Not to be confused with the Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

 game Bomberman Story DS.

Bomberman Tournament (known as Bomberman Story in Japan) was a game in the long standing Bomberman

Bomberman

Bomberman is a strategic, maze-based computer and video game franchise originally developed by Hudson Soft. The original game was published in 1983 and new games in the series are still being published to this day. Today, the commercially successful Bomberman is featured in over 70 different games...

 series for the GBA. The game contains a fully realized multiplayer battle mode between linked Game Boy Advance

Game Boy Advance

The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...

s. The player and up to three friends can compete in any of the game's eight multiplayer battle arenas, each of which has its own unique gameplay twist.

Story

On the edge of the galaxy sits a small planet, Phantarion. From the cutscene at the beginning of the game, it is given that five meteors (the five Dastardly Bombers, from Super Bomberman 2 and Super Bomberman 3) hit the planet. Shortly thereafter, a large fortress was erected, and in turn the land around the tall, tower-like fortress and the fortress itself began to freeze over. The people of Phantarion sent out a distress call, and Professor Ein sent Bomberman Max to investigate. Upon arriving on the planet, Max makes his way to the base of the tower. Once inside, he is confronted by a huge bird creature (later found to be Plasma Bomber in his transformed state). He is knocked out by the bird by one fell blow, and is either sent to the top of the tower or down a hole (the exact cannot be determined, Max is only shown being pulled into a dark, foreboding circle in the center of the screen). When Doctor Ein talks to Bomberman a week later, Bomberman tells him that they have lost all contact with Max. Bomberman is then sent by Ein to save Phantarion and find Max, thus beginning the playable portion of the story.

Features

• Each of the game's eight arenas (in Battle mode) is designed to affect the players' tactics in one way or another. Examples of this include environment hazards, such as buried explosives in one stage and the powerups in the Hi-Power Stadium. Tournament also includes a standard arena without any of these features, allowing for straightforward gameplay when desired.
• Powerup tiles that augment the player's abilities.
• A full-fledged RPG-style singleplayer mode.

Gameplay

Tournament was generally lauded for its simple, approachable gameplay. In order to score (in multiplayer mode), players must lay time bombs in order to trap and obliterate their opponents, with the last player alive becoming the winner. As the player defeats enemies and clear away obstacles, a variety of power-up tiles appear. Randomly selected from a pool of 10 different items, these tiles have a number of effects, such as increasing bombs' blast radius, increasing the player's bomb capacity, or even reversing a player's controls.

Unlike other Bomberman games, Tournaments single-player quest mode takes a role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

 based form with influences of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda, originally released as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Nintendo, and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Set in the fantasy land of Hyrule, the plot centers on a boy named Link, the playable protagonist, who aims to collect the eight fragments...

 and Pokémon

Pokémon

is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...

 reminiscent enhancements, & heavily borrows from the Neutopia

Neutopia

is an overhead action-adventure video game developed by Hudson Soft. It was released by Hudson for the PC Engine in Japan on . It was then released by NEC for the TurboGrafx-16 in North America in 1990. It was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console service worldwide in 2007; it was re-released...

 series, also made by Hudson Soft

Hudson Soft

, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...

.

The majority of the action takes place in 2D from top-down vantage point, while Karabon battles and select minigames are presented in a side view. Each of the game's six different environments possesses only a minimum of rectangular features and is detailed with all sorts of wacky nuances, such as trees that topple over or an earthen giant collapsed in the middle of a road.

External links

• Official page at Hudson Soft
  Hudson Soft
  , formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...
  
  's Japan Website