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Konami’s Next-Generation line-up thus far has been
rather under-achieving. Formally one of the largest videogame
publishers in the world – a title which they still retain in Japan –
the
 publisher seems to accept the fact that it’s being outdone by
the firm most western gamers consider their peer: Capcom. Already,
Capcom have brought us the wondrous Dead Rising, and have the
visually-stunning
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition lined-up for release early
next year, alongside the much-hyped Resident Evil 5 and
Devil May Cry 4. Add to this the success of Street Fighter
II’ Hyper Fighting on XboxLIVE! Arcade, and you can
clearly see a Japanese publisher using all the tricks from their
twenty-three years as a videogame developer to keep afloat in an
industry that’s becoming more-and-more about big budgets, big guns
and fast cars. Konami, however, can string together a long list of
XboxLIVE! Arcade releases – Frogger, Gyruss,
Scramble, Contra and Time Pilot, with Track &
Field and Super Contra due to arrive soon – yet have done
very little to secure themselves as a leading Next-Generation
developer. With only
Coded Arms: Assault, Dance Dance
Revolution Universe, Hellboy and, of course, Metal
Gear Solid 4 currently announced, the company hasn’t even yet
managed to get much hyperbole surrounding their products (of course,
with the exception of Metal Gear Solid 4).
Rumble Roses XX was Konami’s first foray into the
Next-Generation, and while adored by the fans, the title simply
refused to break any new ground or enrich Konami’s relationship with
the western press. Following this, merely weeks ago, Pro
Evolution Soccer 6 launched and, while hailed as remaining top
of it’s game, the title has often been criticised for simply not
upping-the-ante enough, content with simply glossing over the
Current-Generation visuals akin to the likes of
GUN, rather
than pushing the graphical boundaries even as far as EA’s first
FIFA offering –
FIFA 06: Road
 To FIFA World Cup – managed
to. Konami’s major success in the Next-Generation, currently, didn’t
even arrive due to one of their own products; instead, it’s the
success of Call Of Duty 2 in Japan that has rewarded them the
most, through their Japanese publishing arrangement with Activision.
And so, we now arrive at Konami’s first real attempt to break
through the Next-Generation barrier, with a name (if not a face)
that will be familiar to many a gamer the world-over; Bomberman.
Bomberman: Act Zero is a Next-Generation
re-envisaging of the classic Bomberman formula. The first
thing that most people will notice is the complete re-address of the
visuals. No longer is Bomberman a cute, three-foot tall, two-colour
robot trying to rescue birds and bunnies - as he has been since his
most popular outing, Super Bomberman, on the SNES - instead,
he is now represented as a bio-mechanical warrior hell-bent on
destruction. Slight change, then. Along with this, comes a change to
the environments, and story.
The Bomberman story has always been that of a
questionable nature. I’m sure there are very few readers who would
be able to re-tell Bomberman’s adventures or even knew that there
was a story to begin with. The presence of the story in this new
instalment fits in snugly to this tradition, by being simply
non-existent. According to occasional blips on the Loading Screens,
and the hilarious for-all-the-wrong-reasons Intro FMV, the Bomberman
was created as a source of entertainment akin to Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s Running Man: the Bomberman is in-fact now
you. In order to survive, you must work your way through the
ninety-nine Levels in either FPB Mode or Standard Mode, fighting
through pre-set difficulties and quantities of enemies. Unlike most
previous Bomberman games, this release has no alternative
Single-Player Campaign, instead opting only for a Deathmatch against
the CPU. Certainly not a bad decision in itself, given the
hit-and-miss nature of Bomberman’s many previous
Single-Player exploits.
Bomberman: Act Zero plays like Bomberman
games in the traditional sense. Players must accumulate Power-Ups in
order to bomb their opponents on a grid. With blocks that cannot be
destroyed creating impassable obstacles, and Soft blocks which
create paths when blown-apart generating the Map, players plant
bombs which then send explosions travelling down corridors, with the
ideal of hitting their opponent.
The FPB Mode referred to above references to itself as
such; however, the full title (to which Konami themselves make
reference to in Press Releases and the like) is
 “First-Person
Bomber”. Now, most people of a reasonable level of intellect would predict that a gameplay mode entitled “First-Person Bomber” would
most likely take place from a first-person perspective. The
developers, Hudson, however, have an altogether different idea.
First-Person Bomber, instead of offering a first-person perspective,
simply zooms the Camera closer to your on-screen avatar, limiting
the field of vision for the player. While this may not sound too
tragic in itself, when adding the mechanics of Bomberman, the
view-point is simply ridiculous. When a bomb explodes at the other
end of the Arena, laid by an enemy who has collected the maximum
number of Fire-Up Power-Ups, it’s impossible to tell whether the
resulting explosion will reach you, and be the unnerving cause of
your demise. Another addition the FPB Mode has introduced is one
that may make many hardcore Bomberman fans baulk at even the
merest suggestion; an Energy Bar.
There are no Continue options, Lives or Save Points anywhere in the
game, either FPB Mode or Standard Mode, meaning that dying at Level
ninety-eight will result in you having to play through each and
every Level once again in order to complete the game.
Standard Mode is simply a remodelling of the original
game and, thankfully, is actually quite playable. While the
exclusion of single-system Multi-Player is simply ridiculous, the
Standard Mode does offer at least a worthwhile version of the
classic Bomberman formula.
Online, the Multi-Player options are pretty basic, and
just about what would be expected of a Next-Generation title built
for Multi-Player. Options to play either Standard Mode or FPB Mode,
set the number of Rounds, Time Limit and number of players – a
maximum of eight in each Match – as well as allocating Private Slots
for your friends, should you have any that at current aren’t in the
throws of either
Gears Of War, Call Of Duty 3 or
WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2007.
The final option available from the Main Menu is that
entitled “Cage”. Cage is simply a series of customisation options
for your Bomberman. That “series” however, is actually just two
options. Colour and Sex. Nothing more.
Graphically, apart from being a disgrace to a series
that may have roots in the Sci-Fi presentation (although, being
released on the NES, you’d be hard-pressed to realise these roots
anyway) yet has since surpassed these ties and acquired a style that
personifies the ideals of Bomberman perfectly, are bland at
best. The flame effects are poor beyond belief – instead of the
explosions travelling as a complete line, each square of the Arena
generates its own mini-flame, with no connection what-so-ever to the
placement of the bomb that originally caused the explosion. Even
when ignoring this factor, with the flame effects themselves being
less impressive than those witnessed on the Nintendo64, there’s very
little to commend the title for. The Arenas (of which you are never
offered the selection) are scarcely detailed and designed purely
from blacks, greys and browns. There is no variation in the layout
of the Arenas, as has been seen in previous versions, and you’ll
certainly have difficulty working-out whether or not you are
actually playing in a different Arena to the previous. The title’s
sound is ignorable, which is the best feature of it. Character
soundbites are ill-fitted and the music does little to enhance the
adrenaline-pumping atmosphere Bomberman aficionados will
simply demand from the title.
Bomberman: Act Zero is, quite frankly, an
abomination. The title offers nothing new to the franchise, and
nothing new to its fans. As a poorly developed title with very
little foresight, creativity and even basic entertainment value,
it’s quite apparent that an XboxLIVE! Arcade offering of
practically any Bomberman release from the early ‘90’s
would secure a better position for the series on the Next-Generation
systems, even if it were to be priced as one of the highest-value
XboxLIVE! Arcade titles. Should Bomberman: Act Zero
have been released as a budget title for the Xbox360, with a
sub-£34.99 RRP, fans of the series may have been convinced to part
with their cash simply to be able to play Standard Mode against
their friends online, but even in this situation, it would be
incredibly hard to recommend the title to anyone who’s not already
involved with the blast-fest on the level of your average die-hard
Nintendo fanboy. Konami’s Next-Generation success has yet to arrive,
and if it should through the release of Bomberman: Act Zero,
I doubt God himself will be able to help our industry. |
