I've said it before, but Xbox Live Arcade has enabled companies to deliver smaller, arcade like games as stand alone products instead of needing to be a huge $60 affair. That's a blessing for those out there that like the hot, fast arcade action.

We've had some great titles float down the XBLA river, but I've never had as much fun as I've had playing Bomberman over Xbox Live. With a full game of 8 people it's a chaotic mess, and it's nearly perfect. Simply put, $10 plus 7 friends will get you the best experience Xbox Live Arcade has to offer.

If you've never played a Bomberman game before this is the perfect one to start with, since it's really a spiritual successor to the original game. The gameplay is as simple as can be. You're thrown onto a grid with up to 7 other players, and you set bombs to blow stuff up. Either crates in your way (that sometimes hold power-ups), your enemies or yourself. Bombs will blow up vertically and horizontally depending on obstacles, so really the entire key to the game is setting traps and avoiding the bomb blasts.

In a heated Xbox Live game, you'll often hear the cries of being blocked into a corner, with no choice but to wait for the bomb to explode and kill you. Other times it happens quite quickly, perhaps a chain reaction that worked it's way from the other side of the board.

We recently got a room full of writers and readers together and had an absolute blast playing 8-way Bomberman, it's really just classic multiplayer game play as it's best. There's certainly strategy involved, but with 8 players bombing away at once it's really more about staying light on your feet.

You have a number of different costume choices to personalize your Bomberman, everything from pirates to cowboys. In fact our multiplayer game was usually peppered with calls to "get the cowboy" or "take out the gladiator." It means nothing to the game play when you're alone but together just adds to the fun.

In the end, it's a pretty straight-forward simple game that doesn't try to be something it isn't. What we're left with is a great multplayer out and out fun game. There's a single player game as well (where you play against the computer) but that's really best for practicing and learning. Online is where it's at on this one.

Comments (9)

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written by greshkov, July 26, 2007

i know you put up that first picture to infuriate me. god damn i hate that board.

and for the record, i usually don't like arcade games. bomberman live is fucking awesome.

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written by Jim Squires, July 26, 2007

My ONLY gripe about this title is the lack of a single player campaign a la classic Bomberman. I get that most people feel Bomberman is at its best when it's multi, but I've always genuinely enjoyed the single-player campaign experience.

That being said, for what it is this title is brilliant. And if you're willing to add 600 Wii Points to the 800 Microsoft Points, you can pick up Bomberman '93 for the best single player the series has ever offered and have the complete package.

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written by Kevin Alexander, July 26, 2007

Do you see what happens? Do you see what you get when you mess with THE WARRIOR?!?

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written by Dan Zuccarelli, July 26, 2007

greshkov:

You're nuts, that level is the bomb!

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written by Jim Squires, July 26, 2007

Get singing Kev -

http://www.lyricsondemand.com/s/scandallyrics/thewarriorlyrics.html

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written by Kevin Alexander, July 26, 2007

Jim, I know you're not a Scrubs fan (because you're stupid) so this is what I was referencing:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6aUvzPB7xLA

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written by Dan Zuccarelli, July 26, 2007

The fact that Jim hates Scrubs but loved the Transformers movie makes me wonder if I can continue being his friend.

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written by Xerxes3rd, July 27, 2007

Great review! Although it's minor, I do like the addition of the vision camera, even though it can lead to some disturbing images.

Also, I'm totally in that last pic! Mage smoking a cigar FTW!

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written by div, July 31, 2007

I m really game freak.One of my friend told me about the site which got lots of arcade games .It brought back beyond memories.I really enjoyed specially playing action arcade games , so i thought to share it .I know gamelovers will love it .

http://www.fastarcade.com

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