Bombs And Bugs

I'm sure everyone of a certain age has that one obscure shareware game they remember hunching over a keyboard with their friends for hours on end with. That game they downloaded from somewhere or had on a dodgy-CD, that might not have been a famous or well-known title, but for those who played it at the right time it was their world for a while. For me that game was Jetpack and while I never played [i]Bombs and Bugs[/i] in its time I could see it being that game for others. I guess what I'm getting at is, this is probably best if it was [i]that game[/i] for you back in the day. [i]Bombs and Bugs[/i] is basically [i]Bomberman[/i] and if you want [i]Bomberman[/i] on Steam the [i]Super Bomberman Collection[/i] has you more than covered. But imagine it's the 90's and there is no official [i]Bomberman[/i] game on your platform of choice, or there is but it's too expensive, or you've never heard of [i]Bomberman[/i] and this is just something you and your friend are playing [i]because it's there[/i]. I coudl see that being a pretty good time [i]but[/i] despite it's charms it's just not as fun as Bomberman. As far as I can tell you can only lay down one bomb at a time which makes actually hitting an opponent very difficult and tedious. I do like this game's unique concept of the bombs themselves being a finite resource that can be replenished which makes you have to think carefully, and the blasts seem to naturally go through the soft walls which makes it a bit different than the real thing, but fundamentally it's a more sluggish Bomberman that's strictly battle mode. That's not to say this is a bad game, in fact I imagine it was great for it's time! Just that there's no real reason to play it unless you have nostalgia for it. That said, I do find the artwork immensely charming, it kind of feels a bit like [i]Toejam and Earl[/i] and for whatever flaws the gameplay has, the visuals are fantastic and hold up. I love the character designs, the use of color, and just how detailed everything is. Shareware games have kind of their own aesthetic a bit different from what the big commercial titles had and this is kind of peak vibrant shareware aesthetic. I love all the quirky stock sounds that I've definitely heard in other games (I think the "ow!" was a stock noise in the very old versions of Game Maker at one point and the trumpet horn was definitely in at least one [i]Pac Guy[/i] title). So even though I didn't spend much time with this one I still had some fun. I also like that the bombs actually have a visual timer you can watch to see when the bomb is actually going to go off, and a neat feature is that certain power-ups can increase or decrease the time it takes for your bomb to explode. As far as presentation goes, this port is solid and ran perfectly on my Steam Deck. I can't say how it compares to the "original" but it looks and plays smoothly and I think fans of it will likely be happy with it.

Oh, wow! This is such as blast from the past! Some of my fondest memories growing up in the 90's was playing this game with my sister sharing a single keyboard. Thank you for re-releasing this game. Instant buy! My sister and I originally played Bugs and Bombs on a CD-ROM called "100 Action Arcade Games Volume 3" published by Global Star Software. That CD also had Cliff Bleszinski's first game, Jazz Jackrabbit. (Yes, from Gears of War.) As well as one of Blizzard's first videogames made, Lost Vikings 2. (This is only Bugs and Bombs -- I simply am mentioning those other games for archival purposes.) This version on Steam in 2026 is true to original classic from 1997. It works great on Windows 11 Pro. 5/5 Stars!

I'm that dude the guy who wrote other review is talking about. Definitely a top childhood memory getting this game to work for a few minutes on a shareware CD. Just to have to start the whole process over again to play. I cant really explain it, but this game is like a fever dream to me. No possible way its out on Steam in 2026.