Genre: Action, Adventure, Indie
Developer: Mode4
Publisher: Mode4, Plug In Digital
Release Date: Apr 11, 2018
The team at Mode4 have managed to take a retro concept like Bomberman and infuse it some interesting ideas, especially with regards to unique enemies, something classic Bomberman has never been all that great with.
As you can imagine already, Bombslinger is like ’90s Bomberman on steroids in a Western setting. Instead of simply being a multiplayer only affair, Bombslinger puts the focus on a single-player experience that works surprisingly well.
The story is a classic cowboy tale where you give up the mercenary life with your team to settle down and live a simple life on a ranch with some stolen cash. Your team comes back to find you, because of course they do, and burn down you home and kill your family.
Gameplay consists of laying bombs (and using guns for ranged attacks) in a maze like setting, working to kill enemies and deal with the environment. Once you clear enemies new paths open up in the same way it would in a game like The Binding of Issac, and you progress until you reach a boss. Every enemy you kill drops gold which can then be turned into the store found on each level for upgrades and power ups. These are really varied and add quite a bit to the adventure.
You can buy movement upgrades, increase the bombs you can drop, purchase powerups and more. It keeps the game varied and as you progress you unlock these abilities which you can then start of the game again with because you are going to die; A lot. It also help you approach the game differently each time by creating new setups.
Death is a constant is because of the roguelike nature of the game. I re-played the first level a dozen times getting the hang of the games mechanics and how everything works, but it never got boring simply because every single time felt like a new, fresh experience.
Bomberslinger is also really great with upping the difficulty with each stage just the right amount. Just when you get used to everything the game throws a curve with new enemies and stage layouts. It’s all so well done that, much like The Binging of Issac, you’ll want to keep coming back.
Visually, the game is much more impressive than it lets one from looking at screenshots. While it looks like the traditional Bomberman in an isometric perspective, the game is actually done in full 3D. This give Bombsligner a unique feel and also makes it more challenging for fans of Bomberman to figure out.
The single-player mode really makes the game for me, but because this is inspired by Bomberman, there is also a multiplayer mode to be enjoyed. You can take part in traditional 4-player battles and even play against AI bots in local multiplayer.
Bombslinger is simply a lot of fun and you can tell the passion the developers had working on this one. This is a complete adventure for not a lot of money. And while the experience is fantastic, it isn’t a perfect one.
Because of the 3D the game takes a bit to get the hang of, and even then things sometimes feel a little off. The controls are solid but there were times when I felt like I dropped a bomb, but it lagged slightly from button press to action. This might be due to the grid-like nature of the game, but I can’t be sure.
None of these things are enough to take away from the overall experience of Bombslinger. It’s a fun experience that is a love letter to the past while injecting some fresh ideas and we can’t recommend it enough.
Final Score:
4/5
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