SUPER BOMBERMAN COLLECTION Eight classics, one bomb at a time

This is the 16-bit era of Bomberman, nearly complete: SUPER BOMBERMAN 1 through 5, each in its Japanese, US and European versions where those existed, plus the NES originals and Panic Bomber W. Each game has its own story: evil tycoons, a Bomber Quintet, an Emperor named Terrorin with eight escaped Vicious Bombers. The plots are silly in the best way, and the maze-bombing underneath them is the same tight, readable arcade design throughout.

Bomberman was built for the couch. Up to four players share one screen, bombing blocks to open paths, grabbing power-ups and cutting each other off with bomb blasts until one Bomberman is left. It is fast, chaotic and funny: a round lasts a minute or two, and half the kills are self-inflicted. SUPER BOMBERMAN 3 adds rideable creatures that change how you fight, later games add mounts, characters with special abilities and more arenas. The old games made you buy a multitap for this.

The collection treats these games kindly. Save or load at any point, even mid-stage, and a rewind function lets you undo a bad bomb placement the moment you regret it, which in a game about explosions is often. Screen filters and resolution options let you tune how the pixel art looks on a modern display. There is also Boss Rush, a time attack that chains every boss from each game back to back, for when you want to prove you learned those patterns thirty years late.

For a room full of people, this is about as simple as it gets: the rules take one minute to explain, and the fun starts with the first explosion. Four players, short rounds, and a steady supply of moments where someone's careful plan gets walled in by their own bomb. The comedy comes from the chaos itself, helped along by bright, cheerful pixel art and characters that bounce around the arena. Panic Bomber W adds a competitive puzzle option for up to four, where chain reactions and Big Bombs hit your opponents. When the group wants one more round, this delivers it.

The co-op side is the story campaigns: work through the mazes, dodge the traps, take down the bosses, and hand the controller around or play through together on one screen. The collection supports local co-op and four-player local multiplayer, so a session is as simple as picking a game and pressing start. The rewind and save-anywhere functions make the older, harsher NES titles much friendlier to play with someone else, since a mistake no longer means starting over.