As a child I was an avid user of my brother's Nintendo 64 console. He was much more in favour of 'shooting games' like GoldenEye, whereas I preferred multiplayer games, Bomberman being a personal favourite of mine. In the interest of fairness, my Mum would always ask my brother to allow me to play, and if he wanted to join in (which was rare, as he was a stubborn kid) while I had a turn playing.

Bomberman 64 is the first 3-D game within the Bomberman series. The amply named Bomberman 64 is a pretty simplistic game, with the idea being to use a bomb to blow up obstacles and blockades in the interest of eliminating enemies on a number of different arenas. If he didn't run away as fast as possible however, he too would go up in smoke. Other than obviously clearing pathways, the advantage of blowing up obstacles is that power up items appear from the wreck area, which are capable of helping or hindering your character.

Power-ups include:
- the kick boot (to throw the bomb forward)
- the glove (to chuck the bombs through the air, further)
- fire (to expand bombs blast area)
- extra bombs (obviously always welcome)
- the skull icon, which grants the formidable Bomberhea (gives a much more disruptive effect with each exposure)

Bomberman always has the ability to kick, pick up, and throw bombs which is how he attacks enemies and defends their attacks. Hearts act as 'power ups' but are a little different as say for example, your character is on the verge of dying, quickly running through a heart icon could potentially prolong his life, provided you then get away from what is presumably an ongoing attack.

The multiplayer challenges are lots of fun and always very addictive. Without a doubt, this is my favourite aspect of the game as it is most challenging and you are always persuaded to keep playing, or to come back at a later date. This is basically where you chase about opponents with the intention of blowing them up before a time limit runs out. My description does a poor job of demonstrating why this game would possibly be interesting, especially because the premise i.e. to bomb someone, sounds awful in the modern day, but you must consider that back in the 90s this was cutting edge, as were the graphics and background settings, and so the game was much more enjoyable than it may at first seem - provided you can overlook a lot of issues which are now only obvious because of modern technology acting as a point of comparison. Once you 'die' you are turned into a ghost figure with the ability to hop onto the backs of your opponents, slowing them down in the process.

Bomberman enters four different worlds (each come with a sub-boss) with a storyline (if you can call it that) that is very easy to follow, and easy to implement the correct actions needed to complete particular 'moves'. At the end of this, he must face a big 'baddie' who is intent on taking over the whole of Planet Bomber. The bosses use the same bomb attacks as Bomberman, so it is much more a case of strategy over ability. They each have individual moves (Artemis shoots fiery feathers, Orion blocks bombs and dizzy Bomberman with a dome shield, Regulus performs a straight gliding dash, Altair is much more complex and is able to transport and fire single projectiles).

Overall, this is very much a game that seemed much better as a child. That doesn't necessarily mean that it is somehow 'bad' or not worth playing, as it is very much a Nintendo 64 game, checking all of the boxes to make it a n64 classic. It is fun, addictive and fast paced, which as a child kept me entertained for ages. However, the graphics are understandably not as great as what we are used to now, and it can get a little repetitive completing the same moves and actions over and over.