Bomberman Jetters (video game)

Bomberman Jetters is the video game adaptation of the Bomberman Jetters anime, which is in itself an adaptation of the video game franchise. In the game, the Hige Hige Bandits send the Dark Star, a planet-sized rocket, hurtling towards Planet Bomber. White Bomber is sent by the Jetters to the Dark Star to deactivate the rocket's engines and foil the Hige Hige Bandits' plot. White Bomber is joined by occasional rival Max and the Pokemon-like Charaboms.

Notably all of Bomberman Jetters that Western audiences got to see, which no-doubt confused many a Bomberman fan (who's Shout/Birdy/Bongo/Gangu...?). Anyone who was familiar with the anime before the game would have been confused as well: the localized game follows its own plot, makes no reference to the series, and changes Max's role back from villain to hero, to say nothing about the dialogue and voice acting.

Gameplay-wise, Bomberman Jetters plays like a watered-down Bomberman Generation. The controls are the same, the difficulty is mostly scaled back, you hold less power-ups (one less each for bombs and speed), you find most Charaboms just standing around and only use them for one specific function, there are no Charabom battles and almost no minigames, and there's noticeably less graphical power in the game's engine. However, if you enjoyed Generation's gameplay but not so much its difficulty, you'll probably get some fun out of Jetters. Same if you found some humor in Generation's silly voice acting: Jetters has that in spades (assuming you can put up with your teammates).


 * Artistic License Physics: When an engine is deactivated, the Dark Star doesn't shift course away from Planet Bomber. Also when all four engines are off, it doesn't continue moving towards Planet Bomber due to being in space, and thus having no resistance but plenty of momentum.
 * Awesome but Impractical: Max's Hyper Plasma Bomb can hurt everything in your camera's sight, but it takes a long time to charge up, and it only has the attack power of a single bomb. If the game didn't try to shoehorn Max in with the barriers that only the Plasma Bomb could destroy, its only practical use would be for clearing out groups of Hige Hige Bandits.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Max's "Hyperrrr...PLASMA BOMB!"
 * All of the Bomber bosses
 * Five-Man Band:
 * The Hero: White Bomber / Max
 * Mission Control:
 * The Lancer: Birdy
 * The Big Guy / The Smart Guy: Bongo
 * The Smart Guy / Team Pet: Gangu
 * The Captain / The Chick: Shout
 * + The Professor: Dr. Ein
 * Let's Play: By the same people doing the Abridged series of the anime. Finished and on the LP Archive.
 * Mecha-Mooks/RidiculouslyHumanRobots: The Hige-Higes
 * Mon: The Charaboms. They even say their names when you select them.
 * No Export for You: A minor example. While the game itself made it to Western shores when its source anime didn't, the theme for Bomberman Jetters, "Boku Wa Gakeppuchi", was replaced with a generic rock intro. They kept the opening animation, though.
 * No Mouth: Any of the Bomber characters.
 * Old Master: Momo/Grandma Bomber in the Bomber Mansion.
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Bomber bosses, (Mermaid Bomber, Thunder Bomber, Flame Bomber, Grand Bomber, Dark Force Bomber)
 * Recursive Adaptation: The game of The Anime of the Game.
 * Stop Helping Me: Your team never stops. Shout is the worst offender.