For those that don’t know, Dynablaster is the Amiga version of the famous Hudson Soft game Bomberman, which has appeared on pretty much every generation of gaming devices since the Nintendo NES. Anyone unfamiliar with the franchise or the character’s needn’t worry – Dynablaster really is one of those “pick up and play” games. The objective is simple – lay bombs in order to clear away bricks, destroy enemies and uncover bonus tokens. And that really is it – the mazes never really increase in complexity beyond simple grids and there’s never really anything else to do apart from blow things up.
For those that don’t know, Dynablaster is the Amiga version of the famous Hudson Soft game Bomberman, which has appeared on pretty much every generation of gaming devices since the Nintendo NES. Anyone unfamiliar with the franchise or the character’s needn’t worry – Dynablaster really is one of those “pick up and play” games. The objective is simple – lay bombs in order to clear away bricks, destroy enemies and uncover bonus tokens. And that really is it – the mazes never really increase in complexity beyond simple grids and there’s never really anything else to do apart from blow things up. Bonus tokens allow you to lay more bombs, or bigger bombs, but that doesn’t really add much variety to the mix if you’re playing the game alone.
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it’s in multiplayer mode where Dynablaster really shines. The simplicity that makes the game tire quickly as a solo experience makes for fiendish competition when two or more people huddle around the screen. Up to five players can play simultaneously and this is where Dynablaster becomes one of the best multiplayer experiences on any system from any time. With bombs going off left, right and centre things quickly become chaotic and it’s all too easy to concentrate on what the other players are doing, only do find that you blocked yourself into a corner and there’s only a few seconds before that bomb you just placed goes boom. While the original Amiga version required use of a joystick splitter or two players squashed together to use the keyboard, modern emulators should allow you to plug in as many joy pads as your system’s USB bus will allow. And while buying a load of peripherals to play an abandon ware game would seem to defeat any sense of logic, it’s difficult to overstate just how much fun Dynablaster can be in multiplayer mode. Like all good party games it allows for wavering alliances, betrayals and the full gamut of human relationships, wrapped in the mechanics of little blobby men running around a maze.
As to this Amiga conversion, there’s little to differentiate it from any other version. The screen settings seem a little different than most Amiga games, as the coders use a non-standard screen resolution to replicate the feel of the original arcade machine. Some tweaking of the display settings in your emulator may be required, but that really shouldn’t put you off what is far and away one of the greatest multiplayer arcade games ever made.
This is the greatest game in the world. Without fail you need downloading it and enjoying this game!
