This is a work in progress, and there is a lot of progress to go.
Manual (external link)
Items
Bomb up: Lets you lay 1 more bomb
Speed up: Lets you walk faster
Fire up: Gives your bombs 1 more tile of firepower
Full fire: Sets firepower to 8
Remote control: Lets you detonate bombs in order of when you placed them by pressing B
Piercing bomb (?): Bomb explosions go through breakable blocks
Power bomb: One bomb at a time has full firepower
Land mine: One bomb at a time detonates a short time after a player or enemy steps on it
Dangerous bomb: One bomb at a time fires every tile in a grid around it. Doesn't work well with low firepower
Bomb kick: Lets you walk into a bomb to kick it
Bomb punch: Lets you punch a bomb 2 tiles away by pressing Y
Line bomb: Lets you lay all your bombs in a line by pressing Y
Power glove: Lets you pick up a bomb you are standing on top of by pressing and holding A. Bombs held in your hand this way do not explode. When you release A, the bomb will be thrown 2 tiles ahead of where you are standing
Shield: Lets you block firepower from the direction you are facing by pressing and holding Y. Will retract after a few seconds
Bombwalk / Through bomb (?): Lets you walk through bombs. They will still hurt you if you are standing on top of them when they explode
Blockwalk / Through wall (?): Lets you walk through breakable blocks. If the effect runs out while you are inside a block, you will die
Invincible: You cannot be hurt by fire or enemies
Fire suit: You cannot be hurt by fire
Clock: Adds one minute to your time. Almost definitely required for Area 3-9
Glasses: Reveals the items inside breakable blocks, as well as the goal portal
Heart: Prevents you from dying and gives short amount of invincibility if you get hurt
Skull: Gives you a bad effect. See below for what these effects are
Rubber bomb: Bombs will bounce in a random direction if they are kicked, thrown, or punched
1-UP: Gives you 1 extra life. You cannot have more than 9 lives total
Version Differences
The US and Europe versions are functionally the exact same.
However, in the Japanese version, the pause menu (from pressing Start) doesn't give you an option to quit. Also, the game's intro (the 3D one before selecting the game type) is significantly shorter.
I haven't noticed anything beyond that which affects gameplay.
Battle
You must do every battle with Hard CPUs. However, if you are already able to beat the main game quickly in one sitting, this shouldn't be much of a problem.Apparently I forgt to put that in the speedrun.com rules, so any CPU difficulty or combination thereof will be accepted. For the teamed ones, you may want to consider having your partner's difficulty be higher than your opponents'. Here are some tips for specific stages:
- There's not much to say about Normal. Just look for good items and play.
- Classic is good for people who are not used to the more extended set of items available in this game. Basically gather any positive item you can, as they will help.
- I skip to Shield because the voice-controlled ones will be unfairly weighted against certain runners. With your shield, you can lay bombs a bit quicker because you can stand closer to them when they explode. (remember to hold Y to activate the shield)
- Skulls are bad. Don't touch them. Also look out for signs of the CPU having them so that you don't touch them. All the skull effects are as follows:
- Very slow walking
- Occasionally getting stunned
- Uncontrollably dropping bombs (autofire)
- Not able to lay bombs
- For Mystery Items, you probably want to just grab all the items you can until you get Remote Control and then stop collecting them.
- Speedy is my kind of stage.
- I'm pretty sure the CPU can "see through" the Tunnels to some degree. Probably better to just avoid those.
- Unipass exists.
- In Tripass, I like to hang around the "open" area right outside the tunnels and lay as many bombs as I can in diagonals.
- Bombs explode almost exactly two tiles after being placed on a Conveyor Belt.
- You can change your direction while going through a Trapdoor. Make sure to not land on a bomb unless you intend to because it will make you bounce, and you may fall off the stage.
- For Kick-Kick, I sometimes just lay bombs in random places, kick them, and hope they get a CPU.
- If you can, try to lure your opponents to the See-Saw to bounce them off the stage.
- Full-Power is where you really get to see the Hard CPU shine. However, it's less of an issue on lower difficulties.
- Lotsa Items is interesting. Try to formulate a route that gets you all the classic items you need, ending on a Remote Control. The CPU don't know when to stop gathering items, so they may end up having a worse combination than you.
- Mini-Mini is the only stage that lets you spawn in the middle. This may make you end up closer to your opponents, and therefore able to kill them faster.
- Inferno can get very difficult very fast. Just make sure to look everywhere because there are no hiding spots, as the game tells you.
- The Spikes aren't that dangerous, although their timing is a bit annoying. Just don't stand on them for too long, and don't forget that you can't hide behind them.
- Crown Battle: Don't forget to change the Sets number to 3 for ILs. If you can, try to kill the CPU as fast as possible because this may make the journey to the Crown significantly faster.
- Merry-Go Crown: Don't forget to change the Sets number to 3 for ILs. If you are racing a CPU, take shortcuts through the conveyor belts but try to avoid walking against them.
- Full-Power Crown: The only stage where you will consistently get frustrated (depending on difficulty). If it helps, CPU will typically "focus" on defeating each other with bombs rather than trying to get to the Crown (and this goes for all three Crown stages). Therefore, if you can survive the first 5 seconds and get yourself into a tunnel, you can just break a line of blocks and win. (Playing with 1 CPU makes them target you exclusively, but that doesn't matter because it's less chaotic anyway.)
- The Blocks battle doesn't end until the time runs out or until everyone is dead. Therefore, if you can, try to get as many tiles as you can, then kill the CPUs and yourself.
- Kick Blocks isn't much different from Blocks. Again, just eliminate all players after you have a good majority of tiles.
- I skip Zombie because there's absolutely no way to go any faster than the timer, and therefore it is essentially an autoscroller. Don't get stunned by the bombs in Bom-Bom.
- I think Barom is the only place this game tells you the name of anything. (I don't remember if I ever had the manual, but if I did it would be long gone anyway.) You can usually wait for the CPU to run into a Barom if you're too far away to kill them quickly yourself.
That's about it.
General item routing
- In general, you want to collect any of the following items if you see them: Remote Control, Piercing Bombs (acrid bombs?), Invincible (not Fire Suit), the one that lets you walk through blocks (cannonball? cannibal?), Glasses, and Hearts.
- Power Glove and/or Boxing Glove can be useful in some circumstances as they let you stun enemies (I personally prefer the Power Glove but they work pretty much the same way). The Line Bomb may be useful for some bosses. The Clock is essentially required for at least Area 3-9. All other items (except the classic items) are useless.
- Use Hearts in any circumstance where you are about to die. Save the piercing bombs for Area 2-5, 2-9, 3-5, 3-9, etc. Save the Remote Controls for bosses and the last 2 worlds. Save the Invincibles, Glasses, and block walks for the last 2 worlds. If you have extra, you can also use them in Area 8.
- You can get to the main tab of items by pressing R. This also can help you get to Hearts quickly.
- On the Area screen, you can undo all newly used powerups by pressing B. This isn't very useful though because you shouldn't be equipping very many items on this screen.
- Until you're fully powered up, be ready to instantly equip any classic item you pick up, especially Speed Up.
- Whenever possible, equip all items while the course is starting (when Bomberman and the enemies are frozen). This is more efficient than spending extra time on the Area screen.
Every level has a unique set of items that is hardcoded into the game. Where they appear is effectively completely random, but they always show up:
TODO: Sort better, do 1-Boss, do the remainder of Areas Area 1-1 1 bomb 1 speed 2 fire Area 1-2 2 bomb 1 speed 1 fire 1 clock Area 1-3 1 bomb 1 speed 2 fire 1 heart 1 glasses 1 bomb kick Area 1-4 1 bomb 1 speed 2 fire 1 shield 1 thru bomb Area 1-5 2 bomb 1 speed 1 fire 1 bomb kick 1 blockwalk Bonus 6 bomb 3 speed 6 fire 1 shield 1 heart 1 life 1 skull 1 mine 1 remote 1 thru bomb 1 bomb kick 1 power bomb Area 1-6 2 bomb 1 speed 1 fire 1 clock 1 bomb kick 1 throw glove Area 1-7 1 bomb 1 speed 2 fire 1 glasses 1 life 1 bombwalk 1 punch glove Area 1-8 1 speed 2 fire 1 bomb line 1 firewalk 1 mine 1 shield Area 1-9 2 bomb 2 speed 2 fire 1 remote 1 punch glove 1 skull 1 glasses Area 2-1 3 bomb 2 speed 2 fire 1 power bomb 1 blockwalk 1 thru bomb 1 bomb line 1 glasses Area 2-2 2 bomb 1 speed 2 fire 1 remote 1 bombwalk 1 bomb kick Area 2-3 1 speed 2 fire 1 glasses 1 punch glove 1 clock 1 thru bomb 1 firewalk Area 2-4 1 bomb 2 speed 1 fire 1 mine 1 throw glove 1 invincible 1 clock Area 2-5 2 bomb 2 speed 1 fullfire 1 powerbomb 1 thru bomb 2 clock 1 bomb kick 1 invincible Bonus 6 bomb 6 fire 1 thru bomb 1 invincible 1 firewalk 1 blockwalk 1 bombwalk 1 mine 1 remote 1 life 1 skull 1 power bomb 1 punch glove 1 bomb line Area 2-6 2 bomb 2 speed 2 fire 1 heart 1 remote 1 shield Area 2-7 2 bomb 2 speed 1 fire 1 power bomb 1 bombwalk 1 bomb kick Area 2-8 1 bomb 1 speed 2 fire 1 bomb line 1 skull 1 life 1 throw glove Area 2-9 2 bomb 2 fire 2 speed 1 glasses 1 invincible 1 clock 1 bombwalk Area 2-Boss 4 bomb 3 fire 2 speed 1 life Area 3-1 3 bomb 2 speed 2 fire 1 clock 1 power bomb 1 punch glove Area 3-2 1 bomb 2 fire 1 speed 1 glasses 1 bomb line 1 heart 1 land mine