Super Bomberman’s Lost SNES Sequels Arrive in English for the First Time in 30 Years

The Super Nintendo era of Bomberman ran five deep in Japan. While the first three entries crossed the Pacific and the Atlantic in various forms, Super Bomberman 4 and 5 — released in 1996 and 1997 respectively — stayed behind. Not delayed, not cancelled: simply shipped, complete and polished, into a market that did not include anyone who read English. For nearly thirty years they existed in a peculiar category: finished games that most of their franchise’s audience had no legitimate way to play.

Red Art Games, the Paris-based publisher that has built its reputation on careful physical editions of retro and niche titles, has partnered with Konami on Super Bomberman Collection — a compilation that addresses that gap directly. The package brings together all five Super Bomberman games from the Super Nintendo, plus Bomberman and Bomberman II from the Famicom, across thirteen versions spanning the Japanese, European and American releases. Alongside them, for the first time outside Japan: Super Bomberman 4 and 5 in English, and the competitive puzzle spinoff Super Bomberman Panic Bomber W in English as well.

Super Bomberman Collection Collectors Edition physical box contents including steelcase, pins, poster and stress ball — Image: Red Art Games

The physical editions now available are the Standard and Deluxe, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X — the Xbox version exclusive to Europe, sold through redartgames.com. The Deluxe Edition, limited to five hundred PEGI-rated copies for Switch and PS5, adds an alternate-art sleeve, a manual and a bomb-shaped stress ball, and is available exclusively through Red Art Games’ own storefront. A Collector’s Edition — with a steelcase, three enamel pins, a double-sided poster and a sticker sheet — and a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition are set for October.

Super Bomberman Collection Deluxe Edition for PS5 and Nintendo Switch with exclusive sleeve and stress ball — Image: Red Art Games

The new content additions are modest but purposeful: a Boss Rush Mode pits players against every boss from each title in a time-attack format, a music player gathers the soundtracks from all six Super Bomberman games, and a gallery houses hundreds of pieces of archival art. Save states, rewind and local multiplayer across most modes round out the quality-of-life changes; the Switch 2 Edition adds GameShare and GameChat support. The packaging makes a more deliberate statement: Red Art Games scanned the original animation cels produced in the 1990s for the games’ box art, manuals and official guides, and reproduced them on the new covers — giving the physical editions something closer to the feel of an archival reissue than a standard reprint.

For the part of the Bomberman audience that always knew two games were missing, Super Bomberman Collection is the most complete answer that exists. The Standard and Deluxe editions are available now at redartgames.com and at retail across North America and Europe.

Tags: PlayStation 5, nintendo switch, Konami, Bomberman, Red Art Games, retro games