There's nothing quite like running around dropping and throwing bombs at your friends - in a game people, I'm not affiliated with any terrorist organisation but I had better stop right there before MI5 and a tactical SWAT team break through my window. Anyway, if you do love blowing up your buddies ["We've got potential terrorist activity, alert SWAT, getting a fix on the location now..." Keystroke Monitoring Intelligence.] then you've come to the right place, as Bomberman Live is the latest incarnation in the timelessly classic series, and thankfully it's taken the gameplay back to the series' retro roots, so we can blow away all memory of the awful Bomberman Act: Zero.

If the name of the game didn't give you some subtle hints as to what the it's all about, I'll blow it up for you (sorry!) The Bomberman franchise has always followed the same very simple recipe for success; players are placed in a maze and armed with bombs, some power-ups are sprinkled around then all hell breaks loose in a spectacularly incendiary fashion, where the last bomberman standing wins. Each maze is made up of a mixture of indestructible blocks (which form a grid) and destructible ones that contain power-ups. All you have to do is lay your bombs and then get out of the range of their blast radius before they explode and destroy these blocks, revealing power-ups and clearing a path to your opponents. Once there, your job is to blow them up whilst avoiding their attempts to blow you up.

The various power-ups on offer do such things as increasing your speed of movement, or the power and subsequent blast radius of your bombs. Others give you handy abilities like being able to kick bombs at your fleeing opponents, which is always hilarious, or remote detonators so you can lay bombs, run to safety, then proceed to blow anyone up unluckily happens to run past. Brilliant! ["Homing in on location of tango, mobilise SWAT now."] The power-ups are perfectly balanced and there aren't any that don't add something to the experience; there's enough variety in the power-ups to spice up the gameplay without making it overly confusing.

There are also a few different maze types on offer as well, to vary the gameplay further. You get your standard one that I've mentioned above, but you also get mazes that are built on ice, where every so often different parts of the running surface crack and break open, causing any unlucky Bombermen caught unawares to fall to their death. Another one features arrows on the floor that redirect bombs in a certain direction, but my personal favourite for all out action is a certain maze where all of the power-ups are in the middle of the map, surrounded by destructible boxes, and you have to demolish your way through to get them before your opponents do.

Honestly, this game is pure brilliance and very, very easy for anyone to pick up and play. I've not had a game disc in my Xbox 360's drive since I downloaded Bomberman Live from the Arcade - it's really that good! Anyone who's read my slightly enthusiastic review of Forza Motorsport 2 will know that for any game to cause me to take a timeout from it is a real achievement! Playing with your buddies is really where the shenanigans begin, as Bomberman Live is hand on heart the best Xbox Live Arcade game that's ever graced Microsoft's white box of gamer bliss. It's just so much fun to play a game that's so easy to learn, yet so unbelievably difficult to master. You might think you're amazing at this game, but it's still frustratingly funny dropping a load of bombs and then proceeding to run into the path of an opponent's bomb.

Multiplayer is where this game really excels and, as the title suggests, Bomberman Live is set up for online play, so you can join in on a game and blow up people from around the world ["Confirm fix on his position, over. We're moving in!" SWAT Team.] However, with a game of this nature, playing with some friends is really where it comes into its own. It's hilarious trapping your buddy in a spot where they can't escape and then watching their panic stricken faces as they realise they're about to die. Perhaps the most fun times in the game are when players have destroyed all the destructible boxes and picked up all of the power-ups. You're left with bombs that shoot from one end of the maze to the other, so you've gotta keep your eyes peeled for that rogue bomb someone's dropped, as it could very well catch you by surprise. The looks of pure desperations and evil plotting on your friends' faces is priceless, so it's a good thing that Bomberman Live supports the Live Vision camera and as a result you can see their defeated faces from anywhere!

The graphics in Bomberman Live are lovely; with bright, vivid colours and a great cartoon style, it's really quite an appealing game and aesthetically pleasing to look at. The developers have kept the original 2D top-down view, so there are no dodgy camera angles to deal with and the action is centralised as a result. The menus are basic at the best of times, but this is a moot point as you're only in them for a short period of time. One aspect of the presentation I really love is the customisation of the characters. Each Bomberman can have different headgear, different expressions and different outfits, most of which are unlockable by playing through the game's single player mode.

The sound within the game is somewhat a 'love it or hate it' affair - personally I love it, whilst others have found it annoying. Bomberman Live features the usual synthesized type music you expect from a Live Arcade game, but it's pleasant to listen to, bouncy and upbeat. Each time a player picks up one of the power-ups, an overly cheery sounding female voice announces it. It's a good touch, as it means you can concentrate on blowing stuff up without looking around too much to see what everyone else is picking up, but it happens so many times that it can quickly become an annoyance.

So, the graphics are good, the sound is good, and the gameplay is good. Surely there can't be anything wrong? Well, I'd like to say that there isn't as this is my personal favourite game of this year so far, but I'd be lying. The biggest drawback of this game in my opinion is the computer AI during single player mode; it's really quite an airhead in terms of intelligence. The computer often drops a bomb, runs away, then runs back and blows itself up. It's so silly it's untrue. Even worse than this is that some of the computer opponents appear to be allergic to the power-ups, just running around completely oblivious to their presence. It's annoying, because you end up with massively powerful bombs, whilst the computer opponent you're up against still has the puny bombs you start off with. It doesn't happen often enough for it to be a major issue, but it's certainly a blemish in the highly polished finish the game has.

Aside from dodgy AI in single player (and let's face it, you're going to be spending the vast majority of your time up against real people from around the world), Bomberman Live is easily one of the best multiplayer games of the year, and an absolute steal at only 800MP. It looks great, it sounds good and it plays like a real dream, the simplistic gameplay revealing hidden depths and strategies the more you play, with plenty of hilarious moments of death or glory in every game you can play. Blowing up your friends really has never been so much fun!

BOOM!

CRASH!

"Step away from the keyboard and get down on your knees, you are completely surrounded!"

Oh crap, Guantánamo Bay here I come... can I bring my Xbox 360 with me?

Reviewed by Harmz Singh for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).