Full Review

31 March 2008 - Bomberman is back once again but can he work in yet another adventure on the DS? We got laying bombs to find out.

Bomberman Land Touch! 2 from Rising Star is broken down into three main areas: a story mode, a battle mode and something the game calls an attraction mode.

The battle mode is as it says on the tin, the chance to battle against seven other players to be crowned king of the hill. Here you can opt to play single player, multiplayer via an ad-hoc network or NFC for a worldwide experience.

With over 20 different arenas to master as well, all with different characteristics like conveyor belts or the ability to move faster, it's not going to be boring either and you can more easily set the rules and the number of humans versus bots at the press of a couple of buttons.

The story mode as you might expect is a single player game that sees you running around playing a host of mini-games and trying to solve puzzles along the way. To progress you have to complete these mini-games and they vary from taking a penalty shoot-out to avoiding bombs as you raft down a river. Think Pokemon, but instead of the battles you have small puzzles to solve.

The graphics have been vastly improved giving you a more isometric viewpoint and Bomberman Land Touch! 2 is now clearly a DS title rather than something that still looks like it could play quite nicely on the GBA.

Finally there is the attraction mode, which as you might have guessed is the ability to play all the mini-games without having to find them on the map in the single player mode. Of course at the beginning there won't be many to challenge you and these are opened up by that great trick of having to play the single player mode.

VERDICT
Bomberman Land Touch! 2 isn't a massive leap forward from the first outing on the DS but that doesn't mean it’s not good fun.

The multiplayer element is still the bit that is going to make you want to come back over and over again, although it is annoying that there isn't an option to stop the game once you've died rather than being forced to watch everyone else (i.e., the computer vs. computer) play on.

An improved single player element however, makes this one worth checking out.