Amazing Bomberman, a musical take on the series, is out this week

Coming to Apple Arcade on August 5

Konami and Apple Arcade teamed up for another game, and this one’s got a quirky musical twist. Amazing Bomberman flips the script on the series’ familiar explosion-dodging action with score chasing and battlegrounds that change to suit the song.

As short as this trailer is, it’s worth a look.

According to Konami, “the bomb placement and explosion sounds change with the songs, and the battle time also changes depending on the song. When the song gets exciting, blocks will drop, and items may appear when you break them with bombs.”

If you take a fireball to the face, you’ll careen off the screen — but you can revive “as many times as you want as long as the song is playing.”

With that in mind, the goal is less about staying alive at all costs, and more about outscoring your three bomb-laying opponents. If you see a Bomberman in the spotlight, they’ve got the highest score, so chase ’em down and blow them up for bonus points.

There’s original music from several artists

As for the all-important music, Amazing Bomberman will feature original songs from artists like Rasmus Faber, YMCK, Dizzly, Masahiro “Godspeed” Aoki, and Ai Takekawa.

On the game’s site, Konami also details missions and customization items — badges, frames, expressions, and the like. There’s a badge for battling 1,000 times. Godspeed.

Amazing Bomberman will debut on Friday, August 5, exclusively for Apple Arcade. With a $5-per-month subscription, you can play it on iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV.

From the admittedly little we’ve seen, it’s no Tetris Effect, but then again, nothing else is. I think more music-infused games, in general, would be a great thing — I appreciate the experimentation. I’m on a break from subscribing, and I’d much rather play Bomberman on a console, but if you’re subbed, this might be worth a morbidly curious install.