Manual Stimulation: Bomberman (PC Engine)

To be frank, there aren't a whole lot of reasons to buy, own or play the first PC Engine Bomberman title in 2016.

In fact, I can only think of three reasons at the moment: 1) you're a huge fan of this Hudson-made series, 2) you have a bunch of friends as well as a bunch of PC Engine (or TurboGrafx-16) controllers and 3) you're trying to fill out your HuCard collection and this game is the best of what's left on your dwindling wish list.



Actually, I just came up with another reason: you like Bomberman's iconic cover art, which can be seen in the scan above. (As always, click on it to take a much better and closer look at its contents.)



OK, so maybe I'm being a bit harsh. The first Bomberman isn't a complete turd, after all. Still, it pales in comparison to later titles, like Bomberman '93, Bomberman '94 and Saturn Bomberman.



That's mainly because the play fields, power-ups and enemy selection in this entry fail to display the imagination and creativity that seemingly helped produce the aforementioned sequels.



Thankfully, fun can be had despite the fact that it's all rather vanilla. Plus, nabbing a copy of this version of Bomberman these days won't cost you an arm and a leg (unlike a lot of other PC Engine or TurboGrafx-16 games) and it'll also net you the surprisingly appealing instruction manual that's displayed throughout this post.



Admittedly, the Bomberman depictions in this manual are kind of wonky, but the other illustrations on hand go a long way toward making up for it.



Also, the folks who designed Bomberman's booklet covered its handful of pages with some nice pops of color.

Could this particular PC Engine instruction manual be better, flashier, more fabulous? Of course. Even as is, though, it's got more going for it than Rainbow Islands' or Parasol Star's manual, so at least there's that.

See also: previous 'Manual Stimulation' posts about Bikkuriman World, Dungeon Explorer, Hana Taaka Daka!? and The New Zealand Story

'Yr Surprising No-One'

I'm not entirely sure what inspired artist melonjaywalk to produce this lovely piece of art, but I think it may have been Far Cry 4's controversial cover imagery.

Of course, it's possible I'm just reading too much into this quote, which Francis (melonjaywalk's actual first name) posted alongside his pixelated painting:

"I feel lame to the max seeming as the only way I could identify a character as 'gay' in this is via the colour pink, but I guess being obvious is better than abstraction at this point."



The sprites included in this acrylic-on-canvas creation were pulled from 1995's Super Bomberman 3 (SNES/Super Famicom), by the way--which is one of the few Bomberman games I've yet to experience.

Anyway, if you'd like to check out more of melonjaywalk's stuff--and why on earth wouldn't you want to do that?--saunter over to his deviantart.com gallery at your earliest convenience.

See also: 'Don't get yr hopes up'

Queer pixels

One of my favorite gayming-related tumblogs, Video Games Made Me Gay, recently turned me on to a similarly themed (and similarly fabulous) tumblog called 48 Pixeles.

I'm not yet sure why it's called 48 Pixeles, to tell you the truth, but it really doesn't matter. What does matter: It shines a light on gay-positive illustrations that were created by the tumblog's proprietor (or is it proprietress?) by combing--and sometimes slightly editing--game sprites.

This Yie Ar Kung-Fu image perfectly exemplifies the content of this wonderfully fun--and totally gay--tumblog:

This Final Fantasy V-inspired illustration is pretty darn magnificent, too, don't you think?

I'm also quite fond of this Bomberman-inspired one:

Other games currently represented on 48 Pixeles: The Adventures of Link, Harvest Moon, Ice Climber, The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Ganbare Goemon), Maniac Mansion and Tetris.

See also: 'Another great gayming tumblog: Games With Boys' and 'Video games made him gay'

The Great Gaymathon Review #29: Warpman (Famicom)

Game: Warpman

Genre: Action/Arcade

Developer: Namcot

Publisher: Namcot

System: Famicom

Release date: 1985

If I told you a game was "part Bomberman, part Robotron," would you be interested in it? Well, those of you who answered "yes" should check out Warpman as soon as possible. Granted, this Famicom-only sequel to Warp & Warp, a not-so-classic quarter-muncher from 1981, isn't nearly as good as either of those aforementioned games, but it's far from a stinker. In fact, it's pretty darn fun.

The premise, for those of you who care about such things: you control a spacesuit-sporting dude who has to warp between two worlds, Maze World and Space World, in order to combat hordes of strange--and kind of cute--alien creatures. While in Space World, the game plays like a less-frantic Robotron, with the titular Warpman taking out his rather tongue-y foes with some sort of ray gun. Warp over to Maze World, however, and it plays more like a poor man's Bomberman, with the game's extra-terrestrial adversaries being dispatched with time-delay bombs.

As for why Warpman is trying to exterminate these eight-bit baddies: sadly, I haven't a clue. Of course, such story-free games were the rule rather than the exception back in 1985, weren't they?

Anyway, although there's definitely something a bit archaic about Warpman--its sprites are well drawn but its backgrounds are barren, while its soundtrack, if it can even be called that, is a cacophony of ear-splitting blips and bloops--it's worth picking up if you're partial to Namcot's particular, and often peculiar (see: Dig Dug, Mappy and Pac-Man), brand of old-school arcade titles.

See also: Previous 'Great Gaymathon' posts

Ashley Davis' anti-Mario, pro-Hudson tumblog

I like Mario, Metroid, Pokemon and Zelda fan art as much as the next guy, but I also like fan art that looks to other, less-appreciated games and game characters for inspiration.

Which is why I'll be visiting artist Ashley Davis' new tumblog No Marios Allowed!! on the regular from here on out--or as long as she continues to update it. My visits will be especially regular as long as Davis is in a Hudson kind of mood. (She says she's going to focus on the now-defunct company's games for a while "because their games are so good but have such a small presence on Tumblr.")

Thus far, Davis has turned her attention and talent toward Hudson's Bomberman and Bonk (PC Genjin) franchises. Will we eventually see her take on Adventure Island, Milon's Secret Castle and Tengai Makyou (Far East of Eden), too? I sure hope so.

(Via tinycartridge.com)