Bomberman GB

Bomberman GB manual

Download here (2.3MB Zip file)

Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! manual

Download here (3.1MB Zip file) (thanks to DragonBomber for scanning this!)

extracts

from Wario Blast manual
page 4, "RETRIEVE THE ITEMS FROM THE MADBOMBERS"

WARIO INVADES THE LAND OF THE MADBOMBERS!

Wario, in his constant search for new lands to conquer and treasures to gain, has found the extra-dimensional portal that links his world with the one that Bomberman inhabits. Thinking that the Madbombers will make a nice addition to his legions of mindless minions (as well as a new source of funds for his nefarious schemes), Wario steps through the gate... and soon finds that the Madbombers are not quite the dim-witted flunkies he originally thought them to be!

Text is transcribed from gameplay to the best of my ability.
Translations are also my doing, though given how it's entirely in Katakana and my translation skills are a joke, it's not anything to be proud of.

Intro (Bomberman GB only)

	Japanese	Translation
	モトホンバーニ ノッテ キョウモ パトロールダ! ボンバーマン..	Bomberman was patrolling on his Motobomber...
	ダガ アルヒ... ブラックボンバーマンタチニ...	But one day... The Black Bombermen came...
	ダッシュ...	Dash...
	タックル...	Tackle...
	ラインボム...	Line Bomb...
	スーパーバイク モトボンバー...	The superbike Motobomber...
	スベテノ ワザガ ブラ ックタテニ ウバワレテシマッタノダ!...	He had been robbed of all his equipment by the Black Bombermen!...
	トラレタ ワザヲ トリカエセ! サア タタカイ! ボンバーマン!	Those thugs have taken your abilities! Let's challenge them, Bomberman!

Before Round 2

Before Round 3

Before Round 4

"THE TROUNCER"
RAM AND TROUNCE
THE "BAD DUDES".
MUST BE USED
WITH "DASHIN".

BOMBER BEWARE:
NEXT CHALLENGE
CONTAINS SHORT
FUSES AND
WARP HOLES.

Before Round 5

"LINER"
TWO JABS OF THE
A-BUTTON DROPS
A BOMB LINE.

BOMBER BEWARE:
LOOK OUT FOR
PARALYZING GASES
FROM HEATED
VENTS.

Before Round 6

"MOTO"
JUMP ONE BLOCK
IN A SINGLE
BOUND BY RIDING
INTO A BLOCK.

BOMBER BEWARE:
A SLICK FLOOR
AND REGENERATING
WALLS MAKE
THINGS HOT IN
THE NEXT BATTLE.

Before Round 7

BOMBER BEWARE:
SHORT FUSED
BOMBS ABOUND
AGAIN ALONG
WITH AN EASTER
EGG. COULD IT
CONTAIN A
HIDDEN PASSWORD?

Before Round 8

BOMBER BEWARE:
THE FINAL BATTLE
AWAITS! YOU ARE
NOW ARMED TO
THE MAX WITH
HIGH-EXPLOSIVE
BOMBS BUT NO
ITEMS.

Ending

Japanese text テンヲ コガスダイバクハツ タタカイハ オフッタ...

English text AN EXPLOSION OF EARTHQUAKE PROPORTIONS SIGNALS YOUR VICTORY.

A source of boss names and basic information, though offers nothing the Japanese manual doesn't already have.

Nintendo Power (volume 67)

[click to enlarge (approx. 400kb each)]

Dated December 1994, this issue featured a four page "review" on the newly-released game, full of the usual first-party product pandering. It does provide us with official English names for all but two of the bosses, though.

Nintendo Power (volume 68)

[click to enlarge (242kb)]

Wario Blast reappeared in the next issue (dated January 1995) in a list of the current best sellers. "The one-player game is involving and fun." Ha! Nintendo, you cards.

Bomberman / ボンバーマン

A protector of peace and justice. Bomberman is attacked by the thuggish Black Bomberman and his gang and robbed of all his power-up items... including his Motobomber bike! He sets out to defeat the scoundrels and win back his equipment.

In Wario Blast, Bomberman is saddled with the job of fighting Wario and his totally unexplained army of clones to stop them from conquering and/or pillaging his world. Either way, his quest of blowing up people, fighting monsters and reclaiming his equipment remains the same.

Wario / ワリオ

from Wario Blast blurb

OH, NO! Wario has stumbled upon the secret gateway into Bomberland! Now the greedy war-monger wants to claim the land, its inhabitants, and treasures as his own.

A greedy, impish individual with a hunger for gold, treasure and power! Wario, hot off his popular solo adventure in Super Mario Land 3 (not to mention Wario's Woods), gets shoehorned into a Bomberman game so Nintendo can rake in the big bucks. For more information on this character, check out the Super Mario Wiki.

Wario is presented as the star of the Western edition of the game. He has entered Bomberman's world via a secret gateway to recruit the "Madbombers" (see Black Bomberman's entry) as his underlings, as well as claim their land and treasures. The Madbombers don't take this too kindly and fight back, forcing him to blast his way through the enemy forces.
Although unspecified, it can be assumed Bomberman's story in Wario Blast is about fending off Wario and his army of totally unexplained copies. Neither of these stories are established in-game, nor is any real resolution provided at the end.

Wario functions identically to Bomberman. The two have the same prowess over bombs, and have access to the same power-up items across the Normal Mode.

Black Bomberman / ブラックボンバーマン

Black Bomberman is the leader of a thuggish gang of ne'er-do-wells. Or maybe the whole gang is called the Black Bombermen. Japanese names are a bit unclear on plurals. Either way, they're not a nice bunch.

They harass Bomberman while he's out on patrol and snatch all of his power-up items. Bomberman proceeds to beat the snot out of them to win his stuff back, and then keeps blowing them up even after he's got everything back.
The gang appear to be just that - a gang. There are no grand ambitions for world domination or anything. Stealing Bomberman's stuff is the entire plot of the game.

The three members of the group have the ability to join together and become a large, dangerous monster of some description. The reference materials never elaborate on these, so one can assume they are simply 'attack forms' of some sort; big 'n' nasty things to turn into when bombing your enemies to bits just isn't enough.

In Wario Blast, the group are referred to as the Madbombers, and are fighting back against Wario for trying to conquer their world. They don't play a part in Bomberman's story in the English game, as they are replaced by copies of Wario who otherwise share the same purpose, complete with fuse-together-into-a-monster ability. The final boss is implied to be the group's leader; see Death Bomber's entry for details.

Teacuppun / ティーカップン

Nintendo Power name: Cup King
A large, indistinct creature with a pronounced snout sitting in a teacup (or maybe it's just a head floating on top with no body?). It can spawn small creatures () from its snout. What they're meant to be is also uncertain - spinning eyeballs in micro teacups?

Komabe / コマベー

Nintendo Power name: Top Man
A sinister spinning top with a head, as well as a face on its base. It hurls short-range bladed boomerangs at targets on sight.
"Koma" (独楽) is the Japanese name for a spinning top toy.

Fuuwan / フーワン

Nintendo Power name: T-Bear
A cutesy looking creature similar-looking to a teddy bear, suspended in mid-air by three balloons. It lowers periodically to shoot miniature heads () from its mouth at targets.
"Fuwafuwa" (フワ) is Japanese onomatapeia for floating and drifting, while "fuu" (ふう) can mean "air". "Wan" (ワン) is also the sound of a dog barking, though I think the safest bet is that it's a bear. Nintendo Power thinks so!

Mad Flower / マッドフラワー

Nintendo Power name: P-Flower
A miffed-looking flower in a flowerpot. It can deploy its flower petals to slowly pursue its enemies before growing new ones, but is vulnerable without its petals.

Inabikarin / イナビカリン

Nintendo Power name: Thunder Cloud
A horned head that hides in a thunder cloud, and peeps out occasionally to hurl bolts of lightning at foes. It's only vulnerable when its head is exposed.
"Inabikari" (いなびかり) stands for "flash of lightning."

Pukupuku / プクプク

Nintendo Power name: n/a
An indistinct two-legged creature. Its spherical body grows in size when hit with a bomb blast, but can survive a few blasts before puncturing - it is vulnerable when its body is deflated. It will also shoot icicles from its mouth upon seeing a target. The manual artwork depicts it with a wobbly outline, giving the image of a cloud-like creature, while in-game it has what appear to be antennae on its head.
The name offers no clues on what the hell it's meant to be - the best match I can find is "fukuramasu" (ふくらます) which means to "to swell / to expand." "Fu" (フ) and "pu" (プ) use near-identical letters in hiragana and katakana, so, yeah.

Gururin Knight / グルリンナイト

Nintendo Power name: n/a
A floating suit of knight's armour with a sword and shield, but no legs. It spins its sword and can throw it like a boomerang, though doing either action renders it vulnerable to bombs. Both the helmet and the shield have expressive faces.
"Guruguru" (ぐるぐる) is onomatapeia for turning or spinning around in circles.

Death Bomber / デスボンバー

Nintendo Power name: The Mad-Bomber
A large floating war machine with a Bomberman's head; it's armed with two laser cannons, a missile bay in its chest and its head, and can fire its hands like a zigzagging boomerang. The machine is only truly destroyed when the head is exploded.
In Bomberman GB, Death Bomber appears to be just another "monster" formed by three of the Black Bombermen merging together. In Wario Blast, the Nintendo Power guide seems to state that it's the leader of the Madbombers (if only because he's referred to as "the Mad-Bomber himself!"), though, really, it's too vague to bother looking into. The hyphen in his name might just be the result of paragraph spacing, but I'll run with it.