Bomb Jack (1984)

I first played Bomb Jack on my c64 and it blew my mind. It’s incredily simple – get the bombs, avoid the bird things, ufos and mummies, get power ups if you need. Somewhere between Pac-man and a standard platform game, the levels repeat and are always Cairo, Hollywood, Miami, Rome, New York City and Bavaria; with the Sphinx being the most famous backdrop.

Bomb Jack is truly a game of many questions. Why these random places? Who set these bombs and gives Jack just enough time to solve them? Does Jack just diffuse bombs all the time? Is that his real life job? Does he eat the bombs, get power from them or what? And is it a good choice to just wear his magic cape and not a blast suit?

Sadly Bomb Jack’s glory days may be behind him now, although he continues to make the odd port to modern consoles. To be fair he has probably been replaced by a bomb defusing robot dog anyway……..!