Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!

Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! is a crossover game between the Wario franchise and Hudson Soft's series that was released in 1994 and 1995 in North America and Europe, respectively. The game is a reskinned version of Bomberman GB, which was released in Japan in August 1994. The Wario series theme was exclusively added to Western releases. Aside from Wario's presence, the game is mostly unchanged and plays like other Bomberman titles. The Bomberman GB released in the West is actually the Japanese Bomberman GB 2.

The player takes the role of either Wario or Bomberman and fights against up to three copies of the other character. Wario's goal is to rob Bomberland, while Bomberman's is to protect it. In every round, the player has to defeat the enemies by strategically placing bombs, while the enemies are able to do the same.

Story
Story from the instruction booklet
 * ''WARIO INVADES THE LAND OF THE MADBOMBERS!

Wario, in his constant search for new lands to conquer and trea- sures to gain, has found the extra-dimensional portal that links his world with the one that Bomberman inhabits. Thinking that the Madbombers will make a nice addition to his legions of mindless minions (as well as a new source of funds for his nefarious schemes), Wario steps through the gate... and soon finds that the Madbombers are not quite the dim-wit- ted flunkies he originally thought them to be!

After completing the game, regardless of which character the player chose, Bomberman rides a motorcycle across a canyon. Wario appears, also on a motorcycle, and the two chase each other back and forth indefinitely until the player resets the game.

Gameplay
The player can choose to play as either Wario or Bomberman, but this does not change any aspects of gameplay, other than reversing the passwords for each level. There are eight rounds in total, including three regular levels and one boss level per round.

The game shares its objective with other Bomberman games. The player has to blow up between one to three opponent(s) via the use of bombs to advance, while they try to do the same to the player. The entire game is played from a top-down perspective. The player maneuvers around a grid-like playing field, setting off bombs to blow up unsuspecting enemies, and destroy walls to clear the way and to reveal occasional power-ups. The player wins by defeating the enemy Madbombers (which take on the appearance of the character not chosen). Every level is played with a best-of-3 rule. If the player wins two times, they gain access to the next level. Failure to do so results in a Game Over.

When playing the game on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System with a Super Game Boy, an additional multiplayer mode for up to four players is available, known as the Battle Mode. In this mode, two or more players are able to play against each other, with up to four players being supported using the Super Multitap.

The game also contains a secret game mode called "The Battle" (not to be confused with the Battle Mode), available by entering the password 6565 on the title screen to play as Wario, or 5656 to play as Bomberman. The passwords to access this mode can be found in Burn Zone. In this mode, the player starts with all power-ups, and the goal is to defeat endless waves of opponents to obtain a high score.

Bosses
At the end of each round, the player faces a boss that requires a strategy.
 * Round 1: Cup King
 * Round 2: Top Man
 * Round 3: T-Bear
 * Round 4: P-Flower
 * Round 5: Thunder Cloud
 * Round 6: Pukupuku
 * Round 7: Gururin Knight
 * Round 8: Mad-Bomber

Development
Bomberman GB was originally known as  2 during development. It was demonstrated at Summer 94 as Bomberman, and reportedly involved the title character stopping a new enemy named Mad Bomber from causing destruction in a location called Big City.

While Bomberman GB was getting ready for a Western release, Nintendo approached Hudson about doing a Mario collaboration. Concerns about Bomberman's overseas popularity prompted the idea to replace the main character. Mario was considered as the protagonist at first, but there were concerns that having him use bombs to defeat his enemies would be out-of-character and off-brand. The development team suggested Wario, who had his own games on the market, and since it was insisted to keep Bomberman, the game became a crossover. Even though Wario was a new character at the time, Nintendo sent the developers a list of approved and forbidden actions for the characters, which designer Norio Ohkubo likened to the approval process for using characters in term of strictness.

References in later games
Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! is not directly referenced in later games, but it began a trend in Nintendo spin-offs that associates Wario with bombs. Technically, bombs having any relevance to Wario first appeared in Wario's Woods, but in this game, they are solely used against him. Beginning in Mario Party, Wario has an association with Bob-ombs as his home stage, Wario's Battle Canyon, features the landscape of a canyon wrought with explosions from a war between Bob-ombs and Bob-omb Buddies, which Wario appears to be manipulating out of greed. In Mario Party 3, Wario's association with Bob-ombs continues, as one is his default partner in the game's duel mode. In Mario Tennis, Bob-ombs line the walls in Wario's home stage, Wario Court, as well as his joint venture with Waluigi, Wario & Waluigi Court. In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Wario's special item is the Bob-omb. In Super Mario 64 DS, Wario is one of the two characters who has a Bob-omb themed minigame in the Rec Room. In Mario Hoops 3-on-3, Wario's home stage Wario Factory has several Bob-ombs (ones larger than the Bob-omb one gets as an item) that appear as stage-exclusive hazards for the players. In Mario Super Sluggers, Wario hits a bomb in addition to a baseball as his special move. In the Club Nintendo comics, Wario is the owner of a bomb shop. Lastly, the timer and logo for the minigames in the WarioWare games is a bomb with Wario's mustache on it.

Artwork

 * Bomberman GB

Sprites

 * Bomberman GB / Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!