Bomberman: Act Zero

Did You Know?

• A mobile phone version titled Bomberman: Act Zero Mobile Type was released for i-Mobile phones exclusively in Japan in November 2006.
• The game was first announced by Hudson Soft at the Tokyo Game Show 2005 with a brief teaser trailer.
• At E3 2006, Konami announced they would be publishing the game at their press conference.

Gameplay

In Bomberman: Act Zero, players control Bombermen who must blow each other up to climb from underground to the Earth's surface. The camera looks down from above, just like earlier Bomberman games. Levels are filled with pillars and narrow hallways, and some obstacles can only be cleared with bombs—the same bombs used to take out rivals. A First-Person Battle mode switches the view to behind the character, with a movable camera. In standard play, one bomb blast kills a Bomberman, even their own; in first-person mode, a life meter lets them survive multiple hits. Both modes span 99 floors, and dying means starting over from floor one. An online-only world battle mode supports up to eight players.

Reception

Bomberman: Act Zero was panned by critics, earning an "unfavorable" rating on Metacritic. In Japan, Famitsu scored it 23 out of 40, while Famitsu Xbox 360 gave it two eights and two sevens for a total of 30 out of 40. Complaints included long loading times, poor collision detection, a forgettable soundtrack, repetitive textures and graphics across all stages, tedious gameplay, no save feature, unbalanced A.I., and the series' unpopular move to a darker, futuristic style. The First-Person Bomberman mode drew fire for bad camera angles and for actually being third-person. GamePro's Patrick Shaw advised against using it as an introduction to the series and said fans should skip it. Electronic Gaming Monthly's Seanbaby listed it among the Official Worst-Selling Games of 2006, calling it "The Bomberman that sucks." Both GamesRadar+ and The Guardian have named it one of the worst games ever, and GameTrailers ranked it number one on their "Top 10 Worst Sequels" list. Even Hudson Soft, the developer, expressed negative opinions about the game in a video for Bomberman Live.