Just finished Bomberman GB 3 over my lunch, and I had a, ahem, blast with Hudson Soft’s approach to the legendary series on Game Boy. Looking at the credits, game design was handled by Hideyuki Kubota who previously worked for Atlus before joining Hudson Soft in the mid-90’s.
For my money this is one of the best single player Bomberman games, coming close to Custom Battler Bomberman on DS. Its more compact level design and mountain of ideas sidestep the excruciatingly slow pacing that Bomberman was guilty of peddling around the time of GB 3’s release in 1996.
Each world starts off with new enemies and a central hook (the mountains have a slippery icy floor), but after just one level the game quickly starts throwing new objectives and modifiers into the mix. Modifiers include things like autoscrolling levels, death bombs that must not be set off, avalanches to avoid and light switches, while objectives mean the level goal won’t activate unless you, say, unite pairs of similar statues, or guide stronger monsters to gobble up weaker ones.
It keeps the game fresh and for the most part, you rarely know what to expect next. Even its upgrades system switches up any habits you form in the early game. After each boss fight you get capsules to spend on upgrades - including four Motorcycle types which are a bit like the Kangaroos in previous games. My favourite Motorcycle type can destroy soft blocks - but only if you ram into them from afar, and at the cost of not revealing powerups afterward.
All-in-all this is as an essential approach to Bomberman single player as Custom Battler Bomberman on DS. The compact level design keeps things fast and frantic, the difficulty ups considerably once you reach the underground worlds and the game is never afraid to keep challenging you in new and often exciting ways.