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| Bomberman Hardball; 6.0: Overly shallow | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 30 2007, 09:07 AM (2,009 Views) | |
| Evil Hamster | Mar 30 2007, 09:07 AM Post #1 |
Osu!
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Game: Bomberman Hardball Number of Players: 1-4 Price: £19.99 Release: 2005 Console: PlayStation 2 Bomberman Hardball is the sort of quirky game that seems great fun at first, but gets old unbelievably quickly. Unfortunately, the main problem is that it's just too shallow for it's own good. Despite this, it is still a blast in multiplayer, making it great to play with friends, especially if you have a multitap. The game is split up into five games. These are Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Classic and Life. The quality of the games varies enormously, yet only Bomberman classic is likely to keep you interested in single player for more than twenty minutes. In all of these games, you have to choose a character from a selection of six or seven of the characters from Bomberman's world. The statistics for thses characters do vary, for example, Racer is very fast and accurate but lacks power, and Gold has the strenght, but has incredibly low speed. Tennis was the first games I tried, and it is probably the most enjoyable game in the package. Various shots are played via the face buttons: triangle plays a lob, X plays a topspin shot, Square plays a sidespinny shot and Circle plays a slice. These controls are easy to get used to, and present no problem. The problem is how fast the characters move. Even Racer, the fastest character, seems to hardly move faster than a slow jog at his top speed. This is annoying, as it makes it overly difficult to get to the ball. However, in doubles, when you only have to cover half the court, the speed isn't too much of a problem and the game becomes much more enjoyable. Posted Image Golf is also reasonably competent. Shots are performed via a meter across the bottom of the screen. When you tap the button once, a small line starts to move up the gauge. The further it goes up the gauge, the more powerful the shot will be. You tap again to stop at the wanted power. The line will then start to move back in the other direction. Then, in order to make the shot accurate, you must tap the button when the line is as close to where it started as possible. Overall, this works well, and Golf is a fairly enjoyable game, especially because you can ply with up to four players with just one controller. The main problem with golf is that there is only one course to play on (18 holes) meaning that the experience can get repetitive very quickly. Posted Image Unfortunately, baseball is awful. It could have been fun, but it is let down by pitches which are stupidly hard to hit, due to overly strong spin that can be placed on the ball. Pitching is performed by choosing where you want to throw it with the analogue stick, and then choosing spin using the D-pad. Batting is performed by moving the analogue stick to where you want the bat to go, then pressing X when you want to hit it. Fielding is performed by running after the ball with the analogue stick, and choosing which base to throw it to using the D-pad. Running between bases is performed with the shoulder buttons. All of these controls work reasonably well, it's just a shame that batting against spin is so darned impossible. Whilst you can get round this in multiplayer by simply agreeing with your friend to only play either straight balls or very small amounts of spin, single player is virtually ruined. It's annoying, as Baseball is the only sport in the game to have a reasonably long single player campaign. Posted Image Bomberman classic is probably the best aspect of the game. It's just normal bomberman, but with properly 3D graphics and a reasonable amount of customisation. The gameplay itself is the same as any other Bomberman game, but it is still great fun, especially with four players joining in. It's all good fun, but there's so many other Bomberman games out there, you've played it all before. Posted Image Bomberman Life isn't really a game. You have your own character, who you can buy new items of clothing for from a little dispenser thing in his room, using money you've earnt in the other games. Whilst this seems a good idea in theory, it isn't. You have no choice whatsoever over which items you get, which can be very annoying when you get 10 of the same item. Also, for some reason your character can only be used in battle mode, and not in any of the other games. Basically, Life mode is a poor idea, and something you would be best off leaving alone. Posted Image The graphics in Bomberman Hardball aren't too bad, but they aren't particularly amazing either. They're pretty good for a budget title, but overall they're fairly average. The sound is fairly ignorable to be honest, it isn't too great and playing with the sound off will make very little difference to the overall experience. Overall, Bomberman Hardball is good for a budget title if you're looking for multiplayer, but if you're looking for a deep single player game, then you're looking at the wrong game. Presentation 7 Graphics 7 Sound 5 Gameplay 7 Lasting Appeal 6 Score: 6 Additional comments: If you want a budget game that's pretty decent for multiplayer, this may be worth a look. Otherwise, don't bother. One word summary: Shallow Worth buying: Probably not, unless you play with friends regularly. |
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