Halcyon Gaming

When I think back to older games I always remember my first view of Super Mario World, completing Mercenary, Flyspy and the first time I joined Head with Heels amongst so many others. However two games always stand out and they were from my time at Glasgow Uni. The first game was Descent which was the first proper 3D shooter. Doom got all the press but it wasn’t truly 3D as there was no Z axis really – you couldn’t have objects on top of objects in the first release. A few months later Descent came out and it was superb. I still remember playing against Ricky D with me being chased…I turned into a corridor and dived off to the left. He turned into same corridor and sped by…I moved out and fired a homing missile. I still remember the shout – ‘Bastard…………Descent’ (think Ian Paisley no surrender style voice and you’ve got it). Class.

The second game was Super Bomberman. I remember going shopping with Shakeel and as per usual we were goading each other on with purchases. Something along the lines of if you buy that then I’ll buy this kind of thing. Pretty childish but we still do it today except the purchases can be measured in the hundred’s of pounds and not tens. Anyway, I picked up a multi-tap for the SNES, an extra controller and I already had a free one..plus Super Bomberman. 4 player gaming was an instant hit with Bomberman being our game of choice. I’d hate to think how many hours we racked up on that game. Super Bomberman 2 was also purchased which introduced Golden Bomber. I still laugh when I think back to me getting the hand so often on the spinning wheel (no cheating – honest) and David’s insatiable appetite for speedy boots which we all knew would end in tears.

The reason for all this nostalgia? After many screw-ups and tamperfering with a tried and tested formula plus many a rumour, it looks like Bomberman in it’s multiplayer format is coming to Xbox Live. This Joystick article points to Australian certification and also a pretty official looking video. Bomberman, with up to 8 players, online and on the 360 – be still my beating heart.