This product is like new. At NexWave Games, like new means:
Additionally, all discs at NexWave Games are carefully inspected and assessed for quality. When discs arrive, we do not accept any that are so badly damaged that they are unlikely to work. We only accept discs with light scratches at most. Discs with scratches are then treated in our professional disc repair machine. By warming the disc and polishing it with soft brushes, these machines can remove a very thin layer from the disc. This removes the layer containing surface scratches and improves the disc’s readability. This ensures the disc works properly, even on consoles with ageing lasers that have difficulty reading games! Great news for the player.
Bomberman Fantasy Race for PlayStation 1
Bomberman Fantasy Race for PlayStation 1 puts the familiar bomb thrower on a mount instead of in a maze. You choose a character and a Louie or Tirra and race across three-dimensional tracks with slopes, obstacles and sharp corners. The animals differ in speed, jumping ability and stamina. Your choice therefore determines not only how fast you move along a straight, but also how long you can sprint and which tricky sections you keep under control.
Bombs remain your main tool for slowing rivals down. Holding the throw button longer adjusts the distance of a throw; a badly placed explosion can also hinder you. Jumps, wall jumps and shortcuts provide another way to gain time. Good finishing positions earn in-game coins for new animals, tracks and items. You therefore weigh up saving for another mount against first buying tools for a difficult competition on an already familiar route.
Alongside single-player competitions, you can improve your own times or race with two players simultaneously on a split screen. This requires two controllers. An ordinary PlayStation controller is supported. A PlayStation memory card stores your data, allowing you to load your earned money and purchases again later. Expect races with attacks and platform-style jumps here, not a classic Bomberman battle on a grid.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 1 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
Bomberman Fantasy Race for PlayStation 1 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Bomberman Fantasy Race
Graphic Research developed Bomberman Fantasy Race as a separate racing spin-off of Hudson's Bomberman series. Hudson Soft released the game in Japan in 1998, Atlus handled the North American release in 1999 and Virgin Interactive followed in Europe in 2000. That staggered release history explains the different publisher names on regional packaging. The game uses the series' recognisable characters and bombs, but moves the action to continuous three-dimensional circuits where position, speed and the choice of mount determine the race.
The switch to racing retained more than Bomberman's appearance. Bombs can be dropped or thrown further away, and their explosions influence your route through the field. Meanwhile, the Louie and Tirra animals form the vehicle selection, with different attributes and more expensive purchases to work towards. The design thus combines directly obstructing opponents with a game structure in which good results earn money. A new animal is not merely a decorative reward: its attributes change how you approach corners, jumps and short sprints on your next attempt.
The original PlayStation release arrived during a period when several familiar game characters received their own racing games. Fantasy Race distinguished itself with animal racing, a shop and duels in which players can wager in-game coins. That differs from the maze battles that made Bomberman famous. Here, the title refers to that racing spin-off, not a platform adventure or a compilation of older Bomberman games.
Similar games for PlayStation 1
Crash Team Racing on PlayStation uses weapons and shortcuts to alter races, just like Bomberman Fantasy Race. In Crash, well-timed powerslides and turbos provide much of your speed. Bomberman instead lets you choose a mount and earn money for purchases, giving preparation off the track greater weight. Throwing bombs and planning jumps determine the rhythm of a lap, involving different decisions from maintaining a long drift.
Chocobo Racing also puts familiar game characters into a fantasy race on PlayStation. Its emphasis is on the participants' individual abilities and magical tools from the Final Fantasy world. In Bomberman Fantasy Race, the selected animal's attributes have more influence on your handling. The shop and earned in-game coins also shape the options available later. Both mix racing with attacks, but their choices between competitions consequently have a different meaning.
Muppet RaceMania likewise offers colourful PlayStation races with strange projectiles and routes you can cut short. The Muppets drive vehicles through film settings and also investigate those environments during separate collecting tasks. Bomberman Fantasy Race concentrates on riding animals, earning money and purchasing new racing options. When you retry the same track here, it is mainly to achieve a better result or more coins, rather than to search for hidden film clips.
In Speed Freaks for PlayStation, you combine dodging weapons with steering and using turbo. Its cartoon-like drivers belong to the same broad kart-racing genre, but drive karts rather than animals. Bomberman Fantasy Race gives the mount's jumping ability and stamina a prominent role and lets you make purchases with race money. A new attempt therefore also involves a preparatory choice: you can bring a different set of animal attributes to the same corners and obstacles.
Micro Machines V3 turns everyday places into tracks for tiny vehicles on PlayStation. Its shared camera views often make races about pulling away from rivals and staying within the visible playing area. Bomberman Fantasy Race follows your animal more closely around three-dimensional circuits and uses a split screen for its two-player duels. Both involve finding a short line past obstacles, but visibility, attacks and the consequences of a collision work very differently as a result.
