Bomberman: Panic Bomber
A falling block puzzle game from the Bomberman franchise.
Bomberman: Panic Bomber is a 1994 puzzle video game developed and published by Hudson Soft for the PC Engine in Super CD-ROM² format. It was later ported to several platforms including the Neo Geo, Super Famicom, and Virtual Boy. The game is a falling block puzzle title that received mixed to positive reception and has been compared to Tetris.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Hudson Soft
- Series
- Bomberman
- Platforms
- PC Engine Super CD-ROM²
- FM Towns
- NEC PC-9821
- Arcade
- Super Famicom
- Virtual Boy
- X68000
- PlayStation Portable
- Genre
- Puzzle
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
- Director
- Takafumi Horio
- Producer
- Masanori Wake
- Composer
- Shinichi Sakamoto; Jun Chikuma
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Bomberman: Panic Bomber is a puzzle game where blocks fall from above, part of the Bomberman series. Players try to force their opponent to lose by making their play area fill up completely with junk. This happens when bomb chains explode, sending useless rubble into the other player's space. Bombs appear when three matching blocks vanish in a chain. A lit bomb, which drops from the top of the screen now and then, is the only thing that can set off other bombs. If a player does enough damage, they get a giant bomb that clears a lot of debris from their own field while causing big trouble for the opponent. The story mode follows Bomberman as he searches for the Golden Bomber statue, facing odd foes like Drifty the balloon and Cecil the tiger. A password system saves the player's progress.
Ports and related releases
The puzzle game Panic Bomber first appeared on the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² in Japan on December 22, 1994. It then arrived on the Super Famicom on March 1, 1995, and on the Virtual Boy on July 21, 1995. Additional ports were made for the Neo Geo, PlayStation Portable, and several Japanese home computers like the X68000, FM Towns, and NEC PC-9821. The Virtual Boy version features a red-and-black color palette and uses parallax to create a 3D illusion. A Panic Bomber minigame appears in both Bomberman 64 (2001) and Bomberman Land 2. The original PC Engine CD release was brought back on the Wii in 2008 and later on the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan in 2015, with that version becoming available in North America and Europe in 2017, though it remained untranslated. A Neo Geo CD port was demonstrated but never launched. In 2026, Panic Bomber W was re-released as part of an update to Super Bomberman Collection, which gave it its first official English translation.
Reception
The Neo Geo version of Panic Bomber was a moderate success in Japan. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it a 7 out of 10, describing it as a decent if unexceptional Tetris clone; one reviewer commented that the genre is flooded and the game lacks a unique angle, while the other three argued it has enough originality to stand on its own. GamePro remarked the gameplay and graphics are too simple for the Neo Geo but praised its play mechanics and addictive nature, calling it a refreshing presence. Reviewing the Virtual Boy version, a Next Generation critic said the game is decent and addictive but poorly suited for the Virtual Boy due to not using its 3D capabilities and being less fun without colors to distinguish pieces, giving it two out of five stars. GamePro, in contrast, said the game pushes the Virtual Boy engine to its max while admitting the 3D effects are a little timid, and hailed the gameplay as addictive as Zoop or Tetris.
More in Hudson Soft Games of the 1990s
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