You've fallen down a hidden manhole into a world of creatures so terrifying they'd scare the rats away. You can panic and perish, or blast your way through an endless maze of tunnels, searching for the secret passages to your escape. And that's the easy part. Because the Masters of the Caverns lay waiting - prehistoric creatures so powerful, so gigantic, they literally fill your screen! So load your arsenal and get ready for Blaster Master.
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A weird blend of Metroid (including literal Metroids floating around...) and top down running and gunning. The story premise is just as bizarre. Visually it looks fantastic for a NES game, but the somewhat clunky controls and rather repetitive gameplay keep it from true greatness.
Played on Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online, as well as FCE Ultra GX using my modded Wii. Seems like a good enough game, but it didn't hook me like I expected it to, so I will not be returning to this game.
Pretty challenging but it holds up pretty well.
This is definitely a flawed NES action game, but it's definitely "one of the classics", and it still holds up despite its design.
I think the main issue is enemy placement. There are points where you're basically required to take a hit going through doors, and others where you just get slammed by enemies who go off-screen. See, enemies stop moving when they are off-screen and only go back into motion when their entire sprite is on screen. Not moving or even being shown based on partial presence may not sound like a big deal but it significantly lowers the reaction time you are given to avoid things, especially if you're not paying a lot of attention to this kind of thing.
Besides that the only major flaws I have for this game are the lack of any sort of progress save and the strangeness of grenades, but I can easily look over those. Modern platforms have save options for Blaster Master and either way, it's easy to blast through the first couple areas in less than half an hour to get to where you were. Also, it's just really fun to play so going through the early segments over and over doesn't bother me.
As an early metroidvania, it can be shakey at times, but this game really maintains the thrill of gaining more abilities and finding new ways to use them in your progression. I really like going back to previous areas to find entry to more areas, but I think a map would have been nice, because it can still be rather easy to get lost.
I highly recommend giving this a shot. I got this one for real cheap (10 bucks) so it's real easy to come buy and well worth the cash.
7/10
I think the main issue is enemy placement. There are points where you're basically required to take a hit going through doors, and others where you just get slammed by enemies who go off-screen. See, enemies stop moving when they are off-screen and only go back into motion when their entire sprite is on screen. Not moving or even being shown based on partial presence may not sound like a big deal but it significantly lowers the reaction time you are given to avoid things, especially if you're not paying a lot of attention to this kind of thing.
Besides that the only major flaws I have for this game are the lack of any sort of progress save and the strangeness of grenades, but I can easily look over those. Modern platforms have save options for Blaster Master and either way, it's easy to blast through the first couple areas in less than half an hour to get to where you were. Also, it's just really fun to play so going through the early segments over and over doesn't bother me.
As an early metroidvania, it can be shakey at times, but this game really maintains the thrill of gaining more abilities and finding new ways to use them in your progression. I really like going back to previous areas to find entry to more areas, but I think a map would have been nice, because it can still be rather easy to get lost.
I highly recommend giving this a shot. I got this one for real cheap (10 bucks) so it's real easy to come buy and well worth the cash.
7/10
(Played using Nintendo Switch Online NES)
This game honestly just sucks. Enemy placements are horrendous, the boss battles aren't fun at all. The controls also suck, the car is slippery and during later sections of the game you climb on walls and at the final area of the game you just ram into spikes that do like a million damage it sucks its terrible. The game stinks don't play it
This game honestly just sucks. Enemy placements are horrendous, the boss battles aren't fun at all. The controls also suck, the car is slippery and during later sections of the game you climb on walls and at the final area of the game you just ram into spikes that do like a million damage it sucks its terrible. The game stinks don't play it
this game is so cool! you got a cool little tank thing and the music is so fun. when i was a little kid i saw it had a book at the library and i was so excited but then i remembered i can't read books and i almost forgot to return it because i still wanted to read it