Blaster Master Zero
Year: 2017
Rating: E
Time Played: 6 hours
While I grew up with retro video games, one game that escaped my notice at the time was Blaster Master. I first encountered this game when it kept popping up in the Nintendo eShop on my Switch. Even though there weren’t many games I had for that system at the time, I played the demo and it took me several years to decide it was worth my money. I’m glad I gave it a chance, because the rest of the game was quite fun.
Since I never played the original game, I don’t know what improvements this remake gave to make the quality of life better for this version. It did have a lot of standard action platformer button allocations that helped me cycle through different abilities without having to go into the pause menu every few seconds. The wide-screen format also made the levels feel large and easy to navigate. The graphics retained that NES feel, which I can appreciate (even if a modern visual upgrade like how Wonder Boy did it would have been neat).
Of course, in porting a remake of an NES game from the late ’80s, some weaknesses of the original do shine through. Once you get a hang of the controls (both in the platforming and in the top-down sections), it’s not a terribly challenging game. Sure, the Metroidvania-style upgrades make the backtracking somewhat bearable as you’re exploring slightly newer sections of places you’ve already been. It’s also fun to just blast through enemies with the more powerful weapons, which (again) doesn’t provide much of a challenge. Still, it’s usually cheap enough now that it’s worth it to pick up this game if it’s on sale.
A retro remake with some improvements but retaining some weaknesses, I give Blaster Master Zero 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
