A ’90s spin-off from the Bomberman series has been given its first ever official Western release.
Panic Bomber W, which was released on the Super Famicom in March 1995, has been added to retro compilation Super Bomberman Collection.
Konami initially announced Super Bomberman Collection during a Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase in February, then surprised players by releasing it that same day.
The compilation – which is available on Switch 2, Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC – consists of seven classic 8-bit and 16-bit Bomberman games, including all five titles in the Super Bomberman series on the SNES / Super Famicom.
Now Konami has added Panic Bomber W to the collection as part of a free update, bringing the total to eight games.
Panic Bomber was originally released on the PC Engine in Japan in 1994, before being ported to the Super Famicom as Panic Bomber W the following year.
The game involves stacking falling blocks of various colours, similar to Dr Mario or Puyo Puyo, with the aim being to match blocks of the same colour. This causes them to disappear, but also awards the player with bombs, which can then be detonated to send rubble to the opponent’s screen.
The PC Engine version of Panic Bomber was eventually released on the Wii U Virtual Console in Europe and North America in 2017, but the addition of Panic Bomber W to Super Bomberman Collection marks the Super Famicom version’s first ever official release outside of Japan.
As well as Panic Bomber W, Super Bomberman Collection consists of Super Bomberman 1-5, as well as the Famicom versions of Bomberman and Bomberman 2.
Super Bomberman 4 and 5 were previously only released in Japan too, and were localised to English for the first time for this compilation.
