Super Bomberman 2 - Destruction is a form of creation

Introduction

This document will serve as the basis for the current state-of-the-art understanding about Super bomberman 2 (Battle mode - First level).

Ground Rules and Fundamental Aspects of the Game

Scope of the Game for the Competitive Super Bomberman 2 Community

It is important to note the Superbomber 2 community does not consider levels outside the first level to be in scope. There are several reasons for this. But before we dive into those reasons, let's examine the standard level. Level number 1 in battle mode.

As can be seen above, the playfield is a grid structure with 13 columns and 11 rows. The parallels to chess are both obvious and intentional. 30 squares of the grid are grey blocks that are unbreakable (though not unplayable - since bombs can easily travel above those blocks).

Other levels contain elements of randomness that are not desirable for the competitive Super Bomberman 2 community. For example, consider this rather ugly and unbalanced level, it is clear that such abombination is unplayable.

Timing of Bombs (bomb-breathings)

The Bomb is not just a Bomb. The Bomb is a living breathing entity with capacities beyond our imagination. Its force and power is not only manifested in the wonderful explosions that it produces, but also in the "breathing" that preceeds the explosion. One of the first things a bomberman players must learn, and internalize, is the time span between ignition and explosion. Without such knowledge, working with these bombs becomes somewhat treacherous. Internalize the breath of the bomb and the bomb will never hurt you. It explodes in the middle of the third breath.

Attacks

Rembrandt

What would art be without Rembrandt? He was a true master of shadows and light. The Rembrandt attack is indeed reminiscent of the great artist. Successfully exectuted it becomes an art-piece in an of itself. It is characterized by framing the opponent into a "frame" of bombs (I.e bombs on all connecting squares around the opponent) from which the opponnet can't escape. It is considered a mid-tier attack in difficulty, but can be seen performed successfully even in ranked elite games.

Skening / Skenavrättning (Mock execution)

Skening is the name for the humiliating tactic of performing a mock execution of another player. The movement is performed by locking a player in with a bomb, thus giving the victim the impression that he is about to die, and then quickly removing the bomb and letting the player out. This is obviously a counterproductive tactic from the perspective of the attacker: letting the victim loose again. But the humiliating effect can have a long-term negative effect on the gameplay-capability of the victim. The humilation sometimes lead to a sensation of dispair, hopelessness and embaressment for the victim, thus making the player less likely to perform well in not just this current game, but in future games as well. To increase the pressure even more, it is common to perform multiple skeningar in a row.

Kast (Throw - Undirty)

Prima facie, the throw attack looks very compelling and appealing, especially for novice players. Intuitivly it seems like a promising attack. Some players lacking situational awarness forget about the possibility of air-strikes, those players can easily be targeted by a throw. However, the technique has determental long term effects on both the player and the game. The player utilizing the throw-attack often gets stuck with a bomb on their head, running around, unable to act in decisive manner trying and failing to calculate when a bomb should be thrown. This often leads to an extremely low blast-per-second (BPS) ratio for the player. It furthermore inhibits the player to effectivly loot new items. Due to the banality of the attack and the obvious downsides it has gained a rather poor reputation.

Smutskast (Dirty Throw or Dirty Bomb)

As was established in the previous section, the throw can at first look like a very appealing attack. However, on closer examination is becomes evident that it is intellectually weak and from the standpoint of the audience it is, well, not very entertaining. In order to deter, while not banning, the practice the Pila Convention was signed and entered into force in the spring of 2019 in the village of Pila, Italy. The Pila Convention clearly states that intentionally throwing a bomb into the corner of another player during the first 15 seconds is prohibited, and shall be known as a Smutskast. The unratified Farsta Convention has extended the period of up until 30 seconds, however, the convention is contested and at this point unratified by most major players.

To summerize, Smutskast is dirty, unsophisticated, intellectually weak, and clearly against the Pila Convention.

Sniper

Powerful and basic move, can be performed by most intermediate players. The player basically just puts a bomb in motion by kicking it, and timing it to explode in proximity of the location of the opponent.

Grotta (Cave)

Such a primitive attack that even cavemen discovered it. The attacker basically just lays a long line of bombs.

Bombmatta

Alternative naming for a Grotta.

Tactics and trix

Opta (Optimization)

Item-optimization is a core skill even for moderate players. By focusing on items with high return rates (such as bombs) the player will notice a compound interest effect, and when the endgame is reached the player with best item-optimization has significantly increased its chance of winning. Practical example. You are early in the game. You are in equal distance between bomb-item and a glove or fire-power-item. Which do you choose? It is the equivalent to deciding on investing in a car or potatoes. Potatoes generate future yield, and a car is depreciating asset.

One important subtactic here is the elite movement of pixeloptimization. This is usually only performed in either training-sessions, or during elite competitions. It is extremply risky, unless the player has an almost god-like control of the sprite. The technique is to stand pixel-perfect to the edge, in order to increase speed in reaching the desired destination (often an item - or just a blast-free-zone), while avoiding getting killed. From a cost-benefit analysis in most cases, it is just not worth it for most players. But true elite players will know when to perform the pixeloptimization, and when not to.

Vaska (Wasting)

Vaska is the technique of throwing bombs outside the playfield, while the playfield is decreased through the incoming wall. Once a bomb has been set in motion in an area where it can't explode, the bomb can be understood as having been vaskad. In a sense this move is the diametrical opposite of optimization. Technically is reduces the power of the player performing the move, but by exploiting the psychological effects of the move it can paradoxically benefit the player performing the move. The psychological nature of the tactic is somewhat similar to skening.

Jesning (Jesusing)

Jesning is the practice of pushing a bomb in front of the player will spamming the X-button. This can, under rare circumstances, trigger a bug that allow the player to pass through a bomb. Nothing short of a miracle. Jesning is probably the finest move that is known to the bomberman community, few has seen it, lesser can actually perform it, and it's a rarity in ranked games. It is the desert flower. Ancient songs have been written, and poetry about its beauty is on the walls of the oldest civilizations. But every now and then a daring, or possibly even foolish, player, looking for attention and the respect from their fellow peers delight the world with it.

Note that the attack would not have been discovered without the laborious work of the Manhattan Project. In 2018, the Manhattan Research Project performed an indepth litterature study of the original scrolls, i.e, the Superbomberman 2 manual. The work was undertaken after rumours that japanese players had discovered a technique to stop a moving bomb. The video-clip that circled the bomberman community has since then been lost. The Superbomberman 2 manual indeed confirmed that the rumour was true. By using the X-button on the hand-controller it was possible to stop a moving bomb. Since then the technique has gone mainstream, and is not even included in this document, since it is nowadays considered a core-movement, just like moving up, down, left, right.

Blank

Another move on the psychological spectrum, the suicide attack known as "blank". It is considered a power move by most. And ludicrous by others.

Solkoll (Sun control)

Solkoll is in theory the most trivial skill a player can have. Yet, it is also the most difficult skill to put in practice. Solkoll is the internalized understanding of the current blast-radius a player has access to. Solkoll can be performed by shouting "Solkoll", which forces all players on the field to place a bomb and then position the Bomberman-sprite as close to the blast-radius without getting killed. The winner is the survivor standing closest to the blast-radius.

Fake death - Nr 1 - Invisibility

Beginners often consider the skull as something negative, but using with care it can be an extremly powerful ... power. For example, if the curse of the skull is invisibility a common tactic is to shout of "Darnit, I died" at the moment the invisibility hits, thus tricking opponents into thinking the player is dead. After that fake-death announcement the player is free to perform sneak-attacks against unaware and unsuspecting opponents.

Fake death - Nr 2 - The Fake Blank

There are some obvious negative side-effects of performing a Blank (as was described above), the most visible is the fact that the player performing the move dies. By a subtile change in the Blank-move it is possible to rid the move of that negative side-effect. This can by done by entering into a Blank-state (locked in with a bomb outside) while holding the shoe-item, thus enabling the user to escape. By combining the move with loud sounds of disapointment and dispair (for example by saying "oh no, I locked myself in") it is possible to trick the other players to think that you are about to die. But just before the bomb goes off you escape, and is ready to attack the other players while they are off guard.

Camouflage - Choosing the grey color

By choosing the grey color for the player you increase the possibility that opponent players don't notice you, since you are camouflaged against the grey brick walls.

Exploting human-opponent colorblindness

Certain colors can be beneficial if the opponent is colorblind. When playing against the colorblind, choose your color wisely.

Pacts and Conspiracies

By silently, or sometimes even unashamedly loud, forming pacts between players lesser skilled players can leverage their pact in order to gain the upperhand against a superior opponent. The core principle when forming pacts is to fast create a tunnel between the spawning area of the two pacting players. This will provide increased movement and possible protection against smutskast. Pacts are often brittle, and you never know when they will crack.

Truckoduko

Another suicide move. Pushing a bomb in front of you, while running after it, until you die. Respected but somewhat ineffective tactic.

Stefanspark

When you don't have the kick-power, yet you try to kick. Obviously the bomb will not move. Then you have successfully performed a stefanspark.

Prison break

When locked it to an area, while the wall is closing in, is usually considered a "prison break"-state. The state can often be escaped by bombing your way out, or having other players showing mercy and helping you out.

Tömning

Completely emptying opponent players of their collected items.

Självtömning

Refined version om tömning. Emptying yourself of all your collected items. Usually performed by throwing a bomb over walls, and then running around just in order to be hit by the very same bomb - thereby emptying yourself.

Other terms

Takida/Faded

There is nano-second instant when basically all fire from a bomb has faded away, yet the square is still not safe to enter. It sometimes happens that players miscalculate this and enters the square a nano-second too early. This results in death. The death is either called takida or faded.

Tekning

Time management is fundamental for elite-players, and seconds are not equal in worth throughout a game. A seconds in the early part of the game is more valuable than a second in the late part of the game. By being the one to place the first bomb the user has won the tekning, and has slightly increased the odds of winning.

Sudoku

Committing bomberman suicide. Most often performed by beginners, but sometimes even seasoned players opt for a Suduko - sometimes to demonstrate power and sometimes for other unkown reasons.

Forslidare

The excitement of starting an new game is unquestionable. The nerves are not only felt in the heart, by sometimes also in the hands. When a new game is started, and a player immediately places a bomb which is impossible to then avoid, the player has committed a very specific form of suduko. This immediate and unintentional form of suduko is known as a Forslidare. It is tragic, but often recieved with joy by the audience. It can really kick off a game.

The state can usually be exploited buy opponents who can choose to work their way towards the empty corner: providing increased loot and a temporary safe haven.

Manhattan Research Project

The Manhattan project mostly concerns itself with fundamental research, the exact outcome of the research is often unclear or even unkown. In a sense it even dilutes the difference between science and art. However, several important breakthrough have been generated throught the labourous work of the Manhattan project. Let's examine these breakthroughs in detail.

Synronizhed dancing with multiple players and multiple bombs

Organized lag-production

Lag-production is performed by multiple players creates maximum number of infinity bombs - which results in the nintendo CPU struggeling, thereby lagging. Visually stunning, and a technical stunt that are rarely seen.

Infinity bombs

Creating infinity bombs is the artistic name for Vaska (explained above).

Forbidden, but respected modifications

There are some patched versions of bomberman that are forbidden in ranked game, but still highly respected in the community. One is of course the 5-player patch.