The second player will take the place of the enemy for competitive play for two trophies out of five. The computer-controlled player stops playing, and Kurobon will appear with some text saying " Here comes a new challenger!" Afterwards, a character selection screen will appear along with a 10-second timer if the timer reaches 0, the game will start, so the player has to choose his/her character before 10 seconds. In the arcade, a second player can join at any time by pressing start (provided there is at least one credit). With this setup, if a player loses, he/she stops playing until there is only a single player left.
If there are only two players, classic game fields and voices are used if there are over two players, smaller fields are used for each player, each one with a different border color, and voices are not used. It allows up to five players, up to five victories, and it also allows "Dokuro mode". In the PC Engine version, multiplayer exists as its own mode. In addition, the PC Engine version contains another mode in which the player must complete the instructions given (for example, pop a given number of bombers or perform a certain combo). The Neo Geo version trims the roster substantially foes marked with an asterisk were removed, although Bugler and Kurobom swapped places. The difficulty switch is not available in the Neo Geo version. If the player chooses easy difficulty, the bomb fire length goes to ten times more quickly, but if the player chooses hard, the fire starts in the smallest blast and the increasing power-up is harder to get. There are 16 opponents total (shortened to 9 in the Neo Geo port), and each one has a unique strategy that they use. In Story Mode, the player must defeat their opponent to advance to the next one. To restore peace to Nogisūsu, Bomberman must once again embark on an adventurous journey, heading toward the floating castle suspended above the northern mountains. Bugler boarded a floating castle in the sky in order to get revenge on Bomberman, who lives peacefully on this star. But one day, of course, monster underlings of Maou Bugler began laying waste to the star. In the corner of the galaxy lies the star Nogisūsu, naturally blessed with peace, where everybody lives quietly.
Translated from the PC Engine version manual