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Super Bomberman board game cancelled due to “unforeseen issues”

Follows recent cancellation of Metal Gear Solid board game.

Super Bomberman R PC screenshot
Image credit: Super Bomberman R - Konami

The upcoming tabletop adaptation of the Bomberman series of video games has been cancelled by publisher IDW Games.

According to a tweet from Sean Dallas McDonald, the designer behind the video game board game, the release of Super Bomberman R: Blast Tactics has been officially cancelled due to “unforeseen issues” faced by its publisher. McDonald did not elaborate on what these issues exactly were, but mentioned an earlier announcement by Nazca Games - the studio founded by Emerson Matsuuchi, the creator behind the recently cancelled Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game.

“The writing was on the wall from @NazcaGames’ earlier announcement but I can now officially say the Bomberman board game from IDW Games has also been cancelled,” tweeted McDonald.

It was not clear what “earlier announcement” McDonald was referring to. According to a forum post by Matsuuchi, IDW had been responsible for the cancellation of the Metal Gear Solid board game back in December 2020, with the reasons behind the decision remaining unknown. The rights to the game’s design are currently owned by Matsuuchi, who stated their desire to continue working towards releasing the title through Nazca Games, with the hopes of acquiring the rights to the Metal Gear franchise from its owner Konami.

Super Bomberman R: Blast Tactics is a board game for two to four players based on the classic video game franchise about intergalactic fighters using explosives to defeat their enemies. In the tabletop game, players use bombs to trap and eliminate their opponents within a destructible arena, being sure to clearly choose the placement and time of the explosion to avoid being harmed themselves.

The original Bomberman was released in 1987 on the Nintendo Entertainment System and has since produced a number of sequels and spin-offs throughout the last few decades. The most recent release in the series was Super Bomberman R - launched on the Switch in 2017 and Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and Playstation 4 in 2018 - which featured both single-player and multiple modes.

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In a follow-up tweet, McDonald confirmed that they now owned the design rights to Super Bomberman R: Blast Tactics but remained undecided on “how to proceed with the game.” As with Metal Gear Solid, the rights to the Bomberman video game franchise are held by Konami.

Whether McDonald will follow Matsucchi’s example and attempt to publish the cancelled title themselves remains unclear.

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Alex Meehan avatar
Alex Meehan: After writing for Kotaku UK, Waypoint and Official Xbox Magazine, Alex became a member of the Dicebreaker editorial family. Having been producing news, features, previews and opinion pieces for Dicebreaker for the past three years, Alex has had plenty of opportunity to indulge in her love of meaty strategy board games and gothic RPGS. Besides writing, Alex appears in Dicebreaker’s D&D actual play series Storybreakers and haunts the occasional stream on the Dicebreaker YouTube channel.
In this article

Super Bomberman R

PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch

Awaiting cover image

Super Bomberman R: Blast Tactics

Tabletop Game

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