" Heck even if you don't like Bomberman or haven't played it before you damn well better give this one a try! "

      Title: Bomberman Online by Sega

      Format: Strategy/Puzzle game for Dreamcast

      Reviewing Monkey: Simi N.

      The Hype: Guide your Bomberman through the Bombalympics so you can get the five sacred gold medals and unlock the way to a Master Bomberman. It won't be easy though, you will have to use all of your skills and strategies in order to beat the five teams that oppose you! Drop your bombs and run for cover as you blow up the computer opponents, your friends, or even people you have never seen except on the internet in any of FIVE game modes. Whatever happens it is going to be insane!

      What This Monkey Thought...

      Graphics: This is so far the best-looking Bomberman game yet. The characters are all cell shaded which gives them a nice cartoonish look that goes very well with the rather hilarious anime-style intro movie. The backgrounds are not 3-d but are definitely complex with tons of moving objects and bright colorful textures to catch your eye and distract you from the game. But even though it has the great graphics the game managed to keeps the same feel that has been present ever since the very first Bomberman game. Bravo! In fact my only disappointment is that there is only one animation for a character getting blown up. Atomic Bomberman had tons of funny animations, and I think that they should have kept that aspect. 4.5 out of 5.

      Sound: The sound effects have always been important, and Hudson (the developer) has always done a good job with them in the past. This game is no different. The sounds are clean and crisp and short enough so that they don't interfere too much. The best part is listening to the explosions when you have a really powerful subwoofer. Anyway enough about the sound effects, the music in the game is pretty good too. This isn't the type of soundtrack that you are going to listen too by itself, as it is comprised mostly of generic techno songs, but it is certainly energetic, and unobtrusive. 4.5 out of 5.

      Playability: I think that this game plays smoother than all of the previous Bombermans that I have encountered. The character controls are easy and very responsive. But the best part about the Playability is that there are new game modes in this version. First you have your standard Survival Mode (last man standing wins), then there is Ring Match mode where you blast your opponents out of the ring, in the Hyper Bomber mode, you have to collect the three targets and then exit through the center gate, in Panel Paint mode you have to paint as much of the floor with your color by placing bombs, whoever has more of the floor covered with their color at the end wins, and finally the best of all is Submarine mode, where the bomb arena is split in two equal halves and when you plant a bomb it gets sent to the opposite side of the ring right before it explodes! With all of these modes, and an online capability, this game is amazing. 5 out of 5.

      Multiplayer and Replayability: What, you want multiplayer in a Bomberman game? Well you won't be disappointed! This game is the best Bomberman yet in terms of multiplayer as well. The reason? The four extra game modes! You and three of your friends (or 7 of them online) can go at it in any one of these modes in any of several arenas per mode! Not to mention that as you play through the one player mode, you unlock more options for your own personal character design for online play! Although I should point out that I haven't been able to actually play online yet I keep getting a message about the server being either down or maintained. Hopefully this is a temporary thing, but even if it is permanent this game is still insanely replayable. Once you get this game you will never be entirely finished playing it. 4.5 out of 5.

      Story/Dramatics: The story in this game has Bomberman training for the Bombalympics so he can obtain the five gold medals and unlock the way to a Master Bomberman. In order to get the five medals, however, he must defeat the opposing teams all by himself. It's a good enough story to warrant what happens in the game but I wouldn't expect there to be much more than that. 3 out of 5.

      The Verdict:

If you are a Bomberman fan this game will not let you down in any way! It is incredibly fun and any party game needs to have it in his collection. Heck even if you don't like Bomberman or haven't played it before you damn well better give this one a try!

      The Good: Good graphics, Awesome Game play, Sweet Multiplayer, FIVE game Modes!

      The Bad: I can't get the online play to work.

      The Overall Ugly: This is the Bomberman game to have, period.

      What it's Worth: Market plus at least $5.00.