Bomberman Hero
Image: via Nintendo / Konami

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]