Bomby

Starting with the TurboGrafx 16 rendition in 1990, multiplayer would be introduced to the series, with this version supporting up to five players. Multiplayer would go on to become a key component of the series, with later Bomberman games supporting as many as 10 players locally in Saturn Bomberman and 64 players online in Super Bomberman R 2.

• Genre — Puzzle, maze, action, party • Creator — * Yuji Tanaka • Toshiyuki Sasagawa • Shinichi Nakamoto • Artist — * Shoji Mizuno • Naoto Yoshimi • Kozue Narai (Kozue Satoh) • Composer — * Jun Chikuma • Yasuhiko Fukuda • Keita Hoshi • Shohei Bando • Hironao Yamamoto • First Release Version — Bomb-Man • First Release Date — July 1983 • Latest Release Version — Super Bomberman Collection • Latest Release Date — February 5, 2026

The first installment in the franchise, Bomb-Man, was originally developed for the Sharp X1 by programmer Yuji Tanaka while working at Hudson Soft. Gameplay involves traversing a maze to defeat balloon-shaped enemies using time bombs. After being ported to more platforms, including the PC-88, the game was released in Japan on July 1983. The game was released internationally the following year with the name Eric And The Floaters; the international name was chosen to avoid any controversy in using the word "bomb".

• Bomberman B-Daman Bakugaiden • Bomberman Jetters

Most games in the Bomberman franchise largely revolve around two modes of play; single player campaigns where the player must defeat enemies and reach an exit to progress through levels, and multiplayer modes where players must attempt to eliminate each other and be the last one standing. Gameplay involves strategically placing down bombs, which explode in multiple directions after a certain amount of time, in order to destroy obstacles and kill enemies and other players. The player can pick up various power-ups, giving them benefits such as larger explosions or the ability to place more bombs down at a time. The player is killed if they touch an enemy or get caught up in a bomb's explosion, including their own, requiring players to be cautious of their own bomb placement. In addition to the main maze-based Bomberman games, some spin-off titles involve adventure, platformer, puzzle, and kart racing gameplay.