
My bomb-dropping dojo is Super Bomberman R Online. Unsurprisingly, I’m usually the first person to be eliminated and all-too-happily pass the pad to someone else, muttering under my breath that I’ll actually practice someday. I know the basics - drop bombs and hope someone else gets caught in the explosions - but I’ve never played long enough to understand the game’s strategic nuances. “Your turn,” they say encouragingly, and I look at them like something has suddenly become lodged in my throat. My encounters with the long-running franchise have always been the same: I’m at some kind of retro-themed video game meet-up, we’ve all had a couple of drinks, and someone suddenly hands me a controller.
