NES · Classic Vidya Review
Blaster Master
Completed 31 Jul 2024
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Ending Screen
- This is another one of those reviews where I have to point out up front that my completion was not legitimate because of using save states. In my defense, this was not entirely my fault! It wasn’t just about gittin gud.
- The system where you only have 4 continues is pretty punishing, but I could have worked through that. I lost for the 4th time once in world 3, then replayed the entire game through that point, then did it again in world 4 and played my way all the way back to it. Having to do this in a metroidvania game really sucks, but it is not what made me take the cowards’ way out and start using save states.
- This game is exceedingly, maddeningly buggy and glitchy. I soft-locked once when entering a door in the underwater world (5?). I soft-locked once when pausing and unpausing the game while standing on a breakable block. There is SO much that you want to like about Blaster Master, but the bugs are almost too much.
- Every little youtube “history” retrospective of this game takes time to call out the fact that Blaster Master was not very popular in Japan, and acts like that’s mysterious and no one can figure out why. Maybe it was because the Japanese didn’t think it was a “bad game,” but instead didn’t care for the bad craftsmanship
- Now that that’s out of the way, I have to admit that when Blaster Master actually functions as a piece of software, it is really fun. I even liked how the final power-up you get for Sophia III is something that sounds really awesome (drive on ceilings!) but in actual reality makes things way harder.
- Fighting to keep your gun upgrades when you get them, or having to go out of your way to find more, is a thrill ride. The most-powerful gun upgrade is extremely good, so it always feels worth it to fight tooth and nail to get it back (or to not lose it by getting hit)
- Having to fight your own pet frog as a boss is diabolical. Fred did nothing wrong!
- The music here is hit-or-miss, but the rest of the sound design has a real weight to it. Piloting Sophia III and shooting her guns feels good. Soundtrack does have some bangers, but also has some stuff that’s way too repetitive and plain annoying.
- Final verdict is that while I can’t really “recommend” this game, I did start having fun with it once I had forgiven myself for using save states and let myself get into its world.