20 Stupid Decisions That Destroyed Their Franchise
6. The Dystopic Direction - Bomberman: Act Zero
For the first 25 years or so of its existence, the Bomberman series stuck to its sturdy formula of having cute characters face-off with bombs in mazes to either eliminate each other or be the first to reach the stage’s exit.
No matter how the gameplay and graphics adapted over time, the franchise retained its adorable and unmistakably Japanese look. Sure, sales fluctuated along the way, but the triumphs of entries such as the Nintendo DS’ Bomberman Land Touch! and Bomberman 2005 illustrated that people still loved the little guy.
What players demonstrably didn’t want was for Bomberman to transform into a run-of-the-mill dystopic future shooter with a bleak tone and gritty presentation. Bafflingly, though, that’s exactly where Hudson Soft took gaming’s most endearing explosives enthusiast with Bomberman: Act Zero.
By swapping the series’ signature childlike charm for a gustier and more realistic ripoff of other robot/alien aesthetics – Halo, Mega Man, and Metroid, anyone? – Bomberman: Act Zero abandoned the core of what makes Bomberman so enchanting and amusing. For god’s sake, the female version is sexualized like a Soul Calibur or Mortal Kombat combatant!
The addition of a new mode called First-Person Battle cemented how far Bomberman: Act Zero strayed from its reliable roots, and while other Bomberman games came out afterward, the franchise hasn’t reclaimed to its former glory.