(person) by Servo5678 Sat Mar 13 2004 at 17:24:15
Bomberman is one of Hudson Soft's most famous video game characters and has become the defacto mascot for the company in Japan alongside the famous Hudson Bee. Created by Shinichi Nakamoto and premiering in 1985's Bomberman for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Bomberman's purpose in life revolves around planting bombs to blow apart walls, enemies, and other obstacles standing between him and the exit to the next level where the madness starts all over again. Our hero has appeared in over a dozen games on a variety of game systems over the years, putting him on the level of heroes such as Mega Man and Simon Belmont, for you never know where he'll show up next. Over the years Bomberman's journeys have spanned from single player to multiplayer to escaping the 2D mazes into 3D worlds. As the games progressed he also gained a wide variety of helpful animal pals, devious bomberfoes, and an assortment of powerups that boost his bomb power to big booms.

At the start of each game Bomberman is fairly weak in the grand scheme of things. His bombs can only cover a 1-grid-square space that extends in a horizontal and vertical line from the epicenter of the blast, plus he can only drop one bomb at a time. By picking up various bomb and flame powerups, Bomberman can drop up to six bombs before detonation that extend out the entire width and heigth of the grid from the center of the blast. Bombs explode on their own time by default, but by obtaining the detonator Bomberman can detonate the bombs whenever he's ready. Later games in the series introduced items such as the safety vest that absorbs one stray blast and gems that award extra points at the end of the level. Multiplayer bombing revolves around each player trying to blow the tar out of the competition, and the last bomber left alive wins. Bomberman's massive popularity in Japan results in a slew of games starring the blaster being released each year, a fraction of which are released around the world.

Bomberman Game List

References:
http://www.GameFAQs.com
http://www.bomberman.info

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