YMMV / Bomberman Hero

• Anti-Climax Boss: Devil/Evil Bomber, the True Final Boss, looks like a complete chump in comparison to normal Final Boss Bagular. His pattern consists of only two or so attacks that can be dodged effortlessly if you have good timing. The only hard thing about him is that he's airborne most of the time, so you'll need to aim your bombs correctly, but he's kinda disappointing otherwise.
• Ass Pull: The plot twist that Evil Bomber is behind the whole thing makes no sense, comes out of nowhere, and adds nothing to an already anemic story, and this is assuming you actually know who that is.
• Awesome Music: The game has an excellent Drum & Bass/Ambient Techno soundtrack by recurring Bomberman composer June Chikuma.
  • Redial tends to be the most popular track, though its constant use in the game can dip it into ear worm territory. Other highlights include "Foehn" and "Zip".
  • Beak
• Breather Boss: A lot of the main boss fights are rather tricky and downright difficult! However, any of the Nitros fights are definitely the easier boss fights in the game.
• Breather Level:
  • Move Stone, the penultimate level of World 3, comes after THREE That One Levels in a row (Hard Coaster, Dark Maze, and Mad Coaster). All you do in Move Stone is, well, move stones around in order to open the path to the boss. Fortunately, it is as easy as it sounds given Move Stone itself is one of the smallest stages in the game with a very simple puzzle to solve.
  • Death Temple is definitely easier than Emerald Tube that precedes it.
• Contested Sequel: Hero was significantly different than any other Bomberman title to date, most notably in the absence of any multiplayer mode. The game received middling reviews and has generally been looked on as a misstep by the series by some. Others are much more fond of its gameplay and appreciate the game taking so many risks, as well as having a fantastic soundtrack.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • The slug enemies stand out as these since they're one of few enemies in the game that cannot be killed by normal bombs. They can be only killed with Salt Bombs. The big problem with that is that once Bomberman gets the Salt Bombs, he cannot kill any other enemies with them. To add salt to the wound, the Salt Bombs stay with Bomberman until he either completes the level or dies making this problematic when going for a 5.
  • The giant falling blocks of ice from Freeze Lake. They're very large, come in a bunch of numbers, AND they home in on Bomberman! They are the primary reason why Freeze Lake is a That One Level.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Pibot has become quite popular thanks to a Let's Play of the game by TheStrawhatNO!, although for specific reasons.
  • Also Nitros for having a cool design, being a good reoccurring rival for Bomberman, and for having the the more unique and easier fights in the game.
  • Natia has a bit of a following thanks to being a curvy cat girl in a midriff-revealing outfit with a short skirt.
  • In general, people seem to like how Louie is implemented in this game, since he's fast, easy to control and has a fun Wall Jump technique.
• Fetish Retardant: Natia is supposed to look like a sexy Cat Girl dominatrix, but to some, she only comes off as out-of-place in this game.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • The level complete theme followed by Bomberman saying "I did it!" This is very refreshing to hear after completing one of the many That One Levels in this game (especially after managing to earn a 5).
  • The sound when collecting a health up.
  • The sound when defeating a boss. The explosion sounds a bit deeper than the regular bomb explosions heard throughout the game.
  • The sound of the explosion when Bomberman's firepower is at max.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Death Pyramid of the 3rd World is filled with this. The eyeless Pharaoh masks that push you into the abyss, the corridor with blinking eyes and bizarre alarm clock enemies in Death Road, the skeletal fish that devours you in Aqua Way...
  • The game's soundtrack is usually upbeat, however one song from the soundtrack, named "Dark Trap", feels largely out of place because of the unsettling ambience and digital sound effect, it also has the feeling of being alone at a dark house with no help at all. Nothing is Scarier indeed.
• Older Than They Think: This isn't the first Bomberman game with a jump button. Pocket Bomberman, another platformer, came before Hero.
• One-Scene Wonder: Black Bomberman appears in this game, but makes a very minor appearance in one of the early levels and a small line in the true ending.
• Popular with Furries: If there's one thing the furry community remembers this game for, it's the curvy pink cat girl who wears a revealing outfit and cracks a whip.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The Bomber Slider is this in spades. It is very hard to control especially when it picks up speed. It also doesn't help that it has one of the worst attacks in the game (a short-ranged spin that's even harder to control). This makes both levels it appears in That One Level.
  • The Salt Bombs and Freeze Bombs. These two bombs cannot kill normal enemies and only work in special situations that require the use of them (Salt Bombs can only be used to kill the slug enemies and Freeze Bombs can only be used on these enemies that can extend their necks in one level). What really makes these bombs a Scrappy Mechanic is that once you get these bombs, you're stuck with them for the entire level. If you're going for a 5, you HAVE to make sure all of the other regular enemies are destroyed before grabbing these bombs.
  • There are some people that hate the Bomber Marine due to its overuse combined with the general dislike of water levels. It really doesn't help that the underwater stages here are really slow and favor constant retreating.
• That One Boss: While the bosses by themselves aren't overtly bad, the real challenge comes in clearing their fights under a perfect time limit:
  • Natia is a horrendous boss fight to get a perfect clear record, what with you being required to kill her pet first before you can tackle her. The fact she retreats off-screen whenever she's hit means a load of time wasted. It helps to camp a corner and ready with Rolling Bombs once Cronus is out of the picture, as this gives her the least opportunity to appear off-screen and allows you to compensate reasonably for the game's less than stellar ability to aim.
  • The Baruda rematch is terrible to get a perfect clear record, seeing that he loves to fly out of your range.
  • The second fight against Bolban. You have to fight him underwater using the Bomber Marine, and he attacks with heat-seeking missiles that will frustrate you to no end. Going in a wide circle will at least get the missiles to usually fail to connect, though you'll have to use charged bombs in order to actually connect, and those are finicky at best.
  • Bagular is also a right pain to get a 5/5 on, last boss of the main plot or no. The score par is 1000 out of the 10000 you start with (score ticks down in boss fights like a timer), so you think it'd be simple, right? Not really. With the first phase he can turn invincible and teleport pretty much as he damn well pleases, wasting time on top of being awkward to hit thanks to hitting things being awkward in general, so it takes luck (and staying away from him) for him to not do that. Second phase? Another huge time-waster, as three monitors will come down with only one of them being real. This can be mitigated by just throwing bombs in one or two of the monitors' general direction as they land, and whichever one doesn't laugh is the real one. If they both laugh, the third one is the real one. Doesn't mean that actually hitting the real one won't be awkward thanks to the pokey camera, though. The last phase at least doesn't have any luck involved in keeping your score under control, but it takes its fair share of time to deal with anyway. Absolutely the tightest time par up to that point.
• That One Level: There are a good amount of these especially after the first two worlds.
  • Magma Lake of the third world. It's not a very long level but this is the first level in the game where Bomberman constantly loses health. Because it's so hot (being inside of a volcano of course), Bomberman can't breathe and will lose one slice of health about every 5 seconds. Although there are several cooling stations to help fill Bomberman's health back up, the fact he has to constantly do this and avoid the enemies and falling into the magma makes this a very tedious level.
  • Emerald Tube and Snow Circuit, the two Bomber Slider levels of the game. What makes these levels so difficult is how uncontrollable the Bomber Slider can be. This is taken up a notch on Snow Circuit has TONS of places to fall off. Good luck trying to get the 5 on Snow Circuit. It's going to take a LOT of lives...
  • Aqua Way of the third world is definitely this. For starters, you need a score of 9000 to get a 5. NINE THOUSAND!!! Out of all of the levels in the game, that is the highest score to get! And there aren't enough enemies in the level to get up to that high of a score in the first one. The only way to get to that score is to get eaten by the monster, blow up the stuff on it's insides, and then go into reverse and get swallowed again. You'll have to do this about 3 times and then take out the monster to help get the score higher. This turns Aqua Way into a straight on Marathon Level that can take up to an hour to complete! Also, good luck staying alive! If you die, you have to start all over!
  • Hard Coaster can be this considering it's the largest and longest level in the game. What makes this level such a pain to get through is that you'll be spending 90% of the level riding on platforms that take forever to move. And if you're unlucky enough to fall off, you'll have to start at the very beginning. This is especially tedious when going for a 5 and there are numerous of items that must be got with precise jumping and aiming. Even more so for enemies that are often found in midair in-between platforms.
  • Dark Maze, the level that follows Hard Coaster, isn't as large but damn is it easy to fall off here. Seriously, it has the most narrow paths in the entire game! There are also slug enemies here that can be only taken out with Salt Bombs. The problem is the Salt Bombs can ''only" kill the slug enemies, not any other enemies. If you're going for a 5, you have to take out all of the other enemies first because once you get the Salt Bombs, you cannot get rid of them unless you die.
  • Mad Coaster is basically the combination of Hard Coaster and Dark Maze: Nothing but long rides on platforms and careful use between regular bombs and Salt Bombs.
  • Freeze Lake. One of the most infamous levels of the game for it's sheer difficulty. For starters, it's a very long level. Secondly, it has a rather high set score for the 5 ranking. And third, THE ANNOYING FALLING CHUNKS OF ICE!!! These chunks of ice just LOVE to fall on your heads and worse? They HOME in on you! These chunks of ice is what makes Freeze Lake so infamous. You can swim toward the ceiling and swim backwards to avoid them but since you need a 5 to complete the game and there are power-ups and enemies toward the bottom that need to be collected/destroyed...yep. You're going to be taking some ice to the face. A lot.
    • And it should be noted that this was the stage that caused youtube video game reviewer Nitro Rad to use a Gameshark in order to skip getting a 5 right to 100% completion.
  • Cool Cave is just as brutal as Freeze Lake. For starters, there is icy water here that acts like lava. Fall into it and Bomberman takes damage. However, what makes this level very tough is the use of the other situational bomb in the game, the Freeze Bomb. Like with the Salt Bombs from Dark Maze and Mad Coaster, Freeze Bombs can only work on a specific enemy. However, the Freeze Bombs can only freeze the enemies and not outright kill them. There are plenty of these enemies that can extend their necks throughout the level and you need to freeze them at the right moment and jump off their heads to reach other platforms. You're going to be doing this a lot so get ready for a lengthy and tough level.
  • Heaven Sky is by far the TOUGHEST Bomber Jet level in the game. It has some of the most brutal enemies in the game and there are TONS of them here! There is an Adok Bomb hidden pretty well in this level and you need to make sure to grab it by going through a certain section. If that isn't bad, the mini-boss fought at the end is TOUGH! It's attacks are difficult to avoid and it can take a lot of punishment! Also, make sure you have the very steep score of 7500 to complete this level!
• Underused Game Mechanic: The Bomber Slider and Louie. Both are only used in two levels.
  • Also, the Salt and Freeze Bombs. The former being used in two levels and the latter only being used in one level.

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