Panic Bomber Reviewed by Ferry Groenendijk on . Rating: 64%

Panic Bomber

The dark island of Ever-Mist is permanently enshrouded in a deep, dreary fog. As the legend states: "He or she who gathers together the three celestial medals of power, which lie on the island of Ever-Mist, shall open the gates and gain access to the statue." Many adventurers have traveled there in quest of the legendary Golden Statue of Bomberman! However, none have returned.

It's time for Bomberman to sets off on another great adventure!

Through a fully 3D rendered intro movie you see Bomberman traveling to the island of Ever-Mist. Once there he will face off against a treasure trove of bizarre characters that guard the medals/statue or just happen to be around.

Controlling Bomberman is extremely simple, you move, rotate, and line up the blocks and bombs that are coming down ... Tetris style. You'll need to line up three of the same blocks up in a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal row to make them disappear. This results in three unlit bombs appearing at the bottom of the screen, each waiting to go "boom" in a chain reaction by a loose-lit bomb!

The more blocks you cause to disappear, the higher your Decker Bomb Meter will go. When the meter fills, a Decker Bomb will appear. Decker "Huge" Bombs will clear a great deal of the clutter from your playing field.

The playing fields are essentially 2-D, though in a puzzler like this you'd never want it any other way. Moving backgrounds and the extra items like bombs and the enemies will make for a 3-D feel. All in all the graphics aren't great, but good for a puzzle game like this.

The level music is nothing short of amazing! You will be listening to fast, fun, and sometimes adrenaline pumped music tunes the entirety of the game. The music and sound effects are a huge plus to add to the already fun game play.

In Skull Mode, bricks appear on the bottom of the screen instead of scorched bombs. If these bricks are blasted, they will turn into a random assortment of Skull items. Skull Items will be displayed in the Decker "Big" Bomb display. Skull items adversely effect the game play for your opponent for a limited amount of time, and can really upset the other player.

"I eat intruders, and pizza too!" ~Cecil The Tiger. I will just say that you shouldn't be fooled by their silly remarks, in hard mode the enemies are tough nuts to crack and whether they do or don't ... your brain will. Replay value is high like most puzzle games. But I can't help missing the two-player mode. If you can't afford the Neo*Geo version, this Virtual Boy port is well worth your time.