This collection is the bomb
By Paul Hunter
Konami and Red Art Games shadow dropped Super Bomberman Collection at the recent Nintendo Partner Direct, and it was one of the best surprises of the showcase. It brings together seven classic Bomberman games all in one package and available for download now, while physical editions are up for pre-order and arriving August 25.
The collection includes all five Super Bomberman titles from the SNES, plus the original Bomberman and Bomberman II from the NES. This is a huge moment for fans as Super Bomberman 3 never had a US release, and Super Bomberman 4 and 5 were Japan-only titles that now are finally available in English for the first time. Every game includes its Japanese, US, and European regional versions where they exist, making this the most complete Bomberman package ever put together.
Red Art Games also added plenty of quality-of-life features including Save/Load your progress anytime and a new Rewind function, plus there's a generous amount of bonus content. So is this the Super Bomberman Collection fans like me have been waiting? Let’s find out!
Super Bomberman from 1993 is where the SNES series begins, with Bomberman facing off against Dr. Mook and his robot army. This is the entry that introduced Battle Mode and four-player local multiplayer, and the level design is already a clear improvement over the NES games. Super Bomberman 2 follows with the Five Dastardly Bombers capturing Bomberman, and introduced a new magnet gimmick that pulls your bombs sideways at the worst possible moments. I remember cursing that mechanic when I first played the game but soon after appreciating how much it changed things up. The campaign's scrolling stages are bigger than anything before them, and Konami did a great job refining and tightening up the controls.
Super Bomberman 3 is my favourite of the five and I’d argue it’s the best entry in the whole SNES run. Professor Bagular and the Five Dastardly Bombers are back, and the larger multi-map stages shift the objective to destroying specific targets and collecting a puzzle piece instead of clearing every enemy. Louies, the rideable kangaroo-like mounts, show up here for the first time and are an absolute joy. It never got a US release, so for a lot of people this collection is going to be their first real shot at spending time with it.
Super Bomberman 4 and 5 are the Japan-only entries finally available in English, and they’re both worth playing. Super Bomberman 4 sends Bomberman through different time periods at the hands of the Four Bomber Kings, with a mount selection that includes fish and flying turtles. Super Bomberman 5 closes the SNES chapter with Emperor Terrorin freeing eight Vicious Bombers, and features branching paths with two endings based on your decisions.
The NES games are solid inclusions. The original 1985 Bomberman covers 50 stages with a steady flow of power-ups to experiment with, and Bomberman II introduced two-player versus multiplayer in 1991, which became central to the franchise and expanded upon in later iterations.
Visually and audio-wise, I was impressed at how well these games still hold up. The pixel art is cheerful and detailed, the sprite animations are smooth, the cutscenes are goofy fun, and the soundtracks are genuinely catchy. I was still humming SB3’s music hours after I stopped playing, a testament to just how infectious these tunes are.
All considered, this lineup covers the full golden age of Bomberman and I particularly enjoyed checking out all the regional variations. Best of all, there's no filler here, as every entry earns its place.
Beyond the previously mentioned Save/Load and Rewind features, Red Art Games also added customisable controls, a CRT filter, five border options, and aspect ratio settings so you can set the display to exactly how you want.
Stage gimmicks keep the gameplay experience feeling varied across the campaign and multiplayer modes in the collection. An ice level gradually cuts off backtracking routes as the surface cracks, which forces you to plan more carefully than usual. A mining stage puts mine carts on the field for zipping around the map. One stage I kept coming back to has a looping conveyor belt, which sets up dangerous and hilarious situations as bombs zip around the room and blow up causing chaos. Figuring out which spots are safe is tricky, and that's all part of the fun.
Of course, multiplayer is the centrepiece of the whole Super Bomberman experience. There are a variety of modes to play, with the standard being the last person standing that start out controlled and get wild fast as power-ups stack up and everyone starts unleashing bigger plays. The Bad Bomber mode has one of the best ideas in the series: after you die, you jump into a cart on the outer rim of the stage and start throwing bombs at whoever is still alive. There's even a variation where you can actually rejoin the match by blasting a live player, then jump back in and take their spot. Co-op is also available in some entries for those who prefer working together.
On PS5, four-player local multiplayer is supported across the collection, and honestly this is the kind of game that is best played with everyone in the same room. That said, the complete lack of online multiplayer is a big omission that would have significantly increased the longevity of this collection.
For starters, Boss Rush mode is available across all five Super NES titles, each with three difficulty settings. This challenge mode sends you through every boss in a given game, and the three difficulty levels means casual fans and hardcore competitive types can tweak things to their liking.
Secondly, BOMB Radio is a fully featured music player covering the complete Super NES soundtracks. Bomberman bops along on screen while the music plays, and that little animation detail really captures the playful spirit of this whole franchise.
Next, Gallery Mode is packed with hundreds of original concept art images from the development of each game. For anyone with a genuine interest in the history of the franchise, this is a fascinating archive that gives real context to where these games came from.
Furthermore, the virtual unboxing feature is outstanding. Every game gets a rotatable 3D model of its original box and cartridge for each regional version, and after unboxing the cartridges you can even read scans of the full instruction manuals.
Taken as a whole, the bonus content in Super Bomberman Collection is the kind of museum-quality package that gives the franchise’s history the attention it has always deserved.
Final Score: 8.5/10 - Great
Developer: Red Art Games
Publisher: Konami
Genre: Party, Puzzle
Modes: Single-player, Multiplayer
A key was provided by the publisher.
By Paul Hunter
Konami and Red Art Games shadow dropped Super Bomberman Collection at the recent Nintendo Partner Direct, and it was one of the best surprises of the showcase. It brings together seven classic Bomberman games all in one package and available for download now, while physical editions are up for pre-order and arriving August 25.
The collection includes all five Super Bomberman titles from the SNES, plus the original Bomberman and Bomberman II from the NES. This is a huge moment for fans as Super Bomberman 3 never had a US release, and Super Bomberman 4 and 5 were Japan-only titles that now are finally available in English for the first time. Every game includes its Japanese, US, and European regional versions where they exist, making this the most complete Bomberman package ever put together.
Red Art Games also added plenty of quality-of-life features including Save/Load your progress anytime and a new Rewind function, plus there's a generous amount of bonus content. So is this the Super Bomberman Collection fans like me have been waiting? Let’s find out!
The Included Games
I grew up playing Super Bomberman games on the SNES, so the five included games from this sub-series are the main attractions of this collection in my view. The two NES originals are nice bonus additions, and I’m glad they’re here, as they're great to revisit to see what started it all.Super Bomberman from 1993 is where the SNES series begins, with Bomberman facing off against Dr. Mook and his robot army. This is the entry that introduced Battle Mode and four-player local multiplayer, and the level design is already a clear improvement over the NES games. Super Bomberman 2 follows with the Five Dastardly Bombers capturing Bomberman, and introduced a new magnet gimmick that pulls your bombs sideways at the worst possible moments. I remember cursing that mechanic when I first played the game but soon after appreciating how much it changed things up. The campaign's scrolling stages are bigger than anything before them, and Konami did a great job refining and tightening up the controls.
Super Bomberman 3 is my favourite of the five and I’d argue it’s the best entry in the whole SNES run. Professor Bagular and the Five Dastardly Bombers are back, and the larger multi-map stages shift the objective to destroying specific targets and collecting a puzzle piece instead of clearing every enemy. Louies, the rideable kangaroo-like mounts, show up here for the first time and are an absolute joy. It never got a US release, so for a lot of people this collection is going to be their first real shot at spending time with it.
Super Bomberman 4 and 5 are the Japan-only entries finally available in English, and they’re both worth playing. Super Bomberman 4 sends Bomberman through different time periods at the hands of the Four Bomber Kings, with a mount selection that includes fish and flying turtles. Super Bomberman 5 closes the SNES chapter with Emperor Terrorin freeing eight Vicious Bombers, and features branching paths with two endings based on your decisions.
The NES games are solid inclusions. The original 1985 Bomberman covers 50 stages with a steady flow of power-ups to experiment with, and Bomberman II introduced two-player versus multiplayer in 1991, which became central to the franchise and expanded upon in later iterations.
Visually and audio-wise, I was impressed at how well these games still hold up. The pixel art is cheerful and detailed, the sprite animations are smooth, the cutscenes are goofy fun, and the soundtracks are genuinely catchy. I was still humming SB3’s music hours after I stopped playing, a testament to just how infectious these tunes are.
All considered, this lineup covers the full golden age of Bomberman and I particularly enjoyed checking out all the regional variations. Best of all, there's no filler here, as every entry earns its place.
Gameplay and Mechanics
If you haven’t played a Bomberman game before, the setup is pretty straightforward. You move across a grid-based maze from overhead, dropping bombs at intersections that blast in four directions and take out breakable walls and enemies in their path. Avoiding your own blast radius while pushing opponents into one is at the heart of these games, and it's genuinely easy to pick up, which is why Super Bomberman has long been a go-to party game with friends.Beyond the previously mentioned Save/Load and Rewind features, Red Art Games also added customisable controls, a CRT filter, five border options, and aspect ratio settings so you can set the display to exactly how you want.
Stage gimmicks keep the gameplay experience feeling varied across the campaign and multiplayer modes in the collection. An ice level gradually cuts off backtracking routes as the surface cracks, which forces you to plan more carefully than usual. A mining stage puts mine carts on the field for zipping around the map. One stage I kept coming back to has a looping conveyor belt, which sets up dangerous and hilarious situations as bombs zip around the room and blow up causing chaos. Figuring out which spots are safe is tricky, and that's all part of the fun.
Of course, multiplayer is the centrepiece of the whole Super Bomberman experience. There are a variety of modes to play, with the standard being the last person standing that start out controlled and get wild fast as power-ups stack up and everyone starts unleashing bigger plays. The Bad Bomber mode has one of the best ideas in the series: after you die, you jump into a cart on the outer rim of the stage and start throwing bombs at whoever is still alive. There's even a variation where you can actually rejoin the match by blasting a live player, then jump back in and take their spot. Co-op is also available in some entries for those who prefer working together.
On PS5, four-player local multiplayer is supported across the collection, and honestly this is the kind of game that is best played with everyone in the same room. That said, the complete lack of online multiplayer is a big omission that would have significantly increased the longevity of this collection.
Bonus Content
Konami clearly understood how much nostalgia fans of this series have, and as such the bonus content here is fairly robust.For starters, Boss Rush mode is available across all five Super NES titles, each with three difficulty settings. This challenge mode sends you through every boss in a given game, and the three difficulty levels means casual fans and hardcore competitive types can tweak things to their liking.
Secondly, BOMB Radio is a fully featured music player covering the complete Super NES soundtracks. Bomberman bops along on screen while the music plays, and that little animation detail really captures the playful spirit of this whole franchise.
Next, Gallery Mode is packed with hundreds of original concept art images from the development of each game. For anyone with a genuine interest in the history of the franchise, this is a fascinating archive that gives real context to where these games came from.
Furthermore, the virtual unboxing feature is outstanding. Every game gets a rotatable 3D model of its original box and cartridge for each regional version, and after unboxing the cartridges you can even read scans of the full instruction manuals.
Taken as a whole, the bonus content in Super Bomberman Collection is the kind of museum-quality package that gives the franchise’s history the attention it has always deserved.
The Verdict
Super Bomberman Collection is the definitive way to experience classic Bomberman action and is one of the strongest retro compilations on PS5. Seven games with full regional versions, two Japan-only titles now in English, quality-of-life improvements, and a bonus content suite that celebrates the franchise history all make this a great value. The multiplayer is endlessly fun for game nights with friends and the single-player campaigns are well worth your time. Online multiplayer is a notable miss, but everything else makes this an easy buy.Final Score: 8.5/10 - Great
Super Bomberman Collection details
Platform: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo SwitchDeveloper: Red Art Games
Publisher: Konami
Genre: Party, Puzzle
Modes: Single-player, Multiplayer
A key was provided by the publisher.