The PC Engine version of Bomberman was where this famous video game series really began to take off. It features enhanced graphics, sound and gameplay, further refining Bomberman into the more familiar ‘modern’ incarnation that most games-players know and love. Bomberman was released in Japan in 1990; in North America, for the TurboGrafx-16, by NEC Technologies in 1991, and in Europe by Ubisoft in 1992.

The story in this one sees Black Bomberman kidnapping Dr. Mitsumori‘s daughter, Lisa, and taking her to ‘Mechanical Castle‘. Bomberman sets off to rescue Lisa by blasting his way through eight different rounds, each with eight stages.

Important additions to this game are: different types of enemies patrolling the maze; boss battles at the end of each stage; stages with vertical scrolling; multiplayer battle modes (yes: pleural); multiplayer support for up to five players, and various other subtle enhancements that would later become staples of the series (like, for example, backgrounds with different graphics and colours).

Bomberman on the PC Engine has excellent, funky music, with recognisable Bomberman themes, and this also elevates the game above all previous versions.

PC Engine Bomberman has two different Battle Modes – one played on the same screen, and another where two consoles are linked-up via some sort of cable (although I couldn’t find any information about what that was – if anyone knows, please comment below). I’m guessing that for five-player games, a ‘multi tap’ is required.

Bomberman on the PC Engine was where the series entered into the realm of the great “party game”, and was the springboard for Hudson Soft to gradually introduce and experiment with more and more features.

This game was followed by two PC Engine sequels: Bomberman ’93 and Bomberman ’94, with the latter only being released in Japan.

More: Bomberman (1990) on Wikipedia