Bomber Man '94 © 1993 Hudson Soft.
Bomberman'94 is the third (and last) episode of Hudson soft's flagship and popular series released for the PC Engine system. Everyone on Planet Bomber was at peace, thanks to the protective work of ancient and benevolent spirits. But one day, an evil army of robots led by the malevolent Bagur? (aka 'Burglar') appears and breaks the large sacred stone tablets, source of the spirits' mystical powers. The very fabric of the Bomberman universe is now at stake and Planet Bomber, under the enormous pressure, splits into five different worlds. A team of Bombermen is assembled to restore order to the universe and to retrieve all the sacred stone fragments. However, they all fail miserably... except for Shirobon, the white Bomberman, who must now save the Bomber World all by himself. Once again, players come equipped with the trademark bombs, and these bombs must be strategically dropped and only explode after a short amount of time, roasting anything within their blast radius (including players if they linger for too long). Bomberman'94 is drastically more complex than its predecessors and the game features six different worlds (each made out of several sub-stages) and several new gameplay twists. Here, the game doesn't require players to kill all the enemies to complete a level. Instead, each sub-stage comes with a piece of fragment enclosed within an impenetrable force-field that must be deactivated, and in order to do so, all the energy poles scattered around each maze must be blasted up (some even open doors later in the game). Once all the fragments for a given world are reunited, they serve as a key and activate an intense boss battle. As expected, Bomberman'94 comes loaded with new features, such as a fleet of colored kangaroos (called R?i) that players can ride. They hatch from colored eggs and can use special powers, such as the ability to jump over obstacles or to kick bombs. They also double as shields and take damage in place of the player (at the cost of their own lives though). Additionally, nine different Bombermen are available to choose from in this version, from the cute Bombergirl, to the Old-Bomberman or the Punk-Bomberman. Finally, Bomberman'94 includes a multi-player battle mode where up to five players can battle each other, and a password system gives the player the opportunity to save a game in progress.
Model HC93065
Bomber Man '94 was released on December 10, 1993 in Japan for 6800 Yen.
* Sound Room:
At the title screen, first press Right, then press Left, Left & Down, Down, Down & Right and then II (it is technically a half-circle). This is rather tricky to achieve, but this will activate the Sound Room where you can play all the music tracks and sound effects from the game.
* Secret stage select and boss room:
Text hidden inside the code (ROM) indicates that a Stage Select and a Boss Room were one day available. But these options were probably removed from the retail version... The text for the Boss Room is rather interesting because it lists the names for all the bosses - namely, Saru and Bananacher, Pyramid Gan, Grub Robs, Komori Count, Queen Oyobee and Buglear. You can actually drop the game's ROM in your favorite text editor to see the original hidden text!
1. Bomber Man (1984, MSX)
2. Bomber Man (1985, Famicom)
3. Bomber Man Special (1986, MSX)
4. Bomber Man (1990, Famicom Disk System)
5. Bomber Man (1991, Arcade)
6. Bomber Man II [Model HFC-2X] (1991, Famicom)
7. Bomber Man World (1992, Arcade)
8. Bomber Man '93 [Model HC92061] (1992, PC-Engine)
9. Hi-Ten Bomberman (1993, Custom Hardware - High Definition System)
10. Super Bomber Man [Model SHVC-H6] (1993, Super Famicom)
11. Bomber Man '94 [Model HC93065] (1993, PC-Engine)
12. Super Bomber Man 2 [Model SHVC-M4] (1994, Super Famicom)
13. Super Bomber Man 3 [Model SNSP-AS6P] (1995, Super Famicom)
14. Super Bomber Man 4 [Model SHVC-A4BJ] (1996, Super Famicom)
15. Neo Bomber Man (1997, MVS)
16. Super Bomber Man 5 [Model SHVC-A5SJ] (1997, Super Famicom)
17. Bomber Man Online (2002, PC)
18. Bomber Man DS [Model NTR-P-ABMJ] (2005, DS)
19. Bomber Man Live (2007, XBLA)
20. Bomber Man Portable [Model ULJM-05034] (2006, PSP)
21. Custom Battler Bomber Man [Model NTR-P-YBAJ] (2008, DS)
Programer: Yuichi Ito, Hideo Iwakawa, Kazuyuki Kimura
Graphic Designer: Yakuyo Aoyama, Yuji Iwahara, Tomomi Tada
Sound Programer: Hajime Ohara, Takashi Morio
Special Thanks: Denki-Mirai Co.Ltd
Music Composer: Jun Chiki Chikuma
Art Director: Shoji Mizuno
Producer: Hiroki Shimada, Supervisor, Toshiki Fujiwara
Director: Yoshiyuki Kawaguchi
Basic Game Designer: Shinichi Nakamoto
CONSOLES:
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (dec.2, 2006) [Model PAGJ]
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (mar.23, 2009) [Model PAGE]
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (jul.10, 2009) [Model PAGP]
Nintendo Wii U [Virtual Console] (nov.19, 2014) [Model PNWJ]
It was then released to the PlayStation Store as a PC-Engine Classic on jul.15, 2009 in Japan, and on apr.26, 2011 in North America.
PSN release ID: NPJJ-30001
PSN release ID: NPUF-30007
OTHERS:
Apple iPhone/iPad (dec.20, 2010) "TurboGrafx-16 GameBox [Model 406585960]"
Game's screenshots.
Game's ROM.
Game's description by Laurent Kermel; http://www.videogameden.com