Game: Bomberman Blast (Wii)

After the still great yet slightly limited Virtual Console version of Bomberman, I approached this, the Wiiware (and so exclusive) version with a bit of trepidation. It was the promise of 8-player battles that finally got me to play it, and I'm quite glad that I did.

Just to be clear, you CAN play 8-player locally so you don't have to haul yourself online just to have the uniquely manic experience of blowing up seven of your friends. This is a good thing since I don't feel that Bomberman has ever really worked online - part of the fun is screaming at each other in person.

But the number of players isn't really enough to make a Bomberman game great, and so I'm glad to report that the game itself holds up too. The lack of any single player adventure mode meant that Hudson could finally focus on the classic bomb game proper and as a result we have some fantastic game modes (King and Countdown are superb) and levels, things I usually found to be pretty superfluous in previous games.

Blast is also up to date with respect to items - we now have shields and rocket boosters, and the ability to hide yourself as an actual bomb too. All sound like dilutions too far but in practise they do add rather than take from the game. There's still no sign of remote bombs though.

The best thing about Blast, however, is the accessibility. With everyone able to win it really is fun for all, something rarely achieved in a game with such depth.

If you haven't guessed by now, I think Bomberman Blast is a definite must have for the Wii.