Blaster Master: Blasting Again
Rating: 4/10
I remember playing the original Blaster Master for the NES when I was a kid. It is still to this day one of my favorite games, and also one of the hardest (I still have yet to beat it). Its exploratory nature combined with a steep difficulty made it a game I would never forget. Now, lets jump forward a few years and get to what this article is really about. One day I was walking around Game Stop and saw Blaster Master: Blasting Again on the shelf, used, for $2.99. I thought to myself "Wow, this looks like a great deal, and it's a Blaster Master game, can't be THAT bad can it?".....I didn't realize how wrong I was, until it was too late.
I booted up the game, and the opening cinematic looked great, explained the basics of the story, and then jumped right into the game. Well, I was in for one hell of a surprise. The graphic textures were all grainy, about the same quality as the sprites in the original Doom game, but were actually 3D. The tank didn't look too bad, but overall, the graphics were far from impressive. "Maybe it's not as bad as it looks." I thought as I started to play. The remix of the old Area 1 theme from the original NES game had me pumped and I started moving.
About halfway through the first level, I realized something. It was the difficulty curve of the original that made it so fun, a key factor that BM:BA was severely lacking in. Halfway through level one, I was bored. I fought through it, thinking that it HAD to get hard eventually, probably after I beat the first area. I made it to the boss and beat it to a pulp, only taking maybe one or two hits in the process. Area 2 wasn't much of a challenge either, nor was 3, nor 4, actually, the last area was the only one that proved to be somewhat difficult in terms of staying alive.
The game would have been harder if not for the hint system that told you exactly where to go on the map, which kinda killed the exploratory part (except for the short segment of the game where you couldn't use it, reasons for which being explained in the story). Certain jumps were also incredibly difficult due to the precision required to make them, but either a poor camera angle or the game's physics constantly causing you to either fall short or over shoot the jump. Thankfully, there are no instant death traps as far as I can remember, but usually there were spikes or lava or something below to cause damage.
The bosses were for the most part just plain odd. Thanks to the graphics, it was increasingly difficult to even discern what they were. The boss of the fire area looked like a headless chicken (although I doubt thats what it was supposed to be.), and the only boss I could actually recognize what in the world it was is a dreadful creature they brought back from the first game, simply known as 'The Cube'. This thing was a living hell to beat in the original, it would create a clone of itself every time it moved, and only the one with the open eye was vulnerable. It was all about killing them before the room was completely filled and you died, not to mention they also shot lasers at you from time to time, so I was expecting the worst when it showed itself in the boss room...
but as with almost everything else in this game, I was sorely disappointed. He duplicated maybe twice before I completely obliterated the thing. Actually, the only boss I struggled with was the final boss of the game, the only part I was truly satisfied with. It was an epic battle, great musical score, and this thing was a beast, with what felt like a near unlimited health supply. Sadly, most of his attacks were just plain predictable and easy to dodge, except for one.
Now the only reason I still have this game is so I can fight the final boss whenever I feel inclined to.