Bombslinger

I wish there were more games like Bombslinger because in my opinion the market for Bomberman-likes is still too small.
In Bombslinger you play as a former boss of an outlaw gang in the wild west. The titular Bombslinger decided to leave his gang to live with his wife on a small ranch but because he took the money from their biggest heist with him, they kill his wife and burn down the ranch.
Now hellbent on revenge you hunt them one by one down.
The gameplay mixes the typical Bomberman formular with rogue-like elements. Each run is randomized for more replayability. You have to travel through multiple stages, each one having their own boss, a member of your former gang. In typical Bomberman fashion you can lay down bombs to kill enemies. The key here is to corner them with your bombs so they cannot escape the blast. Bombs can be chained together and all explode at the same time if the fire touches each other. This can be used to set up combos. Killing enemies gives you XP and killing multiple at the same time through your combos gives you a bonus. Leveling up allows you to improve your stats, more firepower, more bombs can be placed down, more speed and so on. If you have lost HP you can also refill them through a level up.
Your bombs deal also damage to you, so you want to avoid that.
There are many different enemies that have different kind of behaviours. The first enemies will either wander around aimlessy or will follow you if they see you. Later you get outlaws with revovlers that shoot you if they see you, wolves that charge at, farmers with shotguns that sleep but wake up if they here noises and even shamans that can summon lightning at your position.
Luckily you can also find all kind of useful tools. You can find alternate bombs that have different effects, like a seeker bomb that fires a long flame wall that searches for enemies to kill them or the nitro bomb that completely blasts through obstacles and enemies alike. You can also find guns to shoot at enemies. One thing that you will find are snake oil flasks. Those act as random potions. You don't know what it will do until you drink it and it can benefit you or hurt you. It's still usually wortht he risk because you can get stat upgrades with those.
There is also a shop in each level where you can buy items for gold that you get from crates and enemies. What I really like here is that when you enter the shop, you realize that you are actually playing a 3D game despite the look. Suddenly you are in first person inside the shop, looking directly at the wares on display. It's really cool and I wish more games would do something like that.
That being said, the game is still in 2D fashion for the rest of it, it's just that the game mixes 3D environment with 2D sprites which is the reason why you won't immediately notice that the world is 3D. T´Besides shops there is no gameplay element that makes use of the 3D graphics.
One thing I like about this game is that achievements have a real use here. By completing an achievement you will unlock an item for your loadout. Before each run you can take up to four different items with you which will give you passive benefits. It allows you to go for a specific strategy or simply give you a headstart. It's not overwhelming in terms of power but it makes reaching certain milestones more rewarding. Thre is no other metaprogression besides that however, so you won't get more powerful with each run until you beat the game by sheer dominance.
There aren't any super powerful builds either to be honest, the focus is more on skillfully playing Bomberman with added randomization and items. This is in my opinion completely fine, it's a good Bomberman game although I do wish there were more items. Variety in this game is pretty scarce and that would be my biggst complaint. You will often see simiiar items in your runs, the variation mostly comes from how the stages are built.
The game also has a multiplayer mode, a classic arena mode like you know it. Kill the other players with your bombs, don't die yourself. It's good but it's only local multiplayer, which kinda sucks if you don't have friends at your home to play with. You can play with Remote Play together but that is often laggy. But if you have friends at home, than you can have some good old-fashioned Bomberman battles, which is always fun.

Steam User 1

Reviewed 04.2023

I wish there were more games like Bombslinger because in my opinion the market for Bomberman-likes is still too small.
In Bombslinger you play as a former boss of an outlaw gang in the wild west. The titular Bombslinger decided to leave his gang to live with his wife on a small ranch but because he took the money from their biggest heist with him, they kill his wife and burn down the ranch.
Now hellbent on revenge you hunt them one by one down.
The gameplay mixes the typical Bomberman formular with rogue-like elements. Each run is randomized for more replayability. You have to travel through multiple stages, each one having their own boss, a member of your former gang. In typical Bomberman fashion you can lay down bombs to kill enemies. The key here is to corner them with your bombs so they cannot escape the blast. Bombs can be chained together and all explode at the same time if the fire touches each other. This can be used to set up combos. Killing enemies gives you XP and killing multiple at the same time through your combos gives you a bonus. Leveling up allows you to improve your stats, more firepower, more bombs can be placed down, more speed and so on. If you have lost HP you can also refill them through a level up.
Your bombs deal also damage to you, so you want to avoid that.
There are many different enemies that have different kind of behaviours. The first enemies will either wander around aimlessy or will follow you if they see you. Later you get outlaws with revovlers that shoot you if they see you, wolves that charge at, farmers with shotguns that sleep but wake up if they here noises and even shamans that can summon lightning at your position.
Luckily you can also find all kind of useful tools. You can find alternate bombs that have different effects, like a seeker bomb that fires a long flame wall that searches for enemies to kill them or the nitro bomb that completely blasts through obstacles and enemies alike. You can also find guns to shoot at enemies. One thing that you will find are snake oil flasks. Those act as random potions. You don't know what it will do until you drink it and it can benefit you or hurt you. It's still usually wortht he risk because you can get stat upgrades with those.
There is also a shop in each level where you can buy items for gold that you get from crates and enemies. What I really like here is that when you enter the shop, you realize that you are actually playing a 3D game despite the look. Suddenly you are in first person inside the shop, looking directly at the wares on display. It's really cool and I wish more games would do something like that.
That being said, the game is still in 2D fashion for the rest of it, it's just that the game mixes 3D environment with 2D sprites which is the reason why you won't immediately notice that the world is 3D. T´Besides shops there is no gameplay element that makes use of the 3D graphics.
One thing I like about this game is that achievements have a real use here. By completing an achievement you will unlock an item for your loadout. Before each run you can take up to four different items with you which will give you passive benefits. It allows you to go for a specific strategy or simply give you a headstart. It's not overwhelming in terms of power but it makes reaching certain milestones more rewarding. Thre is no other metaprogression besides that however, so you won't get more powerful with each run until you beat the game by sheer dominance.
There aren't any super powerful builds either to be honest, the focus is more on skillfully playing Bomberman with added randomization and items. This is in my opinion completely fine, it's a good Bomberman game although I do wish there were more items. Variety in this game is pretty scarce and that would be my biggst complaint. You will often see simiiar items in your runs, the variation mostly comes from how the stages are built.
The game also has a multiplayer mode, a classic arena mode like you know it. Kill the other players with your bombs, don't die yourself. It's good but it's only local multiplayer, which kinda sucks if you don't have friends at your home to play with. You can play with Remote Play together but that is often laggy. But if you have friends at home, than you can have some good old-fashioned Bomberman battles, which is always fun.
Steam User 1

Reviewed last year

What a great hidden gem. I only find out about it now 5 years after it's release. A great mix of Bomberman/The Binding of Isaac. Working perfectly on a Steam deck. If you do have this on your Steam deck i recommend getting it !
Steam User 1

Reviewed 03.2023

When I playing this I felt like I was tired of roguelike games, but this bomberman roguelike was so much fun?
As you play you'll unlock trinkets to make the next run easier and it's fun to try to get them all.

Bombslinger

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Steam User 1

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