Bomberman is an arcade game with local multiplayer and single-player game modes. The game levels are comprised of open spaces to walk around a corner, safe from explosions. Also, there are destroyable blocks and persistent blocks. Each player can place bombs. Once a block is destroyed, a powerup may sometimes be found where the destroyable block once was. Powerups give the player bigger explosions and faster movement. These skills make finishing off the last opponents easier.

The first game was released in 1985 for the NES game console. Bomberman was popular as an early four-player game for the first Nintendo console. Most games that featured local multiple at the time were only for 2 players despite the console having 4 ports. The game was originally developed by Hudson Soft a Japanese game developer. The game went on to become hugely influential as an early party game that featured fun anime-styled graphics. The popularity led to many different versions of the game that targetted all the gaming platforms like the Amiga, MS-DOS, and the Atari ST console all released in 1990. After that Bomberman could be found on every major console from Sega Saturn to the PlayStation, N64, Dreamcast, Game Cube, and now the modern consoles.