Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Bomb Blast understands that the fun of Inazuma Eleven is not patiently recreating a 0-0 draw. You travel with Mark Evans, seek out matches, improve the roster, and keep pushing toward a world championship. That RPG loop gives the soccer a useful sense of momentum: a new location can mean another rival, another recruitment opportunity, and another reason to test the team you have assembled.

Matches use the Nintendo DS stylus, and the key wrinkle is what happens when players collide. Possession is decided through a duel rather than simply slipping past a defender in continuous play. That makes every challenge feel like a direct contest, which fits the series’ heightened, anime-style view of soccer. If you want a conventional sports game built around simulation, this can feel like a detour. If you enjoy party-building and head-to-head decisions more than strict realism, it starts to click quickly.

Recruitment is where the long game has room to breathe. Building a better team gives you a practical reason to explore and engage with opponents beyond the next required match. Bomb Blast also has its own special moves and the Destra-led demon team, so it is not merely a duplicate season with a different label. The combination of squad tinkering and stylus matches makes it easiest to recommend to someone who wants soccer framed as a JRPG adventure.

Graphics

The DS screens use colorful, compact anime pixel art. During matches, small players move across gray-toned grounds with bright hair colors and uniforms making them easy to pick out, while the large red circle around a duel clearly draws the eye to the confrontation. A close-up ball caught in the net gives a goal a more dramatic image than the tiny player sprites can manage on their own.

Exploration scenes have more character than the match spaces. Mark’s bedroom has a green bedspread, posters, and warm wooden trim, while the town streets pack in shopfronts, sidewalks, trees, and a bright blue glowing restore point. The tiny character sprites are simple, but the locations feel pleasantly lived in.

Story

The central drive is straightforward and effective: Mark Evans wants to win the International Football Frontier Championships and become world champion. That is a natural fit for a game built around moving between locations and challenging teams, because every stop can feed the larger tournament ambition.

Bomb Blast distinguishes itself with a mysterious demon team led by Destra. That addition gives this version its own source of pressure and helps separate it from Lightning Bolt rather than treating the game as the same trip with no personality of its own. The promise here is big sports-anime drama, not grounded athletic fiction.

You should come for the climb from local encounters to a world-title goal, with recruitment and matches carrying the story forward. The premise is uncomplicated, but it has the right energy for a long JRPG sports campaign: keep improving, meet the next strange opponent, and prove your team belongs on the biggest stage.

Overall Experience

Inazuma Eleven 3: Bomb Blast is a confident blend of team-building RPG progression and arcade-like soccer drama. Its best quality is how naturally those pieces support each other. Exploring and recruiting do not sit off to the side from the sport, because they directly feed the squad you take into the next match.

The main caveat is also the point of the game. Soccer here is filtered through stylus movement, possession duels, special moves, and a story about becoming champion. Gamers hoping for a detailed simulation may find that approach too detached from the sport they know. Anyone who already likes soccer anime, though, should appreciate how eagerly it turns a tackle or a goal into an event.

Bomb Blast is worth your time if you want a portable JRPG with a competitive sports spine and enough roster-building to make victories feel earned. Its distinct demon-team storyline and special moves give it a worthwhile identity among the parallel Inazuma Eleven 3 releases. It may not convert a simulation purist, but it gives fans a lively reason to keep taking the field.

Retro Replay Score

7.4/10