Bomberman Land Battles

If there is an argument for revisionism being the key principle the gaming industry relies upon (as opposed to innovation), then the Bomberman franchise makes for incendiary proof. Seldom has one idea been tweaked and nuanced so many times for the benefit of so many separate releases. The thing is, when you have a core formula as effective as Hudson Soft's cash cow, innovation seems like a petty luxury.

That, however, doesn't mean that we should automatically forgive the foibles of such licence peddling. You see, as good a game as Bomberman Land Battles is, it's hard to find anything in it that makes it a necessary release among the many other very good Bomberman games already available on mobile.

But that's purely academic. Objectively, Bomberman Land Battles is at the very least a worthy bearer of the franchise. As ever you fill the shoes of Bomberman, the world's cutest demolitions expert. You are plunked down in the middle of a grid filled with enemies that you have to dispatch via the cunning placement of bombs. There are various walls that can be blown up in the grids, making navigating them that bit less tricky, and some of them reveal power-ups after they've been demolished.

The effects of the power-ups include being able to run faster, drop more bombs at once and cause more destruction with a single bomb, among other things. Once you have taken care of all of the nasties in each level, you need to make your way towards the exit against a timer in order to progress to the next. As simple as a lobotomized chimp and addictive like nicotine-spiked Skittles, the Bomberman formula works and Hudson Soft knows it.

Even so, the developer isn't so complacent as to offer nothing new at all. The chief differentiator for Bomberman Land Battles is its non-linear structure. At the end of each level you're given a choice of three different exits, each of which leads to levels containing different power-ups. While this does add some incentive for repeat play, essentially it is just a convoluted method of spreading the 15 available power-ups across the 32 available levels and really doesn't do much to refresh the gameplay. On that score, neither do the five boss battles that have been sandwiched throughout.

Then there's the Vs mode, which sounds promisingly like it's going to be a Bluetooth multiplayer option but sadly is only a battle-based mode where you must compete against other Bombermen in a series of rounds (determined before the match starts).

Visually the game is as competent as it ever has been on mobile but it doesn't shine with the same eye for detail that was lavished on the recent LivingMobile take on the franchise.

But let's not be too hard here. After all, this is Bomberman we're talking about and predictably Bomberman Land Battles is great fun to play. Not only that but it has a fair amount of content for the asking price; let's just hope that Hudson Soft gives the little mite a bit of a rest before trotting out another mobile version.