Bomberman Hero

Bomberman Hero is a completely different title from its sister game Bomberman 64 — instead of isometric arenas and boss battles, it offers a linear 3D platformer in which the legendary white bomber travels through a series of themed worlds and fights invaders who kidnapped his father. Hudson Soft thus offered players two distinct takes on the series on a single console — one focused on chaotic multiplayer battles, the other on a calmer, story-driven journey of a single character through a landscape full of hazards.

The gameplay is built on the classic bomber principle: placing bombs, triggering chain explosions, and using various costumes that temporarily grant Bomberman special abilities such as underwater movement, flight, or resistance to lava and other hazardous environments. The levels are structured as a linear path with occasional platforming sections, hidden bonuses, and a boss fight at the end of each world, which brings the game closer to classic 3D platformers than to the tactical arenas players of the series were used to up to that point.

Thanks to its emphasis on simple controls and short levels, it was a game suitable even for younger players who were looking on the N64 for a lighter alternative to more demanding platformers like Banjo-Kazooie or Donkey Kong 64, without having to sacrifice variety of environments or gameplay ideas. Each world also brings its own graphical theme and set of enemies, so the game never gets stuck on one visual style longer than necessary. Within the Bomberman series on the N64, Hero thus remains the second, calmer title alongside the arena-based Bomberman 64, and is still praised today mainly for its inventive use of costumes, which can transform the pace and strategy of a given section in an instant. For fans of the series, it's proof that the concept of a little bomb-carrying character could work outside the traditional tactical arenas too.

Why play it: It offers a lighter 3D platformer with a series of costumes that change Bomberman's abilities, as a counterpart to the arena-based Bomberman 64.