It has been four years since Jason's Encounter with the Plutonium Boss and the radioactive mutants under the Earth. His only reminder of the incident is S.O.P.H.I.A., the vehicle he used to stop them, which he has hidden in an abandoned barn. One day, one bolt of lightning struck the house and caused the ceiling to crumble, knocking Jason unconscious. When Jason woke up, S.O.P.H.I.A. was in pieces and the parts he had collected from his first dealings with the Mutant Bosses were missing. Little does Jason know that there are more lightning beings where the first one came from and they are planning to destroy the Earth. The beings started digging towards the Earth's core in order to shift the planet's weight off its axis, leading to total annihilation. The parts from S.O.P.H.I.A. are being used to create a robotic army to assist the being in accomplishing their mission. Now, Jason must stop them, but he won't make it without the help of S.O.P.H.I.A. Since he can't recover the parts, he decided to redesign it to better prepare himself for the ordeal facing him. After 29 days, S.O.P.H.I.A. was completely rebuilt and ready for battle. Remembering where he saw the being's footsteps, Jason jumped in his vehicle and headed towards the mountains where the challenge begins.
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Angel_Arle Blaster Master reviews
Part 1: Chou-Wakusei Senki Metafight for Famicom
Part 2: Bomber King: Scenario 2 for Game Boy
Part 4: Metafight EX for Game Boy Color
Metafight didn’t get the most fanfare back then in Japan, it might surprise people but it’s seen as a hidden gem over there. Meanwhile what we know as Blaster Master here did pretty well for itself and many people remember it as a classic on the NES. Despite that success, Sunsoft never made a sequel during their glory days on the Famicom. It would take until 2000 for a new game in the series to happen. Though that didn’t stop people outside of Japan giving this series a shot as Sunsoft would let Software Creations give it a try with Blaster Master 2 for the Genesis. Software Creations is probably not a dev team you want making your sequel. The original developers of Metafight weren’t even aware this game was even being worked on. This was the game that actually made me undecided if I even wanted to review all these games but just because I’m passionate about writing stuff, I went through it all.
The game doesn’t actually have a story in game so you’ll have to read the manual. It’s basically just more mutants are here and Jason must put a stop to them again. Apparently he had the Metal Attacker-wait it’s called the S.O.P.H.I.A. in this game? Wait, that was never its name. I remember I used to call it that, I didn’t even know the games got that wrong too. Sophia was just a name of a location in Metafight I believe. I’ll also be calling it just Sophia for now. Anyway he had Sophia hidden in a barn of all places. He gets it rebuilt and off you go exploring once again to kill every last mutant.
Well at least I can mention one good positive off the bat, Sophia can actually shoot diagonally upwards this time which is nice to see. That said, the controls are unfortunately worse this time around with the worst thing about them having to be bumping into walls as it pushes you back a bit. Sophia also has a lot of momentum on slopes making you go way too fast down slopes. You also have the special weapons back though some changes have been made. The 3 way missiles now only use up 1 ammo and seem to be weaker. The homing missiles have been nerfed as you can only now shoot one at a time. Lightning is a lot better in this game thankfully as it’s now an 8 way shot and instant kills any enemy. A new special item being a shield was added which gives you a small amount of invincibility. It’s a little rare but it’s one of the best items in the game.
Then you have Jason, which I’ll admit I’m not a fan of this direction. It feels like someone at the team didn’t like how in the NES game he was mostly used for top down sections or the water in Area 5. He now does a lot of navigation in the 2D sections where he can shoot in 4 different directions and jump really high. A high jump sounds cool but you still have fall damage, though it’s not as bad as before. While it may sound cool he gets to do more, the level design doesn’t do too much with it besides some basic hallways and platforming. He’s so weak and limited that the game can’t do much with him. While I can see the potential in it, I don’t think this game is going to convince me this was a good change. The game doesn’t even give him his own life bar so hope you enjoy having to survive with just one as Sophia and Jason share it. You also need to hold down and C to get out and in so please for the love of god don’t do it above a ladder!
You might be asking, if there’s no top down sections anymore, how do you fight bosses? Well, you still go into areas to fight them but it’s now done in a sidescroller view with Jason’s sprite being a lot bigger. This is the only thing you’ll be doing in these sections and the bosses are not great. The hitboxes for it are especially terrible and the difficulty on them are so inconsistent. Some can be a pain in the ass while some are just a joke. Even the final boss is easy. The gun mechanic is also just gone now which is a shame, he doesn’t even really get upgrades or anything for these fights. The high jump feels like a help and a hindrance at the same time. Why can’t I at least do a low jump? There’s also at no point where shooting down is helpful at all making crouch shooting a pain. There’s even at one point where they recycle the stage 1 bosses like they ran out of time.
Let’s just rip off the bandaid now and let me just say that the level design just isn’t that good this time around. I won’t say there wasn’t an effort but it falters especially in the enemy placement and variety. While I can be thankful there aren’t small enemies, a lot of the placement either drags the game out or can be a pain to deal with. The fish enemies especially made me mad because they just choose when they want to take damage. They even made the levels a linear fair. Sure they may seem similar to the original but it feels like the game tries to just put dead ends or goodies at the end of a place to make the game look open. They probably also did this as items have to be found via enemies or in the sidescrolling stages due to the top down ones being removed. Now I said in the Metafight review that I wasn’t a fan of the backtracking even if it wasn’t too bad but the fact it’s just completely gone now just feels weird to me. Also what is with this game’s obsession with freaking water being a hazard? What’s worse is Stage 5 is still a water stage. Why can Sophia go into water but not in pools of water or water droplets?! What is this, Valis III on the Mega Drive??
At least upgrades are still here and they even got rid of that wall upgrade I hated. Jason even gets some upgrades like a suit to survive hot areas and even being able to use the special weapons on his own. I was going to add he doesn’t get one for the shield but the manual lists he does so I somehow missed it. The hover for Sophia has returned and omg it’s fast as hell! Someone must have really hated the old hover as it also lasts forever in fuel. Even though it’s a lot faster, it’s now way too fast and you can’t even jump when you have it on. Though I do appreciate that you can turn it off now. Even Jason gets a hover though I didn’t use it too much.They also completely missed the point of the water level because the item for it is not only so close to the beginning but all it does is just make your jump normal again. How is it in a game where Jason is used more in 2D sections is where they screw this part up? Now that seems to be about everything with the game, surely they wouldn't have a new type of gameplay to make the game worse right? RIGHT?!
Haha you probably thought they wouldn’t but they did. There’s now a new type of top down gameplay where you use Sophia. You move around and can move your shot in many directions using two of the buttons for clockwise or counterclockwise. The controls for this section are horrible! You think it wouldn’t be too hard to move around but it has such weird movement that it’s hard to explain. If you bump into something, your speed is cooked and it’s annoying especially when enemies are around. There’s powerups for stuff like speed and shots but there’s also powerdowns! Just why? These sections are also the last part of every stage besides the final one. I didn’t enjoy a single one of these and even worse, you can’t even use your special weapons here. So no shield for you buddy! There’s not even bosses for these either but with how awful it is to do combat, I should be thankful.
This game may not sound too bad despite the downgrades but it’s just hurt by potential. There’s so much that could have been done with a 16-bit Blaster Master but it feels like such a downgrade from the NES game. It doesn’t even look that great visually though that’s probably subjective. They aren’t terrible but it doesn’t stand out to me at all. The standard is just too high for me I guess. I also really don’t like the music for this game. A few people seem to like it though but I couldn’t even listen to it the whole time when writing this. In fact, I’m listening to Blue Reflection Tie music right now! It’s just got that sound that’s not good for my ears. There’s worse on this console but I just don’t like it.
I’m surprised I didn’t get more negative for this review, I was expecting to go in to rip it apart but this was not fun. Blaster Master 2 just doesn’t get what made the original good. It was already a game that could have used improvement but this game is not the answer to fixing it. I’ll admit it did at least fix a couple of things but it introduces a lot of bad stuff. The new stuff isn’t good or enjoyable. There’s not much to enjoy here and it even ends on a “The End?” screen making me wonder if it was supposed to get a sequel. This game probably killed the series for a while as it wouldn’t see a new entry for 7 years. Blaster Master 2 didn’t even get a Japanese release and I can’t really tell you what they think of it if there’s even any opinions on it. Don’t play this game unless you have to play every game in the series. You could do worse but that’s not really a compliment. Next time, we’ll be seeing the series go handheld for real this time with Metafight EX for the Game Boy Color! I’m going back to calling the Sega console a Mega Drive now, can’t believe this dumb game got me calling this console a Genesis, shame on you!
Part 1: Chou-Wakusei Senki Metafight for Famicom
Part 2: Bomber King: Scenario 2 for Game Boy
Part 4: Metafight EX for Game Boy Color
Metafight didn’t get the most fanfare back then in Japan, it might surprise people but it’s seen as a hidden gem over there. Meanwhile what we know as Blaster Master here did pretty well for itself and many people remember it as a classic on the NES. Despite that success, Sunsoft never made a sequel during their glory days on the Famicom. It would take until 2000 for a new game in the series to happen. Though that didn’t stop people outside of Japan giving this series a shot as Sunsoft would let Software Creations give it a try with Blaster Master 2 for the Genesis. Software Creations is probably not a dev team you want making your sequel. The original developers of Metafight weren’t even aware this game was even being worked on. This was the game that actually made me undecided if I even wanted to review all these games but just because I’m passionate about writing stuff, I went through it all.
The game doesn’t actually have a story in game so you’ll have to read the manual. It’s basically just more mutants are here and Jason must put a stop to them again. Apparently he had the Metal Attacker-wait it’s called the S.O.P.H.I.A. in this game? Wait, that was never its name. I remember I used to call it that, I didn’t even know the games got that wrong too. Sophia was just a name of a location in Metafight I believe. I’ll also be calling it just Sophia for now. Anyway he had Sophia hidden in a barn of all places. He gets it rebuilt and off you go exploring once again to kill every last mutant.
Well at least I can mention one good positive off the bat, Sophia can actually shoot diagonally upwards this time which is nice to see. That said, the controls are unfortunately worse this time around with the worst thing about them having to be bumping into walls as it pushes you back a bit. Sophia also has a lot of momentum on slopes making you go way too fast down slopes. You also have the special weapons back though some changes have been made. The 3 way missiles now only use up 1 ammo and seem to be weaker. The homing missiles have been nerfed as you can only now shoot one at a time. Lightning is a lot better in this game thankfully as it’s now an 8 way shot and instant kills any enemy. A new special item being a shield was added which gives you a small amount of invincibility. It’s a little rare but it’s one of the best items in the game.
Then you have Jason, which I’ll admit I’m not a fan of this direction. It feels like someone at the team didn’t like how in the NES game he was mostly used for top down sections or the water in Area 5. He now does a lot of navigation in the 2D sections where he can shoot in 4 different directions and jump really high. A high jump sounds cool but you still have fall damage, though it’s not as bad as before. While it may sound cool he gets to do more, the level design doesn’t do too much with it besides some basic hallways and platforming. He’s so weak and limited that the game can’t do much with him. While I can see the potential in it, I don’t think this game is going to convince me this was a good change. The game doesn’t even give him his own life bar so hope you enjoy having to survive with just one as Sophia and Jason share it. You also need to hold down and C to get out and in so please for the love of god don’t do it above a ladder!
You might be asking, if there’s no top down sections anymore, how do you fight bosses? Well, you still go into areas to fight them but it’s now done in a sidescroller view with Jason’s sprite being a lot bigger. This is the only thing you’ll be doing in these sections and the bosses are not great. The hitboxes for it are especially terrible and the difficulty on them are so inconsistent. Some can be a pain in the ass while some are just a joke. Even the final boss is easy. The gun mechanic is also just gone now which is a shame, he doesn’t even really get upgrades or anything for these fights. The high jump feels like a help and a hindrance at the same time. Why can’t I at least do a low jump? There’s also at no point where shooting down is helpful at all making crouch shooting a pain. There’s even at one point where they recycle the stage 1 bosses like they ran out of time.
Let’s just rip off the bandaid now and let me just say that the level design just isn’t that good this time around. I won’t say there wasn’t an effort but it falters especially in the enemy placement and variety. While I can be thankful there aren’t small enemies, a lot of the placement either drags the game out or can be a pain to deal with. The fish enemies especially made me mad because they just choose when they want to take damage. They even made the levels a linear fair. Sure they may seem similar to the original but it feels like the game tries to just put dead ends or goodies at the end of a place to make the game look open. They probably also did this as items have to be found via enemies or in the sidescrolling stages due to the top down ones being removed. Now I said in the Metafight review that I wasn’t a fan of the backtracking even if it wasn’t too bad but the fact it’s just completely gone now just feels weird to me. Also what is with this game’s obsession with freaking water being a hazard? What’s worse is Stage 5 is still a water stage. Why can Sophia go into water but not in pools of water or water droplets?! What is this, Valis III on the Mega Drive??
At least upgrades are still here and they even got rid of that wall upgrade I hated. Jason even gets some upgrades like a suit to survive hot areas and even being able to use the special weapons on his own. I was going to add he doesn’t get one for the shield but the manual lists he does so I somehow missed it. The hover for Sophia has returned and omg it’s fast as hell! Someone must have really hated the old hover as it also lasts forever in fuel. Even though it’s a lot faster, it’s now way too fast and you can’t even jump when you have it on. Though I do appreciate that you can turn it off now. Even Jason gets a hover though I didn’t use it too much.They also completely missed the point of the water level because the item for it is not only so close to the beginning but all it does is just make your jump normal again. How is it in a game where Jason is used more in 2D sections is where they screw this part up? Now that seems to be about everything with the game, surely they wouldn't have a new type of gameplay to make the game worse right? RIGHT?!
Haha you probably thought they wouldn’t but they did. There’s now a new type of top down gameplay where you use Sophia. You move around and can move your shot in many directions using two of the buttons for clockwise or counterclockwise. The controls for this section are horrible! You think it wouldn’t be too hard to move around but it has such weird movement that it’s hard to explain. If you bump into something, your speed is cooked and it’s annoying especially when enemies are around. There’s powerups for stuff like speed and shots but there’s also powerdowns! Just why? These sections are also the last part of every stage besides the final one. I didn’t enjoy a single one of these and even worse, you can’t even use your special weapons here. So no shield for you buddy! There’s not even bosses for these either but with how awful it is to do combat, I should be thankful.
This game may not sound too bad despite the downgrades but it’s just hurt by potential. There’s so much that could have been done with a 16-bit Blaster Master but it feels like such a downgrade from the NES game. It doesn’t even look that great visually though that’s probably subjective. They aren’t terrible but it doesn’t stand out to me at all. The standard is just too high for me I guess. I also really don’t like the music for this game. A few people seem to like it though but I couldn’t even listen to it the whole time when writing this. In fact, I’m listening to Blue Reflection Tie music right now! It’s just got that sound that’s not good for my ears. There’s worse on this console but I just don’t like it.
I’m surprised I didn’t get more negative for this review, I was expecting to go in to rip it apart but this was not fun. Blaster Master 2 just doesn’t get what made the original good. It was already a game that could have used improvement but this game is not the answer to fixing it. I’ll admit it did at least fix a couple of things but it introduces a lot of bad stuff. The new stuff isn’t good or enjoyable. There’s not much to enjoy here and it even ends on a “The End?” screen making me wonder if it was supposed to get a sequel. This game probably killed the series for a while as it wouldn’t see a new entry for 7 years. Blaster Master 2 didn’t even get a Japanese release and I can’t really tell you what they think of it if there’s even any opinions on it. Don’t play this game unless you have to play every game in the series. You could do worse but that’s not really a compliment. Next time, we’ll be seeing the series go handheld for real this time with Metafight EX for the Game Boy Color! I’m going back to calling the Sega console a Mega Drive now, can’t believe this dumb game got me calling this console a Genesis, shame on you!
Almost broke a controller on the first world so that speaks volumes about this game
Blaster Master was (is) my favorite NES game and when I accidentally stumbled on to this at Funcoland, I fell off the face of the earth.
The side-scrolling areas aren't too bad. They have that early-90's era Genesis art which I do love. But enemies seemed a bit too aggressive and after area 2 or 3, it's pretty repetitive.
And then we all know about the top-down tank levels. Why they ever thought it was a good idea to purposely give kids carpel tunnel syndrome with those controls. Woof.
The music is pretty great tho. VERY Sega-y music with harsh saw waves and plinky sine waves. Nowhere near the god-tier of the original BM, but pretty good.
The side-scrolling areas aren't too bad. They have that early-90's era Genesis art which I do love. But enemies seemed a bit too aggressive and after area 2 or 3, it's pretty repetitive.
And then we all know about the top-down tank levels. Why they ever thought it was a good idea to purposely give kids carpel tunnel syndrome with those controls. Woof.
The music is pretty great tho. VERY Sega-y music with harsh saw waves and plinky sine waves. Nowhere near the god-tier of the original BM, but pretty good.
I loved Blaster Master as a kid and couldn't understand how bringing a sequel to a more powerful system could result in such an incomprehensibly worse game. It was an indecipherable mess of structure, as it took the loosest elements of the original game and cobbled them together without the foresight to give the player an idea of how that structure should function.
If that explanation feels really vague, know that the game feels the same. I guess controls were fine, graphics were par for the course, sound effects were alright, and music was dullsville. I can't shake how much this game made me angry about the drop-off in value over the original Blaster Master. Go play that a million times over instead. Go pull up Stage 5 and Stage 6 music on YT -- it's so worth it. This game is not.
If that explanation feels really vague, know that the game feels the same. I guess controls were fine, graphics were par for the course, sound effects were alright, and music was dullsville. I can't shake how much this game made me angry about the drop-off in value over the original Blaster Master. Go play that a million times over instead. Go pull up Stage 5 and Stage 6 music on YT -- it's so worth it. This game is not.