Nintendo World Report

Impressions

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Wii like minigames.

Bomberman Land was the only Wii game shown off by Hudson Soft at E3. The game features Bomberman minigames, three of which were playable at E3.

The first game involved balancing Bomberman on a stick by moving the remote left and right while other characters threw objects at him. The second game had a volcano shooting fireballs from the background towards Bomberman. The remote was used as a targeting gun to shoot down the molten objects before they hit Bomberman. The final game had Bomberman skating forward through a tube. Within the tube there were several obstacles and walls that had to be avoided. Pressing A made Bomberman jump while tilting the remote made Bomberman skate to the left or right.

Bomberman’s graphics were basically at GameCube-level, though that didn’t really matter for a game such as this. As I found out from Hudson, Bomberman Land was a last minute addition to the Wii booth—Hudson didn’t realize that Nintendo wanted them to show it. While the game only featured minigames, the final version is supposed to include the classic Bomberman game.

I foresee Wii having a lot of minigame collections. For better or worse, the games on the show floor, including this one, seem to indicate that the controller is better suited for controlling short simple games that anyone can pick up more than the traditional set of games. Bomberman Land has a way to go before it can join the ranks of Wario Ware or Super Monkey Ball, but the potential is there.