Appletell

I somehow missed out on the entire Bomberman franchise, but I know of many gamers who swear by it. The game can be traced back to 1983, when it appeared on a bunch of computers I’ve never heard of. It was when it showed up on the NES in 1987 that it really took off, and variations of the game have been developed for numerous systems since then.

In Bomberman, you play a robot who has grown bored working at a bomb factory, and wants to get out. You know, because he’s every man’s Bomberman. Who doesn’t get bored with their daily job and tries to flee 20 levels to the open outdoors? The difference between us and Bomberman, however, is that we don’t have to navigate mazes, bomb enemies, find secret doors and battle bosses to leave our jobs. Well, except for Wal-Mart employees. Female employees, anyway.

Bomb your way past the break for the review.

MORE »

Yes, and it’s about time we put it out of its misery. Even before the iPhone, the iPod never stood a chance as a legitimate gaming device. This saddens me somewhat, too, because I really wanted it to be. I viewed gaming on the iPod much as I do on my Macintosh, in that I didn’t buy a Mac to play games, but if there are games available, I’ll certainly play them. Unfortunately, developers just never put much thought into iPod games, and Apple didn’t seem interested in helping out.

Find out what went wrong—and what’s starting to look right—after the break.

MORE »