When this game was announced, I was excited. As a little kid, I had Blaster Master on the NES and absolutely loved it so I picked this up for the 3DS as soon as I could. Still, I understood the version I had was the lesser one as it was also on the then new Nintendo console, the Switch with additional features. As such, I put the game aside to play later. I'll admit, I smiled a bit when this and it's sequels made their way to my choice platform, the PC. So when the dice picked the game, I took a hard look and went to check on the Steam version... and sometimes fate grants you small nice things... like a sale so I could fix the mistake and get the best version of the game dirt cheap. I did, I played, and had so much fun playing it.
Story: It is the distant future and mankind has survived a planet-wide extinction event: an ice age brought on by countless wars and disasters. To survive, the population went underground, learning the necessary tech to carry on. During this time, a meteor of unknown origins would also make Earth it's home and remain there undetected by the populations struggling to survive.
Once the surface was safe to live on again, mankind used this newfound power to begin rebuilding the ecosystem that once sustained them, creating a new prosperous society. And in this now well-established world a robotics genius named Jason Frudnick finds himself at the center of our story. During his investigations, he came across a strange new frog-like creature never recorded. He took it home to study, naming it Fred. But a life in a lab didn't seem to suit the creature as Fred made his escape and Jason decided to chase after him, following him into a random hole that appeared out of nowhere.
Still this decision seemed to pay off at least a little bit since even as he lost Fred, Jason found his way to SOPHIA III, a high-tech tank that basically opened it's doors inviting him in. Furthermore, the hole lead to one of the old underground cities from the ecological collapse, but it wasn't as abandoned as the centuries of time back on the surface might suggest. Mutant entities seem to have taken over in mankind's absence. Just what is going on?
This rather convoluted setup will drop you into the game with the only way to go being forward. And it really isn't explained any better by the game as all of this is dropped on you in the few screens before even the title appears. Nor do you get a lot of additional plot as the game goes on. There is some development in the form of Jason talking (sometimes to one additional character), but they really do little beyond offer commentary most of the time. And really I'd be shocked if you expected any more then that, considering this game is based on an old classic 1980s Nintendo Entertainment System title. Not an excuse, but if you came here expecting a good story, you really tripped up somewhere.
5/10
Graphics: As noted in the story section, this is a remake of an 8-bit home console game, and it wears this on it's sleeve. You will spend the entire game looking at two basic views, a 2D view where your tank is the main device to move around and a birds-eye-view where you are much more up close with Jason.
In both cases, the game is absolutely vibrant with bright colors and descriptive backgrounds, each of which is specific to the area of the game's world you are currently in. But it takes some liberties with the view of the world we got back in the NES days. Where everything but the bosses were mechanical back then, we get a mix of mutant and robot monsters this time... some of which walk right out of the old title while others make it obvious they were adapted the first time as these more organic creatures fit so much better.
And while the game carries the vibe of the old-school graphics, it also takes advantage of what we've been able to do since to some degree as well, adding parallax scrolling to just about every scene and lots of detail to the backgrounds that just adds to the flavor of the world you are in. Add to this absolutely huge boss encounters (for the most part anyway) and you are going to enjoy just how good this game looks within the retro style chosen for it.
9/10
Sound: While, this game takes a heavy lead from it's 8-bit roots for the visuals, the sound is a lot more complex then your NES could ever produce. It may take a little bit to show it though, as the tune during the opening throbs with a few channels playing some chiptunes before the title screen burst forward with something a bit more complex and upbeat...
And then beats you off the head with pure nostalgia as you hear the area one tune starts bringing back many a childhood... and yet it is different. In essence, it's been upgraded. Still chiptune and perfectly replicating the tune of what you heard back then, the track is also a lot more complex and energized then anything the NES (and possibly the SNES that followed it) could have produced and let this set the tone for every song you will hear: the same, and yet like upgraded hardware produced it.
Sadly, you won't get any vocal work to go with this, but rather the sound effects themselves are basically lifted out of the NES title directly, adding to the "old being new" feeling this game just exudes.
Enjoy
8/10
Gameplay: And what you play holds up the brilliantly as well, keeping with the tone of and feel of the original, adding just enough modern touches to improve on what was a classic to begin with. You will play this game for the most part from two perspectives: a side-scrolling world scaled for SOPHIA III and top-down dungeons scaled for Jason.
When in the side scrolling world, you will generally ride your tank around the abandoned colony Jason finds himself in. At first you will only have the basic abilities; move left and right, jump, and shoot (though you can angle the turret to shoot upwards and diagonally) and this feels exactly like it should. Your tank is a large wheeled and fast moving vehicle which does carry momentum with it. It does feel a little loose, but in a way you quickly adapt to and feels right for the vehicle itself.
But as you go on, your tank will gain more weapons and abilities which will increase both your combat abilities and where you can reach within this hidden pocket of the earth. And this is no small hold-out but big enough to fit 8 biome-like areas within it, each with it's own flavor of look and feel right down to the mechanics around which maneuvering will be based, requiring you to use these skills to see the adventure to it's end.
Although if you think you will be in the tank at all times, you will be mistaken. There are places where SOPHIA III is just too big and you will have to have Jason hop out on his own. When outside like this, the man is very vulnerable as his blaster is just not nearly as powerful as the cannon on the tank, nor his own armor half as strong. In fact Jason is so delicate a long enough fall will hurt or kill him, and it doesn't take much. In fact just jumping from one platform to one just a little bit lower can be fatal if done wrong, and this is where the game's one real issue is: ladders.
These are actually not very common in this world, and most of them work exactly as you would expect, but there are a few places in the game where you will have to have Jason jump up and grab them, and this does not always work very well, so when you have to do this, expect to die there often. But fortunately there are few of these to mar an otherwise absolutely amazing experience.
But there is another reason to have Jason running around on his own, and that is to enter caverns more human sized. These aeras swap to a birds eye view and an entirely different style of gameplay where Jason will wander a small maze to explore the and find whatever could be useful in his adventure. Most of the upgrades you get will be in these sections as well as most of the bosses you will face. Unlike the tank, however, most of Jason's upgrades are available right away, provided you can power him up to use them. Most of these are weapon upgrades which you will pick up as you play, gaining access to a new one with ever gun power up you collect, but at the same time losing one any time you take a hit and remaining true to the NES original. But you will find a few additional tools in the form of secondary weapons to help you out and making these areas often far more easy then veterans of the original will appreciate. In particular it seems the turret, where it instantly draws the attacks of other enemies including bosses, seems very game-breaking in this way and in fact made the last boss exceptionally easy for me.
Still, despite the often lack of challenge I have played few side-scrolling games and enjoyed them half as much as I did this one.
9/10
Bugs: No major bugs to report. In fact the only complaint I can give to this game is that the game does not take the full width of the screen in widescreen and left and right edges appear to have lines marking the edge. This is incredibly minor and does not get in the way of the game in any way, but if it bothers you there are apparently guides on Steam to remove them.
Overall: While an easy game, Blaster Master Zero was an absolute joy to play almost from start to finish. If you are a fan of retro gaming in any way, you owe it to yourself to revisit the classic in this new form. Reliving those times will be an absolute treat for those who saw it the first time, and those a bit more new are in for an absolutely great time.
Score:
System Requirements:
- Any 2 Ghz processor
- 2 GB RAM
- Any GPU with 512 MB VRAM or more
- Windows 7
- 500 MB hard drive space
- Ryzen 3 2200G running at 3.5 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Windows 10
- PDP DX Wired Controller (Crimson)
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