Whether you choose to explore Bomberman Land on either the DS or Wii, you’ll experience relatively the same game just with a different story and different mini-games. In either game you begin with White making a trip to an amusement park, but in each case the reason for doing so is different. Whereas on the Wii you’re invited to participate in a competition to become the next Champion of the park in the sky, on the DS you sail to Bom-Bom Kingdom after Giant Gold’s father invites you to experience the place he has just invested in.

Both versions involve playing mini-games for different reasons, binding the experience together with a loose storyline. On the Wii, the Director has been kidnapped by the previous Champion and to save him you must progress through five different zones of 50 mini-games, divided amongst single player events and multiplayer events.

On the DS, Star Bomber invites you play throughout 40 different attractions and to have fun on the island. However, an insidious figure continually makes his presence known and means to disrupt you and your compatriot’s adventure.

Whether you’re wagging the Wiimote around or touching objects with the stylus, both versions will have you participating in mini-games—or Attractions, in this case. In the vein of party games and casual play, both versions revolve around going from Attraction to Attraction to progress. However, each has its own nuanced approach to why you play, and what you receive.

Touch! 2 plays more akin to a RPG where you collect items throughout the different Zones to progress further in the game. From each Attraction you can play twice: once for a piece, and again for tokens. By accumulating pieces you open up new areas, while tokens are used to purchase different items which, in-turn, are used to acquire more pieces.

While you’re collecting trinkets and currency from mini-games in Touch! 2, Attractions in the Wii game are used for scoring purposes. Instead of purchasing items with tokens, you’re given them at the start of rounds to play different Attractions throughout the adventure. Yet, for those who just love to exchange earned monies for goodies, Training Points are used to shop for different outfits in the game’s store. Training for the Attractions before you play in ranked competition is lucrative in a trickle-down sense: complete five different levels of each Attraction with certain criteria, buy different outfits, gain boosted stats from various outfits, and get more tokens per round by looking cooler.

For both versions you have to do well at Attractions to unlock new ones, and this is where the two games really differ. Although Touch! 2 is similar to the first DS game, the combination of strangely entertaining mini-games, happy-go-lucky music, and at-times-funny dialogue, make for a genuinely fun and addictive package. There isn’t really much deviation from the game that appeared over a year ago, but new mini-games keeps things new enough to not feel stale.
However, the same praise can’t really be extended to the Wii title. On a platform that is dominated by massive amounts of mini-game filled titles, it takes a lot to stand out of the crowd. Unfortunately Bomberman Land lacks any defining games, and the set-up of having to repeat relatively so few of them several times per Zone makes the experience repetitive.

Each Zone is populated by a certain number of mini-games that are unlocked for the respective area. The first round involves trying to reach the best score possible in as many events as you have tokens for—but remember, if you look cool you get extra tokens and more chances for better scores. In the subsequent rounds you’ll have a multiplayer event, and then have to replay Attractions again under specific guidelines appropriated by the Champion. To play the multiplayer battles you have to go around the Zone and answer mundane questions from other competitors that sometimes don’t even make any sense. This set-up makes you spend more time than you would like to in an environment that isn’t interactive, and that causes you to have to needlessly run around to each Attraction just to compete.

The games themselves don’t do anything new and involve the usual tilting, waving and waggling of the Wiimote. Even playing with other friends the games tend to get a little boring after the initial novelty wares out; there’s just too many other mini-game based titles out there that do it better. On the other hand, while Touch! 2 is basically the first game with a new skin and different games, the overall experience is enjoyable and doesn’t seem repetitive. Searching out stamps, finding new gear, and only really having to play each game twice, make for a better overall experience on the DS.

Neither game will blow anyone away in terms of visual presentation for their respective hardware. The cartoony style keeps things low key, with text dialogue acting as the narrative mechanism. Here, the DS wins out with generally drier, wittier dialogue and expression.

For the audio presentation, both versions have a repetitive soundtrack with a limited amount of melodies. This is more understandable on the DS, where the songs fit the bill. With the stronger relative hardware capabilities of the Wii, you would imagine finding a much more robust soundtrack; unfortunately this isn’t case.

While there are a number of discrepancies between the games, both feature the availability to play the original Bomberman game. Whether you’re playing it on the Wii or the DS, the original gameplay remains intact and still presents a combination of strategy, reaction and puzzle-solving. Added stages and power-ups make for a good number of choices, with a multitude of diverse options. There are some pluses and minuses for each format: though you can play with up to four players on both versions, you can only play with four on one screen on the Wii, but the only way you’re going online is through the DS.

In the end, the DS version of the game takes the cake. Well implemented, addictive gameplay with little fluff makes for a more accessible bunch of mini-games. Whether taken on its own or compared to its handheld counterpart, the Wii game is over-cluttered with slow sections of dialogue and repetitive gameplay. Coupled with a mix of uninventive mini-games, there’s little reason to spring for the Wii game unless you’re hurting for a Bomberman fix. Either way, if you’re a fan of the series you can’t go wrong with the classic battle action contained in both; the overall experience just more fun on the DS.

 
Bomberman Land
Gameplay: 6.0
Graphics: 6.9
Audio: 6.0
Lasting Appeal: 5.0
Overall: 6.0

Bomberman Land Touch! 2
Gameplay: 7.5
Graphics: 7.0
Audio: 7.5
Lasting Appeal: 8.0
Overall: 7.5

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