Bombastic (video game)

Gameplay

The gameplay of Bombastic is similar to its predecessor, Devil Dice. Players control a family of small devil called Aqui that runs across a grid full of dice. Players can walk on the grid, pushing dice around, or walk on the dice, rolling them as the character walks. The objective and how dice are cleared vary between modes.

Bombastic Style

The Bombastic Style is the new gameplay version. When a group of dice with identical top face is formed, which the size must be at least as the number of pips on the face, the dice start glowing, and after a while, exploding and bursting flame to the four directions. The larger the pip amount is, the longer the delay will be; but the flame is also longer. Dice can still be rolled or moved when glowing; the flame length used is the number of pips on the top of the face of the die when the die explodes.

Chains can be formed by exploding a die, which then its flame hits a dice with an equal or exactly one pip lower than the original die. That way, the chained die starts glowing too; which starts the chain. With this chain rule, a player can form continuous explosions.

Trial Mode

Trial Mode is similar to its predecessor, but with the new gameplay. Trial Mode has three submodes: Standard, Limited, and Attack.

In Standard, the player controls a baby Aqui that grows up as the level progresses, and thus increasing its speed. The player plays in a 7x7 grid, clearing dice to keep new space in the game.

In Limited, the player controls an Aqui with a player-defined speed in a 7x7 grid for three minutes, trying to get as high score as possible.

In Attack, the player can enter a code to unlock a stage. There are ten stages and the stages vary in objective and settings; some examples are:

Quest Mode

Quest Mode is an adventure-style, progressive levels mode. The Aqui brothers want to visit their grandfather, which resides in The Realm of Clouds. However, The Aqui brothers need to face The Realm of Ghosts, The Realm of Sweets, The Realm of Jungle, and The Realm of Ice before reaching their destination.

The gameplay changes, though the core explosion rule stays the same. The Aqui brothers need to complete fifteen levels and beat five bosses to meet their grandfather.

In each level, the level usually has various puzzles compacted into one; all puzzles must be completed to win. There are also enemies in the level; enemies can be defeated by exploding a die and have its flame to hit the enemy. If an Aqui touches the enemy, it loses a life (shown by losing one member of the Aqui brothers). A unique thing is that lives are not replenished between levels, but by losing all lives, one can get all lives back with no penalty (other than losing the level currently on).

There are three types of completion: Complete, No Lives Lost, and Perfect. To Complete a level, just finish the level. To get No Lives Lost, the player may not lose any Aqui. To get Perfect, the player may not lose any Aqui, and must kill every enemy in the level.

The bosses have different level style. The Aqui must defeat the bosses by the dice fire. Moreover, each boss has a unique ability; for example, The Pack of Cats, the boss of The Realm of Jungle, can spawn little cats to disrupt the players movement area.

There are two "parts", nighttime and daytime. The nighttime stages are easier than their daytime counterparts.

War Mode

In War Mode, five players or computer-controlled AIs play in a large grid, trying to destroy dice and deplete others healths, to survive as the sole winner.

Classic & Advanced Styles

As progress is made in the game, the styles of the previous games can be unlocked.

The Classic style follows the rules of Devil Dice; when a group of dice with identical top face is formed, which the size must be at least as the number of pips on the face, the dice start to sink to the grid and cannot be moved. When the dice has sunk halfway, they become "transparent". Dice can be rolled on top of these transparent dice (and the transparent dice vanishes immediately). Matching a die to a group of sinking dice will cause a chain; the new die starts sinking along with the original group.

The Advanced style follows the rules of XI(sai) Jumbo; it adds the ability to jump with a die, allowing it to move atop the other dice and create combos more easily. It also allows the player to pick up an adjacent die; they can place it down into an adjacent space with the top face unchanged, or throw the die far and cause it to land on a random side.

Battle Mode

This mode replaces the Quest mode and is only available for the Classic and Advanced styles. It is a head-to-head mode where two players compete to "claim" different sides of dice by creating dice connections of those sides quickly. Depending on what was decided beforehand, the winner is decided when a player claims from three to all six sides first. Before a player reaches this goal, an opponent can "steal" a player's claim by making a connection of dice with the claimed number.

Reception

On release, Famitsu magazine scored the game a 32 out of 40.