The i-Mode version of Hudson Soft's 2008 mobile title Bomberman Puzzle Special has now been dumped and preserved, the feature phone preservationist RockmanCosmo has announced.
Released in 2008, Bomberman Puzzle Special is a Sokoban-style puzzle game that acts as an expanded version of the 2003 i-Mode title Bomberman Puzzle (which was also released for EZWeb-compatible phones in 2004). It includes double the amount of puzzles over the original game (600 in total) as well as the ability to create and save 10 custom levels — a feature that wasn't present in the initial release.
Remarkably, up until now, this updated version game has pretty much been impossible for players to access, thanks to the portal that once sold the game having long been shut down. As a result, the only way to play the game has traditionally been to track down a phone that already had the game installed — something that either involves buying bins of old Japanese phones and playing the lottery, or reaching out to someone who might already have the game pre-installed and be willing to part with it.
As RockmanCosmo states in his post on social media, he was personally responsible for preserving the game this time around, following up on the efforts of the Keitai preservation community XYZ — who preserved the original i-Mode version of Bomberman Puzzle on i-Mode in November 2023.
The i-Mode version of the demo Bomberman Puzzle Mini is also preserved. Meanwhile, the EZWeb version of the original game has yet to be discovered.
If you want to find out more about how you can help out with these efforts, you can join the Keitai Wiki Discord from this page.