Title: Bombuzal (JP), Kablooey (NA)
Release Date: 12/01/90 (JP)
Developer: Mirrorsoft
Publisher: Kemco
Background
While it is pretty easy to pick up a copy of Bombuzal, it is still, technically, a rare and little known title. Bombuzal is actually an American made game, developed by Anthony Crowther of Image Works, a US development house founded by Mirrorsoft, a UK developer. Crowther was one of those original game designers who started working and programming in the days of the Commodore 64, and actually Bombuzal is a port of a title created for that system. In fact, Bombuzal was created for most of the early computer based consoles, such as the Amiga, the Atari ST, and even an MS-DOS version was created. The publisher, Kemco, was a game publisher known for publishing either ports from other systems (they brought Daikatana to the N64...woof) or licensed games, as they have historically made games of some of those "second tier" licensed properties, such as Looney Toons, Treasure Trolls, and some of the more recent Batman games based off of the animated shows (they did Rise of Sin Tzu if you have played that "masterpiece").
Here is the original Commodore 64 box.
Gameplay
The actual gameplay is relatively short and sweet. The stages consist of a series of panels of varying types, and your character navigates them to blow up the spherical bombs that have been strewn about. In order to detonate a bomb, Kablooey must be standing on top of the bomb, and after setting the bomb off, he is only able to move one panel away. Most bombs are small, meaning that they only detonate the panel they are sitting on, yet if there is a bomb on the next panel over, they will detonate that one too, leading to a chain reaction. Here is a quick video of one of the simpler stages.
As well, the tiles on the stages all become quite varied as well, as there are ice tiles that can cause Kablooey to slip out of the arena, break-away tiles that are destroyed after being walked on, landmines that blow up if stepped on, and teleport tiles that carry Kablooey to a random part of the stage. Thus the game really becomes about the careful and methodical planning of both your chain of explosions and where you will be standing after you set the bombs off. Probably the most important sort of tile are the types that allow you to carry bombs along them (they look like lines that travel along panels on the ground) as these allow you to actually plan and construct your bomb combinations. The only catch with these tiles is the fact that you cannot carry a bomb past a tile that has another bomb on it, and many of the puzzles in the game are based around this idea (it reminds me of that ring puzzle from Dr. Quandary).
Anyone who was ever in an Elementary School in the 90's knows this game...
Well as far as puzzle games go, the game is fun, but I definitely wouldn't call it great. The game play is pretty solid and very challenging; this definitely is a thinking man's game. My only issue is that it is very unforgiving in its difficulty. A lot can kill poor old Kablooey: the bombs, land mines, in later levels randomly patrolling enemies (usually either a sphere or a trio of spheres), or even the time running out (this one will get you most of the time). Most of the time, your death in the game feels earned; you either made a mistake or you took too long figuring out the puzzle. No biggie, the game is forgiving enough to just let you continue from that level with a new crop of lives when you "Game Over" (and they have a solid password system too)
Oh but there was one type of death that I absolutely hated, and that was the accidentally walking off the panels. Sometimes, this is entirely your fault: you will either walk onto ice and slip off the platform, or you will teleport off the platform by walking onto the wrong transport switch to an already destroyed area. A lot of the times, though, you will fall off because of the questionable controls of the game. This happens because all the courses are set on a diagonal (isometric) plane rather than a vertical/horizontal plane, meaning that your controls are now skewed in a way that is counter-intuitive. For example, pressing down means moving down and left, while pressing up means moving up and right. The worst are the left and right buttons, as left is now up and left, while right means down and right.
Oh but there was one type of death that I absolutely hated, and that was the accidentally walking off the panels. Sometimes, this is entirely your fault: you will either walk onto ice and slip off the platform, or you will teleport off the platform by walking onto the wrong transport switch to an already destroyed area. A lot of the times, though, you will fall off because of the questionable controls of the game. This happens because all the courses are set on a diagonal (isometric) plane rather than a vertical/horizontal plane, meaning that your controls are now skewed in a way that is counter-intuitive. For example, pressing down means moving down and left, while pressing up means moving up and right. The worst are the left and right buttons, as left is now up and left, while right means down and right.
Basically the controls would follow the directions of this D-pad literally...
So most of the time, you will be trying to move in one direction, and Kablooey will just walk his blue ass off the arena and die. It is very frustrating when this happens late in the middle of a long puzzle; you have set up your bombs perfectly, and you are standing on your last bomb and trigger it, and when you go to walk off the bomb so that it ignites, you press the wrong direction and walk off the arena....WHOOPS start over. Sadly this happened to me a lot more than I would like to admit, but maybe that was just me. Perhaps this would have been easier on an old computer with a mouse and a keyboard (many of these early games couldn't make the jump from PC to console). I blame a bit of this on the fact that there really isn't a tutorial to this game that explains everything, except for an incredibly slooooow scrolling text on the main menu screen, but watching that scroll by and explain everything in the game takes about a good five minutes.
Thus a lot of the game is just left to trial and error. See a new panel or bomb? Go blow it up or step on it and see what happens. It might cost you a life, but this is probably the only way that you are going to learn anything.
Thus a lot of the game is just left to trial and error. See a new panel or bomb? Go blow it up or step on it and see what happens. It might cost you a life, but this is probably the only way that you are going to learn anything.
The other big problem of this game is that it really has no staying power. I will admit I had fun playing this game, but after about 15 or so stages (out of the games 130...yeah it is quite long), the game gets REALLY monotonous. There is only one or two color palettes to the game, so you will continually be greeted by stages that look exactly the same, and there is no real story to the game (it is literally just a collection of puzzles) so there is really no help there to keep you interested.
Any tasty licks?
The worst thing though, in my opinion, is the fact that the music NEVER changes. There is literally the main menu song and then the same song for throughout the ENTIRE 130 stage game. It isn't even a good song. Plus the voice of the "narrator" or announcer (whatever you call that robotic female voice) is very grating and poorly compressed.
Late Game Difficulty
By stage 15 the game was getting challenging but not overwhelmingly difficult, the stages just took a good bit of thinking, but when you get to the higher stages, around 50-75, the stages get punishingly difficult, as in so hard that the levels aren't even fun. I liken the levels in this game to cracking a rubix cube, in that in most stages you are literally looking for the one piece that can set up the rest of your explosions...it just takes a good while to find that one step. I will give the game credit as far as level design; apparently a lot of the stages were designed by the "celebrity" programmers and designers of that era, such as Jon Ritman (he made Match Day and Batman for the Commodore) and Geoff Crammond (known for his Formula 1 simulations), and you can see a good bit of "genius" in the level design. Some of the levels are quite interesting and intriguing in their answers; my favorite from my playthrough is the ice level with a string of bombs in a set pattern across the ice. Your first instinct as a player would be to just move from one bomb to the next as you travel across the set pattern, but this leaves you with no way to escape the blast at the end, so the actual solution is to first move along the whole pattern, and then blow the bombs up in reverse. It is a simple stage, but still one with an inspired design.
Any tasty licks?
The worst thing though, in my opinion, is the fact that the music NEVER changes. There is literally the main menu song and then the same song for throughout the ENTIRE 130 stage game. It isn't even a good song. Plus the voice of the "narrator" or announcer (whatever you call that robotic female voice) is very grating and poorly compressed.
Late Game Difficulty
By stage 15 the game was getting challenging but not overwhelmingly difficult, the stages just took a good bit of thinking, but when you get to the higher stages, around 50-75, the stages get punishingly difficult, as in so hard that the levels aren't even fun. I liken the levels in this game to cracking a rubix cube, in that in most stages you are literally looking for the one piece that can set up the rest of your explosions...it just takes a good while to find that one step. I will give the game credit as far as level design; apparently a lot of the stages were designed by the "celebrity" programmers and designers of that era, such as Jon Ritman (he made Match Day and Batman for the Commodore) and Geoff Crammond (known for his Formula 1 simulations), and you can see a good bit of "genius" in the level design. Some of the levels are quite interesting and intriguing in their answers; my favorite from my playthrough is the ice level with a string of bombs in a set pattern across the ice. Your first instinct as a player would be to just move from one bomb to the next as you travel across the set pattern, but this leaves you with no way to escape the blast at the end, so the actual solution is to first move along the whole pattern, and then blow the bombs up in reverse. It is a simple stage, but still one with an inspired design.
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| Geoff Crammond |
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| Jon Ritman |
How to make a Mascot immediately unlikeable
OH, and I just hate Kablooey's shit eating grin the entire game, especially when he blows up a bomb. I HATE IT! Look how happy he looks even when he is in a situation he is going to die. I just want him to wipe that stupid grin off his face! You are about to be immolated you dumbass!
God you're stupid...
Ads and Commercials?
I couldn't find a single commercial or advertisement for this title, so to make it up to you, here is a local commercial from 1984 selling Commodore 64s.
Yes Dick is crazy.
Final Verdict
Anywho...in the end, Bombuzal is a fun game, but one, like F-Zero, would be best enjoyed in small incremental bursts of playing...with the sound off...and a post-it over Kablooey...It is fun to pick up for a half hour and then put back down. It is like a crossword puzzle book, in that you can pick it up, complete a puzzle or two, and then come back to it later with a password to pick up where you left off.
As far as finding the game, it is not hard to find on Ebay or Amazon for just a couple bucks. I bought the game for $1 plus $3 dollars shipping. This one will definitely not break your wallet.
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