The original i-Mode release of Bomberman 3D, an obscure Bomberman game that debuted on Japanese feature phones, has just been preserved in full, representing yet another piece of rare piece of Bomberman history rescued from its digital graveyard.
Bomberman 3D was originally launched in December 2004 for the DoCoMo 901i series of i-Mode compatible Japanese feature phones, and was unsurprisingly (given its name) a 3D take on the Bomberman series. The game featured multiple levels of elevation in its stages, "3D sound" (a feature of the 901 series of phones), and two separate modes to play through, including a Normal Mode and VS.
In Normal Mode, players would take control of Bomberman as he adventured across six worlds, with each of these different lands containing three levels to clear (either through defeating all the enemies or finding a the hidden exit) as well as a final boss fight to beat.
RockmanCosmo, a member of a community dedicated to the finding and preservation of old Japanese mobile games, made the exciting announcement about the game earlier this week, revealing that another member of the group Yuvi had managed to locate and dump a copy of the Hudson Soft title to ensure its survival.
As RockmanCosmo notes in the social media post, the game was also released for EZWeb and Yahoo Keitai-compatible phones, and also received an international version via the J2ME platform. These other versions have all been previously "preserved to various extents", with a copy of the J2ME version being pretty easy to find online.
This J2ME version of the game, however, appears to be unfinished, with the game only containing three of the six worlds (of which only two are playable). In other words, if you want to experience the rest, it may be worth checking out the Keitai World Launcher, and giving the original i-Mode version a try for yourself.