Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! is actually the second Bomberman sequel on the Nintendo 64, so could have been called “The Third Attack!“, but it is a direct sequel to Bomberman 64, thus the name. It was developed by Hudson Soft and published by Hudson themselves in Japan in 1999, and by Vatical Entertainment in North America in 2000, and it is another fully-3D Bomberman game.

In Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! you once again play as Bomberman, who this time has fallen into a black hole and been captured by the mysterious forces of “The BHB Army“. Bomberman wakes up in prison, with a mysterious egg that he brought from his ship.

In this game, you have a sidekick called “Pommy” who is “sleeping” inside the egg. The egg ‘hatches’ and Pommy wakes up, demanding to know what has happened. Pommy pledges to help Bomberman, if he’ll help him escape the black hole. A second player can play as Pommy, or – if playing on your own – he is controlled by the computer. Pommy’s first order of business is to retrieve The Fire Stone that was taken by the guards, which restores Bomberman‘s ability to drop bombs to blow stuff up. From there, Bomberman and Pommy must make their way through a maze of different rooms, blowing-up enemies, solving puzzles, collecting power-ups and unblocking the route forward.

One noticeable change from Bomberman 64 is that the explosions from Bomberman‘s bombs are once again cross-shaped, and not spherical, although some explosions in the game are still spherical (these are caused by bombs dropped by others, though, and not you).

Bomberman‘s health is indicated by a row of hearts at the top of the screen. If damage is taken – either by being caught in a bomb blast, or by touching anything hostile – you’ll lose hearts. If all your hearts are lost, then it’s ‘game over’ – no extra lives are given.

Enemies also have life bars, so often take multiple hits to destroy. Defeated enemies drop power-ups that increase the number of bombs you can drop; increase the blast range of your bombs, and allow remote detonation.

New to The Second Attack! are: the ability to combine crystals with bombs to create elemental explosions; a shop where you can buy extra heart containers, multiplayer stages on which to fight, and the move list of the next boss to be fought; and armour pieces that allow Bomberman to perform certain moves without the need to collect power-ups.

The aim of the game is to destroy the BHB Army’s gravity generators on each individual planet; to defeat the BHB Army’s seven Astral Knights, and then finally their master, Rukifellth.

You do have another ally, who shows up from time to time – a female pirate called Lilith – and she plays more of a role in the story later on in the game.

Overall, while Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! is still a pretty good game, I like it the least out of the four N64 Bomberman games. Mainly because it feels less precise than the others, and is very frustrating on occasion. Some of the enemies you face are extremely annoying and give you little time to react before knocking you off into the abyss, and it can sometimes be frustratingly difficult to walk along some of the narrow platforms without falling off. Issues that you don’t have in the other N64 Bomberman games.

More: Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! on Wikipedia