Trivia / Bomberman Act:Zero

• Bury Your Art: The Hudson Soft developers agreed with the general public's opinion that Act Zero is one of the worst Bomberman games ever. It has never seen a digital release on Xbox Live.
• Colbert Bump: Act Zero had a short revival thanks to ProtonJon's multiplayer streams of the game and a very enterprising hijacking from one of his viewers. At one point, the game was in the top 20 of Twitch's most viewed streams.
• Creator Backlash: Bomberman Act:Zero was Hudson Soft's attempt to re-imagine their iconic character for Xbox 360 audiences. It was slammed by critics and players for being too Dark and Edgy compared to its older games, along with a host of other problems. Hudson's US branch, Hudson Entertainment, attempted to defend criticism of the game at first, but in this promo video for Bomberman Live (its first entry on Xbox Live Arcade), producer Joel Breton and marketing VP John Lee dismiss it as a very bad idea in hindsight.
  Lee: Let's not do that, dang it!
• Dear Negative Reader: 5 Reasons Why Bomberman Act: Zero Rocks!, Hudson Entertainment's Totally Radical response to the backlash and criticisms the game had during its launch. In it, writer Jason Montes shamelessly boasts about the choice to "bastardize" the formerly cute Bomberman design, brushes off the game's critics as haters and lemmings who only wanted to jump on the "bashing bandwagon" and tells anyone who doesn't like the game that they're babies who should go play Bomberman on PSP along with their Hello Kitty toys. They would later backtrack on this with a bare bones version that removed both the trash talking and the attempts to make the game sound super edgy.
• Follow the Leader: This was Hudson Soft's attempt to replicate and compete with the grim and gritty games that were popular during gaming's seventh generation.
• Franchise Killer: The game's critical and commercial failure soured many people on the franchise. While there would further releases over the next four years that scored lukewarm reception, the series would eventually go dormant after Bomberman Dojo and would not return until 2017's Super Bomberman R.
• Stillborn Franchise: This was the second heavy Darker and Edgier take on a children's/family game bust in a row after Shadow the Hedgehog got derided for the move the previous year and began, or at least accentuated a serious Audience-Alienating Era for Sonic. A sequel called Genesis was planned, but when Act Zero imploded, that idea was sent to the junkyard.
• What Could Have Been: The credits promised a sequel called Bomberman: The Genesis. Thanks to this game's commercial and critical failure, however, that ended up being (possibly) the only indication that there even was a sequel planned.

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