Bombs Away!: A Super Bomberman R 2 Review

By Teepu

Player(s): 1-8 (Local), 1-64 (Online)
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC

The recent resurgence of the Bomberman brand has been a pleasant surprise. I had many issues with Super Bomberman R, but it was a return to form for a long-dead franchise that was much needed. Super Bomberman R 2 promises more modes, a better story, and more content in general. Is it the much-improved sequel that we wanted though? Read on to find out.

Super Bomberman R 2, henceforth referred to as SBR2, is an interesting exercise in how to make a good sequel. It improves on the original in so many ways, but also misses the mark in just as many. Let us start by talking about the Story Mode. Rather than choosing to emulate the previous game, SBR2 works hard to distinguish itself from previous entries. The narrative is mostly meaningless, mostly cute, and full of rather silly quips and nonsense just like the original game. There is a bad guy, and the crew must head out and stop him. That’s pretty much it. You’re not here for a deeply emotional narrative though, so that is perfectly fine. It does its job in keeping things moving along wonderfully.

Rather than having individual levels that lead to a boss battle, SBR2 has you exploring a pseudo-open-world setting. Each world has its own fully explorable map that is quite large and has to be split into its own sections that are all interconnected. Think of a sort of cross between how the Monster Hunter maps work, combined with the "open-zone" idea from Sonic Frontiers. This may sound odd at first, but it works quite well when combined with the other factors in the Story Mode. The goal of exploration is to rescue these cute little creatures called "Ellons". They serve as the main progression tool, unlocking more sections of the map and providing access to special puzzle levels. There will be enemies roaming around too, but they are mostly trivial. They do get increasingly more challenging the further you get in the game, but there’s so much open space that most of the time you can avoid them and keep working on collecting the Ellons. As you explore you also get experience points which will level you up and raise various stats, which is a wonderful way to make you feel more powerful as you keep playing.

This sounds fantastic on paper, and is far more engaging than the repetitive levels of previous Bomberman Story Modes. Unfortunately, you will quickly learn that every positive in this game is countered by some kind of negative. The exploration never really evolves as you get further into the game. Each world feels a bit larger than it should considering the lack of gameplay progression. Once you have completed the first few areas, you have seen what the entire exploration sections have to offer. The exploration aspect was a fantastic idea, but it feels like the development team didn’t really think through on what to do with it beyond the initial concept. Sure there are bosses, which are not as fun and engaging as the previous game, and other features that we will eventually get to, but the majority of your time is spent exploring. Exploring that gets stale before you even finish the first of three worlds.

Beyond the exploration, there are two other factors to the Story Mode. The first is an implementation of this game’s new mode: Castle. This mode is an asymmetrical One vs. Many mode where one person defends the castle’s treasure chests from being taken, while everybody else hunts for keys and then needs to try and unlock the chests. The "one" person gets access to base defenses and occasional super weapons. It is incredibly challenging being the "one" and winning, but not impossible. In the Story Mode, you will sometimes get ambushed by enemies and thrown into this mode. You are given resources and new upgrades over time to apply to your base before you dive into the battle. This is a welcome change of pace, and a nice way to shake up gameplay, but you will soon grow tired of this as the enemy AI is dull and repetitive. Once you get the hang of the ambushes you’ll have no trouble at all, and it’ll quickly become an annoyance rather than something fun. The other main part of the Story Mode are the puzzle levels that you can access as you’re exploring. While these puzzles do not evolve much over the course of the game either, I didn’t find myself getting bored of them for some reason. It consists of trying to destroy different patterns of boxes with a limited number of bomb drops. While it sounds repetitive, I found it engaging and appropriately challenging the further you get. 

Next up is the multiplayer, which likely is the main reason most people will even be playing this game. Despite the relatively lackluster initial map selection in the first game, it was a solid if not simple take on the classic gameplay. SBR2 takes those ideas, ideas from the Super Bomberman R Online game and combines them with some new stuff to create a rather robust offering. There is the classic 4-8 player battle mode where you just move around destroying blocks for power ups in order to gain the upper hand against the opponent to try and win. It's fun as always. There’s the new Castle Mode mentioned previously, which is far more enjoyable in multiplayer than it is in the Story Mode. The added chaos and unpredictability of playing against humans makes Castle Mode immensely fun, and is one of my favorite additions to the Bomberman formula in the last couple of decades. I'm pleased to say that the 64-player Battle Royale mode from Super Bomberman R Online is present here, for all sorts of large-scale fun. That was a game I enjoyed, and I’m happy to see that mode implemented into a normal Bomberman game rather than a standalone (now dead) experience. Finally, there is a Grand Prix mode that allows for teams to battle each other for KOs or items collected.

Thanks to the variety of modes, there’s a lot more fun to be had here than in the previous SBR game. There is a lacking map selection again, but they make up for that by having more modes that are quite different from each other. As with all the other features in this game though, there’s a caveat. If you want to play with random people online, the only way to do so is in ranked mode, and the game only has one mode available at any given time. Forcing the player to play whatever game mode happens to be in rotation when they boot it up is a horrible design decision. It also does not help that the only way to improve your rank is to win. So if you aren’t particularly good, you will almost never see your experience go up, which can be very demoralizing. I wish they had implemented at least a little experience based on performance so that you don’t feel stagnant for a long time, especially since there is no unranked matchmaking so one can just casually play. There are also private matches you can set up with friends, but it is more ideal to grab some friends and matchmake in ranked to play the larger game modes, which is highly impractical due to the way the game cycles modes. 

As you play the game, you’ll gain currency which you can use to unlock characters and customization options. There is a lot of room for personalization and there is a large variety of characters with unique abilities to choose from, allowing each player to truly play to their strengths. There’s a ton to unlock and the currency flow is constant enough to never feel like you are grinding hard for unlocks. This is a major improvement from the previous game, which could feel like a chore sometimes to unlock things. The final feature of SBR2, and a very welcome feature, is the Level Editor. To make up for the lacking map selection, you can make, share, and acquire custom maps allowing for endless possibilities. A game like this benefits greatly from a Level Editor, and I love that it is here.

If Super Bomberman R 2 can offer an update to allow players to choose what mode they play with matchmaking, this game will be one of the best entries in the franchise, despite its other shortcomings. As it stands though at the hefty price tag of $49.99, despite its plethora of features, it’s hard to recommend for anybody but diehard fans. If you are a Bomberman fan you will almost certainly find enjoyment out of this game, but I’d wait for a sale or some inevitable updates that address the bigger issues or add new content. Overall though, I don’t regret my time with this game and look forward to occasionally jumping back in for some more battles. As a final note this review was based on the PC version of the game. It’s not a performance hog or anything, so I imagine all versions should run just as well. Happy bombing!

For More Information on Super Bomberman R 2:
https://www.konami.com/games/bomberman/r2/us/en/

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Story: C+
Gameplay: C+
Graphics: A
Music/Sound: A
Value: A

OVERALL: B-

Pros:
+ Story mode offers a much-needed shake-up to an otherwise stale formula.
+ Variety of modes allows for a lot of fun to be had in multiplayer, especially the new Castle Mode.
+ Lots of unlocks will keep you coming back for more.

Cons:
- Story mode does not evolve and can get repetitive fairly quickly.
- Not allowing the player to select the game mode when playing ranked matchmaking is frankly idiotic.
- Could use more maps overall.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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Bombs Away!

#SBR2