Wario Blast Featuring Bomberman!

Wario Blast Featuring Bomberman! is an unusual crossover pairing of two Nintendo-associated brands – the game was developed by Hudson Soft, creator of the original Bomberman series, and added Nintendo's beloved villain Wario as a playable partner or opponent. The principle stays true to classic Bomberman: the player places bombs, chains their explosions, and tries to destroy opponents and obstacles on screen before it happens to them. What's new is the presence of Wario as a playable character alongside the classic Bomberman figure, giving the game a slightly different visual flavor and a marketing hook for fans of both series.

The game offers both a single-player mode with a set of levels and bosses, and (via link cable) multiplayer battles, which have always been Bomberman's main draw. On the Game Boy's small display, the arena is reduced to a clear grid, so despite the lower resolution the game stays tactical and readable – the key is judging the range of explosions and planning escape windows.

Although it's more of a side branch than a central entry in the Bomberman series, thanks to the combination with Wario and its solid multiplayer, it found its place among fans of puzzle-action titles on the first-generation Game Boy. For collectors of licensed Nintendo character crossovers, it's also an interesting historical curiosity from a time when companies still allowed themselves such crossovers fairly freely.

Why play it: Lovers of tactical bomb battles will appreciate how well Bomberman's detonation mechanics adapted to the handheld and to the crossover with Wario.