Hudson Soft and Aicom made this for Jaleco in 1988, and Sam joined Mike, Sean and Joe for it. In Japan it was Bomber King, with the same art for Zed as Bomberman, but here it makes no attempt to connect to Bomberman. It is a top-down, Zelda-looking game about bombing the scenery to find a key, a secret door or an exit. It feels great, but you can play it so wrong that you hate it.

What works

It feels good to be Zed. The controls are tight, laying bombs is satisfying, and the music was great. We think it has 27 levels, with boss fights, a water level and an underground level.
Power-ups with a point. The missile that clears a whole row of destructible objects was a favorite, since the bombs only hit one on each side. The flash that destroys everything on screen reminded us of Zanac.

What doesn't

A needle in a haystack. It starts like a maze game, but the puzzle never develops. You blow through dense forests looking for a hidden item with no clues. The first level loops until you find a chalice, and we lost 40 minutes trying to stop it. Underground, a candle lights a 5x5 grid, and when it burns out it isn't a soft lock, but it may as well be.
Nothing says to bomb everything. Playing for the fewest bombs, we ran out and stalled. Once we were told to spam bombs on every tree, we got more power-ups and the game got much better.
The battery drain. Zed runs on batteries, so health drains constantly, and the refills sit in your inventory until you use them. Learning that took a good 15 to 20 minutes, and the pressure to rush clashes with the bomb-everything style.
The alarm clock. At low health the music drops out for a beeping like a digital alarm clock. It was the worst.

Worth knowing

The manual. The backstory is more detailed than pretty much any we have read: a backstory to the backstory.
Level select. Up, left and select on the title screen.

The bottom line

Skip it. Nobody voted it onto the Essential Games List, and the Play it leanings were lukewarm and split. Sam said not essential but definitely play it, though the loop is confusing and not streamlined enough. Another voter said "Play it, but figure it out." Joe wasn't sure it earned even that. The last voter had fun only in moments, and asked: "Why explore if you already know where the thing is?"

Written from our conversation in this episode.

Click a timestamp to play from there. Landing a little off?

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

Robo Warrior, your Zed, half man, half cyborg, the one man battalion with a human heart and a computer's brain.

And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. I'm Joe. And I'm Sam. What is up everybody? I'm not going to even let you answer that question. I'm going to get right to the facts. We are playing a Bomberman game, whether you like it or know it or not. It is true. This is a Bomberman game.

Like it just feels like Bomberman or it literally is Bomberman? In Japan, this game was called Bomber King and Bomberman came out in Japan in 1985. So it's weird that we're actually getting this game before we get Bomberman proper. But I know that like just because Bomber's in the name doesn't confirm anything. But they're also both made by Hudson Soft. And in Japan, they use the same art for this Robo Warrior guy as they do for Bomberman. So therefore, Robo Warrior is Bomberman and is considered part of that universe. So is the plot of Bomberman like in some way connected to this? I have no idea. I don't think Zed. I don't think Zed has ever been name dropped in Bomberman games. But Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead. Zed.

That's a Pulp Fiction reference, guys. Yeah, I knew I recognized that. Yeah, okay. It's like a lot of silence. A lot of silence there. We just wanted Olivia to try that. Yeah. I don't want the viewers to think we're so young that we don't know what Pulp Fiction is. Pulp Fiction was one of those old movies. Inverse of Joe's question. In Japan, is it the same story? Is this game the same story? Do you know? Oh, yeah. That's a good question. Unlike Joe's stupid question.

Isn't it the same question? No. No, no, no. Because in Japan, I get it. Yeah. In Japan, it would be possibly a different story that would connect it to the Bomberman universe. Whereas here, they're clearly not trying to make any connection to Bomberman. True. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if you guys read the story in the manual about what the heck is going on with this game, but... I'm on chapter six. It's kind of wild. Yeah. You want to run us through it?

It's a lot of exposition for a game that I don't think really needs it. Like, they give you a backstory to the backstory. It's funny, though, because for having so much information, I feel like it just kind of starts in the... It's like the Star Wars original. It just starts in the middle of the story. Like, there should be a prequel now that explains what the heck they're talking about right off the bat. Yeah. Like, they talk about how the planet was named. And then that's, like, half of the description.

And then it's, like, what's actually... Like, why... What's actually happening to start off the events of the game. Right. Yeah, that's not enough for me. I... I need, like, the reason for, you know, like, why was the planet created? Forget the name. Like, give me the... Overpopulation. It's funny that, like, the backstory for this game, which is actually much more detailed than, like, pretty much any other manual backstory that we've read.

Maybe not Scoon. It basically was overpopulation. So they just created an artificial planet. Never mind, like, trying to find a new one, because apparently we have... We can't find new planets, but we have the resources to create our own. Then it's, like, another millennia or so, because they've even changed the way that we name our years.

And we've all... And all humans have forgotten what war even is. And then we're... The new planet is invaded. I don't know. It just seems like a really roundabout way of, like, it not being Earth that's been invaded and destroyed. Like, I feel like this could have just been Earth being invaded. Right. Yeah, like, we didn't need all this, like, extra... It's extra steps. It's that... No one's really in it for the story. But I also thought it was funny that it starts out... Like, the first sentence is, In the year 2395, Earth scientists and engineers follow a tiles... Altiles plans?

What? That just... It just starts there. He's the scientist boy. Yeah. But it didn't, like, give us any... We don't know who that is yet or anything. It just says they followed his plans. I think... I'm not sure if yours is cut off, but mine starts before that. Oh, okay. On the left side. I actually didn't even see this paragraph that's under the title. There's a whole other paragraph there that I just missed. Back to chapter one, Joe. Okay. Now it makes more sense. Yeah. And, you know, you guys are questioning why it had to ever start with Earth or ever move away from Earth. But otherwise, we'd have no explanation for Zed's name. He is the Z-type Earth defense. But that would make sense on Earth.

Yeah, more sense on Earth. That's not cool if it takes place on Earth. It has to take place on another planet, but then he is somehow, like, from Earth. It's nice. Nice. I don't agree. I'm just gonna end with that.

All right. Well, in this game, players play as Zed. You have to fight the Xantho Empire. Destroy its leader, Xur. And you do that by... Zed uses primarily bombs, just like Bomberman. And he does that to hurt his enemies. He has a gun and a bunch of other things to destroy his surroundings. And there's various hidden items in each stage. This is my, like, generic overview of the game. But I think it'd be a lot more helpful if we just kind of... I don't know.

Talked about, like, what the main objective of this game is. Because every level is kind of similar in the sense that you have to just place your bombs, blow up your surroundings, uncover cool stuff, and find, like, either a key or a secret door or an exit of some sort in each level. And I wonder from, you know, maybe one at a time, Sean, we'll start with you. Is it satisfying to play this game, to bomb stuff, and to look for these hidden items?

Well, yeah. Yeah, like, so we just reviewed a game that the main concept is destruction of the environment. And here's another one. It's a little bit... It's a little bit more the focus, in a way. In that any... Actually, no. They're both kind of equally about blowing stuff up. But this one's a bit more puzzle-like, and it's not as mindless.

I'd say it was satisfying, just the act of laying bombs and watching it take out whatever's around. I had some issues with the design, but I'm sure I'll get into that later. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think that whereas the last game we play is more about destroying the environment, this one's about finding things in a destructible environment, which I think is a little different. And I think that moving the... Like, the controls feel really good and very tight.

And moving everything and shooting and placing bombs and changing your weapons out, I think that all works great. But the point of the game, I think, is a little bit lost. And it can be a bit frustrating to navigate, and we'll get into that later. So I feel like I'm on the same page. Sorry. I think if it comes down to being like, is it literally satisfying to lay the bombs and blow things up? Like, in that sense, yes. But I was left wanting more. It starts out kind of leading you to think like, okay, this is this interesting maze game. Yes, there are puzzle elements to it. But that never really becomes much of a thing. I never felt like, oh, I got to solve this interesting puzzle.

It's either like, oh, yeah, just blow up as much of the environment as you can to find your way out. Just blow through forests of these trees. Like, literally just dense forests of these obstacles. Just keep blowing them up. Keep getting bombs. Keep blowing them up. Or it's like this find a secret that there's really no clues to. Or just keep blowing things up until you find the hidden item that lets you move on. We never felt like there was, like, enough of a maze element to make the bombing part, like, feel satisfying.

Yeah, I think that the bombing aspect itself, right, of, like, laying down the bombs and you have to, like, get away because they're dangerous and explosion. And then, like, the explosion isn't perfect. It actually, like, for certain pixels, it'll, like, leave half a dent or something. I think that's, like, a nice touch as well. There's all the good, like, foundations of using the bombs as, like, your main attack and having that be a satisfying action to clear out what's in front of you. But there's just some small little things that I nitpick on that make it ultimately not that much fun. It pushes in the other direction.

First thing I'm going to mention is just for all of these levels, keep in mind, like, this is a top-down, like, Zelda-looking style game. And if you think about the bombs that you can get in a Zelda game, it's the same thing here. You lay them out and they explode and they reveal passages. It's very similar. Here, whenever you lay down a bomb, which, remember, is something that you do all the time, whenever you lay one down, you get this weird, like, pushback or bounce away from the bomb.

Mm-hmm.

What Joe was saying about, like, if there was an actual puzzle exploration element to it and a more purposeful bombing, it could have been more fun than just, well, to always move forward, you always have to bomb. Yeah. So I found out several times that I seem to have been playing this game wrong.

I'd say that I do appreciate that the very beginning of the game sort of is just a free-form tutorial. Like, they give you a bunch of pickups that sort of, like, tells you what these pickups do. They give you some stuff to bomb, but it's not like this isn't the game proper yet. I appreciate that kind of, like, teaching moment. But that just sort of tells you how to control the game mechanically. It's not really telling you how you should play.

So I was sort of just trying to find the path of least resistance because throughout this game, you see that there's, like, rock formations that are sort of, like, the base, like, those you can't blow through. It's really just blow up the trees. And those will expose some pickups and move your way through this, like, mini maze.

But it turns out that you pretty much have to just clear whatever you can. Like, it may not be the way you need to go, but you should probably blow up everything. Not just so that you have more space to move around and not get blown up by your own bombs, but because to find some of the items that you need to pick up to progress, they may be hidden in, like, this out-of-the-way part of the forest. Like, I don't know if I'm rambling right now, but I felt that, like,

what I was doing was, like, trying to find the way to use the least amount of bombs to get through this level. But you should be spamming this shit. It's completely... It was completely unintuitive for me. I don't know what your guys' experience was. Well, I think that just, like, brings it back to, like, it's not really a puzzle, where it feels like it's just finding a needle in a haystack. It's just look everywhere until you find it.

Which, I mean, as you can imagine, gets kind of old after it just screams and screams full of the same thing. And, you know, there's more to it than that. But just on that level, like, that's kind of how it feels.

Yeah. And I ran into this problem also, so I looked up, you know, what people... I looked up a speedrun of the game, and in the first area, or the second area where you can go, there's a little hidden staircase to get to the underground. So if you have a candle in the underground... But, you know, no one's going to know that it's there unless you bomb a very specific area. Um, and then when you're in the underground, it kind of acts as, like, a hub where you can pick up all sorts of things really easily, because there's no trees and no obstacles to bomb except for enemies. That kind of... I can kind of see how that, like, fits into the loop a little bit.

But even then, when I was in there, I had a candle that you're supposed to use to light it up. And then after a while, the candle went out, and I didn't know where the exit was, because I didn't have a candle, and there were no lights. I was just going to say, that same thing happened to me, and just a little behind the scenes here as to, like, what I've been thinking lately is that there's been a few games lately that we played that I feel kind of bad that I've...

After the first level, recently, I've been like, okay, I'll just look up a walkthrough, or I'll look up a playthrough. And I was like, said to myself, I'm not going to do that this time, or I'm at least going to make some significant progress, because I feel like there's been a few in the last couple of episodes.

So, first of all, I spent, like, 40 minutes on that first level, trying to figure out how to stop it from looping, because it loops. Yeah, so was I. And there's, like, a hidden chalice somewhere. Then I thought I had found a way out by going down into that basement area. Went down there, I had two candles, I used them both. Then, only after they were gone, I realized that the only way out is the way in, which I couldn't remember exactly where it was. And if you can't remember exactly where it was, you're just walking in the dark with no clue. Walked around there for another 20 minutes before I was just like, I'm just going to start over. This game took me so long to play, and I still didn't get that far in it.

Yeah, when you get down there, and you've run out of candle, because, again, that's the only way that you can see. It gives you, like, a 5x5 grid of light. If you run out of candle, it's not like a soft lock, because if you just keep, like, scanning, eventually you'll come across the stairwell again. But it may as well be, because that would be such a tedious task.

So it's sort of the same as that, like, endless loop unless you find the chalice. It seems like the kind of game that you would, like, grind in the 80s with, you know? Like, if you had nothing to do, you'd just be like, alright, I finally figured out that that's where the staircase is. And so that's just cemented in my 8-year-old memory now. And so I'm always going to remember that the staircase is right there. And I'm going to go back and, you know, use that information to get into the underground and then back up.

And, you know, so you, like, kind of... It seems like the kind of thing that you gain more... Skill isn't the right word, but just experience with the more you do it. And that lets you have more fun with it, just because you know the ins and outs of this kind of nonsensical level layout.

Well, I think it's really for fans of, like, you know, the Legend of Zelda-style exploration of an overworld, where you're, like, just looking for something. You know, I think the most appropriate example is the, you know, Needle in the Haystack, where it's like, you're looking for that one particular thing, but at least you're rewarded with other things along the way.

There's, like, a possible chance to run into a shop or to get a cool power-up. And the power-ups are great because they'll actually, like, help you, for the most part, clear out or navigate the level in a way that the bombs are just a very frustrating experience. After the, like, even after the 20th bomb you lay down, you're like, oh, this is the game, huh? Like, this is the loop, like, this is what happens?

I was thinking about comparing this to Zelda, or I was comparing it to Zelda, I guess. As I was playing it, because I know that there's some trees in Zelda you have to burn down and things like that to get secret spots.

But Zelda isn't a linear game that requires you to go from point A to point B. Like, you eventually have to go beat Ganon, you know, but how you go about that, it's kind of up to you. Whereas in this, you really just need to get to the end of each level. And so I don't know if that works quite as well.

Well, one thing that I noticed that was, like, okay, so I learned my lesson, so I went and watched a similar video. I don't think it was a speed run, but it was, like, a long play of the game. And I noticed the huge difference in play style between what I was doing and what this player was doing. And once I started to emulate that and stopped trying to, like, just, like, do as little as I can, play more conservatively, I just started to, like, you know, spam the bombs pretty much on every tree that I saw.

And once you get into that groove, like, you don't end up in a situation where, like, oh, I'm out of bombs. I have to wait for these, like, trash mobs to sort of come into my area so that I can use two more bombs and get stuck again. Then you start to, like, you get to more of a flow because now you have a better inventory to work with.

Because you're blowing so much stuff up, you get a lot more power-ups. So you get a little bit more creativity in how you get to a protein situation. So I would have really appreciated that being more natural, like, coming across this play style would be more natural. But once I was told to play that way, I enjoyed this game much more. And here's why it's not natural, though, Sean. I think it has a lot to do with the immediate understanding, you know, maybe, like, a minute into your playthrough where you realize, well, I'm cleaning house, like, I'm not getting hit by my own bombs, I'm not being attacked by enemies. But what the heck's going on with my health? And then you read up on the manual and you're like, oh, I run on batteries.

And so... Well, that was another thing. Like, just I always get a constant power drain. And so I think that's why you took the, like, path of, you know, technically most resistance. Yeah, exactly. So I was trying to go as, like, just get to the end. And it told me in the manual that there would be some levels that you needed this thing or else it would keep looping. I did not know it was going to be the first level. But I also didn't know that, like, when you get those power-ups that refill your batteries, I didn't know that you had to actively use them.

So I'm playing the game for, like, a few minutes and I just keep dying because I'm just running out of batteries immediately. Little do I know that I have an inventory filled with, like, three or four of these things that refill you to max health.

And so just learning that took a good 15 to 20 minutes. And that was not even with me changing the way I played the game. That was just learning how the inventory worked. Right, right. Ultimately, it's, like, it's a clever explanation for, like, a robot that runs on batteries, right? But it kind of, it limits the fun of the game as you have to, like, manage your health as a constant thing. Imagine if, you know, since we're talking about Legend of Zelda, like, imagine if Link constantly required you to go into the menu and use the Triforce of Courage or whatever he has. I think it's Courage. And you had to constantly click on that to, like, replenish your health because otherwise he was constantly losing.

Because, you know, going back to the fact that you have to lay down these bombs all the time, you lay down the bomb, you get that pushback I talked about earlier. You got to make sure you don't get hit by these things because the bombs do an incredible amount of damage. And you're already draining down damage as you're going, so you can't afford to. So you're almost, like, the whole game, you're playing this game of, like, drop the bomb and run, but also do something else because you're going to have to maintain this power drain that's going on. And you're going to want to lay down bombs in other places as well to pick up things more frequently.

However, because of the tight passageways, there's not really an opportunity for that because you'll get hit by one or the other in your... Well, that's the thing, Mike. You got to keep, like, that's sort of that playstyle, that faster, more loose playstyle. You just keep bombing to widen those passageways. So as you're going, it's sort of like you're making a wide mine in Minecraft in a way. I don't know. It's just like you just keep going and it becomes a lot easier to deal with the, I guess, shrapnel from these bombs.

And it was just like a flip was switched when I figured that out. And I didn't really mind that, like, very quick recovery time that you had to just get away from the bomb. But again, it's just, like, not clear that that's the way you're supposed to play the game. Right. Well, as far as, like, the... I don't know. As far as what you were talking about with the, I don't know, I guess it's sort of a time limit, the health kind of diminishing.

I feel like we talk about this in other games a lot and it's always been my opinion. I think it's always... I think we've always all kind of agreed that, like, it's never really fit in the game that we played. So in this case, I mean, I think it's the same opinion for me. I do feel like that gameplay mechanic is not inherently a bad gameplay mechanic. I think it could belong in games that are meant to be stressful races against the clock. But this game already has plenty of other things to do and things to worry about and stuff. It was weird to me to then have health and then also make it a race against the clock when you already have gold. Like, it just felt like... And it felt like they played the game and thought, eh, it's not difficult enough.

You know, an easy way to make it harder is just to make you lose health automatically no matter what. And you have to constantly manage it. And it just didn't feel like it was, I don't know, integral to the gameplay. Yeah, to me, this health system is at odds with what feels natural to play the game. So a natural way to play the game. So because there's this, you know, this pressure to not have your health be completely drained, to me that seems like you'd want to get to the end of the level as soon as possible.

Whereas that's not actually how you're supposed to play this game. You're supposed to keep, you know, keep replenishing your health over and over again by bombing out these large areas. But that doesn't seem in line with what it's, like, what it appears to be off the bat. So that, I don't know. Totally. No, I get you, Sam, because the game is at odds with itself in a lot of situations. You know, we're talking about, like, it wants you to explore, but it doesn't necessarily, like, reward exploration in the best possible manner. Because pickups are seemingly random depending on where you bomb.

For the most part, I know, like, certain things are locked behind certain parts. But, like, some power-ups just won't appear in scenarios that they will for others. And some things that are, like, trap doors or entryways to another area aren't, like, they don't look like they have, like, a brittle section that you can bomb off. They just, you just have to know that they're there. So it, like, encourages that exploration, but then doesn't. Same thing with the health that you were talking about. Like, it wants you to explore, but doesn't give you the time to do so without constantly managing that health.

So it is at odds with itself. But there's another thing there, Sam, that you talked about way early on in this episode. That it just, the controls. And it just feels good. And I think that now we're at a situation where we played almost 150 games. Well, 150th episode is next week.

And we just kind of have, like, this, there's these tiers, right, to the controls in NES games where you just kind of, like, start up the game. And I think you know whether you're playing, like, a game that was well-programmed or not based on how it feels to be those characters. And I don't, I don't want to speak for everybody here. But this was a game that, like, upon boot up and seeing, like, the graphics and the way that Zed moved and the way that, like, the enemies interacted. Like, it is a tight game. Like, it is. Yeah, for sure. It is designed.

And it is, and it does feel good to be Zed. So there is something there as a compliment that we haven't brought up yet of, like, just that, that instinctive knowledge. And maybe we can talk about that more of just, like, you have, like, a gut reaction to when you start up these NES games of what you're getting into, right? Well, I think that we're getting, like, we've almost, now we're almost getting a little spoiled with it.

Maybe that's not the right way to phrase it. But, like, when we think back on, like, you know, when we first played Super Mario Brothers, obviously we had played it before. But in the context of all the games we were playing around Super Mario Brothers, we were like, oh, now this feels like a good video game. And we got a couple more of those. And usually they were good games. But I think now so many more are starting to look and feel really good. I mean, some of these levels in this game were giving me, like, Chrono Trigger vibes, which is obviously a very beautiful game on the Super Nintendo. Obviously it looks way better than this, but it was, like, it felt like we were going in that direction.

But I think now there are so many games that are kind of getting it more with the feel of it and the look of it being, like, aesthetically pleasing and to feel good to play, that now we're going to get some games that look and feel good and maybe we don't like as much because there's just so many more people are able to do that. And maybe that's an opinion that's in the minority. I know you mentioned this was a hidden gem to some people, so maybe, you know, maybe there's more to this game that we're not seeing. Yeah, I'd say it's a very polished game.

But, like, but, you know, it still has its issues as a whole game. But the presentation of it is very polished. And I think there's things that we would have mentioned in the past that, like, they would have gotten whole sections in our podcast, you know, power-ups, bosses, you know, the actual layout of the levels and things like that. Like, we would have spent time breaking those down. And I think we've done that enough now that we kind of don't have to do that for each game. We just kind of talk about, like, highlights of these particular games. But it's important to note, like, this game is like a, you know, it's no slog. It's, I think it's 27 levels.

And there's, there are boss fights. It takes a little bit to get to those boss fights, but there are boss fights. There are unique levels. There's, like, there's a water level. There's an underground level. Like, there is, we used to reward that, right, of, like, feeling like you're going on a journey. And we're kind of passing that by here in this episode. So I just wonder if for you guys, like, were you surprised that these things were in the game on top of everything else that's here? Like, or was it just expected now that we're, like, moving in throughout the NES catalog? I'd say that it's become less of a pleasant surprise when games are as feature complete as this one is.

It used to just be a breath of fresh air. And, like, oh, thank God I'm playing a game that seems like it was crafted instead of just, like, it's, like, the most basic interactive medium that we can think of. So, yeah, we're definitely no longer as kind just because it reaches, like, this bar of quality. Because I do think that this is a quality game. Like, no matter what problems we have with, like, the more macro gameplay loop, like, it's well designed in some respects. But, no, you're right. Like, we don't, this isn't going to automatically become our favorite game just because it hits those bars now.

We'll see you next time.

And if we can just talk about power-ups since they are a big part of this game in a way that, like, you don't necessarily need, as far as I understand, you don't need power-ups for any particular situation. It's not like Metroid where you're, like, locked behind something until you get that specific power-up. But there's a lot of different kinds of power-ups to collect.

And there's, like, a, it's an interesting way of handling it because there are so many that you have to go into your menu and select them. And then that's how you'll be able to use them.

I'm fine with that when there's this many options. I'm wondering, did any of these power-ups stand out to you guys? Like, was there anything that you were like, oh, that's a really cool thing that we haven't seen yet? I mean, not that we haven't seen yet, but, like, the missile that'll clean out, like, an entire row of destructible objects felt really good just because we've gotten so used to, like, just by playing the game with the bombs that can do, like, one on each side. But just because we have that knowledge, it feels really good to just clear out an entire line.

But, like, that's not something new. But it did feel good. Right. That was my favorite, too. And that's a good point, actually. I mean, they designed it very well to feel very satisfying because the bombs, you got used to the much less satisfying bombs.

But I do think that there were even some power-ups that you do kind of need if you want to play the game naturally, like the candles. I mean, technically, you can get through it without the candles. But, like, if you're genuinely a beginner at this game and you genuinely want to try and play it, you sort of need the candles. Oh, yeah. It's like going through those cave levels in Pokemon without Flash, right? Right, right. You have to really know what you're doing. I think that was easier because maybe I just had a lot more time on my hands when I was playing Pokemon. But I used to be able to do that. This, I just feel like, would not even be enjoyable to attempt.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there another level later on that is dark, completely dark also, and you need another? You need to have collected something else to just light it up, and it just lights it up permanently. I think that's the third level. The lamp, right? Yeah. Because that felt weird as if it was a Metroidvania type thing.

But it's so linear that it doesn't really, it's weird that it's like, oh, you could have just walked by it. Too late. You don't have it. You're in a dark level now. Yeah, that was a goofy decision. A lot of these power-ups, though, they feel, like, shmup-inspired, you know, for better or for worse. I think that's really cool. Like, the flash one that just automatically destroys all enemies on screen, I feel like we saw that in games like Zanac.

And the crossfire one that lets you shoot in all four directions. Another thing that just feels like something that would be more of, like, a power-up to your ship than a power-up to your robot cyborg. Yeah. So it's sort of like, we're getting the good stuff from shmups, but we're also getting sort of the bad stuff that we've seen in other adventure-ish games. Where the, well, what it's taking from these adventure-ish games are these upgrades that are really just key items. Like, the lantern serves, it doesn't make you feel powerful. It doesn't, like, add anything to the gameplay. It's just basically a key item so that you're not playing a level in the dark.

But it's also taking a bunch of these shmup power-ups that actually add something to the gameplay. Like, they're situational. Like, you're not going to want to waste all your missiles just because they're the most powerful, because there may just be a spot where you want to clear out an entire line. Or you find yourself sort of cornered, and you might want that omnidirectional shot that you wouldn't just want to have on at all times. So I like that they took that stuff from the shmups. I could have gone without the glorified key items.

But I think it was a good balance, at least, if they're going to do one or the other. My favorite power-up was the boots that make you go a little bit faster. Just a little bit faster. It's, like, almost hard to notice. And, you know, what else? I mean, like, the music was great. Yeah. And I really hated when your health is low enough that the music just goes away and you just get this annoying beeping sound instead. That's the worst. That was awful. It was the worst. Yeah, it's not even, like, a video game beeping sound. It's like an alarm clock. Yeah. Like a digital alarm clock beeping sound.

I actually had, I feel like I had a spike of adrenaline when that happened. Like, the same, like, just, oh my god, everything hurts of, like, when you are, like, you snoozed and now you're late. But, like, you just hear that piercing alarm clock. It was not, it did not feel good.

Well, you shouldn't let your health get low. Yeah. That'll teach you. What if I told you that the NES version is actually easier than the Famicom version? You'd probably believe me because you know that the Japanese like their games harder for the moment. But, like, could you, would you want this game to be any harder? How is it harder? You take a lot more damage for anything. Like, bombs will practically just kill you if you get hit by one. And all enemy damage is significantly, like, upgraded.

I don't think I'd want that. No, I don't. And I think that already the bombs damage you too much. Considering that they're a vital part of the gameplay. And every now and then you might accidentally place it wrong and get pushed in the opposite direction that you wanted to go.

So, I already had belief at that. It's pretty rough. I wanted to be more powerful. Yeah, I think going further in that direction is, I think, I think making it more difficult is not a bad idea. Yeah. But doing it in the ways we talked about earlier with, like, making the, like, puzzle challenge more difficult. Not just, I feel like that's, what you're talking about is almost the same thing as what we were talking about with the health diminishing. It just feels like an artificial way to make it more difficult.

There is a way to just jump to any level you want, otherwise known as a level select code. This one is actually, like, really easy. There's no, like, plugging in a second controller or doing a very long string of things. It's just up, left, and select on the title screen.

Wow. That's a very simple code. What is it, Tim? Level select. Level select, yeah. You can just pick any level in the game you want. Oh. I feel like that's something anybody could have just stumbled on. You know, like, there's always these cheat codes that you're like, how? What? Like, who discovered that? Do you guys remember when there was, like, Cheat Code Central or Tips and Tricks Magazine?

Yeah. And it would just be, like, thousands of pages. There was this Tips and Tricks, like, end of year one that was just, like, every code known to man. And you're like, but who discovers them? Like, do the developers just give them out to the reviewers and then, like, say, like, like, do they give them to IGN and be like, reveal these over time? Like, how do they get developed?

Well, my favorite was, like, I mean, I use Cheat Code Central a lot, but that was usually for, like, GameShark codes. And I know that, like, GameShark or whatever the company that makes it, like, they came up with, like, most of them. But then there are definitely people that are just, like, inputting random strings of code and, like, just taking whatever that is and releasing it. I never quite understood, like, like, somebody's got to brute force that for hours to find anything worthwhile.

My favorite were the Tony Hawk codes that you had to hold L for. You had to pause it and hold L and then do a series of button combinations. And then the screen would shake if you got it right. All right. Well, you know what? Cheats or not, you cannot, in the North American version of RoboWarrior, you cannot unlock the special theme song option without, like, brute forcing your way into the, like, game itself and changing some RAM addresses.

So they really have the data on the card. The data's on there, but you have to change, like, RAM address $02F8 to $01F8. Oh. Which, like, yeah, I don't even know if you can do that with, like, a GameShark or a Game Genie. You know, I don't think you could do that. Change RAM addresses. How does that work? How would you do that?

You'd have to, I guess, like... You'd have to hack into the mainframe. Yeah, as always, you know, you gotta use your NES mouse and NES keyboard and hack into the game itself manually. But it was a real thing, though. Believe it or not, a theme song option complete with lyrics for the theme song that would appear on screen. Like a sing-along?

Yeah, essentially, but, like, I guess not necessarily. Like, I guess any music video that has, like, words on it would be... Oh, like subtitles, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but this is the only thing you're getting. It's just words. There's no visuals. It's just the words. It appears in the Japanese version and just happened. It just appears on the main menu screen after you enter the item shops in levels 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 16, and 21. Just die after that and return to the title screen and you'll be able to select the theme song. Do we have that? Are we gonna throw that up? I'll play the theme song right now.

Let's go.

Wow.

Wow, I feel gypped. I feel gypped not hearing that. And that was the lovely theme song. So if that wasn't obvious, like if that theme song didn't make you think, oh, this is Bomberman, like 100%, just like the game itself is, let's go into the sequels and spinoffs section. And let me tell you, if you forget that this game is connected to Bomberman, that's fine. Just know that it is also connected to Blaster Master. You know, I can see that. I think it looks like Blaster Master.

Blaster Master Jr. for Game Boy is actually Bomber King Scenario 2 in Japan. It sounds like it's like a file name. And I think, yeah, it's true. Scenario 2, like they forgot to finish it.

But that does make sense though, right? I know what you're talking about, Joe, and that's because those parts where you actually like enter those little areas in Blaster Master and then become like, it becomes like an action game where you have like, you know, your bigger version of yourself and you have to fight off those enemies. Like that is essentially like a recipe for Bomber King in a way. Like without the bomb emphasis, I think it lends itself that same look. And so it makes sense that when the Game Boy game was like being localized, they just said, hey, you know what?

Bomber King, Robo Warrior, whatever. Let's just name it after a successful franchise and call this one Blaster Master Jr. But please do not judge this game on the levels of Bomberman, which we have not played yet. But don't judge it based off of that awesome Bomberman Sega Saturn game that has like the availability to have 10 players play at once. Don't judge it on that. And don't judge it as Blaster Master because that's already an essential game. I can't say if Blaster Master Jr. would or would not be. That's a Game Boy game that we'll never get to. So with that in mind, okay, don't judge it as either of those. I want you to judge it as Robo Warrior, not Bomber King in our essential games list.

Now, guys, I made a lot of demands there just now. And I'm letting you know that I'm just willing to rescind all of those demands. If the essential games list for you is just always a comparison of is this Bomberman or not, then I guess like technically Super Mario Brothers is or is not Bomberman based on whether you say if it's Bomberman, it's an essential game or if it's not Bomberman, it's not an essential game. You know, like I get it. All right. So sorry that I imposed all those rules. All rules are off. This time you don't even have to vote if it's essential or not. Sean. I abstain. Sam. Wait, no, I got something. What's Bomberman?

So my first part, like the first run through this, this would have just been like a don't play it, avoid this game. It just is an endless loop and not all that interesting. But once I finally found out from external sources how to play this game, I did have a lot of fun with it. You just have to know that. And the fact that you can play this game so wrong that you can hate it.

It's still like a point against it. So I'm not going to go so far as to put this game. I know that we've been kind of negative on this game, but I'm not going to go so far as to call this essential. But I will say that it is a play it for me. Just figure out how to play it first. Play it, but figure it out. I like that. Sam? I feel like I'm kind of in a similar place where the game itself has a lot of really cool stuff going for it. And it feels very polished and it feels like you're playing an NES game. I know that's stupid to say, but if you're trying to, if you want to play a retro game, this is a good retro game experience.

But I think that it suffers from a lot of the stuff that retro games suffer from. It's kind of confusing and as satisfying as it feels to play off the bat, the core loop is a little, it doesn't really make sense to me.

And it's not as streamlined as I think an essential game is. So I would vote not essential, but definitely play it. Great. Joe? Yeah, I think that I definitely had the experience where I first was playing it wrong and then I learned how to play it and it got better. But I still don't think, even then, I don't even really think I had much fun with it once I kind of figured out how to play it. It still felt like the correct way to play it was just like one long grind. Like it was a grind to the game to me.

So for that reason, I'm not even sure I would give it a play it. I do think that, and this is something I say all the time, so I feel like I'm a broken record with a lot of games. But similar to what you just said, Sam, I do think that all of the elements to make a good game are there, but they just didn't put them in the right order or utilize them in the right places to make satisfying game design for me. Not that I know anything about game design, but I just know while playing it, it didn't feel particularly fun. Like I wasn't invested. It just felt too repetitive.

Yeah, I think this hits hidden gem level for people because they've played all the good NES games. They thought there were no more. And then they play something like this and find a lot of redeeming qualities in it. And all of a sudden, it's like, you know, this is the new jazz. Like you want to play this right away. And I think the problem there is not that like hidden gem buzz like ruins expectations or anything like that. But for this game in particular, I just wasn't on board with the overall like gameplay loop and design aspect of it. And instead, as I continued to play for the podcast, I found a lot of like redeeming qualities throughout. But it always like for the most part felt to be a chore.

You know, you had to constantly keep bombing and looking and bombing and dodging and tackling enemies and hoping that you find that key that you're looking for. And yes, in today's day and age, you could go on strategy wiki or game facts and you could try and like figure out where these things are faster.

But I don't really know if you're playing the game then, because if the whole thing was built around the idea of bomb stuff to find stuff, if you just, you know, look up a walkthrough for a game like this, it's not the same thing. Because all of a sudden, you know, it's just I know where this thing is on the map and I'm just going to go there. You're not rewarded for exploring anything else at that point. Why explore if you already know where the thing is?

So I did have fun with the game, but only in moments, not overall. And that's why it can't go on the essential games list for me. But it's been a good episode. I feel like, you know, outside of our Tony Hawk tangent, which may or may not be in the show. So people will be like, wait, Tony Hawk tangent. I want to hear more about that. You want to hear more about that. Send a check to NostalgiaCast for like, actually send a blank check and we'll, you know, we'll be good guys. It has to have your signature on it, though.

No, no, just send us a blank check. I trust them. I think it'd be more fun to look at the name, the printed name of the person's check and then say like, oh, this is how they would sign their check. Just like a corn check. And then I'll try and sign it. Yeah. A corn check, not a rice check, from a cereal box, relatively fresh. Oh, check. Like checks? Check cereal? Yeah, but one check. That's the singular of it. Checks Quest? I don't know what we're doing anymore. Do you think that in Queen's Gambit season two, she'll ever like go to London and like write a check for an obscene amount of money and just hand it to the guy and be like, here's the check, mate.

Spoiler alert. Yeah, I think so. That's how the series will end. It'll be like, oh, shoot. Checkmate. It's all leading up to this. Speaking of checkmate, we'll play chess eventually on the NES. There's got to be one. And I bring up chess because it's all the rage right now. You literally can't buy a chess set if you tried.

Hmm. You can make one. Isn't that funny? NESs, you can buy them on eBay. Chess sets? Nah. Well, when a hit Netflix show is out and it's just about the NES and how perfect it is, then maybe it'll have the same kind of market it forces. When we get our Netflix show, is what you're saying. That's true. Yes, you're right. Which, you know, something we'll announce when it happens, but currently we can neither confirm nor deny those rumors that you've been hearing online.

Yep. The real reason why we haven't signed a deal with Netflix yet is we don't want to disappoint Christopher Nolan. He's very against streaming services, and I just don't think I could do that to him. And we record all these podcasts on film, so it's just very important that we stick to our roots and we stay analog. Yes. Stay analog. Everybody should stay analog. Don't make yourself a digital persona and exist slowly as a vlogger, if you will. Like, that's just the name of the game here. Nostalgia.

Oh, no, go ahead. Go ahead, Sam. I was going to say, you can still be a vlogger, but it's got to be, like, taking eight millimeter video of yourself and then displaying them at, like, you know, a cocktail party. Or you could just go to the... That was a terrible joke to interrupt you for.

I won't follow up, Sam.

He's Mike Loesposito. Yeah, I'll tell you where you can find us if you're interested. Oh, man. You can find us on Twitter at NestalgiaCast. Remember, that's N-E-S, not N-O-S. We have no nostalgia, but we have a lot of Nestalgia.

Join us next week for the big... What is it? Is it the actual 150th episode? Well, why would we care about that? We only care about the 153rd. No, this is the 150th episode. What? Right now. Happy birthday. Hey, congrats. Happy birthday. The whole time. Yeah, the whole time we've been doing it, we're like, ah, the 150th episode is coming up, and here it is. I love that. This is also the 100th episode, if you want it to be. It's also the 79th episode. No, no, no. They're numbered. They're, like, objectively numbered. They're numbered in order of how much we like them. So Ten Yard Fight was our favorite game. That's true.

No, sorry. Next week... This week is special because it's the 150th episode. Next week is special because it's Skate or Die, episode 151, just in time for Christmas Day. You can celebrate Christmas with Nostalgia, you know, instead of opening up GIFs. Hopefully you get some cool, sweet NES GIFs as well. And you know what would be a great place to, like, tell us what NES-related or Nintendo-related or video game-related or life-related GIFs you got? That would be on the Twitter.

If you tell us... Yeah, tweet at us on, like, that Friday or Saturday. Be like, look at this awesome copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I got, signed by Kevin Eastman. And I'd be like, wow, that's awesome. Thanks. But I hope I didn't get anyone's hopes up because that's a pretty big Christmas gift. I'm not sure Santa can deliver that for everyone. Anyway, long post show, long ending thing. What's that, Sam? I said, but is it signed by Peter Laird?

No, just one of them. You can't have both. Oh. Yeah, yeah. I don't get that. Oh, interesting. Okay, so Sean knows nothing. Yeah, Sean knows nothing about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He'll be off for that episode. Yeah, I'm sorry, guys.

And, you know, this is where we're going to end the show. We're just going to end it now. So, sorry for everybody who listened. I'm Michael Esposito. You can find me at Esposito Film on Twitter. And we'll be talking to you real soon. Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. And Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead. Also, there was a good pause sound in this game. Today's dead.

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