Vintage Gaming: Silent Bomber
By Miodrag Kovačević | November 13, 2011 | Features | No comments | Share
There is a list of things that are deemed universally awesome. Sometimes, when combined, they cause the Heavens to split for a moment. This is what happened when Clover created God Hand. Other times, when people take a single awesome element and base their work around it, you get something like CyberConnect2′s Silent Bomber, a game revolving around explosions.
As this is the Internet and we are honor-bound to compare games as a mix of A and B, the closest such descriptor for Silent Bomber would be “Bomberman and Final Fantasy cranked up to 11”. A game about fast-paced frantic arcade-styled destruction with video game philosophy about war, morality and redemption.
You take up the role of Jutah Fate, a genetically engineered soldier who specializes in spying, assassination and demolition. When the government fell, he was sentenced to 300 years in prison and suffered a mental breakdown, turning into a brooding bishonen killing machine. He is now on a mission with a team of bad dudes and dudettes to destroy the giant spaceship, Dante, which is threatening to destroy the planet Hornet.
The story and voice acting are beyond cheesy, using almost every cliché in the book. Brooding main character devoid of emotions? 
Check. Lawful Evil nemesis who is the only other person in the game to use the hero’s weapon? Check. The line “I regret nothing”? Also check. It’s so bad, it’s good. We are talking about such a scale, that it gives the first Resident Evil a run for its money. It reaches the spectrum of bad to such an extent that it achieves absurdity and only leaves the most soulless of people indifferent. Oh, and the final battle has a chess gimmick. You just have to love video game symbolism!
However, we wouldn’t be talking about the game if it wasn’t actually fun to play. As previously mentioned, it comes closest to Bomberman, but there is much more freedom when it comes to movement. You can jump, dash, set bombs at your current position or set them directly on your opponent. Aside from the regular explosives, Jutah has access to three special weapons: an EMP grenade which stuns targets, a napalm grenade and a gravity bomb which creates a miniature black hole.
There is also a basic upgrade system. You can find E-Chips throughout levels and use them to modify your loadout for each mission. 
One chip can increase your bomb capacity, range or shield strength, meaning you can set them as you see fit before any level. That’s about as complicated as things go. There are a few timed and protection missions, but for most part, the goal is to burn everything to the ground. Silent Bomber also sports a slight arcade atmosphere, scoring you more points for destroying multiple enemies at once, as well as ending each level with a boss fight.
The real beauty of this title lies in its straightforward gameplay. There isn’t much to do, but it’s short, sweet and to the point. While I don’t think such a game would receive much attention as a full release, creating a sequel or remake as a smaller PSN or XBLA title would likely work. Heck, I’m sick of all the 4-player co-op games this generation, and even I would settle for such a variant of Silent Bomber. Maybe CyberConnect2 will get to it after finishing Asura’s Wrath?
Silent Bomber was first released for the Playstation in 1999 in Japan, localized in the West in 2000 and then re-released for the Playstation Network in 2006 (Japan-only). It was developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Bandai.
