It’s been just about 25 years since Hudson first released the classic Bomberman, and he’s certainly not seen a shortage of sequels since then. With an installment on just about every platform you can imagine, Bomberman has started to make a bit of a comeback over the last couple of years. Let’s go ahead and ignore Act Zero and pretend the only Bomberman game in recent memory is the Xbox Live Arcade hit Bomberman Live. While B-Man fans were no doubt pleased with this offering, it may have been a little inaccessible to newcomers. Hudson’s looking to remedy that and bring in some new fans with their next release in the series, Bomberman Land.

Bomberman Land has already been seen once on the DS, so this title is known as Bomberman Land 2 on that platform, but it’s essentially the same game as the Wii and PSP versions. Coupled with the classic gameplay of Bomberman’s explosive maze-like puzzles, you’ll find some new gameplay as well.

First, there’s a single player campaign mode that’s not too far off from an RPG. You’ll be fighting against an evil Bomberman (who is different in all versions of the game – on the Wii he looks like a cowboy pimp) who’s kidnapped the mayor of B-Man Land. There are five different zones that each host a series of different t minigames that you’ll need to complete in order to earn a slot in the traditional-style Bomberman tournaments. Wander around town and talk to strangers who look curiously similar to you, complete more tournaments, unlock new lands and minigames, and eventually you’ll be the Bomberman Champion. Sounds simple enough, but anyone familiar with the series knows about the frenetic pace and tough challenge you can expect here. There are 50 minigames in all. All 50 are accessible in single player mode, 10 of those 50 will be 2 player games, and 5 of those 10 will be 4 player friendly.

During the single player campaign, you’ll not only unlock new game types, but new characters and items as well. The items help you earn style, but only in the Wii version of the game. It’s a little unclear at this point how the style bonuses work, but basically you can expect certain items to give you bonuses when used in the right scenarios. With 68 characters in all, you can expect a huge amount of variety on the player select screen.

Of course, along with all of this new stuff, you can expect a ton of classic B-Man gameplay as well. There are 6 different modes for traditional battles, and each of them has 20 variations – that’s a ton of variety. The favorite we’ve seen so far is Revenge Mode, where any player who’s killed gets to return as a simple cursor and drop bombs to take out the person who just took you out. Super Revenge Mode allows you to get back in the game if you manage to take somebody out you’re your bombs from beyond the grave. Other modes include things like Full Power, where a bomb’s blast radius won’t stop until it hits a wall. All in all, there’s a ton of gameplay that new fans and old fans alike will have a great time with.

The controls are more than solid on the Wii version, but we didn’t get a chance to test out the handheld versions. You can expect some differences in the DS version to accommodate for the touch controls, but all versions should be relatively similar. The DS and PSP versions will support both local and wi-fi competitive modes, but there’s no online support for the Wii – although it does get 480p compatibility. Here’s the real kicker, though – all versions launch on the same day, and at the same price of $29.99.

The development team here is definitely not simply riding the coattails of this quarter-century old game. Whether you love Bomberman or you’ve never played before, there’s something here that you’ll enjoy.