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Bomberman 64, known in Japan as Baku Bomberman (爆ボンバーマン, Baku Bonbāman?, lit. "Explosive Bomberman"), is a video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. The game was released in Europe on November 27, 1997 and released in North America on December 1 of the same year. The game is rated K-A by the ESRB. Despite being released after Star Fox 64, it is incompatible with the Rumble Pak.

Bomberman 64 is the first 3-D game within the Bomberman series. It also implements a different single-player mode by incorporating action-adventure and platforming stages, instead of arenas in which enemies or other elements must be destroyed. The game has spawned two sequels on the N64: Bomberman Hero (1998) and Bomberman 64: The Second Attack (2000).

n the game's opening sequence, we see a peaceful-looking planet with gardens, rivers, and residential buildings abound. Seconds later, space pirate Artemis drops from the sky with a band of soldiers and orders them to raid the planet. Meanwhile, Altair, from the Black Fortress, uses his coveted weapon, the Omni Cube, to completely drain the planet's energy, condemning it to a zombie-like state.

Artemis returns to the Black Fortress to meet up with her partners, Orion and Regulus, and her superior, Altair. Together they set their sights on their next target: Planet Bomber, home of the protagonist, Bomberman. They maneuver their fortress into the atmosphere of Planet Bomber.

Bomberman, from atop a cliff, observes the Black Fortress' descent. Not much later, the Fortress begins to open fire on the people of Planet Bomber, firing destructive energy rays into populated areas.

A warrior clad in white then flies out to the surprised Bomberman, and asks if he plans to defeat the assailants. Bomberman gives an affirmative response, and the stranger (later introduced as Sirius) explains that a force field protects the Fortress from any outside attack. Sirius goes on to say that this force field can be deactivated by destroying the four anchors attached to the Fortress; the Green Garden, Blue Resort, Red Mountain, and White Glacier. Once inside the Fortress, they must find and destroy Altair.

Bomberman successfully climbs onto and destroys the four anchors with the help of Sirius, who helps him by supplying power-ups and teaching him new techniques. The force field around the Fortress is deactivated, and the duo enter the Fortress. After sneaking through Altair's security measures, Bomberman finds and confronts Altair, and after a difficult struggle, defeats the pirate. The previously defeated Regulus swoops in and attempts to rescue his master from the battlefield, but is then knocked away by Sirius. Altair drops the Omni Cube, which Sirius lands on the battle platform to retrieve. At this point, Altair is annihilated by a newly powered up Sirius, who then steals the Omni Cube and escapes to his secret lair. Bomberman is then forced to team up with his former foe Regulus to destroy Sirius thus saving the universe.

[edit] Gameplay

This game is featured in full 3D, thusly the directional controls change. Bomberman is able to walk in eight directions with a rotating camera facing in eight directions and with three different zooms. His bombs have a different effect than in other games of the series; the bomb's explosion waves have a circular pattern rather than the traditional cross-shaped ones.

In both single player and multiplayer modes, Bomberman always has the ability to kick, pick up, and throw bombs, without the need of powerups, as in previous games. A unique feature of this game is that Bomberman can "pump" a bomb while holding it, which will make the bomb's explosion more powerful. A pumped-up bomb cannot be kicked or picked up again. Unlike most platform games of its time, Bomberman cannot jump, nor can he swim in water, although he can wade in shallow water.

If Bomberman runs into an enemy NPC, or is hit on the head by a small object, such as an unexploded bomb, he will get knocked out temporarily (he will sit there with "X" eyes and stars rotating around his head). While in this state, he can get picked up by an enemy and thrown around or even off the map. Conversely, Bomberman can do the same to an enemy.

When Bomberman takes damage, he dies. If he has a "heart" powerup when he's hit, he will survive, but he will lose the heart. When he dies all powerups that he had obtained will scatter all over the place. In the Normal single-player mode, taking damage simply causes Bomberman to drop the heart, and if it doesn't bounce off the level, he can pick it up again to survive another hit. In the Hard mode, the heart will simply disappear.

[edit] Game progression

At the start of the game, Bomberman can enter any of four anchors, which are terrariums of other planets (that were probably drained by Altair). The starting worlds are: Green Garden, Blue Resort, Red Mountain, and White Glacier. In each anchor there are four stages. The first and third stages are adventure stages where Bomberman must navigate through the stage by solving puzzles and blasting his way toward the "Goal Arrow." The second and fourth stages are boss stages, Bomberman must fight Sirius or one of Altair's subordinates in the second stage, and he must fight the world's guardian in the fourth.

After Bomberman beats the first four anchors, he can enter the Black Fortress. Like the previous worlds, the first and third stages are adventure stages, but this time Bomberman must fight the guardian in the second stage and Altair himself in the fourth stage.

In every stage there are five gold cards to collect (100 total). Once all gold cards have been collected, the player can unlock the secret world, Rainbow Palace. After all the gold cards have been collected from there (an additional 20, making a grand total of 120 Gold Cards) the player unlocks more courses in multiplayer mode plus the "Full Power" cheat option. With the cheat activated, Bomberman starts with 8 bombs, 5 flames, power bombs, and remote bombs.

[edit] Multiplayer battle

Multiplayer battle features a total of 10 stages, 6 default and 4 unlockable. Various options can be set, like the ability for fallen Bombermen to become ghosts that can temporarily possess other players and a panic mode whereby when time begins to run out, various things begin to happen (Like rising water or closing in walls)