Reviews

Blaster Master – Nintendo Entertainment System

blaster-master

Blaster Master is a game that was first put out by Sunsoft on the NES in the early 90’s. The game was a pretty big cult hit and since then has spawned five sequels.

Story & Presentation

WOW the story for Blaster Master is just flat out crazy, but at the same time you actually buy into it. The game sees you playing the role of a guy called Jason. Jason is minding his own business when his pet frog called Fred decides to leap out of his bowl. He touches some radioactive stuff, grows giant and falls into a huge hole (that he pretty much created actually) and Jason falls in with him.

Jason needs to find his best buddy frog Fred, but to aid him on his quest he finds a tank called Sophia The 3rd which is pretty handy as under the ground there are a ton of mutants. Jason as well as finding his friend Fred needs to destroy all the mutants and their leader. The game has a really cool little intro and many say it is one of the best video game intros of all time.

The game looks very nice. Sunsoft really were one of the very best developers in the NES era when it came to making just great looking games. Blaster Master fits in very well with their other games. I would not say that Blaster Master has any stand out graphical features, but the whole game in general is very nice to look at.

Gameplay

For a NES game it’s more than fair to say that Blaster Master is a very ambitious game. I am sure that if you have not played this game before then from the story you think this is just another shooter. Well in a way it is, but to me Blaster Master is kind of a hybrid of The Legend Of Zelda and the original Metroid.

What makes Blaster Master so much fun is that there are different game play styles in the game. The first one sees you driving the tank Sophia The 3rd. This plays like a side scrolling shooter. And you actually do have a great deal of control over the tank. You can shoot in different directions and you can even get some special weapons to dish out some real damage.

The game also lets you jump out of the tank and take control of Jason. These sections of the game are played kind of similar to The Legend Of Zelda where you view the action from a top down point of view. The game is non linear and you will have to do a ton of exploration to figure out what you have to do. You will also have to go back to past areas to make use of a new object that you have found.
There is a ton to do here and this game is one very tough customer. Back in the day this was a game that many gamers did not finish due to it being so hard, but now thanks to the internet you can get a handy guide to help you out.

Final Thoughts

Blaster Master is a very well made game and one that I personally had a great time with. I really do think that this game deserves much more mainstream appeal that it gets. To me it’s right up there with the first Metroid game when it comes to the best NES adventure game. If you have still not played this game then I really recommend that you check it out. Especially if you like Zelda or Metroid.

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