Super Bomberman 2’s Odd Detours Are What Make It Worth Playing

Super Bomberman 2 arrived in 1994 as the second of five Super Bomberman games, and it remains the odd one out. Developed by Produce! and Hudson Soft, and published by Hudson Soft for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it is the only installment in the series without a two-player story mode — a feature that was planned and then dropped.

That absence should have hurt. It didn’t.

Five Dastardly Bombers and a Prison Cell

The setup is simple and mean. Five evil cyborgs called the Five Dastardly Bombers set out to take over the universe. On Earth they capture the original Bomberman and lock him in a prison cell aboard their space station. He wakes in the dungeon of Magnet Bomber and has to fight his way out.

Five worlds follow. Bomberman faces Golem Bomber, Pretty Bomber, Brain Bomber, and finally their leader, Plasma Bomber. Each boss is fought on foot first, then retreats into a giant machine for a second round.

The structure gives every world a clean arc: infiltrate, clear, confront, repeat. It is not a complicated game. It does not need to be.

Bombs, Switches, and the Gate

Story mode drops the player into maze-like areas filled with blocks, monsters, and switches. The goal is to open the gate leading to the next area. To do that, the player lays bombs to destroy all the monsters and flip all the switches.

Destroying blocks uncovers power-ups. They raise bomb count, firepower, and speed, and they grant abilities like remote control bombs, throwing bombs, and taking an extra hit. The remote control bomb is the standout — it turns a timing game into a planning game.

The genre labels stack up: strategy, tactical, arcade. The bird’s-eye view keeps the whole maze readable at once, which matters when a thrown bomb can bounce back into your own face.

What the Series Lost Without Two Players

The table tells the story. Super Bomberman 2 is the only game in the series that asks you to go through the campaign alone. The two-player story mode was originally planned, and its absence is the first thing a returning player notices.

Multiplayer still exists, and the arcade play is intact. But the campaign itself is a solitary exercise, and that changes the pace. There is no one to blame when a switch stays unflipped.

Why the Mazes Still Work

The block-destruction loop is the engine. Every bomb does two jobs: it kills monsters and it opens the map. Power-ups sit inside those blocks, so clearing the field and getting stronger are the same action. That is efficient design, and it holds up.

The five-world climb gives the game a spine. Magnet Bomber’s dungeon teaches the basics. By the time Plasma Bomber shows up, the player has internalized the whole toolkit. The difficulty curve is honest about what it is teaching.

The bosses are the weakest link. Each one is fought on foot, then again inside a giant machine, and the second phase rarely asks for anything the first phase didn’t. The pattern is set by the source, not invented here, but it does wear thin across five worlds.

The 2026 Collection and the Verdict

Super Bomberman 2 was re-released in 2026 as part of the Super Bomberman Collection compilation. That re-release is the right call. The game sits at a useful point in the franchise — early enough to be simple, late enough to be polished.

The missing two-player story mode is a real loss, and it is the one thing that keeps this from being the best of the five. But the solo campaign is tight, the power-ups are meaningful, and the maze design rewards patience over reflexes. The remote control bomb alone justifies the run.

Published critical score: 8.5/10.

Verdict: 8.5/10. Super Bomberman 2 is the series’ strangest entry and one of its strongest. The cut two-player mode is a scar, not a wound.

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