole new audience to boot.

Unsurprisingly, Party Edition is a multiplayer-centric offering, with the game’s Battle Mode very much the meat and potatoes of the action. The game is quintessential Bomberman material, sticking closely to the series’ simple yet overwhelmingly addictive paradigm of gallivanting around mazes, laying bombs down in an attempt to blow up your mates. It may sound like a one-trick pony, but it’s not. There’s a heap of strategy involved in luring your buddies into a perilous predicament, making use of the bomb’s multi-directional explosive bursts to send destruction raining down on your competition.

Along the way there’s plenty of power-ups to nab, from items that augment the strength of your bombs to those that allow you to kick the explosive devices out of harm’s way. If you don’t fancy the standard rules however, Party Edition also gives you the opportunity to tweak things to your liking via a handy customisation option. Some of the things you can implement here include the inclusion of hyperbombs or post-death chariot racing, as well as the obligatory round length, number of matches required per win and hit points.

Aside from the multiplayer offerings, Party Edition also chucks in a fairly rudimentary single-player effort that comprises of 50 levels to blast your way through. Appropriately for a game that’s essentially a modern update of the 1983 classic, there’s even a NES-style aesthetic on offer if you fancy coating the proceedings a fine nostalgic glow. Lovely.

Join us again tomorrow as we take another butcher’s Inside PlayStation Network.