Bomberman Atomic 3D

Some games are better in 2D and some in 3D - that's pretty obvious. The best versions of Tetris and Pac-Man are undoubtedly the 2D ones, but then Grand Theft Auto didn't realise its full potential until it was 3D-ified for PC and PS2. Some games are just built to be one or the other.

And as becomes clear a few seconds into Bomberman Atomic, Bomberman is one of those games that doesn't need to be a 3D mobile game, because it gains nothing from it at all.

If the visuals were better, perhaps you could argue it gains aesthetically, but they're not particularly good - they're colourful, but a bit jerky in their movement.

Since the core gameplay itself hasn't changed at all from the previous 4869 instalments in the series, at least there's no problem with how Bomberman Atomic plays, although it's more depressingly familiar than a news bulletin about the credit crunch.

Playing as Bomberman, you're landed in a series of mazes with enemies roaming around them. In order to finish a level, you must take out all of these enemies using Bomberman's only weapon - a nuclear powered banana with detachable nunchucks.

Oh no, sorry, that's wrong. I meant bombs.

Killing enemies with bombs isn't as easy as it sounds because you have a delay to factor in, and also it's quite easy to blow yourself up with your own bombs.

You pick up various bomb upgrades as you progress through the game, such as remote bombs and more powerful ones, but generally, once placed, they blast a certain number of squares around them.

In order to avoid getting caught up in the blast, you need to make sure you're standing either a safe distance away or in a square that won't be affected by the blast when it goes off.

Various level elements introduce diversity and strategy to the different mazes. Moving belts for instance can be used to place bombs or to transport Bomberman out of harm's way. Then there are teleports and jumping pads, the latter of which let you instantly spring five squares in any direction.

There's also a slightly curious multiplayer mode in which you can go up against up to three AI controlled Bombermen. It's curious not in its inclusion, but in its execution, which is done with AI about as artificial as you could probably imagine.

Your opponents place bombs with ferocious perspicacity then - when you place one - quickly assume positions in the squares unaffected by the blast, resulting in an experience that feels similar to playing chess against an android with a supercomputer for a head.

It means advanced tactics are required in order to win. There's no such thing as a learning curve here. New to Bomberman? Well, tough. Better stick to the main game for a few hours prior to embarkment.

Bomberman Atomic isn't a bad game as such. It uses the winning Bomberman formula, which means it can't be all bad.

It's just that Atomic includes little to stand this game out from its predecessors, and what is there - like the multiplayer Match mode and 3D visuals - doesn't work very well.