Mega Bomberman: Special 8 Player Demo

Mega Bomberman: Special 8 Player Demo
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Factor 5
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1-8
Peripheral(s): Team Player

Mega Bomberman: Special 8 Player Demo represents an unreleased Bomberman game for the Sega Mega Drive. The "demo" has a copyright date of 1994, though was not released onto the internet until many years later. It could be considered a prototype of Mega Bomberman, however none of the content from this demo made it into the "final" product.

Mega Bomberman: Special 8 Player Demo was created by Factor 5, who were commissioned by Hudson Soft to pitch a proof-of-concept Bomberman game for the system. It is a simplistic multiplayer Bomberman game, however differs from the competition as it allows up to eight players to compete at once. At the time, the TurboGrafx-16 title Bomberman '93 held the record for the number of on-screen players (five).

The game is vastly incomplete - the HUD does not function, each of the eight characters can only be controlled by humans (and all eight players must play) and though players can die, there are no triggers or records to state which players have won or lost. As a result, the console must be reset to play another round.

Also unlike most other Bomberman games, the player is not limited as to how many bombs they can carry (or how powerful said bombs are).

Despite being arguably superior to previous Bomberman games due to its support for up to eight players, Factor 5's work was scrapped in favour of a port of the TurboGrafx-16 game Bomberman '94 which became Mega Bomberman. Mega Bomberman has a multiplayer mode, however it only allows up to four players to compete at once - half the amount seen in this demo.

Eight player multiplayer support in a Bomberman title would be seen in later releases in the franchise. Saturn Bomberman would go one step further and support up to ten.