It seems like Bomberman universe as rich as one could imagine. Thanks to all for the answers.
I don't know if I would quite go there.
NES-GB era
Cutesy but basic graphics (it was only 8 bit after all), basic mazes and pretty much the core concept.
16 bit era
Typified by the PCE games (though despite that I will usually just go with the megadrive one and have a great time). Taken as a whole package then some of the finest pixel art the world has ever seen, not yet overloaded with silly powerups and gimmicks, stages all had their own nice flavour and mechanic twist, story mode was OK enough but nowhere near as compelling as multiplayer/arena. I reckon some hacks could make it better (not so many exist, see also Atomic Bomberman) and give some more options but that is usually the case.
Pinnacle of this might well have been the Saturn entry but I will debate that one happily. On the other hand if you are a rich man and can get all the controllers, multitaps, a working Saturn, a copy of this and have a big enough friend count (and room to get everybody in) then full bore local multiplayer Saturn Bomberman is the stuff of legends. Though at the same time multiplayer Bomberman is a test of friendships unlike any other so be aware of that one.
As mentioned above as well then if you can get a super gameboy setup and the multiplayer version of that going on then it is also really good there. So few know about that though, mainly because very little emulates the super gameboy and they are hard to sort in the real world at the best of times.
https://loveconquersallgam.es/post/2350461718/fuck-the-super-game-boy-introduction being a nice article on the super gameboy.
R and the XBLA entries then being somewhat nice returns to this concept -- I still remember testing R at the Switch press thing I went along to... that was probably one of the highlights (some people had their first go at zelda breath of the wild, others splatoon 2, fumble with ARMS or the option to replay mario kart from the wii u... this and Sonic did it for me).
GBA era continuing through the DS.
Bomberman Max then being the type defining affair. Graphics morphed to still sprites but mostly in the GBA style rather than the 16 bit stuff. Story almost took on RPG type aspects.
The DS got a bit experimental (again see tall bombers) and we also started to see more and more silly powerups, and often the loss of some more core ones (the riding dinosaurs for one). Often you can still set up enough options that you can make a classic Bomberman (I understand why they did it and it is usually nerfed so hard it is nowhere near game breaking but it is hard to understate quite how much I dislike the ride around the edge firing bombs after you die mechanic) but for me it never quite felt the same.
If you came up with these games then you might have something of a fondness for them however, and they continue on with enough of the 16 bit tradition that I don't necessarily dislike them. Would not be what I hold up as all that and more though.
N64 and gamecube era.
Move to 3d and rather than line bombs was usually bombs growing in spherical size which changes things radically. This is also early 3d and while it probably holds up better than most things from the same time period (indeed only really cel shaded and 3d used sparingly or for Resident Evil style backgrounds that will do better) is it still that. I maintain you can have some serious fun with these but if bombs in a line and that whole thing is what you are about then yeah.
Unmitigated disaster.
See Act Zero
See party games.
I really dislike these. Anyway basically Mario Party but for Bomberman fans and probably pleasing neither of those groups -- liking N64 Bomberman is a bold move in Bomberman fan club but party games is outright heretical. Still there are some fans of the concept, even if they are not invited to be my friends.
Bomberman Racing is also one of the "wants to be mario kart rather than making our own take" kart racers and possibly one of the worst of those (lego racers has many things to teach us, as do several others, not so sure here). Everything had that, or a bad fighting game, so I am not worried there.
Throughout it all you get some interesting twists and takes at times with different teams taking things and running with it (Atomic Bomberman being what happens when you let the inmates run the asylum but somewhere in there is something really good).
