Bomberman, the iconic video game series that has appeared on damn near every video game platform over the course of the last three decades, returns to PC for the first time in more than 20 years.
That's a long time for PC gamers to go without adorable destruction, so it's fortunate that Super Bomberman R, a port of the hit 2017 Nintendo Switch game, is such a solid title—provided that you're playing offline and with a compatible controller.
That's an unusual caveat, for sure, but Super Bomberman has several technical issues that make the game aggravating in any other circumstance.
At its core, Super Bomberman R is a highly entertaining title, but it's a shoddy PC port in a few key areas.
In fact, the game has received multiple patches at the time of this writing that have done little to rectify the glaring issues.
But before we delve into the game's multiple problems, we'll touch upon what works.
Classic Gameplay
Like Pac-Man, the Konami-published Super Bomberman R has maze-based gameplay that's immediately accessible to even the most casual gamer.
Instead of eating dots, you place comically large bombs onto the playfield to destroy blocks that impede your movement.
As you open navigation lanes, the game becomes a tension-filled game of cat and mouse in which you try to literally blow your opponents off the map while avoiding getting smoked yourself.
The last person standing wins.
Destroyed blocks reveal power-ups, including one that lets you increase an explosion's range and another that lets you pick up and toss planted bombs.
In addition, the numerous maze designs force you to alter your strategies.
One stage, for example, has ice-slicked areas that cause your Bomber-person to slide across the strip in a completely out-of-control fashion.
There are few video game moments as hilarious as seeing opponents slide right into your bomb's blast range and knowing there's absolutely nothing they can do to prevent being blown off the map.
Super Bomberman R, like the vast majority of the other series entries, is an incredibly fun experience.
In fact, this classic gameplay is best represented in Super Bomberman R's delicious, but flawed, Vs.
Battle Mode.
Multiplayer Madness
Vs.
Battle Mode, the heart of any Bomberman game, returns and supports eight players in either local or online blast-a-thons.
It consists of the online League Battle and Free Battle modes.
The former is a ranked league in which you climb the ladder to become the number one stunner; the latter is a division in which you can use special abilities (more on that in a bit).
In local play, Super Bomberman R recognizes up to eight separate controllers on one desktop or laptop; in online play, four pairs of people (with each pair on separate machines) can mix it up.
In the multiplayer modes, you can harass other players after you've been blown off the playfield by hurling bombs back onto the battlefield from a hovercraft that zips along the map's perimeter.
If you manage to blow up another player, you reenter the fray and your rival is banished to the map's outskirts.
As a result, even people who aren't great at weaving in and out of danger can affect the game in fun ways.
There's also Grand Prix Mode, which first appeared as DLC for the Nintendo Switch version.
This brings team-based competition to the bomb-planting action.
In it, two teams of three compete for points.
Grand Prix Mode is tailor-made for esports, so I hope Konami supports it in an official company-backed tournament.
Sadly, Super Bomberman R doesn't support cross-platform play, which is a bummer in a gaming environment that sees high-profile titles like Fortnite, Rocket League, and Street Fighter V bringing multiple communities together.
However, that doesn't matter much right now because Super Bomberman R has an even larger, but related, problem.
Super Bomberman R's netcode is awful.
The majority of my matches were lag-filled affairs, even after the multiple patches designed to fix that problem.
That's unacceptable in a game that requires such precise movements and controller inputs.
Matchmaking may have issues, too, as finding online players is a chore.
However, that may be due to people sticking to local matches (or avoiding the game altogether), since they know that Super Bomberman R's online is borked.
Storied Bombing
Super Bomberman R also has a story mode, a narrative-driven, fully voiced campaign for single players (though, you can opt to play it with a friend in a two-player co-op mode).
The story mode tasks you with rescuing five planets from villainous bombers by battling your way through multiple levels and defeating each world's boss character.
The various stages each have different win requirements (for example, escorting people to safety or unlocking portals), which keeps the action fresh.
If you've never played a Bomberman game before, the story mode is a good place to learn the bomb-tossing basics.
That said, the AI isn't nearly as wily as a human, so don't expect the strategies that you learn there to translate into Vs.
Battle Mode success.
Money and Unlockables
You amass in-game gold coins for successful battle mode and story mode matches.
You can spend gold in the game's store to customize the eight, default Bomberman Bros.
with hats, musical instruments, and other items.
You can also purchase new stages should you grow tired of the bundled battlefields.
The coolest purchasable items are the new characters that Konami added as post-launch game content.
You can buy characters that are Bomberman takes on popular characters from Konami's history (Dracula Bomber, Solid Snake Bomber), as well as bosses (after you defeat them in story mode) and guest characters (Xavier Woods Bomber, P-body Bomber).
Each purchasable character, unlike the Bomberman Bros., has a specific power that can help turn the tide of battle.
For example, Reiko Bomber generates a temporary shield that protects her from bomb blasts.
That said, you can equip Bomberman Bros.
with other characters' powers so that they aren't totally outclassed in Vs.
Battle Mode.
I'd like to see Konami continue to add guest characters to the Super Bomberman R roster, as the game has the potential to bring the multiplayer, multifranchise hype in Super Smash Bros.-like fashion.
Gold isn't only used to buy items and characters: You use them to continue your play sessions in story mode after you've run out of lives.
I like that Konami split the difference here between limited and unlimited continues.
Basically, you have to earn those extra continues by getting good.
Controller Chaos
Unfortunately, both the story mode and battle mode suffer a related trouble: controller issues.
I have three main controllers that I use for gaming (Hori Fighting Commander for Xbox One, Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller, and Qanba Q4 RAF), and all of them functioned oddly while Super Bomberman R ran.
It's an input issue.
When you navigate the menus, Super Bomberman moves the cursor at an incredible speed as you cycle through the options, making it difficult to make a selection.
I discovered that the Hori Fighting Commander for Xbox One behaves normally if you set its D-pad to operate as a Left Stick.
Unfortunately, that option isn't available on my other controllers.
Like the online issues, this controller problem is one that the Konami development team has been very vocal about fixing on the Steam forums.
That said, my keyboard works well with the game (though you cannot remap keys).
Specs and Performance
As you'd expect from a game that has such relatively low-impact graphics (it's a port of a Switch game, after all!), Super Bomberman R doesn't require demanding hardware specs.
Its Steam page suggests that your gaming rig pack at least an Intel Core i5 CPU, 4GB of RAM, 6GB of storage, a DirectX 11-compatible GPU, and the Windows 7 operating system.
My Nvidia GeForce GTX 970-powered gaming desktop pushed Super Bomberman R's polygons at a 60 frames-per-second rate, so I experienced nothing but a silky gameplay experience while participating in local battles.
Konami supports Super Bomberman R with 32 Steam Achievements, but zero Steam Trading Cards.
Bombs Away
As longtime Bomberman fans, it pains us to see Super Bomberman R in its current state.
The Switch version is a fun and well-made title, so we hope that Konami patches the PC version to bring it in line with its brother.
We recommend Super Bomberman R only to the most diehard series fans, particularly those who wish to mainly play offline.
You may have to test it with a few controllers, though.
Super Bomberman R (for PC)
Pros
Addictive, fast-paced action.
Eight-player local and online battles.
Fun unlockable characters from Konami's past.
The Bottom Line
Super Bomberman R for PC has all the makings of an excellent maze game, but its laggy online play and controller issues prevent it from matching the Switch version's greatness.
Bomberman, the iconic video game series that has appeared on damn near every video game platform over the course of the last three decades, returns to PC for the first time in more than 20 years.
That's a long time for PC gamers to go without adorable destruction, so it's fortunate that Super Bomberman R, a port of the hit 2017 Nintendo Switch game, is such a solid title—provided that you're playing offline and with a compatible controller.
That's an unusual caveat, for sure, but Super Bomberman has several technical issues that make the game aggravating in any other circumstance.
At its core, Super Bomberman R is a highly entertaining title, but it's a shoddy PC port in a few key areas.
In fact, the game has received multiple patches at the time of this writing that have done little to rectify the glaring issues.
But before we delve into the game's multiple problems, we'll touch upon what works.
Classic Gameplay
Like Pac-Man, the Konami-published Super Bomberman R has maze-based gameplay that's immediately accessible to even the most casual gamer.
Instead of eating dots, you place comically large bombs onto the playfield to destroy blocks that impede your movement.
As you open navigation lanes, the game becomes a tension-filled game of cat and mouse in which you try to literally blow your opponents off the map while avoiding getting smoked yourself.
The last person standing wins.
Destroyed blocks reveal power-ups, including one that lets you increase an explosion's range and another that lets you pick up and toss planted bombs.
In addition, the numerous maze designs force you to alter your strategies.
One stage, for example, has ice-slicked areas that cause your Bomber-person to slide across the strip in a completely out-of-control fashion.
There are few video game moments as hilarious as seeing opponents slide right into your bomb's blast range and knowing there's absolutely nothing they can do to prevent being blown off the map.
Super Bomberman R, like the vast majority of the other series entries, is an incredibly fun experience.
In fact, this classic gameplay is best represented in Super Bomberman R's delicious, but flawed, Vs.
Battle Mode.
Multiplayer Madness
Vs.
Battle Mode, the heart of any Bomberman game, returns and supports eight players in either local or online blast-a-thons.
It consists of the online League Battle and Free Battle modes.
The former is a ranked league in which you climb the ladder to become the number one stunner; the latter is a division in which you can use special abilities (more on that in a bit).
In local play, Super Bomberman R recognizes up to eight separate controllers on one desktop or laptop; in online play, four pairs of people (with each pair on separate machines) can mix it up.
In the multiplayer modes, you can harass other players after you've been blown off the playfield by hurling bombs back onto the battlefield from a hovercraft that zips along the map's perimeter.
If you manage to blow up another player, you reenter the fray and your rival is banished to the map's outskirts.
As a result, even people who aren't great at weaving in and out of danger can affect the game in fun ways.
There's also Grand Prix Mode, which first appeared as DLC for the Nintendo Switch version.
This brings team-based competition to the bomb-planting action.
In it, two teams of three compete for points.
Grand Prix Mode is tailor-made for esports, so I hope Konami supports it in an official company-backed tournament.
Sadly, Super Bomberman R doesn't support cross-platform play, which is a bummer in a gaming environment that sees high-profile titles like Fortnite, Rocket League, and Street Fighter V bringing multiple communities together.
However, that doesn't matter much right now because Super Bomberman R has an even larger, but related, problem.
Super Bomberman R's netcode is awful.
The majority of my matches were lag-filled affairs, even after the multiple patches designed to fix that problem.
That's unacceptable in a game that requires such precise movements and controller inputs.
Matchmaking may have issues, too, as finding online players is a chore.
However, that may be due to people sticking to local matches (or avoiding the game altogether), since they know that Super Bomberman R's online is borked.
Storied Bombing
Super Bomberman R also has a story mode, a narrative-driven, fully voiced campaign for single players (though, you can opt to play it with a friend in a two-player co-op mode).
The story mode tasks you with rescuing five planets from villainous bombers by battling your way through multiple levels and defeating each world's boss character.
The various stages each have different win requirements (for example, escorting people to safety or unlocking portals), which keeps the action fresh.
If you've never played a Bomberman game before, the story mode is a good place to learn the bomb-tossing basics.
That said, the AI isn't nearly as wily as a human, so don't expect the strategies that you learn there to translate into Vs.
Battle Mode success.
Money and Unlockables
You amass in-game gold coins for successful battle mode and story mode matches.
You can spend gold in the game's store to customize the eight, default Bomberman Bros.
with hats, musical instruments, and other items.
You can also purchase new stages should you grow tired of the bundled battlefields.
The coolest purchasable items are the new characters that Konami added as post-launch game content.
You can buy characters that are Bomberman takes on popular characters from Konami's history (Dracula Bomber, Solid Snake Bomber), as well as bosses (after you defeat them in story mode) and guest characters (Xavier Woods Bomber, P-body Bomber).
Each purchasable character, unlike the Bomberman Bros., has a specific power that can help turn the tide of battle.
For example, Reiko Bomber generates a temporary shield that protects her from bomb blasts.
That said, you can equip Bomberman Bros.
with other characters' powers so that they aren't totally outclassed in Vs.
Battle Mode.
I'd like to see Konami continue to add guest characters to the Super Bomberman R roster, as the game has the potential to bring the multiplayer, multifranchise hype in Super Smash Bros.-like fashion.
Gold isn't only used to buy items and characters: You use them to continue your play sessions in story mode after you've run out of lives.
I like that Konami split the difference here between limited and unlimited continues.
Basically, you have to earn those extra continues by getting good.
Controller Chaos
Unfortunately, both the story mode and battle mode suffer a related trouble: controller issues.
I have three main controllers that I use for gaming (Hori Fighting Commander for Xbox One, Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller, and Qanba Q4 RAF), and all of them functioned oddly while Super Bomberman R ran.
It's an input issue.
When you navigate the menus, Super Bomberman moves the cursor at an incredible speed as you cycle through the options, making it difficult to make a selection.
I discovered that the Hori Fighting Commander for Xbox One behaves normally if you set its D-pad to operate as a Left Stick.
Unfortunately, that option isn't available on my other controllers.
Like the online issues, this controller problem is one that the Konami development team has been very vocal about fixing on the Steam forums.
That said, my keyboard works well with the game (though you cannot remap keys).
Specs and Performance
As you'd expect from a game that has such relatively low-impact graphics (it's a port of a Switch game, after all!), Super Bomberman R doesn't require demanding hardware specs.
Its Steam page suggests that your gaming rig pack at least an Intel Core i5 CPU, 4GB of RAM, 6GB of storage, a DirectX 11-compatible GPU, and the Windows 7 operating system.
My Nvidia GeForce GTX 970-powered gaming desktop pushed Super Bomberman R's polygons at a 60 frames-per-second rate, so I experienced nothing but a silky gameplay experience while participating in local battles.
Konami supports Super Bomberman R with 32 Steam Achievements, but zero Steam Trading Cards.
Bombs Away
As longtime Bomberman fans, it pains us to see Super Bomberman R in its current state.
The Switch version is a fun and well-made title, so we hope that Konami patches the PC version to bring it in line with its brother.
We recommend Super Bomberman R only to the most diehard series fans, particularly those who wish to mainly play offline.
You may have to test it with a few controllers, though.
Super Bomberman R (for PC)
Pros
Addictive, fast-paced action.
Eight-player local and online battles.
Fun unlockable characters from Konami's past.
The Bottom Line
Super Bomberman R for PC has all the makings of an excellent maze game, but its laggy online play and controller issues prevent it from matching the Switch version's greatness.
