40 years of Bomberman
40 years of Bomberman
While not initially Hudson's flagship franchise, Bomberman eventually became their mascot and outlived the company that created it.
July marks 40 years of Hudson Soft’s (and Konami’s) Bomberman franchise. Throughout the month, I’ll be covering Bomberman games, the versatility of its protagonist, and the legacy of both. Previous entries in the series can be found through this link.
It’s kind of hard to believe now, but Bomberman wasn’t always the Hudson Soft franchise. Part of that disbelief comes from the fact that essentially every other Hudson Soft franchise was buried in a deep hole in the ground by Konami when they closed the studio, only to reemerge with the occasional retro re-release, but it’s also because Bomberman was Hudson’s one consistent hit throughout their multiple decades. Hudson made loads of great games, and published plenty of other great ones by other developers, but some series would disappear for years — sometimes years — at a time. Bomberman, though? Once Hudson decided that was their horse to get behind, well, there was always Bomberman, and Bomberman was everywhere, to boot.
Bomberman is the rare franchise where you can argue over its actual beginnings. In 1985, Bomberman was released for the Famicom in Japan. It wouldn’t see a North Ameican release until 1989. How is it the 40th anniversary of the franchise if the first game was released in ‘85? Well, it wasn’t the first: in fact, it was the third, the other two were just on platforms that North Americans aren’t particularly familiar with.
Bomberman originally released in 1983 for the NEC PC-8801, MSX, Sharp X1, and a slew of other Japanese computers. It would also receive an updated European release on the MSX and ZX Spectrum in 1984, though, there it was known as Eric and the Floaters instead of Bomberman. Why the change? Supposedly, it was to avoid an association with the Irish Republican Army’s bombings during The Troubles. It’s a bit of a goofy name that sounds like it belongs to a UK band from the 60s that once opened for the Syd Barrett-fronted Pink Floyd, but also fitting enough, since Bomberman’s enemies were balloons, and also he’s literally just some guy here. Bomberman isn’t a robot yet, so why can’t he just be Eric?
This original version of Bomberman — which was actually the full game release of a 1980 BASIC compiler tech demo per the March 1995 issue of Next Magazine — wasn’t everything the series would become, but it was at least a basic foundation to build on. You had bombs exploding in cross patterns, taking down some of the environment when they exploded. You were trying to corner foes between walls and your bombs, and upon eliminating them all, you could progress to the next stage. The wonderful music of June Chikuma wasn’t here yet — just some basic sound effects for walking around and exploding things— and again, Bomberman was some guy in a hat you could just name “Eric” over in Europe, so what’s missing is very obvious. There was no multiplayer, either, which, can you imagine Bomberman without multiplayer? If your introduction to the series was the Famicom/NES original, then yes, you can, but shortly after that, it became a series staple, notable more for its very rare absences than its assumed inclusion in the future.
What’s fascinating about so quickly establishing some of Bomberman’s foundations out of the gate is that Hudson didn’t seem particularly attached to them. The sequel to Bomberman, 3-D Bomberman, was also a release on Japanese PCs, and this one played from a first-person perspective. In 1985, we’d get the Bomberman featuring the robot character who would eventually be known as “White Bomberman,” with the story being that this robot, who made bombs for a living underground, had heard a rumor that he’d become a human being if he made it to the surface. So, you work your way up through the factory, using your skill at making bombs to blow open a path and any enemies trying to stop you from your goal, and then, upon reaching the surface, Bomberman becomes… the protagonist from Broderbund’s Lode Runner. Which Hudson was responsible for porting to the Famicom. Bomberman isn’t about a guy named Eric anymore, now it’s about the Lode Runner guy, because Hudson wanted to make a connection to their other work you could pay for. Sure!
This was 1985, and there wouldn’t be a true sequel to Bomberman until 1991. In 1987, Hudson released Bomber King in Japan, which would be known as RoboWarrior in North America, where it released in 1988. It’s a spin-off from Bomberman that uses the bomb dropping idea for clearing blocks and opening paths, but otherwise plays and looks an awful lot like Blaster Master’s overhead levels. To the point that Bomber King’s sequel for the Game Boy released as a Blaster Master sequel in North American and Europe: if Blaster Master Boy ever seemed a little different than the Blaster Master you were familiar with, well, there’s your why.
North America received this Not Bomberman spin-off before it was even introduced to actual Bomberman, since that wouldn’t come out on the NES until 1989. If you need more proof that Bomberman wasn’t looked at initially as the future flagship franchise of Hudson, consider, too, that even though the Famicom Bomberman release was in 1985, it would take until 1990 in Japan and 1991 in North America for the PC Engine/Turbografx-16 remake to come out — three years and two years after those systems released. That was Hudson’s system, and they didn’t have a version of it ready for years, plural. While it wasn’t a priority at first, it would become the priority for Hudson.
Following those four years of nothing, 1990 was the start of a stretch that would see at least two Bomberman games released every year for 20 years. There are three different Bomberman anime series, and Bomberman manga, too. Hudson didn’t restrict Bomberman to the Turbografx and PC Engine even when those systems needed support, but instead developed multiple Bomberman titles for Nintendo’s platforms, then Sega’s and Sony’s, too. And genre restrictions basically didn’t exist for Bomberman, either: the experimentation that first drove Hudson with Bomberman persisted, and in fact increased, when the series became their flagship one. Moving to a first-person perspective or coming up with a spin-off featuring a different robot was just the start: there were expansions of the arena multiplayer, more in-depth story modes, 2D and 3D platformers, a crossover with Wario, multiple (successful) attempts at Zelda-style action-adventure games, sports titles, racing games, party games, puzzle games, and even a strategy RPG. Konami has refocused Bomberman to be more about the multiplayer than anything, in its limited usage of the franchise, but Bomberman used to be anything Hudson wanted it to be.
This month, we’ll go over more of Bomberman’s history, the games, the music, the versatility of the character and concept, and the legacy of the series and its multiplayer. As will be discussed again and again, there’s much more to Bomberman than playing in an arena trying to blow up your friends even if Konami seems to have forgotten as much, but that multiplayer is something special, too. Let’s remember (and, in some cases, discover) it all.
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