Bomberman is Hudson Soft's 1983 maze puzzle game, the home-computer origin point for the bomb-dropping series that later became a multiplayer standard.
Bomberman began as a spare home-computer maze game from Hudson Soft, released before the Famicom version gave the character and formula their more familiar shape. The early game is stark compared with later entries: a single-screen grid, destructible blocks, wandering enemies, a hidden exit, and a player character whose only tool is a supply of timed bombs.
The basic tension is already present. Bombs clear soft blocks and defeat enemies, but their blast patterns can trap the player as easily as they open a path. Each stage asks for careful spacing, patience, and route planning, with the player managing narrow corridors and unpredictable enemy movement while searching for the exit or clearing the screen.
This 1983 version lacks the power-ups, character identity, and competitive multiplayer that would define Bomberman in later years, yet it establishes the series' central grammar: grid movement, delayed explosions, chain risk, and the comedy of being caught by your own plan. Its stripped-down form makes the later Famicom and console games read as refinements of a durable idea rather than a complete reinvention.
Its place on Edge's 2017 greatest-games list reflects that historical importance. Bomberman is not just an early Hudson curiosity; it is the seed of one of the clearest action-puzzle rulesets in games, a design that could scale from solitary maze survival to party-game chaos without losing its core shape.