Ubisoft All-Star Blast is a laughably blatant clone of Bomberman – but at least Rayman is in it

Ubisoft All-Star Blast – you’ve seen this somewhere before (pic: Ubisoft)

Sam Fisher is set appear in yet another game that isn’t Splinter Cell, as Ubisoft release a free-to-play knock-off of Bomberman.

Back in the early days of video games clones were very common. Often they were copies of arcade games, with only relatively minor changes, with the modern day equivalent being smartphone games that are always copying each other – or older titles they hope most people won’t recognise.

It’s rare to see a major paid-for game doing the same nowadays, although Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising was so heavily influenced by Zelda: Breath Of The Wild it surprised many with how blatant it was.

It was a good game though, which is all that really matters, but new free-to-play game Ubisoft All-Star Blast is such a brazen copy of Bomberman it really is kind of shocking.

Bomberman has been around since the mid-80s and involves planting bombs in a grid-like maze, which explode in predictable patterns that you have to make sure your opponents get caught in, but you avoid.

It’s exactly the same deal with Ubisoft All-Star Blast, except instead of Bomberman himself you get to control Ubisoft characters such as Rayman, Ezio from Assassin’s Creed, a rabbid, the aforementioned Fenyx, and Sam Fisher (we found out about this only minutes after complaining that Ubisoft keep putting Sam in other games but refuse to make a new Splinter Cell).

Other characters featured include Vaas from Far Cry 3, the Prince from Prince Of Persia, and representatives from other Ubisoft franchises such as Just Dance and Brawlhalla.

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The game is played through your browser and is one of several Ubisoft Nano games that include other Flash style titles – most of which are based on existing Ubisoft franchises.

Hungry Shark Arena is the only one that seems to be relatively original, as it’s a 2D battle royale where you have to eat increasingly large meals to grow your shark to giant size. That was actually mildly diverting, until we won on our first go and were forced to watch an ad for our reward…

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