Super Bomberman R Online – Hardcore Gaming 101

This entry is part 31 of 31 in the series Bomberman

Not to be confused with the act of playing Super Bomberman R online, this game was Konami and HexaDrive’s first foray in the extremely popular battle royale genre. Other beloved mascots like Mario and Pac-Man tried their hand at more “retro” takes on the genre, so it’s only natural that Bomberman was eventually chosen for the same idea. And sure enough, everyone’s favorite explosion-causing hero was an absolutely perfect fit for the genre. Bomberman established its reputation on years of quality multiplayer modes and chaotic shenanigans, so taking that to its ideological extreme of 64 players in one battle makes even Hi-Ten Bomberman look like child’s play! Initially, Super Bomberman R Online was exclusive to Google’s now-defunct Stadia platform, but after a bit less than nine months of exclusivity, it was ported to the standard array of modern platforms with everything intact except the ability to quickly join a chosen streamer’s game by using the Crowd Play feature. As of December 1^st, 2022, the game has been shut down and is no longer playable, but Super Bomberman R2 includes Battle 64 as a playable mode, serving as this game’s replacement.

In the “Battle 64” mode, which served as the game’s primary mode of play, 64 players queued up to enter a battlefield made up of 16 different Bomberman arenas. The map that originally launched with the game only featured basic battlefields with no gimmicks, but the “Orion Town” map that was added on January 27^th, 2022 included arenas with elevated platforms and walkways, magnets that redirected bombs, and ice floors that caused players to slide forward and momentarily lose control. The first round of every game locked four players in each of the 16 arenas for three minutes to do battle, after which players were granted 15 seconds to move to a different arena during what the game called the “Movement Phase”. Every round removed some arenas and anyone left behind in a disappearing arena at the end of the movement phase was eliminated. Once players were locked into another arena, the next three minute battle would begin and then the process would repeat until the one survivor left was declared “Bomber One”. If a player either got lucky and was the only person who showed up to an arena or was able to defeat all of their opponents before the three minutes was up, they’d be rewarded with a shower of power-ups and a rare chance to take a breather until the next round. Unlike most Bomberman games, every player began the game with a heart, allowing for at least one mistake before being eliminated, which helped reduce the odds of players having to search for new games every few minutes.

The sheer unpredictability of the game was what really made it sing. In between rounds, while you could just move to the next arena and stay put, the potential for all sorts of mind-games and trickery made the movement phase just as tense as the actual battles. In between rounds, the soft blocks in each arena reset and changed their arrangement as a way of keeping things fresh. Due to the way this was handled- having the blocks rise for 15 seconds and then fall back down- it was possible to get crushed right as the next round began. Where the blocks were going to land was clearly telegraphed and being able to see this information meant that all players would know exactly how the arena would be divided. Thus, you could use this information to intentionally scare players by starting right next to them in a tight space, or you could try to lure people to you (using the game’s taunt and emote systems if desired), only to move at the last second and give yourself plenty of space in an entirely different part of the arena. If you were unlucky or feeling particularly clever, you could even try to find an arrangement of blocks that completely surrounded you and then wait it out, hoping your opponents didn’t notice your hiding place! To provide extra incentive to stay mobile, any dropped power-ups from blocks or defeated combatants from the previous round would remain on the ground during the movement phase, allowing anyone to pick them up and get a huge boost for the next round. Considering that all defeated players dropped whatever they had on them as well as a heart, being in the right place at the right time was often the key to victory.

Like Super Bomberman R’s Grand Prix mode before it, character choice was once again important in R Online. The idea was the same as it was previously, with each character having different beginning stats, capacity for growth, and unique abilities, but the battle royale environment made the system much more interesting. Because of how battle royales work, your character choice determined how effective you’d be at different parts of the game. Starting off weak with someone like White made the initial battles more difficult, but granted you a huge advantage when it came down to the wire and you were locked into sudden death with another player. A character like Pink that started strong with her stats already maxed out made the early goings easy, but she typically wouldn’t keep up with characters with more extreme caps in the same way. Even the Konami characters had downsides that made their abilities not always worth it. Simon Belmont’s whip is nice, but being saddled with only one bomb for an entire round doesn’t cut it when all of the soft blocks are gone and you can’t pin your opponent down because you have no teammates to coordinate with. Not all of the characters from R returned, but some new characters were introduced, such as Soma Cruz, the Suikoden II Hero, Richter, Alucard, Robbie the Rabbit, Bubble Head, and the Bean from Fall Guys. Having to pick a character based on your preferred way to play and which parts of a round you wanted to optimize for gave R Online a new layer of strategy even compared to its immediate predecessor.

Though the “Battle 64” mode served as the main attraction of the game, it was also possible to play more conventional games of Bomberman via private lobbies with up to 16 players. The catch here was that creating private lobbies was something that could only be done by owners of the $9.99 “Premium Pack”, which caused a fair deal of controversy for those otherwise enjoying the game. All of the multiplayer options that have been associated with Bomberman since the 90s like multiple stages, different game modes, and team battles, were locked to this pack, so players expecting to play Bomberman as they remembered it for free had to pay up or face disappointment. As you’d expect for a free to play game, there were also a bunch of cosmetics, music tracks, and nametag customization options that could be purchased with real money. Though there was a free Battle Pass equivalent that offered a variety of items, the vast majority of items required paid purchases and Bomber Coins were almost never given out for free. Fun tributes to games like Robowarrior and Pop’n Music were confined to these options as well, so it’s tragic that they were never made available to players even after the option to buy Bomber Coins was disabled in advance of the game’s impending closure.

Despite some issues like long load times and a free to play structure that placed plenty of restrictions on players, Super Bomberman R Online was a multiplayer experience worthy of continuing the series’ long legacy. The sheer chaos of dealing with 64 players was unmatched by any entry before it and adapting the Battle Royale formula to Bomberman worked wonders through the use of clever decisions like randomized arenas and characters with varying abilities. For those looking to play Bomberman online on modern platforms, this game was one of the best and most widely accessible options available, so it’s a shame that it was shut down so far ahead ofSuper Bomberman R2’s release. Robust fan-made options like Power Bomberman are still the some of the best ways to get a fix of online Bomberman play for free, but none of them can provide the same exact experience as Battle 64, making its inclusion in R 2 a genuine selling point.

Links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXAhrINRVS4 – Youtube video with some of the game’s music

https://www.konami.com/games/bomberman/online/us/en/character/ – Offical website with descriptions of all the game’s characters, modes, etc

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