Dyna Blaster
| Developer: N/A | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Hudson Soft | Sound: |
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| Year: 1991 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Arcade | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 5 simultaneous | Rating: |
8/10 | |
The adventures of Bomberman on the Amiga! Trapped in a maze, viewed from above, your task is to blow up all the enemies (and some walls) using bombs, before making your way to the exit. While the solo experience quickly becomes repetitive (the difficulty doesn’t increase enough), the game truly shines in its multiplayer mode (up to five players!).
Believe it or not, this wasn’t originally an arcade game, nor even a Nintendo title. The first version was released on the Japanese MSX computer in 1983. An obscure sequel followed the next year: 3-D Bomberman.
The character, initially a small figure wearing suspenders and a hat, would take on the form we know today from the 1987 NES episode: a humanoid robot, directly inspired by the NES version of Lode Runner, the generic enemy! In fact, he was supposed to revert to his human form at the end of the game.
When these titles were distributed in Europe, particularly in the UK, the title Bomberman was changed, so as not to evoke the Hyde Park and Regent’s Park bombings, carried out by the IRA a few months earlier (on July 20, 1982). Thus, the ZX Spectrum version of Bomberman (1983) was renamed Eric and the Floaters. A rather curious title, as the term floater, which refers to the balloon-shaped monsters in the game, is also slang for something that floats after being flushed… True poets, those distributors!
In the ’90s, European adaptations of subsequent titles were renamed Dyna Blaster. The version we’re talking about here is the 1991 PC-Engine adaptation, and one of the best conversions around.
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