Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!

Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!
North American box art For alternate box art, see the game's gallery.
Developer	Hudson Soft
Publisher	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Game Boy
Release date	August 10, 1994[?] November 1994 or December 1994 June 29, 1995[?] June 29, 1995[?]
Language(s)	English (United States)
Genre	Action
Rating(s)	ESRB: - Kids to Adults ACB: - General
Mode(s)	Single player, 1–4 players simultaneously (Super Game Boy only)
Format	Game Boy: Game Pak
Input	Game Boy: Gamepad
Serial code(s)	DMG-EE-USA-1

Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! is a crossover game between the Wario franchise and Hudson Soft's Bomberman series that was released in 1994 and 1995 in North America and Europe, respectively. The game is a reskinned version of Bomberman GB, which was released in Japan in August 1994. The Wario franchise theme was exclusively added to Western releases. Aside from Wario's presence, the game is mostly unchanged and plays like other Bomberman titles. The Bomberman GB released in the West is actually the Japanese Bomberman GB 2.

The player takes the role of either Wario or Bomberman and fights against up to three copies of the other character. Wario's goal is to rob Bomberland, while Bomberman's is to protect it. In every round, the player has to defeat the enemies by strategically placing bombs, while the enemies are able to do the same.

Story

Story from the instruction booklet

WARIO INVADES THE LAND OF THE MADBOMBERS!

Wario, in his constant search for new lands to conquer and trea-
sures to gain, has found the extra-dimensional portal
that links his world with the one that Bomberman
inhabits. Thinking that the Madbombers will make a
nice addition to his legions of mindless minions (as
well as a new source of funds for his nefarious
schemes), Wario steps through the gate... and soon
finds that the Madbombers are not quite the dim-wit-
ted flunkies he originally thought them to be!

The ending cutscene

After completing the game, regardless of which character the player chose, Bomberman rides a motorcycle across a canyon. Wario appears, also on a motorcycle, and the two chase each other back and forth indefinitely until the player resets the game.

Gameplay

Gameplay screenshot

The game shares its objective with other Bomberman games. The player has to blow up between one to three opponent(s) via the use of bombs to advance, while they try to do the same to the player. The entire game is played from a top-down perspective. The player maneuvers around a grid-like playing field, setting off bombs to blow up unsuspecting enemies, and destroy blocks to clear the way and to reveal occasional Normal Items. The player wins by defeating the enemy Madbombers (which take on the appearance of the character not chosen). Every level is played with a best-of-3 rule. If the player wins two times, they gain access to the next level. Failure to do so results in a Game Over.

The player can choose to play as either Wario or Bomberman, but this does not change any aspects of gameplay other than the appearance of the Madbombers, of cutscenes, and reversing the digits of the passwords given for each level.

When playing the game on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System with a Super Game Boy, an additional multiplayer mode for up to four players is available, known as the Battle Mode. In this mode, two or more players are able to play against each other, with up to four players being supported using the Super Multitap.

The game also contains a secret game mode called "The Battle" (not to be confused with the Battle Mode), available by entering the password 5656 on the title screen to play as Bomberman, or 6565 to play as Wario. In this mode, the player starts with all power-ups, and the goal is to defeat endless waves of opponents to obtain a high score.

Controls

Action(s)	Input
Movement, Kicks, Moto
Place Bombs, Liner
Stop kicked Bombs, use Dashin/The Trouncer
Pause

Zones and Stages

There are eight rounds in total, which feature three stages and one boss level per round. In each stage, Wario (or Bomberman) starts in the top left corner, and each stage is made of a square grid of walls, with destructible blocks added randomly throughout the center of the stage. In the first stage, the arena is large, and only one Madbomber is present. In the second stage, the arena is medium, and two Madbombers are present. In the third stage, the arena is small, and three Madbombers are present. In boss stages, the arena is the same size as the third stage, and instead of blocks, Explosion Expanders and Extra Bombs are randomly placed throughout the arena. Select stages will feature gimmicks, such as tiles or unique rules; unlike destructible blocks, the tiles will always be in the same place every playthrough.

#	Zone	Gimmicks	Boss	Reward
1	Normal Zone	N/A	Cup King	Kicks
2	Warp Zone	Warp Holes	Top Man	Dashin
3	Arrow Zone	Bomb-Guiding blocks	T-Bear	The Trouncer
4	Fire Zone	Warp Hole, Short Fuses (shorter bomb detonation time)	P-Flower	Liner
5	Coma Zone	Heated Vents	Thunder Cloud	Moto
6	Ice Zone	Regenerating Walls, Slick Floor (traction)	Pukupuku	N/A
7	Burn Zone	Bomb-Guiding blocks, Short Fuses	Gururin Knight	N/A
8	Power Zone	Armed to the max (no items spawn, start with max power)	Mad-Bomber	N/A

Characters

Image	Name	Description
	Wario	One of two playable characters. Having found a portal to the Bomberman world, Wario seeks for riches and to recruit the Madbombers to his cause, having to fight them once they refuse.
	Bomberman	One of two playable characters. Being from the Bomberman world, Bomberman must fend off the Madbombers that resemble Wario.
	Madbombers	The main opponents fought throughout the game, taking the form of the other playable character not selected. They were offered to join forces with Wario, and instead opted to fight both him and Bomberman. They combine together to create the various boss fights throughout the game.

Items and Objects

Items

These are both Normal Items found in stages, and Special Items found after defeating select bosses. Normal Items last until the end of the stage, while Special Items are permanent upgrades that passively effect the player character's abilities.

Image	Name	Description
	Explosion Expander	Increases the range of Bomb explosions by 1 tile.
	Extra Bomb	Allows for 1 additional Bomb to be placed at a time.
	Skull	Applies a random temporary debuff (either decreasing movement speed, prohibiting bomb placement, or removing all Explosion Expander effects), and makes the owner blink for its duration. If an affected player touches an opponent, they obtain a temporary debuff as well.
	Kicks	Allows the player character to kick Bombs by walking into them. They can be stopped mid-kick by pressing the button.
	Dashin	Allows the player character to increase their movement speed by holding the button.
	The Trouncer	Allows the player character to ram enemies while dashing, knocking them back and stunning them once they hit a block.
	Liner	Allows the player character to quickly place a line of Bombs by double-pressing the button.
	Moto	Allows the player character to automatically jump over one indestructible block by driving into it.

Objects

Objects are interactable elements of the environment that cannot be picked up or collected.

Image	Name	Description
	Indestructible Block	Blocks that serve as indestructible walls that block bomb explosions. Can be vaulted over with Moto.
	Block	Blocks that can be broken with Bomb explosions, and may contain Normal Items.
	Warp Holes	Teleporters that move both player characters and Madbombers across them.
	Bomb-Guiding blocks	Tiles that can be freely walked on, and move kicked Bombs in the direction specified by their arrow.
	Heated Vents	Tiles that can be freely walked on, but occasionally vent gas that stuns any player character or Madbomber that touches it. Exclusive to Coma Zone.
	Regenerating Wall	Blocks that can be broken with Bomb explosions, and occasionally regenerate themselves after detonation. Exclusive to Ice Zone.

Staff

Main article: List of Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! staff

Development

Bomberman GB was originally known as Bomber Boy 2 during development. It was demonstrated at Summer CES 94 as Bomberman, and reportedly involved the title character stopping a new enemy named Mad Bomber from causing destruction in a location called Big City.

While Bomberman GB was getting ready for a Western release, Nintendo approached Hudson about doing a Mario collaboration. Concerns about Bomberman's overseas popularity prompted the idea to replace the main character. Mario was considered as the protagonist at first, but there were concerns that having him use bombs to defeat his enemies would be out-of-character and off-brand. The development team suggested Wario, who had his own games on the market, and since it was insisted to keep Bomberman, the game became a crossover. Even though Wario was a new character at the time, Nintendo sent the developers a list of approved and forbidden actions for the characters, which designer Norio Ohkubo likened to the approval process for using Disney characters in term of strictness.

References in later games

Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! is not directly referenced in later games, but it began a trend in Nintendo spin-offs that associates Wario with bombs.

• Technically, bombs having any relevance to Wario first appeared in Wario's Woods, but in this game, they are solely used against him.
• Beginning in Mario Party, Wario has an association with Bob-ombs as his home stage, Wario's Battle Canyon, features the landscape of a canyon wrought with explosions from a war between Bob-ombs and Bob-omb Buddies, which Wario appears to be manipulating out of greed.
• In Mario Party 3, Wario's association with Bob-ombs continues, as one is his default partner in the game's duel mode.
• In Mario Tennis, Bob-ombs line the walls in Wario's home stage, Wario Court, as well as his joint venture with Waluigi, Wario & Waluigi Court.
• In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Wario's special item is the Bob-omb.
• In Super Mario 64 DS, Wario is one of the two characters who have a Bob-omb-themed minigame in the Rec Room.
• In Mario Hoops 3-on-3, Wario's home stage Wario Factory has several Bob-ombs (ones larger than the Bob-omb one gets as an item) that appear as stage-exclusive hazards for the players.
• In Mario Super Sluggers, Wario hits a bomb in addition to a baseball as his special move.
• In the Club Nintendo comics, Wario is the owner of a bomb shop.
• Lastly, the timer and logo for the minigames in the WarioWare games is a bomb with Wario's mustache on it.

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!

Artwork

Bomberman GB

• 

  Bombermen

• 

  Bomberman riding Moto

• 

  Bomberman using Normal Items

• 

  Bomberman using Special Items

Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!

• 

  Kicks

• 

  Dashin

• 

  The Trouncer

• 

  Liner

• 

  Moto

Sprites

Bomberman GB / Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!

• 

  Mad-Bomber

• 

  Bombermen

Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!

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  Wario

• 

  Wario

Media

Title Screen

File infoMedia:WBFB TitleScreen.oga ​

Normal Zone

File infoMedia:WBFB NormalZone.oga ​

Warp Zone

File infoMedia:WBFB WarpZone.oga ​

Arrow Zone

File infoMedia:WBFB ArrowZone.oga ​

Fire Zone

File infoMedia:WBFB FireZone.oga ​

Coma Zone

File infoMedia:WBFB ComaZone.oga ​

Ice Zone

File infoMedia:WBFB IceZone.oga ​

Burn Zone

File infoMedia:WBFB BurnZone.oga ​

Power Zone

File infoMedia:WBFB PowerZone.oga ​

Help:Media • Having trouble playing?

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ボンバーマンＧＢジービー[?] Bonbāman Jībī	Bomberman GB; "GB" can stand for "Game Boy" or "Great Battle"