
A former developer on the N64 platformer Bomberman Hero has shared design documents for the game on Twitter. These never-before-seen sketches and notes show us a snippet of the behind-the-scenes on Hudson Soft's radical departure from the Bomberman formula.
@nori_bomber — whose career started on the Sega Mark III and went on to work on games in the Mario, Genjin, Super Robo, and Bomberman series — shared the photos, which include sketches of cutscenes and landmarks, dialogue, and interactions between Bomberman and a robot. Bomberman Hero (known as Bomberman Hero: Rescue Princess Millian! in Japan) was the second 3D Bomberman game but is a single-player platformer with no multiplayer (unlike its predecessor, Bomberman 64).
Cheesemeister has translated the original tweet from nori_bomber, which says "These are design documents for Bomberman Hero on Nintendo 64."
These development materials look like they're in pristine condition, and it's fantastic to see them shared online over 24 years after the game came out. Perhaps these will be translated by someone soon and we'll get to learn even more about the development history of Bomberman Hero.
The Bomberman series is now owned by Konami, with the last game — Amazing Bomberman — coming to Apple Arcade earlier this year. Next year is the series' 40th anniversary, and we'll be getting a brand new Bomberman game on Switch, Super Bomberman R 2, to celebrate. Let's have a blast!
What do you think of these design documents? Are you a Bomberman Hero fan? Explode in the comments!
[source twitter.com]
Comments 15
I love this kind of stuff, especially when there's early artwork included. Design docs are definitely things we gotta see more of because it's probably the most definitive source we can get for a game's ideas
Bomberman Hero was probably my favorite Bomberman game on N64, if not my favorite game in the series overall.
I hope this one gets added to the NSO eventually, because it would be a delight to replay this after over 20 years.
The Bomberman games in the N64/GBC era were so awesome. I wish the series would return to this style of action/adventure/puzzle hybrids, instead of the modern arena-battle games.
@Browny Awesome soundtrack too.
Bomberman 64 was the only Bomberman game I'd played for the longest time. Spent a lot of time playing multiplayer battles, so I was confused years later when I found out that they're usually not like that.
Also had a lot of fun playing Bomberman Land Touch 1&2's minigames in multiplayer, but aside from those, I've not played any others
Never thought I'd be hearing anything new about Bomberman Hero in 2022! Honestly, I still can't believe it's the only Bomberman of that play style after all these years.
Would love to see this on NSO at some point, and the SNES ones too! but my expectations are extremely low, especially with Super Bomberman R 2 coming soon.
Hurry up Nintendo/Konami and bring this to the NSO after being absent on the Wii U Virtual Console (it was available on the Wii Virtual Console, though my Wii hardly runs these days)
All 3 Bomberman games (were there more?) on the N64 were great.
While it's nice they tried going back to their roots, I didn't enjoy Bomberman R. It felt uninspired and the gameplay didn't feel quite right. Story was way too childish. I don't mind a game for children being simple but they missed the mark by a lot
@DTFaux There was something similar in development for the 3DS right when Konami bought Hudson and cancelled all their ongoing projects.
this really needs to be on nso
@Bobb There were 4 in total. Japan got an exclusive 2D entry titled...Bomberman 64. The Western Bomberman 64 was called Baku Bomberman in Japan.
@KeeperBvK thank you. I will look it up
Bomberman 64
Bomberman 64: 3rd Strike (Act..?)
Bomberman Hero
Having Beat them all, that’s my B-64 ranking
It really is time for a new 3D Bomberman game. Bomberman 64 was awesome and special because many of the levels had some verticality to them not often seen in the series, especially in Battle Mode.
Bomberman 64/Hero/Generation/Jetters/Land... Konami please make a new expansive, comprehensive entry along those lines.
In the meantime the NSO N64 App would be a great place for some of those Bomberman titles, heck even Bomberman '94/Mega Bomberman would be great on the NSO Genesis App or Super Bomberman 1 - 5 on the NSO Super Nintendo App, especially since 3 - 5 were never officially released in North America. This is a great opportunity to add some value to all of those apps and the online subscriptions.
All of these NSO Apps are neglected by Nintie and leave so much to be desired because of the potential imo smh. Combine the platforms into one Nintendo Switch Archives App, improve the emulators have much of the features that have long been a staple of the free ones online for decades now. And most of all, we need more frequent, quality & voluminous drops. Fix up Nintendo.
... Wun can only hope.
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