I'm legitimately surprised they didn't try to make "Bomberman" into an acronym. "Bio-Organic Mega Blast-Explosive Reconnaissance Military ANdroid, code-named BOMBERMAN."
@@Ryda124 I think it's a design that would've worked better if the color/lighting perhaps tried to imitate the more colorful look of something like Halo as an example.
Yeah, everything seemed to just have this gritty attitude to it. Either it altered its artsyle to look closer to something like Halo, or everyone was donning black and sunglasses all Matrix-style.
The funniest part about Act: Zero was that it didn't even come across as "darker and edgier." It came across as an unaware parody, which y'know, completely undermines anything about it that could be considered dark or edgy
@@Cooldrew100 You mean heavily corporate-focused capitalism. Pleasing shareholders is not really in the purview of mom and pop shops and indie developers.
@@DinnerForkTongue That's actually the literal point of capitalism. You exchange goods and/or services for currency. Corporations are better examples of how capitalism can be exploited; by overwhelming people with money and taking advantage of them.
They really were ahead of the curve on all the wrong trends, be it the darker, edgier reboot made to pander to foreign markets or dismissing all criticism of the game as coming from a vocal minority of toxic trolls who aren't even real fans anyway or strictly online multiplayer in franchises which traditionally had local multiplayer.
@@joehayes9933 I hope they kind of soft retcon that by saying that is somehow a corrupt copy of Cortana and that the original one either is really dead or MIA. Though I think it just would've been better to have had the Didact somehow survive in Halo 4 and have him be the villain in 5 again, or or have the plot be closer to some of the advertisements (like the ones with Masterchief/Locke pointing guns at each other). Halo 5 as far as I'm concerned was only worth it for the multiplayer (the regular 4v4 stuff, warzone might as well be another dumpster fire in that game)
You know... they could really up the sales of hello kitty games with a gritty realistic cybernetic killer cat facelift. That’s what the kids will want from hello kitty. This I know for a fact.
@@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley It's quite funny how Retsuko came about entirely because the Sanrio company realised that Hello Kitty wasn't trending among older adults due to the disillusionment in the workforce and seeing it as 'somewhat hollow'. So they went on to make Aggretsuko and actually kind of hit that market hard with a semi-realistic take on the average life of a Salaryperson whilst also being funny. So yeah Aggretsuko could technically be a 'grim and gritty' reboot of Hello Kitty.
4-player local multiplayer sessions of Bomberman 2 on the Super Famicom were among the most fun experiences I've had with any game ever. They could have violated the Bomberman characters any way they wanted, if the gameplay had been fun, it might have been alright. But alas, no local multiplayer?
"This series previously appealed to younger audiences and uses an arcade-style of gameplay, now that we're rebooting the series, how do you think we should redesign the main characters?" "How about BDSM cyborgs?"
@@KryptKicker5 It dropped the moths as well. Honestly though it was pretty faithful and actually really good. Very classic RE "I have to find x item to get y location." 3? Yeah, 3 was disappointing.
@@dereknight861 Agreed, and because of that, Shadow the Hedgehog is looked at FAR more fondly despite its flaws. In fact, some people, including myself, would still like to see a sequel with better game design, keeping everything it got right like the multiple paths. Maybe it could be open world like a darker Sonic Adventure 1 and include dialogue options similar to Mass Effect and Telltale Games while simultaneously keeping the charm of the mainline Sonic games. Also, Jason Griffith needs to come back as Shadow, and we need to get back to the old Shadow character, ditching his bullshit Vegeta personality. Say what you want about the Griffith era, but regardless of how much better Humphrey was, Griffith was still really good for the character regardless, as his voice was more soothing than Silver's, at least.
Plus, if you were able to get through all 99 levels, you get an ending that would be embarrassing as a cutscene. Also, The floors have zero visual variety! All the same. The games on the super nintendo had all these creative battle stages with moving floors or mushrooms you can jump over. It really shows that there was mininmal content in this game. You have seen the entire content the game has to offer once you play a single level.
There was a major turning point were western developers started making games just a well reserved as games from Japan. So, like anyone in a entertainment business, tried to jump in that money-train only to fall.
Because they didn’t see us as the audience they wanted anymore. They wanted to attract the enormous amount of new American gamers that had sprung up in the sixth generation. For the first time there were more Americans gamers buying video games than Japanese gamers so typical business logic states that you should try and profit off of this new audience. Companies like Capcom and Hudson obviously looked at the top selling Xbox games (which only sold well in the west) they saw games like Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Call of a Duty, Splinter Cell and thought they could appeal to their demographic by taking already successful IPs and altering them to be more in line with what they thought American tastes were (dark and gritty military themed dark sci-fi) but all they really managed to do was alienate both their old fans and the potential new ones. Old fans would be upset because it’s not the series they fell in love with and new customers would be unwilling to buy these products because they looked soulless and bland.
I feel like there’s a major problem with the game you didn’t acknowledge. The characters and the backgrounds were both rendered in dark muted colors so in this game about situational awareness you can’t actually see the bombers. Yeah there are the floating health bars but that’s a pretty weak solution to a fundamental problem with the game.
I had this game and couldn't get past level 8 or 9. It was WAY too hard. That one phrase is forever etched into my mind... "YOU ARE ALIVE. GET TO THE NEXT STAGE. "
Metroid: Other M needs to have a What Happun? because that suffered with it's controversial changes of the character and Team Ninja want to wash their hands of that game
There are rumors that TEAM NINJA, you know, the auteurs of Dead or Alive in all it's fetish fueled branches thought some decisions by Sakamoto were too much when making Samus into a girly girl. I doubt that's the case, but if it was...let that sink in.
@@scissorman44 Yeah and Samus' voice performance was so dull in that game was also criticized was more a result of Executive Meddling on Sakamoto's part, as a poor attempt to make her sound like a stoic character (which is considered badass in Japan, but comes off more like a veteran with PSTD to the West).
Yoshio Sakamoto wrote the story so it would be the best title in the franchise from the narrative perspective and to make Samus a truly developed, rounded and sympathetic character. The result was the most vilified entry in the entire series. Reviews were very mixed and the game became an outright flop in the West. And although the sale numbers amongst the intended Japanese audience certainly was better, they ultimately fell short of Nintendo's expectations. But the icing on the cake is the fact that in many places it has even become an illustrative example of how NOT to write a story and female characters in a video game...
@@scissorman44 No, that was completely the case. It was well known that Sakamoto didn't like Primes take on his character even though it sold well and he felt it was too westernized so he made it so Other M appealed to a more Japanese audience who preferred the kind of female character that was presented in Other M. It only came at the cost of alienating the majority of the people who buy Metroid.
@@fieryrebirth It wasn't just because Samus was written like a baby-obsessed lobotomy victim. There was also Adam, "the perfect military mind" and "the closest thing [Samus] had to a father" who would lock every door she went through, not authorize the Varia Suit the moment it would've been crucial and effectively tazed Samus when she came across a metroid hatchling because... we needed yet another cutscene about how perfect and right he was and Samus was in the perfect prone position to elevate him. Adam was the worst.
You were a tester for years. In the ME:A video you put a value on the virtical slice. Here you brought up situational awareness. I'm appreciating all these Agile and Lean concepts in all your videos even if they are subliminal. Each one is both incredibly entertaining but also excruciatingly cautionary. To the point where I've been trying to subtly socialize them to my team. Great, incredible stuff here thanks for all that you do.
I will never understand why Japanese media companies try to make stuff that appeals to Western audiences without trying to find out what Western audiences actually like.
colBoh Isn't it what most companies do nowadays? Headphone jack removal, built-in batteries, one-two USB ports on laptops, Star Farce Episode 9, Star Dreck Discovery? They don't listen to what their customers want. At all.
@@shadowflash705 When you're making art for a living, there is a fundamental balance you have to strike: Do you aim to make art that offers something for everybody, or do you aim to make art that offers everything to somebody. If you focus too much on pleasing everybody, you risk making something that's bland and uninteresting, but if you make something too strange or interesting, you might REALLY resonate with a small group of fans, but alienate everyone else. Unfortunately, when you're making things with $100mil. budgets, the only fiscally responsible option is to err on the side of blandness. Giant projects like this have investors who all expect a return on investment. They have hundreds or thousands of people who work on them who need to be paid. Giant mega-corporations can't afford to rely on their small niche fan bases to support them. They need a huge turnout from general audiences. That means watering down the property so that it is as inoffensive as possible to the most amount of people. It means taking away anything interesting or challenging that might alienate some people. It means playing it safe. It means market research, and focus groups. It means eliminating any risks. It means investors, and shareholders, and board members, and bean counters, and advertisers are making CREATIVE decisions about the product. It means committee thinking. It means hedging your bets. It means too many cooks in the kitchen. like, did you know that Star Trek Discovery has 23 FREAKING PRODUCERS?! There's too much money riding on that show for CBS to trust a single person (With a singular artistic vision) with it. As a result, it's a tonal mess with a million and one plot holes. Media companies aren't too dumb, or too stubborn, or too hubristic to make the art that their fans want - They're too risk averse. They're too hamstrung by the realities mega-market entertainment to actually be free to do it. The problem is that modern capitalism incentivizes efficiency and blandness over quality every time. Giving diehard fans what they want just isn't profitable enough to keep their shareholders satisfied.
@@johnnykavooras2954 See what happened to Okami. That could be a Wha Happun but also a very sad one. Okami was a huge commercial failure when it came out. As in it killed the studio levels of failure. Thankfully, the game was re-released on PS3 and Steam. And yes, you can use a drawing tablet as a controller. Anyway, SoberDwarf has a good video on Wha Happun to Okami ruclips.net/video/7ntekyOAiVM/видео.html
Bomberman: Act Zero is exactly like what happened with the Ninja Gaiden reboot series. Though the talent Itagaki had left after part 2 they completely trashed the hardcore difficulty in Ninja Gaiden 3 to quick time events, one weapon only and a very pointless multiplayer mode for a mostly single player game. All cause they wanted this weird asf sensation to make the player feel like what it is "TO CUT SOMEONE"??.... Then release the Ninja Gaiden 3 Razors edge later as a apology but it was 2 little and 2 late. Please Matt cover Ninja Gaiden 3.
@@battlion507 oh man. The follow up after Ninja Gaiden 3 which it was a spinoff but it didn't do any justice after the backlash of NG3 it just made it seem more dark that they even cared anymore about Ryu Hayabusa but him appearing only in Dead or Alive games now. 😑
@@rudeboyspodcast I wanted to also. I actually have a statue figure of Ryu Hayabusa and than I do a really big sigh of sadness after listening to the great soundtracks of NG reboot 1 and 2. Now just a old memory of when Ninja Gaiden was the hardest game before Dark Souls is all people talk about. 😴
Honestly, the better move to make a "gritty" Bomberman was just take the unused lines from Atomic Bomberman and use it as a baseline to make a Conker-style game instead of a generic realistic aesthetic.
While the failure of this game was obvious, what would have been the name of the unlikely sequel? "Bomberman Act: One - Alpha" "Bomberman Two - Omega" "Bomberman III - Delta Force"
Bomberman Act Zero flopped on the sales charts, failed to become a cult hit, and will not be able to retain relevancy with its online-only multiplayer; it has turned out to be a failure... but it's still anyone's game!
"Go play with your Hello Kitty toys!" Ok I will. At least they don't look as gloomy and disgustingly depressing, and I can play with my neighbor locally By the by, have you ever considered making a video on House of the Dead Overkill?
@@mariic2 Remember, the show is about troubled development, not bad games. A game could be downright godly, but if it had a troubled development cycle, it's getting dragged onto the stage. Just look at Doom 2016.
Question: If John Bombermanactzero only fights with and against bombs, how'd he get those big scars over his eyes? Did he trip and hit his face on the way to the Bomb Factory?
If someone actually showed _this_ to shareholders, who I'm assuming as Hudson Soft shareholders would probably have at least a passing familiarity with Bomberman, how in Hell was this supposed to _please_ them? People got pissed off at Miyamoto for giving Mario _a water jetpack,_ how do you think fundamentally transforming Mario into a malformed idiot like the Bombers in Act: Zero would have gone over!?
I mean, yeah, the aesthetic is shit. But hey, “It’s still anyone’s game!” Seriously, Proton Jon’s videos make this game look like the most esports thing.
Even the bird's-eye point of view suffers, because everything is so gritty it is hard to identify players in the maze. You are a minuscule dot of dust in a grey maze, so you end up looking at the arrows anyway
Wonder what was more memorable: The “realistic” 3D robot in an apocalyptic world or... a Hello Kitty toy? Yeah I’m not how much martini the post got, but there’s nothing wrong with cute x.x Heck, Smash uses that design for his assist trophy, so even Nintendo knows which design was better!
Late post, but Konami, as problematic as they are, long since abandoned that "reboot" after buying out Hudson and as shown at the end of the video, return to using traditional Bomberman.
"Bomb puns! Cuz Bomberman!!" - truer words have never been spoken. Ahh, the days when my dorm buddies got together for sessions of Saturn Bomberman (with the multitap) and all the Bomb puns happened constantly. Love the delivery at 0:25
The beginning of the Wii/XBOX 360/PlayStation 3 era was very rough. That transition to HD was no joke. But with that said it really hit its stride in 2007. Halo 3, Gears of War 2, Bioshock, Assassin’s Creed, Super Mario Galaxy, and Call of Duty 4 all came out that year. Then the next year we got GTA 4. It was such a great era when it finally hit its stride.
@The Accidental Hipster They looked so similar, I really couldnt tell the difference. But you are right, that one edgy Megaman game was the one i was thinking of. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
@@MusicoftheDamned I looked it up and realized there are two games that have "Maverick Hunter" in the name. I was thinking of "Mega Man Maverick Hunter X" which is the PSP remake of MMX and has a bonus mode where you play as Vile. I'd completely forgotten about the concept codenamed just "Maverick Hunter" which was a FPS with that Ultron-looking redesign of X.
I was design lead on Bomberman Battlefest back on the day, and even then they were still very concerned about western appeal and really wanted us to find some gimmick to make the game more hardcore. I found this pretty confusing, as they had a formula that worked that people loved and in this situation it didn't seem at all unreasonable to me to give the existing fan-base more of what they already like. In my view the real new features were some really interesting and active stage gimmicks that were substantially more involved than the previous title had. Also, we had to make the game's engine multi-platform, which was no small thing in and of itself. Anyway, eventually we pitched a game mode where you could earn money from killing other players and winning rounds, and spend this at the start of the next round to buy powerup items of your choice. This was kind of like Counterstrike, and hey, that's hardcore, right? That checked the box for them, and in practice was an interesting alternative mode of play that people liked - in-house at least. Unfortunately while we had the game finished on all three consoles at the time (360, PS3, and Wii), Hudson went out of business right around when the 360 version hit shelves. The PS3 and Wii versions never got released. Also they stopped paying their invoices so our company went out of business, too.
I notice the idea of "Westernization" seems to be a reoccurring theme here on this show. Don't these game companies bother learning from each other's mistakes?
I remember skimming the Wikipedia page and apparently one major criticism was that one critic thought that both avatars were oversexualized. You know it's bad when people are bitching about a _male_ design being too sexual.
I for one advocate for more games to take this route. If the women get sexualized, so do the men. That way, everyone has something to hate and/or ogle!
At one of my birthday parties we got a 4-way splitter for my SNES and played eachother in bomberman all night, it fucking ruled. Rest in piece lil bomber person.
I mean, would you honestly be surprised if someday Sanrio came and said they made the original Bomberman design? I would believe it, seems right up their alley, if a tad distanced from their usual character designs.
Well, Konami. Konami happened. It’s clear that, as good as parts of MGSV were, Kojima was stymied by Konami, and he was unable to complete the game to his satisfaction. I suspect he got 50% of the way there before Konami told him “wrap this up with what you’ve got, we’re denying you almost any further resources and we are going to make your life a living hell until you finish the game and then drive you out!”.
Thx for the review. I was in the store with a second hand copy of this game in my hand while holding my phone in the other, watching your review. I put the game back after watching your review :)
This game is a trainwreck but I've watched Proton Jon stream it a lot and I've come to find some kind of charm in it. The multiplayer DOES have a sense of chaotic fun to it, in part because of some of the ridiculous power ups it has (infinite bombs plus line bomb, anyone), and I think with a bit more love and care it could have really turned out decent.
13:26 So Serpentor was working for Hudson at the time...that might explain a lot. In any case they might as well have just released another Atomic Bomberman. At least the characters there would have looked closer to our favorite original Bombermen.
Or ANY nation for that matter, i mean Marvel wanted to win the Japan and weeb audience by releasing Mangaverse......and it was and went as good as it sounds
@@ironmaster6496 I agree. Trying to appeal to the East would be uneffective too, because of the rising of portable gaming. Even though the PS4 today is selling better than the Xbox One on the West, the numbers against portables like Nintendo Switch, 3DS and even Vita surpassed easily any home console. That is why today the console division of Sony is very "American" compared to before.
Some people actually do still play this game though. Proto jon used to hold tournaments and game night of this game all the time. So some people did like the game play and life bars. But thats just an opinion.
Hey man i've been watching your videos for a while now and they have definitely helped get me through the rough times i've had during this pandemic and i even loved the episode of AVGN that you were on as well because i hadn't gotten to the final fight streetwise episode so that made it even more fun to watch. But the one thing i love the most are all of the simpsons and wwe references. Keep up the great work.
if we want the real bomberman expierence we should make a petition for a port of Bombergirl arcade game, now that's a real deal *starts to cry in a corner*
I know you probably only cover games that actually released, but I would like to see you cover the four Mega Man games that got cancelled back to back in 2010. Mega Man Universe Maverick Hunter Mega Man Legends 3 And Rockman Online
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm legitimately surprised they didn't try to make "Bomberman" into an acronym.
"Bio-Organic Mega Blast-Explosive Reconnaissance Military ANdroid, code-named BOMBERMAN."
@@ezg8448 Ha, "sequel"
Lucas Cyr The end credits clearly said to be continued so they intended to make one.
Bio-Organic Mega Blast-Explosive Reconnaissance Military Android, Ninja... because why not
They probably would've if Codename: Kids Next Door hadn't existed.
Damn, that's good.
Apparently, the game’s artstyle is so unappealing and forgettable that the thumbnail simply uses the classic Bomberman design. Good
A nice touch, to be sure.
There's super Bomberman
Bomberman b damen
Bomberman jetterz
Bomberman land
And now R
@@Ryda124 Honestly, i agree. Had they been used in a different, original franchise, I doubt many would have complained.
@@Ryda124 I think it's a design that would've worked better if the color/lighting perhaps tried to imitate the more colorful look of something like Halo as an example.
OG Bomberboi's here to talk about his heroin-addict little brother's descent into madness
When you bow to the shareholders, you'll moon the fans.
Literally.
And then they’ll kick you in the ass.
Facts
Fucking words of wisdom right here
This how the corporate world works
oh yeah the mid-2000’s where the dark & gritty artstyle was overused in the gaming industry
Its as if the EXTREEEME of the 90s had its personality and fun ripped out just keeping the violence and edgyness.
Yeah, everything seemed to just have this gritty attitude to it. Either it altered its artsyle to look closer to something like Halo, or everyone was donning black and sunglasses all Matrix-style.
At least hindsight gives us the opportunity to appreciate how No More Heroes lampooned the whole idea so effectively
Bionicle 06 in a nutshell
Animal Crossing Wild Word, Rated M for mature.
Look at how they massacred my boy...
Seriously
He’s fine now tho
@@snoopsq.527 "I got better!"
ah he's fine nowadays in Super Bomberman R.
Bomber man had a hard tradition to 3D....and he's sexy and he knowns it.
The funniest part about Act: Zero was that it didn't even come across as "darker and edgier." It came across as an unaware parody, which y'know, completely undermines anything about it that could be considered dark or edgy
It looks like a third party bomberman knockoff
@@its_uh_bella No joke, the first time I saw the game I thought it was a knockoff.
What would that flying Gundam-looking guy from Bomberman 64 look like in this art style?
I said can say the same for shadow the hedgehog
@@Doc_Trancy put some respect on shadow name😤
“... overwhelming need to please [the] shareholders-“
That seems to be a running theme with most of these Wha Happun’s...
Those Strippers , whores and cocaine aren't cheap you know!
@@Cooldrew100 You mean heavily corporate-focused capitalism. Pleasing shareholders is not really in the purview of mom and pop shops and indie developers.
@@Temporal94
Mom and pop shops and indie developers aren't the point of capitalism either.
Shareholders: "What the fuck is this!?"
@@DinnerForkTongue That's actually the literal point of capitalism. You exchange goods and/or services for currency. Corporations are better examples of how capitalism can be exploited; by overwhelming people with money and taking advantage of them.
They really were ahead of the curve on all the wrong trends, be it the darker, edgier reboot made to pander to foreign markets or dismissing all criticism of the game as coming from a vocal minority of toxic trolls who aren't even real fans anyway or strictly online multiplayer in franchises which traditionally had local multiplayer.
EatWave they were trying to warn us. We should have listened
How little time has changed.
EatWave That last bit made me think of Halo 5. Who tf thought it was a good idea to remove splitscreen from Halo?
@@glitchman1272 and make Cortana evil
@@joehayes9933 I hope they kind of soft retcon that by saying that is somehow a corrupt copy of Cortana and that the original one either is really dead or MIA. Though I think it just would've been better to have had the Didact somehow survive in Halo 4 and have him be the villain in 5 again, or or have the plot be closer to some of the advertisements (like the ones with Masterchief/Locke pointing guns at each other). Halo 5 as far as I'm concerned was only worth it for the multiplayer (the regular 4v4 stuff, warzone might as well be another dumpster fire in that game)
Joke's on them, I've got a rare copy of Hello Kitty: Act Zero
You know... they could really up the sales of hello kitty games with a gritty realistic cybernetic killer cat facelift. That’s what the kids will want from hello kitty. This I know for a fact.
@@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley It's quite funny how Retsuko came about entirely because the Sanrio company realised that Hello Kitty wasn't trending among older adults due to the disillusionment in the workforce and seeing it as 'somewhat hollow'. So they went on to make Aggretsuko and actually kind of hit that market hard with a semi-realistic take on the average life of a Salaryperson whilst also being funny. So yeah Aggretsuko could technically be a 'grim and gritty' reboot of Hello Kitty.
Lol , well , now I kinda want a Hello Kitty / "edgy" BM inspired mash up type game. For 💩 and giggles
This game looks like a Bomberman game with stolen Unity assets.
That'd probably have more appeal than Bomberman: Act Zero.
Brawl
Nintendo Switch
BETTER THAN THAT...THING
>This game looks like a Bomberman game
Not really.
Captain Blopsi Bombdere Simulator
Digital Homicide presents: Bomberman
Let’s take a moment to appreciate that the correct version of Bomberman made it into Smash as an assist trophy.
Still think he should've been a playable character outright, but eh.
As someone who LOVED the Bomeberman games as a kid, this game actually hurt me :(
couldn't agree more :(
4-player local multiplayer sessions of Bomberman 2 on the Super Famicom were among the most fun experiences I've had with any game ever.
They could have violated the Bomberman characters any way they wanted, if the gameplay had been fun, it might have been alright. But alas, no local multiplayer?
I never expected to see you if all people here lol.
Go back and play with your hello kitty toys
Not exactly a Bomberman fan, but this....is not the edgy upgrades he got. It feels more like shallow pandering
B I G
F A T
A N I M E Y
T I D D I E S
Bombergirl has those ;)
13:25 Wow, this makes "cry like an anime fan on prom night" seem subdued and nuanced. I'm not even mad, that's impressive!
"This series previously appealed to younger audiences and uses an arcade-style of gameplay, now that we're rebooting the series, how do you think we should redesign the main characters?"
"How about BDSM cyborgs?"
The trend to make everything gritty and edgy, unfortunately, still persists in smaller doses today, but now with the added phrase:
"Realism".
Except nobody’s doing huge reboots of old IPs and adding realism that nobody wanted like back then
Games, besides the REmakes that work because of care, movies and TV on the other hand still do it.
@@KryptKicker5 It dropped the moths as well. Honestly though it was pretty faithful and actually really good. Very classic RE "I have to find x item to get y location." 3? Yeah, 3 was disappointing.
@@GenerationWest ugh...
@@its_uh_bella Umm DCEU?
So this is the era that Shadow the Hedgehog video game came from.
The 2000's entirely was the "edgy" decade.
That needs fo bw the next Wha Happun
@@dereknight861 Agreed, and because of that, Shadow the Hedgehog is looked at FAR more fondly despite its flaws. In fact, some people, including myself, would still like to see a sequel with better game design, keeping everything it got right like the multiple paths.
Maybe it could be open world like a darker Sonic Adventure 1 and include dialogue options similar to Mass Effect and Telltale Games while simultaneously keeping the charm of the mainline Sonic games.
Also, Jason Griffith needs to come back as Shadow, and we need to get back to the old Shadow character, ditching his bullshit Vegeta personality. Say what you want about the Griffith era, but regardless of how much better Humphrey was, Griffith was still really good for the character regardless, as his voice was more soothing than Silver's, at least.
LMAO
@@blaacksugar7714 Not just for video games - some movies also went a somewhat edgier route, like Grinch and Scooby-Doo.
ProtonJon's streams of this game are the sole source of joy that anyone has ever felt over Bomberman: Ground Zeros.
Plus, if you were able to get through all 99 levels, you get an ending that would be embarrassing as a cutscene.
Also, The floors have zero visual variety! All the same. The games on the super nintendo had all these creative battle stages with moving floors or mushrooms you can jump over.
It really shows that there was mininmal content in this game. You have seen the entire content the game has to offer once you play a single level.
bomberman 64 was so much better than this shit lol
What's the ending?
@@cdru515 Basically an image of the cover art with "you're winner!" on the front if I remember correctly
Why did Japanese devs keep making westernized games when we werent buying their games for a western experience.
Because some thought the Japanese market was dead. Inafune was infamous(beside mighty no. 9) for saying stuff like Japanese gaming is dead.
There was a major turning point were western developers started making games just a well reserved as games from Japan. So, like anyone in a entertainment business, tried to jump in that money-train only to fall.
Metal Wolf Chaos tho but that game never made it outside of Japan despite being Murica af and having full English voice acting.
Because they didn’t see us as the audience they wanted anymore. They wanted to attract the enormous amount of new American gamers that had sprung up in the sixth generation. For the first time there were more Americans gamers buying video games than Japanese gamers so typical business logic states that you should try and profit off of this new audience.
Companies like Capcom and Hudson obviously looked at the top selling Xbox games (which only sold well in the west) they saw games like Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Call of a Duty, Splinter Cell and thought they could appeal to their demographic by taking already successful IPs and altering them to be more in line with what they thought American tastes were (dark and gritty military themed dark sci-fi) but all they really managed to do was alienate both their old fans and the potential new ones. Old fans would be upset because it’s not the series they fell in love with and new customers would be unwilling to buy these products because they looked soulless and bland.
Because Grand Theft Auto showed that you can make mad cash appealing to western gamers and everyone wanted some. It was pretty much the gold rush
I feel like there’s a major problem with the game you didn’t acknowledge. The characters and the backgrounds were both rendered in dark muted colors so in this game about situational awareness you can’t actually see the bombers. Yeah there are the floating health bars but that’s a pretty weak solution to a fundamental problem with the game.
Yeah, the art direction and presentation wasn’t just in bad taste but also interfered with the game in things like this.
I had this game and couldn't get past level 8 or 9. It was WAY too hard.
That one phrase is forever etched into my mind...
"YOU ARE ALIVE. GET TO THE NEXT STAGE. "
Why are you wasting your time on RUclips? You are alive! get to the next stage!
Truly, words to live by.
Metroid: Other M needs to have a What Happun? because that suffered with it's controversial changes of the character and Team Ninja want to wash their hands of that game
There are rumors that TEAM NINJA, you know, the auteurs of Dead or Alive in all it's fetish fueled branches thought some decisions by Sakamoto were too much when making Samus into a girly girl.
I doubt that's the case, but if it was...let that sink in.
@@scissorman44 Yeah and Samus' voice performance was so dull in that game was also criticized was more a result of Executive Meddling on Sakamoto's part, as a poor attempt to make her sound like a stoic character (which is considered badass in Japan, but comes off more like a veteran with PSTD to the West).
Yoshio Sakamoto wrote the story so it would be the best title in the franchise from the narrative perspective and to make Samus a truly developed, rounded and sympathetic character. The result was the most vilified entry in the entire series. Reviews were very mixed and the game became an outright flop in the West. And although the sale numbers amongst the intended Japanese audience certainly was better, they ultimately fell short of Nintendo's expectations. But the icing on the cake is the fact that in many places it has even become an illustrative example of how NOT to write a story and female characters in a video game...
@@scissorman44 No, that was completely the case. It was well known that Sakamoto didn't like Primes take on his character even though it sold well and he felt it was too westernized so he made it so Other M appealed to a more Japanese audience who preferred the kind of female character that was presented in Other M. It only came at the cost of alienating the majority of the people who buy Metroid.
@@fieryrebirth It wasn't just because Samus was written like a baby-obsessed lobotomy victim. There was also Adam, "the perfect military mind" and "the closest thing [Samus] had to a father" who would lock every door she went through, not authorize the Varia Suit the moment it would've been crucial and effectively tazed Samus when she came across a metroid hatchling because... we needed yet another cutscene about how perfect and right he was and Samus was in the perfect prone position to elevate him. Adam was the worst.
I bought this game when it was first released, fifty bucks I believe and boy was I ticked off. I ended up using it as a coaster.
Man, bloody roar series really need more love
When I first saw the thumbnail, I thought "What's wrong with Super Bomberman R?" Then I read the title and thought: "Oh yeah, that trainwreck."
You were a tester for years. In the ME:A video you put a value on the virtical slice. Here you brought up situational awareness. I'm appreciating all these Agile and Lean concepts in all your videos even if they are subliminal. Each one is both incredibly entertaining but also excruciatingly cautionary. To the point where I've been trying to subtly socialize them to my team. Great, incredible stuff here thanks for all that you do.
I will never understand why Japanese media companies try to make stuff that appeals to Western audiences without trying to find out what Western audiences actually like.
colBoh Isn't it what most companies do nowadays? Headphone jack removal, built-in batteries, one-two USB ports on laptops, Star Farce Episode 9, Star Dreck Discovery? They don't listen to what their customers want. At all.
@@shadowflash705 When you're making art for a living, there is a fundamental balance you have to strike: Do you aim to make art that offers something for everybody, or do you aim to make art that offers everything to somebody. If you focus too much on pleasing everybody, you risk making something that's bland and uninteresting, but if you make something too strange or interesting, you might REALLY resonate with a small group of fans, but alienate everyone else.
Unfortunately, when you're making things with $100mil. budgets, the only fiscally responsible option is to err on the side of blandness. Giant projects like this have investors who all expect a return on investment. They have hundreds or thousands of people who work on them who need to be paid.
Giant mega-corporations can't afford to rely on their small niche fan bases to support them. They need a huge turnout from general audiences. That means watering down the property so that it is as inoffensive as possible to the most amount of people. It means taking away anything interesting or challenging that might alienate some people. It means playing it safe. It means market research, and focus groups. It means eliminating any risks. It means investors, and shareholders, and board members, and bean counters, and advertisers are making CREATIVE decisions about the product. It means committee thinking. It means hedging your bets. It means too many cooks in the kitchen.
like, did you know that Star Trek Discovery has 23 FREAKING PRODUCERS?! There's too much money riding on that show for CBS to trust a single person (With a singular artistic vision) with it. As a result, it's a tonal mess with a million and one plot holes.
Media companies aren't too dumb, or too stubborn, or too hubristic to make the art that their fans want - They're too risk averse. They're too hamstrung by the realities mega-market entertainment to actually be free to do it. The problem is that modern capitalism incentivizes efficiency and blandness over quality every time. Giving diehard fans what they want just isn't profitable enough to keep their shareholders satisfied.
@@johnnykavooras2954 See what happened to Okami. That could be a Wha Happun but also a very sad one.
Okami was a huge commercial failure when it came out. As in it killed the studio levels of failure.
Thankfully, the game was re-released on PS3 and Steam. And yes, you can use a drawing tablet as a controller.
Anyway, SoberDwarf has a good video on Wha Happun to Okami ruclips.net/video/7ntekyOAiVM/видео.html
Okay but what does the west like? That's the issue
Okay but what does the west like? That's the issue
Bomberman: Act Zero is exactly like what happened with the Ninja Gaiden reboot series. Though the talent Itagaki had left after part 2 they completely trashed the hardcore difficulty in Ninja Gaiden 3 to quick time events, one weapon only and a very pointless multiplayer mode for a mostly single player game. All cause they wanted this weird asf sensation to make the player feel like what it is "TO CUT SOMEONE"??.... Then release the Ninja Gaiden 3 Razors edge later as a apology but it was 2 little and 2 late. Please Matt cover Ninja Gaiden 3.
Oh fuck, how did I forget about Ninja Gaiden 3? I feel like I blocked that game out of my memory and now I regret remembering it
And what do you think of Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z whatever the heck it's called?
@@battlion507 oh man. The follow up after Ninja Gaiden 3 which it was a spinoff but it didn't do any justice after the backlash of NG3 it just made it seem more dark that they even cared anymore about Ryu Hayabusa but him appearing only in Dead or Alive games now. 😑
@@rudeboyspodcast I wanted to also. I actually have a statue figure of Ryu Hayabusa and than I do a really big sigh of sadness after listening to the great soundtracks of NG reboot 1 and 2. Now just a old memory of when Ninja Gaiden was the hardest game before Dark Souls is all people talk about. 😴
And Razor's Edge was _also_ mess but in different ways. See: Alchemists (the guys in the robes that threw LEGO bricks at you).
Honestly, the better move to make a "gritty" Bomberman was just take the unused lines from Atomic Bomberman and use it as a baseline to make a Conker-style game instead of a generic realistic aesthetic.
Bomberman 2 on DS was edgy too, but still somewhat cute.
The failure of Bomberman: Act Zero sadly deprived us of more classic arcade dark and gritty reboots. Edgy FPS Dig-Dug would've been AMAZING.
While the failure of this game was obvious, what would have been the name of the unlikely sequel?
"Bomberman Act: One - Alpha"
"Bomberman Two - Omega"
"Bomberman III - Delta Force"
I think at the ending of the game they actually say the name of the unreleased sequel.
Edit: Yeah, it was called "Bomberman: The Genesis".
@@ShayminPunk64 It's literally what it says at the end of the credits.
@@TheAmazingSpiderPunk "Bomberman: Delta force VII - Redemption"
"Bomberman: Delta Forces (2019)"
Bomberman Act: Zero 2 Chapter 2.7 Part One Part Two Finale Full HD Remixed Remastered.
Bomberman Act Two: Dystopian Boogaloo
Bomberman Act Zero flopped on the sales charts, failed to become a cult hit, and will not be able to retain relevancy with its online-only multiplayer; it has turned out to be a failure... but it's still anyone's game!
Atleast this didn't kill the franchise
Unlike some who never got to see another chance again
@Robin Robin Well that's a yikes
@@sgatcha1443 Well, they're making a Bomber Girl now, so...
That's a lot of words to say "Bloody Roar". I miss that game, man
"Go play with your Hello Kitty toys!"
Ok I will. At least they don't look as gloomy and disgustingly depressing, and I can play with my neighbor locally
By the by, have you ever considered making a video on House of the Dead Overkill?
I thought Overkill was actually good.
@@mariic2 Remember, the show is about troubled development, not bad games. A game could be downright godly, but if it had a troubled development cycle, it's getting dragged onto the stage. Just look at Doom 2016.
"You smack talkers....put your money where your mouth is!" Yeah, on SOMETHING ELSE
I kept seeing copies of Bomberman: Act Zero on the shelves at EB Games back then, always gave me a laugh.
90's = Radical redesigns
00's = Gritty redesigns
10's = Socially aware redesigns
20's = ???
Fascist Shrimp Redesigns
Birds.
6 foot distanced gameplay
What do you mean by "socially aware redesigns"?
@@spike1000 Redsigns with a focus on inclusivity. Basically, I wanted to say woke without giving the impression that I see it as a negative.
And here I thought insulting fans when they give criticism of bad decisions by the company was a relatively new concept.
Question: If John Bombermanactzero only fights with and against bombs, how'd he get those big scars over his eyes? Did he trip and hit his face on the way to the Bomb Factory?
Shrapnel maybe?
Nothing good ever comes of trying to please the shareholders... 😤✊
Yeah true, everytime a company takes advice from it's shareholders or investors it always seems to go downhill....
Duke Nukem Forever shows the kind of thing that can happen if you don't have any shareholders you need to please.
As if we needed _more_ confirmation that rentism isn't a plague on our civilization.
If someone actually showed _this_ to shareholders, who I'm assuming as Hudson Soft shareholders would probably have at least a passing familiarity with Bomberman, how in Hell was this supposed to _please_ them?
People got pissed off at Miyamoto for giving Mario _a water jetpack,_ how do you think fundamentally transforming Mario into a malformed idiot like the Bombers in Act: Zero would have gone over!?
I mean, yeah, the aesthetic is shit. But hey,
“It’s still anyone’s game!”
Seriously, Proton Jon’s videos make this game look like the most esports thing.
This really was one of the funnest streams he ever did. Hell he made a tournament out of this some how and it was wonderful.
Jon is the only reason why this dumpster fire had any commercial circulation after its year of launch.
Esports lol
Still the champ.
Jon's BAZ streams were literally the only time I played on XBL. All thanks to a trial code I'd kept from a bag of skittles.
I think a lot of these edgy Gears reviews forgot that Gears had a lot of humor what with Baird's snarky comments and Cole Train Baby.
Even the bird's-eye point of view suffers, because everything is so gritty it is hard to identify players in the maze. You are a minuscule dot of dust in a grey maze, so you end up looking at the arrows anyway
Wonder what was more memorable: The “realistic” 3D robot in an apocalyptic world or... a Hello Kitty toy? Yeah I’m not how much martini the post got, but there’s nothing wrong with cute x.x Heck, Smash uses that design for his assist trophy, so even Nintendo knows which design was better!
Late post, but Konami, as problematic as they are, long since abandoned that "reboot" after buying out Hudson and as shown at the end of the video, return to using traditional Bomberman.
"Bomb puns! Cuz Bomberman!!" - truer words have never been spoken. Ahh, the days when my dorm buddies got together for sessions of Saturn Bomberman (with the multitap) and all the Bomb puns happened constantly. Love the delivery at 0:25
"BOMB-PUNS!....CUZ BOMBERMAN!!!"
😂😂😂I'm sold! Congratulaions Mr. McMuscles you've done it again!
The beginning of the Wii/XBOX 360/PlayStation 3 era was very rough. That transition to HD was no joke. But with that said it really hit its stride in 2007. Halo 3, Gears of War 2, Bioshock, Assassin’s Creed, Super Mario Galaxy, and Call of Duty 4 all came out that year. Then the next year we got GTA 4. It was such a great era when it finally hit its stride.
I genuinely thought this game was cancelled. That looks horrendous.
YOU ARE ALIVE. GET TO THE NEXT STAGE.
@The Accidental Hipster What? I thought Maverick Hunter got released and they just didn't move on to remake the other X games like they were planning.
@The Accidental Hipster They looked so similar, I really couldnt tell the difference. But you are right, that one edgy Megaman game was the one i was thinking of. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
@@MusicoftheDamned I looked it up and realized there are two games that have "Maverick Hunter" in the name. I was thinking of "Mega Man Maverick Hunter X" which is the PSP remake of MMX and has a bonus mode where you play as Vile. I'd completely forgotten about the concept codenamed just "Maverick Hunter" which was a FPS with that Ultron-looking redesign of X.
I was design lead on Bomberman Battlefest back on the day, and even then they were still very concerned about western appeal and really wanted us to find some gimmick to make the game more hardcore. I found this pretty confusing, as they had a formula that worked that people loved and in this situation it didn't seem at all unreasonable to me to give the existing fan-base more of what they already like. In my view the real new features were some really interesting and active stage gimmicks that were substantially more involved than the previous title had. Also, we had to make the game's engine multi-platform, which was no small thing in and of itself.
Anyway, eventually we pitched a game mode where you could earn money from killing other players and winning rounds, and spend this at the start of the next round to buy powerup items of your choice. This was kind of like Counterstrike, and hey, that's hardcore, right? That checked the box for them, and in practice was an interesting alternative mode of play that people liked - in-house at least.
Unfortunately while we had the game finished on all three consoles at the time (360, PS3, and Wii), Hudson went out of business right around when the 360 version hit shelves. The PS3 and Wii versions never got released. Also they stopped paying their invoices so our company went out of business, too.
Damn, that sucks to hear how you guys got left high and dry like that. :(
Act Zero IMO fits more as a tokusatsu show then a bomberman game
Maybe the true meaning of Christmas is simply Bomberman.
How to play:
BIO CODES - lets you save the tortured, mutated thoughts of your Bomberman. Or whatever.
Haha. Gold.
I notice the idea of "Westernization" seems to be a reoccurring theme here on this show. Don't these game companies bother learning from each other's mistakes?
Considering we're still getting "gurrrrl powa" remakes of movies... No. No media company does.
I know Hudson soft didn’t make atomic bomberman but couldn’t Hudson see that westernization wasnt the best idea
I remember skimming the Wikipedia page and apparently one major criticism was that one critic thought that both avatars were oversexualized.
You know it's bad when people are bitching about a _male_ design being too sexual.
I for one advocate for more games to take this route. If the women get sexualized, so do the men. That way, everyone has something to hate and/or ogle!
At one of my birthday parties we got a 4-way splitter for my SNES and played eachother in bomberman all night, it fucking ruled. Rest in piece lil bomber person.
This is it. This is the "What Happened?" that finally broke Matt.
8:18 Anyone else metal-scream 'ALTERED BEAAAST' a la Retro Replay when this part came up?
"What if it were realistic?" Most of times leads to disaster.
Matt, it is current year and we still don't know Wha Happun to BK Nuts and Bolts.
"explosively depressing" can be used to describe anything relating to Konami in the last 15 years.
12:47 How do you do, fellow teens?
At least Banjo and Kazooie look largely like themselves in Nuts and Bolts. At least Samus looks like Samus in Other M. This is sad. Wow.
I mean, would you honestly be surprised if someday Sanrio came and said they made the original Bomberman design? I would believe it, seems right up their alley, if a tad distanced from their usual character designs.
Like an anime fan on prom night.
"Its all completely different but its still the same game"
11:04-11:11 Proton Jon would like to know your location.
11:39 Why am I suddenly having Armake21 flashbacks?
Hearing music playing from the good Bomberman games and watching footage from Act:Zero gives me such a weird feeling.
Episode suggestion: Metal Gear Solid 5. I know the game turned out amazingly well, but... seriously, what the hell happened?
Why not Metal Gear Survive?
@@Just_Matty why not both?
@@Just_Matty We know what happened with that.
Well, Konami. Konami happened. It’s clear that, as good as parts of MGSV were, Kojima was stymied by Konami, and he was unable to complete the game to his satisfaction. I suspect he got 50% of the way there before Konami told him “wrap this up with what you’ve got, we’re denying you almost any further resources and we are going to make your life a living hell until you finish the game and then drive you out!”.
Konami pachinko machines
PULL THAT LEVER!!!
Thx for the review. I was in the store with a second hand copy of this game in my hand while holding my phone in the other, watching your review. I put the game back after watching your review :)
This game is a trainwreck but I've watched Proton Jon stream it a lot and I've come to find some kind of charm in it. The multiplayer DOES have a sense of chaotic fun to it, in part because of some of the ridiculous power ups it has (infinite bombs plus line bomb, anyone), and I think with a bit more love and care it could have really turned out decent.
That marketing though. It's amazing you even got through it without laughing.
“This I command”
13:26 So Serpentor was working for Hudson at the time...that might explain a lot.
In any case they might as well have just released another Atomic Bomberman. At least the characters there would have looked closer to our favorite original Bombermen.
Moral of the story: Never attempt to please the American nation.
Or ANY nation for that matter, i mean Marvel wanted to win the Japan and weeb audience by releasing Mangaverse......and it was and went as good as it sounds
@@ironmaster6496 I agree. Trying to appeal to the East would be uneffective too, because of the rising of portable gaming. Even though the PS4 today is selling better than the Xbox One on the West, the numbers against portables like Nintendo Switch, 3DS and even Vita surpassed easily any home console. That is why today the console division of Sony is very "American" compared to before.
“We titled the game ‘Act Zero’ because there are no game save features. So, every time players power it on, it’s ACT ZERO.”
Some people actually do still play this game though. Proto jon used to hold tournaments and game night of this game all the time. So some people did like the game play and life bars. But thats just an opinion.
Having played the N64 Bomberman as a kid, seeing this just confused me. I could not grasp that Bomberman could do such a 180.
I remember Armake 21's review of this back in 2006. He literally pissed on it.
Somehow this sounds like an inspiration for Bombergirl
That blog post sounds like a person who's popularity peaked when they were 8 years old and never found a way to move on.
This is so funny man. Keep up the good work, this and Flophouse files.
Bomberman 64 PvP was amazing. My friends and I burned a LOT of hours on it. Bomberman Act 0.....was a pass for us
My heart sings every time you use Groose's theme in these videos.
What happened?: Devil's third
Bomberman became serious, semi realistic, with third person view, and somehow became a cyborg something?
OMG! They never heard of Silent Bomber
This was a very poor episode to queue up while waiting at the airport
Hey man i've been watching your videos for a while now and they have definitely helped get me through the rough times i've had during this pandemic and i even loved the episode of AVGN that you were on as well because i hadn't gotten to the final fight streetwise episode so that made it even more fun to watch. But the one thing i love the most are all of the simpsons and wwe references. Keep up the great work.
Bomberman has taken some weird forms
2:45 “You forgot the COOKIES?!”
if we want the real bomberman expierence we should make a petition for a port of Bombergirl arcade game, now that's a real deal
*starts to cry in a corner*
Bombergirl looks like the sort of thing that will never be ported to the west because Japan (Rightfully) believes that Americans hate cute women.
All I remember about that was seeing that there was an article about it titled "What if Bomberman but sexy?"
11:07 Clearly, someone has never heard of Proton Jon's Major Leauge BAZ. Just remember, it's still anyone's game!
They should've added gore
That REALLY would've moved the terrible needlometer.
xd
I love their implication that this version of bomberman is somehow more realistic.
I love the implication that is some Japanese executives' sincere perception of American tastes 😂😂😂
I know you probably only cover games that actually released, but I would like to see you cover the four Mega Man games that got cancelled back to back in 2010.
Mega Man Universe
Maverick Hunter
Mega Man Legends 3
And Rockman Online
megaman legends 3 hurts too much :(
That would probably be a flophouse files episode
@@majortom331 Probably. It doesn't have to be a Wha Happun.
4:57 I'll still defend that choice for how hilarious and cheeky it all was.
Where be my Wha Happun on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale?
I appreciate how fast you're cranking these out.
Simple answer: *2000's **_EDGE_*
So everyone who doesn’t like Bomberman Act Zero likes Hello Kitty toys? No wonder that stuff is so popular.