Now that I've beaten the game (missing one health upgrade for Sophia) I can more precisely detail what I did and didn't like out of the whole experience.
Pros
- Pretty faithful to the original in its gameplay.
- The remixes of all the classic themes are great.
- Alex has more combat options in the gates than Jason did.
- Actually difficult. Not impossible in the least, but even with full gun upgrades it's still challenging.
- HP/EN upgrades give more reasons to explore, extending gameplay.
- Bosses can really test your skills. The weak-willed will be broken.
- New Sophia upgrades like the hookshot are interesting. I liked that the drill from Blaster Master 2 is back - and actually useful this time!
Cons
- Visually uninteresting. All the levels are colored variations of caves, with a couple going the extra mile for themes. So you have the blue cave, the brown cave, the lava cave, the ice cave, etc. There is absolutely nothing visually separating the Ruins (Area 1) from th Caverns (Area 2) beyond their color swap and actual level design. This applies to the gate areas too.
- What you see is what you get. There are no extra options when you beat the game. Not even a boss rush. It's pretty barebones.
- Overdrive's gates are inferior to the original's. In BM, each gate was a new experience, and some were masterfully crafted. It was about exploring the rooms for what you potentially could find, while avoiding enemies and obstacles. Overdrive's gates are uninteresting mini-labyrinths, more about killing everything inside and maybe nabbing an upgrade or two at the end of the maze.
- No customization options and no extra control options. This would have alleviated puzzling decisions like mapping strafe to B.
- Sophia has been nerfed. Hover only hovers instead of flies, Wall only scales walls and not ceilings, etc. It feels like they were arbitrarily nerfed to give things like the hookshot a purpose. Wall and the Anchor 2 kit are downgraded to "key" items in that you really only need them once or twice and then they have no more purpose. I would rather have had a hover upgrade that lets you fly instead of a second anchor kit. Also, there are no subweapons or cannon upgrades so it becomes difficult to deal with small enemies that hide out of reach.
- Where's Jason? The sequels went to so much length to expand on the plothole/enigmas of the original game and this just reboots everything entirely. I could understand if it was to distance itself from the absurdity of the original's storyline (though that makes the sequels pointless...) except that this new take has just as many holes.
Overall I give it an 8/10. The game by itself is good enough, but with extra options it could have been unrivaled. They've mostly pinned down what makes Blaster Master work. If they could expand on this with better gates and visuals, I would have no complaints. Oh, and bring back Jason and unnerf Sophia please.
Tag - "No trolling on my watch!"
