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Once I had Nintendo Entertainment System (henceforward designated by the acronym NES). A certain day, a pal of mine borrowed me a cartridge that had a game called Bomberman. The game had crude graphics and the playability wasn’t all that great, but it was different and for some reason girls seemed to like it (it was a nice excuse to have them come over to my house).
Dyna Blaster! - The Amiga port. Woohoo!
Later, when I already had the Amiga, a game named Dyna Blaster was released. I rejoiced over the prospect of having a new “female friendly” game and rushed out to get it as soon as I could. It turned out, however, that I was getting much more than I originally expected.
The black bomberman thaks you gal away... How dares he?
Dyna Blaster is a formidable little gem, very polished and well balanced. The Amiga version is a direct port of the NEC PC-Engine original. It has virtually the same graphics, the same sound scheme and, most of all, the same utterly great playability. A similar port exists also for the PC, the Atari ST and the Sharp X68000. The first two are inferior to the Amiga version especially in the sound department, while the latter is identical in every form. In the PC-Engine and the X68000 the game is known as Bomberman. In the Amiga, the ST and the PC, the game is know as Dyna Blaster.
The first world. An arena like level with grass instead of sand.
Today, with the help of emulation, I have tried virtually every version of Bomberman and Dyna Blaster out there. The first versions of this game were released in 1983 to the ZX Spectrum and the MSX. The game was already called Bomberman and was already based on the same principle, but the main character and the overall sense of the game were slightly different.
Whoa! Weird baddies alert! Get them before they get you.
One can consider the NES version as the first real Bomberman in the series and the true father of the Bomberman genre as we know it today. However, I view the PC-Engine version (the one the Amiga version descends from) as the first really great Bomberman game.
It's quite annoying to have wet feet. Especially when the water's cold
But what’s it all about, then? When you first load Dyna Blaster on your Amiga, you are presented with a main menu on which you can choose between three options: Game Start (which is the main single player game); Battle (which is the multiplayer part of the game) and Password (which, as is quite easy to deduce, will allow you to enter a password that will allow you to continue a game from a certain stage of the game you had previously reached).
Argh! Banzai! Tora Tora Tora! Etc...
The single player mode is quite straightforward. Before the game starts, a small intro is presented, which shows the evil black bomberman (your nemesis) kidnapping your sweetheart – daughter of a famed scientist – and taking her to his castle. Of course that Bomberman would have none of this, so he immediately starts a rescue mission to save her. However, the black bomberman’s castle is quite far and your quest will be full of danger and challenge as you must travel through rivers and mountains, forests and caves, all riddled with the foulest foes that are there just to harm you in any way they can.
Awww... look at how sweet they are! Can I keep them, mom?
But bomberman is equipped with a large arsenal of bombs to aid him in his perilous task. These bombs can be upgraded as you progress through the levels. Each level has a token that will give you an extra. These are various and can go from increasing your firepower; allowing you to lay more bombs at once or have extra speed to more sophisticated stuff such as programmed bombs that only blow when you command them to; the ability to walk through walls or even temporary immunity to explosions.
Man, that's some green grass!
The single player game has a nice learning curve and the plot is good enough to motivate you through the game, as it provides a reason for the whole ordeal, something that the Spectrum/MSX/NES versions of the game do not. It spans over eight worlds, each composed by eight levels where in the last of each you’ll battle the world boss. The game consists in wondering through mazes destroying bricks to make way for you to annihilate your foes. As you rid yourself of all the enemies, you must find the portal that will take you to the next level. You do this by destroying bricks with your bombs, for the portal is hidden underneath one, just as the extra token is. If you do not discover the token before you kill all the enemies, it will highlight the brick that hides it. The portal, however, you must discover on your own. Once you find it, do not blow the portal up with a bomb, for it will activate it and bring more enemies over. As with many other Japanese games, simplicity seems to give it a sort of charm that makes it very enjoyable.
If only I brought my diving goggles...
However, the Amiga game has a flaw that is not present in the PC-Engine and the X68000 versions of the game: it does not support the joystick’s second button. When you pick the programmed bomb token and you wish to blow up the bombs you’ll have to press the space key. This is a small flaw, easy forgivable by many, but I’m picky. Sue me. It was quite easy to implement the feature if the programmers really wanted to and it would have given Dyna Blaster a whole new level of enjoyment. Still, the game is great and, if you enjoy this kind of stuff, it will keep you busy for a few days at least.
Die, you pigs... DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
But what really makes Dyna Blaster shine just that tad bit brighter is the Battle mode. The battle mode couldn’t be more suitably named. This is the multiplayer mode and it truly is the tour de force of the game. It consists on a player versus player battle to the death, were the last one standing wins. You can choose how many victories are needed to win the battle. Dyna Blaster came with an adapter that allowed you to, via the Amiga’s parallel port, plug two extra joysticks. You can play up to 5 players at once on a single screen maze. Believe me, it is an extremely hectic experience that will leave you riddled with adrenalin. Blowing up your friends and surviving in the end is a very pleasing sensation (after all, that’s just a small resume of what life’s all about). The Battle mode is available in both the normal and skull modes. The skull mode varies from the normal mode as it ads the skull token to the usual tokens already available during battle mode. The skull token gives you a surprise extra, which can either help you or hinder you. Pick them up at your own risk.
Ending where it all started, thus closing the circle.
(Honestly? Just ran out of screenshots...)
The success of this title both in the NES and in the PC-Engine gave way to a whole lot of sequels and other related games, but Dyna Blaster just has a simplicity and charm to it that leads me to consider it as one of the best Bomberman-type games around. Maybe the PC-Engine’s Bomberman ’93 can be seen as the best Bomberman game ever (Arcade, Neo-Geo and SNES versions are not as charming, in my opinion), but this one is just as good. Mega Bomberman, for the SEGA MegaDrive, is great too, as it is inspired by Bomberman ’93, though I consider the PC-Engine version to be far superior to the MegaDrive’s one. Shame that the PC-Engine sequels of the game never saw the light of day on the Amiga too. But in the end, Dyna Blaster is a great game. You must try it if you haven’t done so already.
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Neat and sweet, the graphics are not amongst the Amiga's very best, yet are still cheerful and colourful enough to please you. Quite similar to the PC-Engine version (which is a compliment, by the way) and thus true to the original style and spirit.
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Again, no accolades. While the music and sounds are nice (you get both simultaneously), they won't win any prizes. But for what it's worth, they do the job and add to the atmosphere of the game, which is quite unique.
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Playability – what really matters and the core of any game. We play games because of the joy they give us. And Dyna Blaster gives you plenty of it. Being it on a single player quest for glory or a multiplayer epinephrine-riddled battle, Dyna Blaster is an enjoyable experience all the way through. Frustration never gets too high and never gets too low, holding you to your chair until you've blown that annoying bastard away. The game comes in only one disk, so it means no disk swapping. In short: A Classic.
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| Haven't played it yet? Go do so now. If you are a fan of Amiga games, you cannot afford to pass this one. It would be downright heresy. Definitely one of the best multiplayer games for the Amiga, and also a challenge in the single player mode, Dyna Blaster just oozes greatness from all sides. Dyna Blaster really is a blast. |
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