Bomberman: Act Zero
Encyclopedia
Bomberman: Act Zero is a 2006 video game for the Xbox 360
. This game was notable for being a radical departure for the series in terms of character design. Instead of the familiar depiction of White Bomber, the characters in this game resemble mechanical cyborg
s based on the original game's boxart. The player can choose between a male or female Bomberman, as well as his or her armor color.
game. Bombermen are being built and must prove to be good enough by destroying each other. Whoever comes out alive wins. The player is a character made up and customized to their liking. This said Bomberman (or Bomberwoman for females) is awakened from a deactivation, and is thrown into battle, planning to fight its way to the surface of the earth to escape the battle.
The game also features a life meter in the FPB mode which depletes if the player is hit by a blast. The player can take multiple hits from the same explosion if the blast lingers for a while. Players can collect various power ups which allows them to lay more bombs, have stronger and longer blasts, and can give the player higher speeds. The standard mode still operates on a one-hit death rule, with each hit depleting a single Heart item or killing the player.
The single player campaign contains both FPB and standard modes with a total of 99 levels. The player has no option to save in between levels unless they are connected online, and if the player dies, they must restart at the beginning, making it the most challenging single player experience for a Bomberman game. The game features an online battle mode called world battle which supports up to 8 players at once on Xbox live. There is no system link available or local multiplayer option to play on the same system.
. IGN gave the game a 3/10, criticizing the "bad online" and said that "this totally new design stinks, plain and simple." X-Play, closing their own review, stated that "Act Zero accomplishes what even Al Qaeda was unable to do: turn "Bomberman" into a dirty word." It currently holds a ranking of 33.36% on GameRankings. In the March '07 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly
, SeanBaby listed Bomberman: Act Zero as one of the Top 10 Worst Games of 2006, describing it as "the Bomberman game that sucks."
The most prominent criticism of the game was the graphical overhaul and the dissonance of the brown and muddy cyberpunk aesthetic to the franchise's familiar colorful cartoonish universe. GameDaily
complained that the cyberpunk look left the game "feeling lifeless and unhappy". GameSpy
deemed it "the worst videogame retooling since King of Fighters went 3D or Lara Croft went to Paris." GameTrailers
named the game the worst sequel ever.
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. This game was notable for being a radical departure for the series in terms of character design. Instead of the familiar depiction of White Bomber, the characters in this game resemble mechanical cyborg
Cyborg
A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
s based on the original game's boxart. The player can choose between a male or female Bomberman, as well as his or her armor color.
Story
This game is loosely based on the NESNintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
game. Bombermen are being built and must prove to be good enough by destroying each other. Whoever comes out alive wins. The player is a character made up and customized to their liking. This said Bomberman (or Bomberwoman for females) is awakened from a deactivation, and is thrown into battle, planning to fight its way to the surface of the earth to escape the battle.
Gameplay features
Act Zero is the traditional 2D styled gameplay that the Bomberman series is known for. One of the few changes in the game is FPB mode (first person battle). Despite the title, the game mode plays in a 3rd person perspective, where the player is given control of the camera which follows the character being played. The player still has the option of playing on standard mode, which sets the camera to an overhead view like other various 2D bomberman titles.The game also features a life meter in the FPB mode which depletes if the player is hit by a blast. The player can take multiple hits from the same explosion if the blast lingers for a while. Players can collect various power ups which allows them to lay more bombs, have stronger and longer blasts, and can give the player higher speeds. The standard mode still operates on a one-hit death rule, with each hit depleting a single Heart item or killing the player.
The single player campaign contains both FPB and standard modes with a total of 99 levels. The player has no option to save in between levels unless they are connected online, and if the player dies, they must restart at the beginning, making it the most challenging single player experience for a Bomberman game. The game features an online battle mode called world battle which supports up to 8 players at once on Xbox live. There is no system link available or local multiplayer option to play on the same system.
Reception
The game was generally poorly received and has an aggregate score of 34/100 on MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. IGN gave the game a 3/10, criticizing the "bad online" and said that "this totally new design stinks, plain and simple." X-Play, closing their own review, stated that "Act Zero accomplishes what even Al Qaeda was unable to do: turn "Bomberman" into a dirty word." It currently holds a ranking of 33.36% on GameRankings. In the March '07 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...
, SeanBaby listed Bomberman: Act Zero as one of the Top 10 Worst Games of 2006, describing it as "the Bomberman game that sucks."
The most prominent criticism of the game was the graphical overhaul and the dissonance of the brown and muddy cyberpunk aesthetic to the franchise's familiar colorful cartoonish universe. GameDaily
GameDaily
GameDaily was a video game journalism website based in the United States. Launched in 1995 by entrepreneur Mark Friedler under the name Gigex and focused on free game demo downloads, The site changed its business model from a flat fee per download CDN distributed service network to an...
complained that the cyberpunk look left the game "feeling lifeless and unhappy". GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
deemed it "the worst videogame retooling since King of Fighters went 3D or Lara Croft went to Paris." GameTrailers
GameTrailers
GameTrailers is a media website that specializes in video game related content. It provides free access to original programming , game trailers and recorded game play. Along with standard definition , many of the video clips are offered in a higher resolution .Users can upload videos, create...
named the game the worst sequel ever.
External links
- Official page at Hudson SoftHudson Soft, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...
's US Website