Saturn Bomberman

This page details one or more prototype versions of Saturn Bomberman.

In March 1996, Sega bundled Japanese Saturns with a demo disc named Flash Sega Saturn: Ochikadzuki-hen (フラッシュセガサターン おちかづき編). One of the included games is a near-final demo of Saturn Bomberman, then known as "Bomberman SS".

To do: There's debug menus and alternate hidden playable characters, info here

Differences#

Hudson Logo#

Demo	Final (JP)

The demo uses the "Hudson Group" logo featured in some of Hudson's SNES games, including Super Bomberman 3. The final game uses the standard Hudson logo.

Title Screen#

To do: Replace static images with GIFs, as the logos have animation differences.

Demo	Final (JP)

As mentioned previously, the game was originally known as Bomberman SS. While the "SS" is clearly meant to stand for Sega Saturn, one can understand why Hudson had second thoughts about the original title given the aconym's more... infamous meaning. The final disc copies still read "BOMBERMAN_SS" if popped into a computer, and the Japanese jewel case artwork still has the early name, implying this was a very late change.

The original logo more closely resembles the game's international logo and the logos featured in most contempoary Bomberman games, whereas the final logo goes in a different direction by being written out in Japanese.

A different title meant the title screen voice also had to be changed, though this was done in a rather slap-dash manner by simply cutting out the "SS" portion of the sample, making the voice only say "Bomberman." The full voice clip is still present in the files of the final Japanese game.