I didn’t feel like writing a full review for the original Blaster Master Zero, so I’ll just do a quick one right here. Blaster Master Zero is a very fun remake/reimagining of a classic NES game that modernizes and tweaks some things to make it significantly more playable. It also incorporates a nice and simple story with a satisfying conclusion as long as you’re going for the true ending. For those unaware, the Blaster Master games have two very different gameplay modes: one has you controlling a tank in 2D platforming levels while the other has you control the protagonist, Jason, in overhead shooting levels that are very reminiscent of 2D Zelda dungeons. The mix of game types surprisingly works very well, and you switch between them enough that you never really get tired of either one. Some of the later levels have some awkward aspects to them that aren’t particularly fun, mainly the levels that incorporate stealth, but it never gets too annoying and the quality is very consistent throughout.
For Zero 2, it seems that Inti Creates decided to take off the kid gloves and not only introduce some pretty major gameplay changes, but also ramp up the difficulty tenfold. To some, that may be very welcome considering how easy Zero 1 can be, but to quote a sci-fi movie director who is somehow simultaneously disgraced and redeemed, “we may have gone too far in a few places.”
Zero 2 adds a counterattack button that, while a fantastic idea due to the lack of mobility in the overhead stages, also is a bit of a mixed bag due to its implementation. Now that you have this counterattack, Inti Creates has an excuse to go full Mega Man 9 on your ass and throw shit at you that, if you’re an angry manchild gremlin like myself, will make you want to bash your head into a wall. The game starts off frustratingly difficult and its difficulty curve just seems all over the place, eventually settling in a “hard but not too frustrating” area once you’ve collected enough upgrades. There are some quick moving enemies and early bosses that demand you to learn how the counterattack works or else you’ll just die over and over again. Remember how people complained that in Metal Gear Rising you’re never really properly taught how to use the parry mechanic and very early on the game throws Blade Wolf at you who pretty much forces you to use the parry mechanic? It’s like that only way worse. It also doesn’t help that it doesn’t always quite work the way you feel like it should work, especially when the game decides that you weren’t trying to counterattack the enemy 3 inches in front of you, you were clearly trying to counter the enemy that’s 3 football fields away.
Once you do get a handle of how the counter works and how to deal with the new enemies and boss fights, it does get exponentially more fun. There’s nothing more satisfying than pulling off a series of counterattacks on a group of enemies and wiping a screen in mere seconds. I just wish the devs did a better job of easing you into this brand new mechanic instead of forcing you to bite the pillow while they go in dry.
Another problem I have is with the new gun types. How the gun works in Blaster Master is you collect these red powerups that drop from enemies and crates which allow you to switch to different guns with completely different attributes. When you get hit, the power level goes down and you can no longer use that gun type until you collect more powerups. Think something like how weapon levels work in Cave Story. What makes this a problem in the original game is that the final gun type completely wrecks everything and trivializes most boss fights. Naturally, in the sequel, they tried to remedy this and decided to change all the gun types and completely nerf the final one, but what happens is almost the opposite problem. Now most of the guns feel borderline useless, and oddly enough the second gun type becomes your go-to weapon for almost every situation due to its sheer utility. I don’t know about you, but I will gladly go with incredibly unbalanced, overpowered, yet fun weapons over a bunch of balanced weapons that are mostly unsatisfying any day of the week.
As for level design, most of the game is very well crafted and fun to play, but in the late game they decided to start throwing these instant kill walls at you which becomes a massive pain in the ass to deal with. This especially becomes problematic in the overhead sections, because it can be unclear when you’re touching a wall from that perspective. Due to how far checkpoints can be, the endgame can be a slog if you keep dying over and over thanks to these fun little deathwalls. Luckily, the worst of these are found in the optional stages.
There is a portion of the game at the very end that, without spoiling anything, involves a pretty huge changeup that is neat from a narrative perspective, but good god is it painfully unfun from a gameplay perspective. If you’ve played Metroid: Zero Mission, it’s very much like the zero suit section of that game, only significantly slower, significantly longer, significantly harder, and with significantly less checkpoints. In other words, this shit sucks. Like, you can pin a lot of my other complaints on me being a big baby saying “it’s too hawwwd” but this part is inexcusable. It’s especially weird considering what follows after this are a couple of boss fights that are comparatively easy. Again, the difficulty curve of this game is all over the goddamn place.
You may be at this point in the review, and thinking to yourself, “well gee this guy seems pretty negative about this game, why did he give it a 7?” Well my friend, let me first off thank you for actually seeing a 7/10 as a good score, because it is and everyone should perceive it as such. As for the actual answer to that question, the game is still overall very fun once you get a handle of things. The general moment-to-moment gameplay is snappy, satisfying, and very fun. The controls are excellent, and there’s a lot of weight to your tank’s movements and attacks. I almost forgot to mention one of the new gameplay features involving the tank, where any impact whether it’s taking damage or falling from a certain height will give you energy that recharges your meter for subweapons. This is a pretty genius mechanic, mainly because there is nothing more fun and satisfying than being rewarded for falling from as high of a height as humanly possible. Also, holy shit, does this game have the absolute best implementation of the HD rumble out of the entire Switch library. I’m genuinely amazed at how good it is.
Graphically, the game gets a decent upgrade too. All the past characters get nice glow-ups and the pixel art is fantastic. The new characters that are introduced are all very memorable, a certain plant girl especially so, thanks to her, well… physical attributes so to speak. There is a much bigger focus on story in this game, and I gotta say it goes pretty hard. For a series that starts off with such a simple premise, it sure does go full anime at the end of this entry and I’m all for it. Like I’m talking all out, shounen-esque “win using the power of friendship and love and god and anime on my side” kind of stuff. It’s the kind of over-the-top kookiness that would make Hideki Kamiya blush a little bit.
Overall, Blaster Master Zero 2 is a very good but also very flawed sequel. It certainly has higher highs than its predecessor, but much lower lows. Inti Creates clearly were very passionate about this, and while it may be sloppy in its execution of its new ideas, I’ll always applaud experimentation of an old IP like this. In my eyes, the first game is superior, but this is still a worthwhile sequel, and fans of Blaster Master Zero should definitely check this out especially for its low price. Just prepare yourself for something that’s a couple notches higher in difficulty.
For Zero 2, it seems that Inti Creates decided to take off the kid gloves and not only introduce some pretty major gameplay changes, but also ramp up the difficulty tenfold. To some, that may be very welcome considering how easy Zero 1 can be, but to quote a sci-fi movie director who is somehow simultaneously disgraced and redeemed, “we may have gone too far in a few places.”
Zero 2 adds a counterattack button that, while a fantastic idea due to the lack of mobility in the overhead stages, also is a bit of a mixed bag due to its implementation. Now that you have this counterattack, Inti Creates has an excuse to go full Mega Man 9 on your ass and throw shit at you that, if you’re an angry manchild gremlin like myself, will make you want to bash your head into a wall. The game starts off frustratingly difficult and its difficulty curve just seems all over the place, eventually settling in a “hard but not too frustrating” area once you’ve collected enough upgrades. There are some quick moving enemies and early bosses that demand you to learn how the counterattack works or else you’ll just die over and over again. Remember how people complained that in Metal Gear Rising you’re never really properly taught how to use the parry mechanic and very early on the game throws Blade Wolf at you who pretty much forces you to use the parry mechanic? It’s like that only way worse. It also doesn’t help that it doesn’t always quite work the way you feel like it should work, especially when the game decides that you weren’t trying to counterattack the enemy 3 inches in front of you, you were clearly trying to counter the enemy that’s 3 football fields away.
Once you do get a handle of how the counter works and how to deal with the new enemies and boss fights, it does get exponentially more fun. There’s nothing more satisfying than pulling off a series of counterattacks on a group of enemies and wiping a screen in mere seconds. I just wish the devs did a better job of easing you into this brand new mechanic instead of forcing you to bite the pillow while they go in dry.
Another problem I have is with the new gun types. How the gun works in Blaster Master is you collect these red powerups that drop from enemies and crates which allow you to switch to different guns with completely different attributes. When you get hit, the power level goes down and you can no longer use that gun type until you collect more powerups. Think something like how weapon levels work in Cave Story. What makes this a problem in the original game is that the final gun type completely wrecks everything and trivializes most boss fights. Naturally, in the sequel, they tried to remedy this and decided to change all the gun types and completely nerf the final one, but what happens is almost the opposite problem. Now most of the guns feel borderline useless, and oddly enough the second gun type becomes your go-to weapon for almost every situation due to its sheer utility. I don’t know about you, but I will gladly go with incredibly unbalanced, overpowered, yet fun weapons over a bunch of balanced weapons that are mostly unsatisfying any day of the week.
As for level design, most of the game is very well crafted and fun to play, but in the late game they decided to start throwing these instant kill walls at you which becomes a massive pain in the ass to deal with. This especially becomes problematic in the overhead sections, because it can be unclear when you’re touching a wall from that perspective. Due to how far checkpoints can be, the endgame can be a slog if you keep dying over and over thanks to these fun little deathwalls. Luckily, the worst of these are found in the optional stages.
There is a portion of the game at the very end that, without spoiling anything, involves a pretty huge changeup that is neat from a narrative perspective, but good god is it painfully unfun from a gameplay perspective. If you’ve played Metroid: Zero Mission, it’s very much like the zero suit section of that game, only significantly slower, significantly longer, significantly harder, and with significantly less checkpoints. In other words, this shit sucks. Like, you can pin a lot of my other complaints on me being a big baby saying “it’s too hawwwd” but this part is inexcusable. It’s especially weird considering what follows after this are a couple of boss fights that are comparatively easy. Again, the difficulty curve of this game is all over the goddamn place.
You may be at this point in the review, and thinking to yourself, “well gee this guy seems pretty negative about this game, why did he give it a 7?” Well my friend, let me first off thank you for actually seeing a 7/10 as a good score, because it is and everyone should perceive it as such. As for the actual answer to that question, the game is still overall very fun once you get a handle of things. The general moment-to-moment gameplay is snappy, satisfying, and very fun. The controls are excellent, and there’s a lot of weight to your tank’s movements and attacks. I almost forgot to mention one of the new gameplay features involving the tank, where any impact whether it’s taking damage or falling from a certain height will give you energy that recharges your meter for subweapons. This is a pretty genius mechanic, mainly because there is nothing more fun and satisfying than being rewarded for falling from as high of a height as humanly possible. Also, holy shit, does this game have the absolute best implementation of the HD rumble out of the entire Switch library. I’m genuinely amazed at how good it is.
Graphically, the game gets a decent upgrade too. All the past characters get nice glow-ups and the pixel art is fantastic. The new characters that are introduced are all very memorable, a certain plant girl especially so, thanks to her, well… physical attributes so to speak. There is a much bigger focus on story in this game, and I gotta say it goes pretty hard. For a series that starts off with such a simple premise, it sure does go full anime at the end of this entry and I’m all for it. Like I’m talking all out, shounen-esque “win using the power of friendship and love and god and anime on my side” kind of stuff. It’s the kind of over-the-top kookiness that would make Hideki Kamiya blush a little bit.
Overall, Blaster Master Zero 2 is a very good but also very flawed sequel. It certainly has higher highs than its predecessor, but much lower lows. Inti Creates clearly were very passionate about this, and while it may be sloppy in its execution of its new ideas, I’ll always applaud experimentation of an old IP like this. In my eyes, the first game is superior, but this is still a worthwhile sequel, and fans of Blaster Master Zero should definitely check this out especially for its low price. Just prepare yourself for something that’s a couple notches higher in difficulty.