Creating a successful video game franchise is a tough task. With his cutesy design and brightly coloured costume, Bomberman was an easily recognisable video game character in the 90s and 2000s. By then, the Bomberman series had developed a reputation as a colourful, family-friendly set of games perfect for multiplayer fun. It came as no surprise when the next Bomberman game dropped the entire sci-fi aesthetic, and returned the series to its roots. Bomberman: Act Zero was written off as a one-off experiment which failed miserably, and today, fans of the series remember it as probably the darkest time in the franchise's history.