Power Bombers 0.2

Bomberman or Dyna Blaster as it was known in ancient times, has spawned a game genre that was not really followed except within the same franchise, with iterations of the same gameplay. The more testosterone infused incarnation, Atomic Bomberman was an absolute blast in multiplayer (pun intended). Having eight players running around a tight fire blast ridden maze was absolutely exhilarating, and better than any Quake 2 or CounteStrike match. Of course, clones had to appear with the advent of Flash games and more so with the Android development rush. Power Bomber is not exactly a clone, but it follows the same gameplay more or less. Oh wait... It is a clone.

In case you're unfamiliar with this formula, here's a rundown: In Power Bomber, you controlling a character that can lay time bombs. A bomb explodes after a little while and anything caught within it's "radius" (we're talking about squares here) is killed, blown or otherwise destroyed. Everything except some impenetrable columns or walls that essentially create the specific layout of each map. Your character lays bombs in order to destroy the wandering monsters that patrol the area and any other NPC bomber that happens to be there also. The only thing you need to take care is not to get caught by the blasts. Walking through monsters and bombers is permitted and does not affect you in any way (unfortunately for the gameplay).

In single player, you will be progressing through levels, unlocking new level decor from time to time. Multiplayer can only be achieved by proximity. Rooms can only be started using WiFi Hotspots.

The controls are not so great, but then again you can't beat a keyboard when it comes to lightning 90° turns at 4 Hz. But then again Power Bomber is no Atomic Bomberman and to the creator's credit, you can opt for multiple control schemes that can be changed during play.

Blowing up blocks will reveal different powerups, such as a one time blast protection and upgrades to speed and blast radius. Until you get these powerups (especially the speed one) the gameplay feels quite sluggish and frustrating. The player characters also have some stats that increase with level. However the character is randomly selected each time you play, so you can't focus on one character unless you spend souls to re-roll the selection before playing. You unlock "TAG" crates by beating levels, and these give coins and souls. However, I could not figure out why would I need more of them. Perhaps upon reaching higher levels you would require to pay coins to advance or something. But I'm not really that curious anyway.

Conclusion

I can't say I enjoyed Power Bombers. Maybe because it's so unlike my precious Atomic Bomberman, but then again nothing can beat it.