Bombman PCE

About Bombman PCE

Bombman is an action-maze game where players take control of the diferent characters with the main objective of destroying all of the monsters filling the playfield by placing bombs. Beating all the monsters will open a level's gate and lead players to the next area.

Bombman follows the same gameplay formula as its predecessors in that the goal is to use bombs that explode in a cross pattern to defeat all the enemies and find the exit warp hidden underneath soft blocks within a time limit to clear each stage. Bombman can move with the D-Pad and place bombs using Ⅰ. He begins a new game with only one bomb and a one-tile blast radius, but one power-up item can be found hidden underneath a soft block in each stage. When all enemies are defeated, the soft block containing the item will flash to reveal its location, but not the one containing the exit.

If the player bombs an item or the exit, 8 enemies will spawn from it (the item will be destroyed, but the exit is indestructible). If the player runs out of time during a stage, all remaining enemies will disappear and 12 Pontans will be spawned. The game has a total of 8 rounds with 8 stages each, for a total of 64 stages. The final stage of each round features a boss battle in which the player must study the boss' attack patterns and use multiple bombs to defeat it. The player has three continues to beat the game, and game progress can be saved via password or directly to memory (up to three save files) after a Game Over.

The game also includes a Battle mode for up to 5 players. The goal is to defeat the other players with bombs (all players start each round with one bomb and a two-tile blast radius) and be the last player standing, winning a set number of victories to win the match. If time runs out, all surviving players are killed and the round is declared a draw. This game has no support for computer-controlled players, but if there are less than 5 players participating, then the stage will also feature enemies. Only Bomb Ups and Fire Ups can be found in soft blocks, though Skulls can also be found if Skull Mode is selected during setup. There is also a dedicated Battle mode for two players.