What it was
The Five Dastardly Bombers from Super Bomberman 2 are back from the junkyard. Their creator, Bagular, finds their bodies, hauls them into his UFO and brings them back to life, and White Bomber and Black Bomber head out across a run of element-themed stars to stop them all over again.
After the extra ideas of Bomberman '94 and Super Bomberman 2, this one pulls back to the classic formula: a grid, soft blocks to blow up, power-ups hiding inside them. The art is simpler too, closer to the PC Engine Bomberman games, and most of the music is remixed from older games in the series.
Battle Mode is where it grows. For the first time in the series, five people can fight at once, where the first two Super Bomberman games stopped at four. There are more characters to pick, each standing for a country, and Pretty Bomber, a villain from the last game, turns up as France: her first time on the players' side.
Where it sits in history
Hudson Soft released it on the Super Famicom in Japan on 28 April 1995. Virgin Interactive brought it to the PAL region in October 1995. It never came out in North America, because Hudson Soft's American arm had closed.
A different team made it from the one behind Bomberman '94; only two staff worked on both. It sold more than 612,000 copies in Japan, and in November 1997 the Spanish magazine Nintendo Acción named it the 22nd best game it had ever reviewed. It came back in 2026 in the Super Bomberman Collection.
How it plays today
Five players changes the feel of a round more than you would expect. The arena gets crowded, every corridor is somebody's trap, and the last two standing have usually survived by luck as much as skill. It is louder and messier than Super Bomberman 2, and that is the point.
The story mode is fine and forgettable. If you only own one Super Bomberman for a solo evening, pick another. If you own five controllers and a lounge room, this is the one.
Compared with
- Super Bomberman 2: The four-player favourite this one follows, with more extras and a sharper look.
- Super Bomberman 4: The 1996 follow-up, Japan only until 2026, which adds eggs that hatch into creatures you can ride.
- Bomberman: The NES game whose grid this one goes back to.
Why it matters
Durkheim wrote about collective effervescence: the charged, shared energy of people gathered in one activity, and how it binds them. Adding a fifth player sounds like a small number change. In a room, it is a different event. One more person on the couch, one more voice when a bomb goes off, one more person who will still be talking about that round tomorrow.
Hudson could have spent the effort on the solo game. It spent it on making room for one more friend, and that was the right call.
Read: The second controller →
- Durkheim, E. (1912). The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.
What you're levelling up
You have been training these without noticing. Here is how to do it on purpose, and where it pays off away from the couch. All the skills games teach →
Keeping your cool
In the game. Five players at once means every corridor is somebody's trap, and the last two standing often survive on luck.
Do it on purpose. In the last ten seconds of a round, slow down. Place fewer bombs and only move when you see a gap.
Off the couch. In a chaotic group setting, the calm one gets heard. Same at a busy party when everyone's talking over each other.
Winning and losing well
In the game. Louder and messier than Super Bomberman 2, and that's the point. You'll lose heaps of rounds you didn't deserve to.
Do it on purpose. Make a rule: no complaining about luck. If you lose, say one thing you'd do differently.
Off the couch. Taking a loss on the chin with a laugh is magnetic. People want to hang out with whoever's still fun when it goes wrong.
Judging risk
In the game. The arena gets crowded, and every power-up grab means stepping into somebody's blast line.
Do it on purpose. Play a few rounds grabbing only power-ups that are safe. See whether you last longer.
Off the couch. Knowing when it's worth chasing the reward and when to sit tight helps with money, jobs and bold moves.
Verdict · 8/10
A step back to basics in everything except the thing that matters most: how many friends can play. Bring four of them.
