Saturn Bomberman Fight!!

Following up an act like Saturn Bomberman is a daunting task to think about, let alone be stuck with having to do. So, rather than make a sequel that’s more of the same, Hudson Soft and developer Eleven decided to do something entirely different. Instead of being a 2D Bomberman extravaganza for up to ten players, Saturn Bomberman Fight!! is a 3D game that only goes up to four players, has a surprising amount of story despite being built for multiplayer, doesn’t tie into the narrative of Saturn Bomberman at all, and takes cues from fighting games in order to create a wholly original entry within the franchise. It’s also a game that never left Japan and doesn’t have a complete fan translation until recently, making it more difficult to appreciate without an understanding of Japanese. Getting the most out of it is easier with friends and it takes time to get used to its new mechanics, but if you give Saturn Bomberman Fight!! a fair chance, you’ll find an interesting and worthwhile spin on the very idea of multiplayer Bomberman.

Like its fighting game inspirations, the story here revolves around a tournament in which the winner is granted a wish of their choosing. This contest attracts five familiar faces (White and Black Bomberman, Honey, Kotetsu, and Golem Bomber), but also brings in an eccentric cast of ten new characters, each with their own desires and statistical differences:

Characters

Baguro

A goofy character that serves as Bagura’s replacement and aspires to be strong like him. His appearance is similar to Bagura as he appeared in the Panic Bomber games, which is interesting. In terms of performance, he’s an average but well-rounded character with the second best throwing stat.

Combatant #12

As you’d expect from a basic Hige Hige Bandit, there isn’t much going on with this fellow. In the story, it mostly screeches and is generally fearful of the other characters, though its programmed desire to defeat the Bombermen still comes out whenever they appear.

Pegi Jr.

As an offshoot of the Pegi enemy introduced in previous games, Pegi Jr.’s presence is particularly amusing. He says almost nothing aside from the occasional noise, has by far the best kick stat (which could be taken as a Pengo reference), and simply wants to be adored by all the female Peggies in his ending. He’s also the final boss when playing as Deral.

Radibom

A robot built and then disposed of by the Hige Hige Bandits due to its preference of running over fighting. It joined the tournament to become the fastest in the world and is best described as obnoxious thanks to its aggressive attitude and noisy tendencies.

Puipui

An ordinary monkey that just wants food and ends up in the tournament entirely by accident. Not a particularly compelling character statistically, but he’s the second fastest, at least.

Mami

A little girl who enters the tournament in order to find a cure for her sickly mother. After nursing Golem Bomber back to health, the two form a strong bond and work towards the same wish. She’s one of the few newcomers who shows up in a future entry, serving as an optional boss in Bomberman Quest.

Lewysia

A sheltered princess who escapes from her castle in order to join the tournament and experience new thrills. Most of her stats are unimpressive, but she does have the second highest jump height and earns Deca-Bombs faster than anyone else. Like Mami, she has a hidden boss fight in Bomberman Quest.

Denta

A ninja with multiple reasons to enter the tournament. He wants to defeat White Bomberman, has a personal grudge towards Kotetsu, and was hired by Lewysia’s father to bring her back home. Not quite as fast as you’d think (tied for 3rd), but he does offer the highest jump stat at the cost of having the lowest amount of health.

Pump

A mysterious character who enters the tournament in order to harvest high quality souls. If you finish Pump’s story, it’s revealed that she’s actually a human girl underneath the pumpkin costume! She shows up in Bomberman Quest as well, but not as a boss.

Deral

Effectively a haughty, flirty version of Dural from the Virtua Fighter series, she serves as the final boss of Story Mode and is the only character that needs to be unlocked. All of her stats are high except her jump height and Deca-Bomb buildup rate, the latter of which is by far the worst of any character. She also shows up in Bomberman Quest as a boss.

Saturn Bomberman Fight!! is a game made up of battle mode matches, much like Bomberman GB before it, but the mechanics are much deeper and better able to sustain the idea. Instead of full 3D movement, this game uses an isometric perspective with four-way movement. Bomb kick, bomb throw, and dashing are default abilities (bombs now explode in your hands if you hold them for too long!), but there are multiple innovations. Most notably, you can now jump freely, allowing you to climb over blocks, throw bombs from the air at different angles, and dodge explosions. You can also do a backflip after a jump, giving you more airtime if needed. Every character now has a health bar and bombs do differing amounts of damage based on various factors. After placing enough bombs to fill a meter, a character can pull out a Deca-Bomb, which will create a massive, spherical explosion and deal significant damage to anyone caught inside it. Saturn Bomberman Fight!! very much has the flow of a fighting game; players will exchange lighter blows, employ defensive strategies and mobility techniques to reduce incoming damage, and then try to end matches decisively with a flashy special attack when there’s nowhere left to run.

The new mechanics work to create a game that’s more technically demanding than a typical Bomberman experience, but the power-ups and arena designs are the icing on the cake that make it an exceptionally hectic entry. Aside from bomb ups and fire ups, every item appears as a question mark until it’s picked up, giving each one an element of significant risk. Some power-ups are hugely beneficial, such as line bombs and max firepower, but others will weaken you, reverse your controls, or prevent you from jumping. The most interesting ones are big gambles that can push a match in any direction, such as a power-up that shortens detonation times and another that gives you a super version of the Deca-Bomb that’ll OHKO anyone and nearly cover the entirety of the smaller arenas. Louie’s still not back, but a strange horse has taken his place, which you can ride to protect yourself and eat bombs at the cost of only being able to throw them yourself.

In terms of arenas, many of them place emphasis on using your newfound mobility and creating specific zones that lend themselves well to trapping opponents. For example, the island, desert, and snow levels all feature lower elevations and nooks that’ll make Deca-Bombs unavoidable if players dawdle in them. Levels that have slopes and walls will mess with the trajectory of thrown and kicked bombs, requiring players to rely more on jumping if they’re to hit their targets. The lack of camera control is also used to create hazardous scenarios; a pyramid-shaped castle level is both incredibly tiny and fixed in such a way that seeing the back of the level is impossible, making for an arena where doing just about anything is terrifying for all players involved. As a fun aside, there are three arenas that can only be unlocked by pressing the start button 15 times per second during startup. Normal humans are expected to do this with the SBom Joycard controller, which Hudson sneakily advertises in the instruction manual, but a patch now exists to unlock these automatically.

If playing solo, story mode is the obvious draw. All 15 characters have unique dialogue in each round, which gives this game tremendous amounts of personality compared to anything before it. The story doesn’t take itself seriously and a lot of the dialogue is good fun, though there’s also some needless flavor text thanks to several characters with repetitive verbal quirks. The act of actually playing through each story mode isn’t exciting forever, though, thanks to weak AI that tends to run into walls and the inherent repetition that comes with playing dozens of similar matches. The story also lacks four player battles, so you’ll have to go to battle mode to experience the game in its ideal setting. Beyond the endings, there are some unlockables you can earn like costumes for Mami and Lewysia as well as a cheat code for infinite Deca-Bombs if you can win all 50 rounds of Survival Mode with an imposed handicap. Battle mode is what’ll keep you coming back, though, and to sweeten the deal, each character has unique victory screens that can only be seen after multiple consecutive wins. Some are fun gags, such as Baguro serenading the audience or Pump touring real world locations, but others go the extra mile. Kotetsu gets to star in an anime samurai film, Mami and Lewysia get minutes long clip shows with unique music, and Golem Bomber reveals his entire backstory across eight consecutive victories!

Saturn Bomberman Fight!! is forever stuck in the shadow of its predecessor through no fault of its own and that’s a shame because it’s a proper riot on its own merits. It’s not as polished as Saturn Bomberman nor does it feel quite as substantial as Bomberman 64, but it has a lot to offer whether you’re playing alone or with others. The fighting game-adjacent action is deep while still being easy enough to pick up, making it both a good party option and something that could be brought out as a compelling side event. The impressive amount of story and dialogue does justice to the charming Bomberman world that has been built up over the course of years, helping it reach greater heights by getting weirder and wackier with its entertaining cast of characters. No other entry in the series resembles this game at all even to this day, which makes it well worth seeking out as a singular experience.

Links

https://randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/bomb/sat-sbf/ref.html#text – Transcriptions of the dialogue for six of the Story Modes via Ragey’s Totally Bombastic Bomberman Shrine Place!

https://www.segasaturnshiro.com/2024/12/24/saturn-bomberman-fight-english-translation-patch-is-out-now/ – Fan translation announcement

https://www.segasaturnshiro.com/2024/01/24/saturn-patch-unlocks-hidden-bonus-stages-in-bomberman-fight/ – Information on the stage unlock patch via Sega Saturn, Shiro!

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