Ludography
88/100
Players20 ratings

Where to get it

Bomberman '94 cover

1993 · Hudson Soft · Action · Maze

Bomberman '94

Timed NEC exclusive

BOMBERMAN has arrived to restore peace on the planet, which has been split into five parts by an evil hand! In addition to the nine members of the Bomber Family, the character ROOI shows up to lend a hand. Jump on the EGGS that appear from destroyed SOFT BLOCKS, and you can ride one of five types of ROOI. Each ROOI has different special abilitiesuse these well and youll ride to victory!

Released
10 December 1993
Platforms
Legacy Mobile DeviceNESPlayStation 3PlayStation PortablePlayStation Store TurboGrafx-16Sega GenesisTurboGrafx-16WiiWii U
Genres
ActionMazeStrategyTactical
Developers
Hudson Soft
Publishers
Hudson Soft
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
ActionScience fictionParty
Country
Japan
Age ratings
ESRB ECERO APEGI 3
Languages
Japanese
Composers
Jun Chikuma

About

Bomberman '94 (ボンバーマン'94, Bonbāman kyūjūyon) is an action maze video game in the Bomberman series developed and published by Hudson Soft for the PC Engine and released on December 10, 1993, in Japan. It was later re-developed by Westone and re-published by Sega as Mega Bomberman on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1994 in other areas. The PC Engine Bomberman '94 was later released outside Japan through the Virtual Console and the PlayStation Network.

The game supports single-player and multi-player modes. In single player, the player navigates several levels of mazes, destroying creatures with bombs. In multiplayer mode, players defeat each other with bombs.

›Story

The inhabitants of Planet Bomber lived in peace, protected by five spirits, until the evil Buglear and his Robot Army invaded. The Spirit Pictures, the source of the spirits' magical power, were destroyed, splitting Planet Bomber into five pieces. Bomberman arrives to restore the Spirit Pictures and reassemble Planet Bomber.

Keywords

  • maze
  • sequel
  • playstation network
  • shared screen
  • explosion
  • digital distribution
  • psone classics
  • virtual console
  • year in the title
  • playstation tv support
  • kangaroo
  • backwards compatibility

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game is set in six areas: Jammin' Jungle, Vexin' Volcano, Slammin' Sea, Crankin' Castle, Thrashin' Tundra and the artificial comet of Bagular. Due to the Mega Drive's and Genesis's lack of a fifth controller port, Mega Bomberman only supports four players instead of five. This is the first game in the series that uses the modern design of White Bomberman. Bomberman '94 also introduces Louies to the series. Also, Bomberman '94 introduced several recurring characters, such as female and child Bombers (which were multiplayer skins), red/green/blue bombers and secondary villains, possibly originated from combining a "normal" skin with corresponding colors.

Story

The inhabitants of Planet Bomber lived in peace, protected by five spirits, until the evil Bagular and his Robot Army invaded. The Spirit Pictures, the source of the spirits' magical power, were destroyed, splitting Planet Bomber into five pieces. Bomberman arrives to restore the Spirit Pictures and reassemble Planet Bomber.

Reception

GamePro gave the Genesis version a positive review, summarizing that "New levels, new enemies, and plenty of other new touches make this game one of the best bombers ever." They particularly approved of the new levels and the animal powerups. Electronic Gaming Monthly's reviewers were divided; while Ed Semrad and Sushi-X echoed GamePro in saying that the new levels and animal powerups made it a strong new installment of Bomberman, Danyon Carpenter and Al Manuel both felt that it was not different enough from the Super NES version to be worth getting. A reviewer for Next Generation, in contrast, argued that the game was too different from the Super NES version, and that the new powerups and animals took away "the beautiful simplicity of the original". He nonetheless recommended it to "any Genesis owner with three friends and a multitap".

Retro Gamer placed the game on their "Top Ten PC Engine Games" list. Complex ranked the game number 91 on their "The 100 Best Sega Genesis Games." Time Extension placed the game on their Best PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 Games list.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
TurboGrafx-1610 December 1993Japan
WiiDigital Compatibility Release2 December 2006Japan · North America 23 March 2009 · Australia 10 July 2009 · Europe 10 July 2009
Legacy Mobile Device31 December 2008Japan
PlayStation 3Digital Compatibility Release2 June 2011North America
PlayStation PortableDigital Compatibility Release2 June 2011North America
Wii UDigital Compatibility Release19 November 2014Japan · Europe 2 February 2017 · North America 2 February 2017

Editions and related releases

Included in
TurboGrafx-16 MiniPC Engine Mini
Followed by
Super Bomberman 2
Follows
Super Bomberman
Ported as
Mega Bomberman
Remade as
Bomberman '08
Built on it
Mega BombermanBomberman '08

Games like this

Collections10 collections

Platform libraries

Series and characters

Publishers

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.