By Shawn Handyside
Columnist

Hudson Soft has followed suit with the next generation of video game consoles and released “Bomberman: Act Zero” for the Xbox 360. (Courtesy Photo)

I’ve been doing the “I, Geek” column for a while now, and so far I have yet to write a review on a bad video game. It’s not that there aren’t bad video games being released; there certainly are plenty. It’s just that with one review a week, why waste time telling you about awful games when I can tell you about awesome ones?

Well, unfortunately, this week I have to break the trend. Every now and then a really appalling game comes out, and I feel it’s my civic duty to warn everyone I know to steer clear of it. I’m sorry to report that “Bomberman: Act Zero” is one such game.

Part of the reason I need to warn people is because the “Bomberman” series has been a favorite of gamers for more than 20 years now. We got our first taste of this bomb-placing strategy game back on the NES in 1987. Since then, an avalanche of “Bomberman” titles have appeared on almost every video game system, making it one of the most successful franchises in gaming (akin to series such as “Mario” and “Sonic”).

Now with the next generation of video game consoles hitting the market, Hudson Soft has followed suit by releasing “Bomberman: Act Zero” for the Xbox 360, a title that does not stray far from the classic “Bomberman” formula, but includes some radical style changes. Gone are the cutesy bombermen characters you know and love. In this title, they’ve been traded in for dark and gritty cyborgs who create “bio-bombs” and have an equally dark (albeit almost non-existent) storyline.

I didn’t mind this complete style overhaul. In fact, I was glad to see Hudson pushing the brand in a new direction instead of simply punching out an updated clone of their last 20 “Bomberman” games. Unfortunately, “Act Zero’s” real problems have nothing to do with a change in style.

The first thing you’ll notice when you jump into “B:AZ” is that there’s very little in the way of single-player play. Fire up the one available single-player game option, and you’re treated to 99 incredibly repetitive stages of playing against the computer. In Hudson’s defense, “Act Zero” is supposed to be a nod to the original NES “Bomberman,” and yes, back then the game’s goal was to blast through 99 levels. In this update, though, we don’t even get enemies or bosses, just a few computer-controlled bombermen over and over. Not only that, but the levels barely change, if at all. Simply put, single-player mode can be completely written off. There is no redeemable value there.

But who cares about single player anyway, right? “Bomberman” has always been a fantastic multiplayer affair, and with Xbox Live support the title should really shine. Well, it doesn’t. I mean, it’s not horrible. All the right elements are in place ­ classic power-ups, eight-player support, voice chat. But with only one map to play on and very little in the way of configurable options, the experience gets old quickly. If the game has ANY redeeming qualities, however, it’s this mode.

And finally, offline multiplayer. Um, there isn’t any. It’s almost mind-boggling to any fan of the series, but “B:AZ” has no offline multiplayer mode, which means you can’t just sit down with a couple of friends at your house and bust out some party-style two- to four-player “Bomberman” play. It’s almost unthinkable, but if you want to play multiplayer with friends, you must each be an Xbox Live subscriber and you must each play at your own houses on your own Xbox’s with your own copy of the game. Apparently those are the breaks.

So did they get anything right with this stinker? Well the new “FPB Mode” (a first-person bomber mode, which ironically, uses a third-person view) was a nice innovation. I’d like to see that option available again in the future. Besides that, no, they got nothing right.

If there’s any reason for you to pick up this title, it would be for the Xbox Live multiplayer mode, but that alone nowhere near justifies the full $49.99 price tag. For the small amount of actual content in “B:AZ,” it should have been released as a $5 or $10 Live Arcade download game. If that ends up happening in the future, by all means pick it up for a quick “Bomberman” fix. Otherwise, avoid this one like the plague.

­ E-mail Shawn Handyside in his digital fortress of solitude at shawn@icommageek.com.