The final entry in the Super Bomberman series, Super Bomberman 5 was released in Japan only in 1997, and was developed and published by Hudson Soft. A partial fan translation into English is available, but for some reason it has not been fully completed (at the time of writing, at least).

One important change to Super Bomberman 5 is the fact that the Story Mode game is now non-linear, and all the worlds (called “zones” in this game) are a tribute to previous Super Bomberman games (except for the fifth and final zone, which is brand new). Like in Super Bomberman 4, Story Mode can be played with two players, working cooperatively, with player one controlling White Bomberman, and player two controlling Black Bomberman.

After defeating all enemies on a level, several exits will appear. If an exit is yellow, it will warp you to a new level. If an exit is blue, it will warp you to a level you’ve already completed. So the idea is to keep going through all the yellow exits, beating all the levels, until you reach 100% completion. Occasionally you’ll encounter a cyborg bomber, for a boss fight, and these can be very challenging – especially the ones in reduced-size mazes.

When you finally reach 100% completion, three things will happen. Firstly, you’ll receive a password that will remix the game going forward. Secondly: by using your save file, you can start an “Encore Game” (kinda like New Game Plus, where the aim is to complete the game for a second time to get a 200% completion total), and thirdly: The Golden Bomber will become a playable character in Battle Mode.

Super Bomberman 5 features pretty much every trick, trap, power-up, and devious idea from all the Super Bomberman games, plus a few new ones (the funnels, where – if you explode a bomb into them, they spew fire out of all their exhausts – I’ve never seen before, and they are both ingenious, and frustratingly easy to fall foul of). The music in this game is also particularly good, with some seriously funky remixes of previous Bomberman music tracks.

Battle Mode has also been changed and enhanced. Up to five players can again participate, with Special Options for Sudden Death, Missile Bomb (same as “Bad Bomber” in previous games: defeated players can throw bombs from the sidelines), and Bowling Bomber (a 10-pin bowling minigame that awards the winner a power-up for the next round).

There’s also a “Super Dodge System” option for the Missile Bomb mode. When this is set to “Super”, an eliminated bomber who defeats a player on the map will rejoin the competition, switching places with the defeated victim. Players who are returned to the maze also gain temporary invincibility, but start with just basic abilities.

Super Bomberman 5 is a superb end to the series on the Super Nintendo, and is another great party game, and an essential own for those with real hardware. For everyone else: it’s still a great game to play now.

See also: Super Bomberman, Super Bomberman 2, Super Bomberman 3, and Super Bomberman 4.

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