With Hudson's Bomberman series out of commission ever since the company died and was merged with Konami in 2012, there has been a great multiplayer void for little robots bombing each other into oblivion. Bombing Bastards, from Sanuk Games, is a new Wii U eShop game attempting to fill that void. While it certainly tries really hard to capture the Bomberman magic, it winds up ruining the experience, delivering a dreadful multiplayer mode coupled with a passable single-player one.

The multiplayer, supporting up to five players using virtually any controller the Wii U supports, is the biggest appeal in my eyes, making its failure sting even more. It only supports local play, but even if online play was included, it wouldn't make a difference. Each multiplayer game is extremely slow, with bombs taking seemingly forever to blow up and matches dragging on to the point of boredom. When I played with five players, I had a hard time trying to get people to keep playing with me after a few matches. Everything is arduous at the outset, and while the action gets frantic and fun once obstacles are cleared and the bastards are powered up, it's a chore to even get to that point.

The single-player campaign, however, fares a little bit better. It’s spread out across five worlds with six randomly generated levels, each filled with a variety of enemies. In here, the slower pace is a little more welcome as it becomes almost more of a puzzle game to figure out the best and safest way to snuff out the enemies. The bosses build on those concepts, testing the limits of your skills by placing you under constant duress. The levels themselves are already pretty challenging, but the bosses are downright nasty. Death is a very regular event in Bombing Bastards' single-player portion.

Both modes are wrapped in a presentation that feels cheap all the way down to its mouse pointer menu interaction. The single-player is narrated (sort of) by a goofy voiceover that spews a stream of dumb jokes, and both modes are backed by a soundtrack of remixed public domain songs.

Bombing Bastards has its moments, primarily in its single-player, but the failure of its multiplayer really drags the entire experience down. It's a noble attempt at recapturing the Bomberman spirit, but it just misses the mark.