I wasn’t expecting to try Super Bomberman R 2 at the Tokyo Game Show. Sky and I had a ton of appointment to keep and we barely had any time to ourselves to try out demos that weren’t on our list. Fortunately, in between appointment sessions, we spotted that the line to try out the demo was pretty non-existent, so we jumped in to see what the game was about.

…and to nab the loot bag as a free gift for trying out the game.

Well, it was 90% in favour of the bag really. Loot is loot!

Our demo session at the Konami area was pretty short but it did give me a good impression of what the game’s about; it’s classic Bomberman but with a new modern look. Honestly, I couldn’t really distinguish it apart from Super Bomberman R if it was side by side. The game looks pretty similar to its precedessor.

Our four player demo session (Sky and I, plus two other Japanese dudes) had us going in a free for all. It’s the usual Bomberman chaos; lots of dropping of bombs, blocking up blocks and picking up powerups so you can drop deadlier bombs and more of them at the same time.

The map didn’t have any hazards (it was a generic multiplayer square multiplayer map where each player started off at a corner) so the only real tactic was to blow people up and not get blown up. You could kick bombs and I swear somebody lobbed a bomb at me (but I’m not sure whether that’s my imagination or a powerup).

Sky bit it early on but he was still in the game as a distraction. His character could sashay around the perimeter of the arena and throw bombs to mess with those still in the game. I later found out (when I died) that if you threw a bomb as a dead player and that bomb killed somebody in the arena, you swapped places and got a second chance in the match!

Pretty cool but I only managed to return once in the 2 rounds that the demo session lasted for.

There wasn’t much time for in-depth impression, but the game was pretty hectic with four players. It’s fun and typical of Bomberman so if you’re expecting more of the same, Super Bomberman R 2 will be just what you’re looking for when it hits in 2023.

Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.