Blaster Master is one of the best NES games ever made.
There were a couple of sequels.
Blaster Master Boy/Jr. for the Gameboy isn't really a Blaster Master game, its Bomber King 2. Sunsoft got the publishing rights or whatever for that Bomberman game from Hudson and turned it into a Blaster Master game. Has anyone played Robo Warrior on the NES? That's the first Bomber King game, once again re-labeled when brought to the US. The games are pretty much identical, you run through catacombs and blow stuff up. Not really a Blaster Master game, Sophia isn't in it at all.
Blaster Master 2 was for the Genesis, and seems even more obscure than the original game. I played and beat it back when it came out. The interesting thing to note is that it was done by an American team I believe. It wasn't released in Japan at all, there is no "Meta Fight 2," so I imagine the series had more success overseas than in Japan.
You can tell it's not the original team that made the game but they try to be true to the original. The problem is that they can't decide between sticking to the original's gameplay or trying to reinvent it, so it doesn't compeltely work. They took the backtracking out and made it completely linear. Once you finish a level and take the exit, you can't go back. Not that there's any point because of the design. The inner areas with Jason were completely flipped around too. Now you only go inside doors to ONLY fight bosses and minibosses, and it's done on a 2D plane. The overhead part was given to Sophia in the last area of each level. You basically swivel you cannon to shoot things while navigating the maze-like, trap-filled areas. Probably sounded good on paper, but the execution wasn't very good.
The powerups were also downgraded. There's about twice as many as in the original, because you fight a boss and miniboss in every level and they each give you SOMETHING, but they don't even have half the use. For example, you get a drill weapon for Sophia in the second level to drill through special blocks. Sounds cool, right? Except you use it a total of two times. In the entire game. Basically they're just "key" items, you use them once to get beyond a barrier and you never use them again. Another example is the visor. In the third stage one of the areas is so bright that the game won't let you proceed. So you beat the miniboss and get the visor. Now you can move on, but it doesn't affect the gameplay in the least. And remember the Dive ability from the original? Remember that freedom you got navigating the tank underwater once you got it? It's back. Sophia still moves like ass underwater, but even more so now...you jump like an inch. But Dive is so half assed this time around, all it does is let you move normally underwater. No real added functionality. And it's pretty much a key item too, because the level you get it in (5) is the only level with water. Okay, level 2 & 4 have water, but it's hazardous. Don't ask me why. Well, not all of the power ups are bad. Hover is back and still cool, and Jason gets a jetpack of his own too.
The soundtrack is also very...odd. Okay, I liked two songs so it wasn't completely terrible. If I had to rate Blaster Master 2, it would be around 6/10. It's not a bad game, but in trying to reinvent and update the original, they ended up making a game worse than its predecessor.
Blaster Master: Enemy Below for the GBC (Meta Fight EX) was pretty much a remix of the original game but for handhelds. Seriously, it's like LoZ's 2nd Quest but Blaster Master style. It's the same levels but completely redesigned. There's also new bosses and power ups too. I've yet to beat it because I can't find my way around some of the areas...and I knew the original Blaster Master like the back of my hand too.
Blaster Master: Blaster Again for the PS1 is great, I bought it for $5 brand new and as a diehard fan of the original, I really enjoyed it. If I had to rate it, it would get an 8/10. I recommend it for anyone thats a fan of the original game.
It pretty much ditched all the mistakes Blaster Master 2 made and brings the series into 3D the right way. There are less power ups for Sophia now but they get much more use than they did in BM2. You only get four: Boost, Crawl, Hover and Dive. Boost pretty much makes the tank move faster and jump farther as long as you have the button pushed. Dive gives you underwater freedom again. Crawl makes Sophia's wheels turn into spider-like legs and it crawls up walls, and Hover does what it always did - lets you fly. You have infinite battery power for these now instead fo collecting annoying little icons, which is one thing I hated from BM1. When you use Hover/Boost, it drains the battery, but it recharges over time.
Special weapons are back and follow a sort of RPG-like formula. You get permanent upgrades that enlarge the bar and icnreases its usefulness. For example, Blaster cannon shots increases in range and size, Lightning gets more range and attacks more opponents at once, Homing missiles can target more enemies, and the barrier bots increase to two and start shooting when you do.
My only gripes with the game were that the voice acting is horrendous. Seriously, the person who voiced Eve actually had me wondering if she was sounding bad on PURPOSE. There's no lock on...Sophia sort of auto-aims at enemies in range, but lock on would be much better in 3D. And there isn't as much variety in the levels. If the NES game could do 8 environments the PS1 game should be able to do it too. Still, not that big of a problem. Really, I like this game more and more with age.
And the soundtrack is ungodly. Satoshi Asano I had never heard of beforehand, and when I looked him up I only saw credits for one other game I had never heard of. But he really turned this soundtrack into something special. There's a remix or two from the original game thrown in there, and all the new music I love listening too. I really had to sit back and listen before some of the tunes hit me because I wans't paying too much attention while playing at first, but once I did I had to...obtain the soundtrack. I love it that much, and I wish he worked on more games.
There's also some fanservice thrown in there besides returning music. I'm not going to spoil much but there is a boss fight lifted right out of BM1. Speaking of which, this is also the first time in the series you can fight bosses in Sophia. It's split about even between tank battles and Roddy battles. There's even one cool boss battle where you get infinite hover and engage them in a Starfox-like on rails flight shoot out.
Interesting fact: Blaster Again was released in Japan but not under the Meta Fight label. It was released there as simply "Blaster Master," with the US storyline intact...ironic because they got the game several months to a year before we did. I believe Sunsoft ended the Meta Fight lin with Meta Fight EX, and the US storyline has taken over canon. Further backing up my beliefs that the series is more successful over here than in Japan. Another interesting fact is that the World of Powers novel became canon, so characters from the book Eve) that wasn't in the games up to this point are now.
After the potential Blasting Again showed, I had hoped Sunsoft would take another crack at the franchise. But I don't think they make games anymore.
Tag - "No trolling on my watch!"
