Zzzz...ARGH!
Yikes! Man, I just had the craziest nightmare. I dreamt that the next-gen Bomberman was all Madmax future post apocalyptic looking. Ha! That'd never happen, right? Oh my God! There's a Bomberman game on my desk! Could my dream have been some kind of foretelling of the future? Nah, it's just the same ol' white Bomberman that we've grown to love for almost a quarter of a century. *whew!* Hudson would never bastardize their beloved BM like that (or would they?) Gotta lay off of those leftover pizza and 7-11 Coke Slurpees before bedtime.

Have it done your way
Hudson not changing Bomberman for the PSP might be the understatement of the year. While fans are supergreatful that this version isn't like the Xbox 360's, it's still the same game that you've been playing since the NES days. For those of you who've never played one of the 3000 versions of the series, BM is stuck in an arena full of blocks and monsters. You lay down bombs to blast your way through the area doing your best to not get caught in the explosion. Once all the enemies have been destroyed, you make a brake for the exit. Neato, huh?

The developers did little things here and there to try and spice things up a bit. There are new enemies and environmental hazards such as quicksand whirlpools and ice. The biggest addition is that you can now hoard all the items that you collect from each level, to be used when you feel they're needed. While this makes the game easier (there are 100 levels after all), you'll find yourself accidentally picking the wrong item more often than not thanks to the clumsy menu system.

Where's the beef?
Single player is nice, but what makes or breaks a Bomberman title is its Battle Mode, where you square off in an arena against your friends. The bar had been set high long ago on both the Turbografix16 and Saturn versions thanks to their ability for a huge number of players to compete at one time. The PSP version only allows 4 players, but it's still a blast (ha!) to play. Only one UMD is needed for local multiplayer, which is great if you happen to run into a fellow PSPer who doesn't own the title. Sadly there's no Wi-Fi, so no battling against cousin Joey in Wichita unless he's in the room next to you.

Graphics are pretty much what'd ya expect in a BM title. Nothing to talk about there. The music is a whole another bag of worms, though. I dunno if I like it or hate it. It might be the Konami influence, but I wanna throw down a DDR pad when the title music comes on. It's like Bomberman Dance Party up in here! The song selection is a weird mix of bouncy dance tunes to Yuzo Koshiro type 16bit-gen synthesized beats (which is interesting since Yuzo Koshiro did a couple of tracks for recent DDR games. Hmm, maybe it's a conspiracy?

Luvin' it?
Anyhoo, If you're looking to play some Bomberman on the go you might be better off going with the Nintendo DS version, as it supports 8 players local and 4 players via Wi-Fi. You really can't go wrong with owning the PSP version as long as you don't expect anything new. This BM is still the same fun Bomberman of old!

-NakedBoB