Topic: need recommendations: portable (DS/3DS) Bomberman?

[ejamer]

My kids have recently started playing Bomberman, and I was hoping to find a good portable version we could take with us during trips. 

There seem to be several versions available for DS (including even a DSiWare version). From what I can tell, it's something like:

* Bomberman DS
* Bomberman DS 2 (not released in North America)
* Bomberman Land Touch!
* Bomberman Land Touch! 2
* Bomberman Story (not released in North America)
* Bomberman Blitz (DSiWare - I'll talk about this one separately below)

It sounds like the first two games (DS and DS 2) mostly follow the original structure of Bomberman games, the next two are mini-game compilations, and I don't know much at all about Bomberman Story.

It sounds like Multiplayer mode for DS carts is a separate module added in, with two possible versions depending on when the game was released - but most English releases are backwards compatible, and all of them include download play options?

Unfortunately, all of these DS games seem to be somewhat hard to find and more expensive than most older games on the system. So I'm hoping to get some suggestions from any fans of the series who might have played them which are the best options to look for. Download play is a key feature for us, but it sounds like all games have that... so I guess it's the margins (interesting single-player play, differences between multiplayer modes) that will help make the decision. Any suggestions or comments?


The DSiWare release apparently doesn't include download play, and doesn't have a single-player mode. Although easily and cheaply available from the eShop, those shortcomings mean it's out of contention from my viewpoint. I'd rather spend a bit more and get a game that has more flexibility and potential for future resale.

[Khushrenada]

A couple years ago, I started looking into Bomberman games and saw the ones you mentioned for North American release. I discovered then that they were considered a bit more rare particularly the Bomberman Land games. As such, I have no comment on them. I did get a copy of Bomberman DS but since I bought it with other games, I only made sure it worked but never gave it much playtime. If you are just looking for a traditional Bomberman experience then I think that game would serve you well. It seemed to be a bit easier to find or at least its price wasn't as high as the Land games was. Still, it will probably be a good 5 or 10 dollars more than most other used DS games these days.

[ejamer]

Yeah - my daughter confirmed that she didn't really care about the single player mode included on the cart, she just wants us to be able to play multiplayer mode.

However, the price difference between used/imported copies for the various games doesn't seem significant - all of them are listed around $30 or $35 CAD if buying right now. So I'm still tossing around which one we might order. Gameplay from Bomberman 2 seems to be the best regarded, although the pseudo-RPG story mode of Bomberman Story also looks oddly appealing.

For what it's worth, I think that roughly $30 still ends up being a reasonable price compared to $5 per player (and being locked to a system) for the downloadable version since we can have different friends join in the fun using download play. Plus, the classic multiplayer mode is something we know will always be enjoyable...