Ubisoft confirms plans to publish Bomberman DS and Bomberman Hardball across Europe and America...

Ohhh Bomberman how we love you so, keeping us entertained with your bomb-blasting hi-jinks and making multiplayer sessions the scourge of our school teachers throughout the years.

Sadly however the misunderstood little guy hasn’t enjoyed the best of times in recent years, with many fearing those disastrous forays into 3D and the general malaise towards anything 2D has written the little fella off for good.

Thankfully Ubisoft today came to the rescue, with confirmation that it has signed an exclusive deal with HudsonSoft to publish BomberMan DS across Europe and America, along with BomberMan Hardball for the Playstation2.

BomberMan Hardball takes the classic gameplay of BomberMan, but adds new baseball, golf and tennis modes, each of which has single and multiplayer types. An all-new “Life” mode utilises the PS2 onboard clock to provide a dynamic view of your character’s day-to-day activities, whilst a variety of side-challenges allow you to customize his or her appearance.

BomberMan DS is set to take advantage of the unique system, with intense action taking place across both screens to display a wider view of the game. In addition you’ll be able to shout commands thanks to the DS voice-recognition, whilst choosing between single-player modes or gearing up for awesome 8-Player battle across the Wi-Fi connection.

“With this agreement, players will be able to relive the epic Bomberman experience with the latest technology provided by the PS2 and the unique features of the Nintendo DS™ handheld console,” said Yves Guillemot, President and CEO of Ubisoft. “We’re excited to bring Ubisoft’s publishing expertise to the continuing legacy of Bomberman’s adventures.”

The latest installments of the well-known action/puzzle series Bomberman will be released on PS2 this Spring and for the DS in Summer 2005.