Blaster Master

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blaster Master
Developer(s)	Sunsoft
Publisher(s)	Sunsoft
Composer(s)	Naoki Kodaka
Platform(s)	Nintendo Entertainment System, Virtual Console
Release date(s)	NES JP June 17, 1988 (1988-06-17) NA November 30, 1988 (1988-11-30) EU April 25, 1991 (1991-04-25) Virtual Console NA December 14, 2009[1]
Genre(s)	Run and gun, Platform game
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E
Media	2-megabit cartridge
Input methods	Gamepad

Blaster Master is a platforming and run and gun video game released by Sunsoft for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is a localized version of a Japanese Famicom game titled Chô Wakusei Senki Metafight (超惑星戦記メタファイト^?, which loosely translates to "Super Planetary War Records: Metafight"), which was released on June 17, 1988, and originally had a completely different plot. The game was then localized and released in North America on November 30, 1988 and in Europe on April 25, 1991. The game is the first in the Blaster Master series, which spawned two spin-off titles Blaster Master Boy and Blaster Master: Enemy Below as well as two sequels—Blaster Master 2 and Blaster Master: Blasting Again.^[2] The North American/European version features a character named Jason whose frog Fred, one day, leaps out of his fish bowl, grows enormously after touching a radioactive chest, and then falls into a hole in the earth. Jason follows Fred down the hole to find an armored vehicle designed to battle radioactive mutants inside the Earth. This article will focus mainly on the localized version as released in North America and Europe.

The player controls Jason through eight levels of gameplay in order to find the whereabouts of Fred and to defeat mutants' leader, the Plutonium Boss. The game was praised for its smooth play control and level designs, its detailed and clean graphics, and its soundtrack, which has been compared to the Super Mario Bros. theme. Criticisms of the game included a high difficulty level, the overall length of the game, and the lack of passwords or save points. In addition, the game was novelized by Peter Lerangis, known by the pen name "A.L. Singer", as part of the Worlds of Power series published by Scholastic Books. The game received some notable recognitions in gaming magazines, with Nintendo Power listing it as #63 in its "100 Best Games of All Time" list, and Electronic Gaming Monthly listing it as #184 in its "Top 200 Games of Their Time" list.^[3][4]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Gameplay 3 Novelization 4 Reception 5 Legacy 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Plot

The plot in Blaster Master is shown at the beginning in a cinematic slideshow as "ominous" music plays in the background.^[5] The game starts with a person named Jason who had a pet frog named Fred, who, one day, decides to leap out of his fish bowl and out the door. Then, Fred touches a radioactive chest and grows enormously. Fred and the chest then fall into a hole in the earth.^[6] Jason then follows Fred down the hole which leads to a large underground cavern and to an armored vehicle named SOPHIA THE 3RD—a vehicle designed to battle radioactive mutants living inside the Earth.^[5][6] Jason then mounts SOPHIA to find the whereabouts of Fred and to destroy the mutants and their leader—the Plutonium Boss—in what has been described as "one of the great scenes in all of video games".^[5][7]

In the original Japanese version, the plot of Metafight is centered around Kane Gardner, pilot of the battle tank, "Metal Attacker", who lands on the planet Sophia the 3rd to lead the attack against the invading emperor Goez.

[edit] Gameplay

Gameplay in Blaster Master depends on the situation and location of the player. The game has two modes—the first in which the player controls the SOPHIA while Jason is inside it in a two–dimensional platform mode, and the second in which the player controls Jason while outside SOPHIA in either the same 2–D platform mode or in a top-down perspective. The player switches between these modes as indicated by the various small doorways located throughout the game.^[8] The gameplay is non-linear, in which players must return to previous levels in order to advance to higher levels in the game.^[9]

The object of the game is to complete all eight levels and destroy the mutants and their bosses by using various weaponry such as guns, grenades, or special weapons. While Jason is inside SOPHIA, the player can attack the mutants with guns (which can shoot in any direction) or with one of three special weapons.^[8] Special weapons can be accumulated by collecting certain objects which are scattered throughout the game. These special weapons have limited ammunition and include homing missiles, "Thunder Break", and "Multi Warhead Missiles".^[10] Players can select their special weapon and monitor how much of a certain special weapon they have remaining by accessing the Menu Screen by pressing the Start button.^[11] Players have separate power meters for both Jason and for the vehicle; they decrease whenever they sustain damage by an enemy or any other hazardous object or when Jason falls from a high place.^[5] Players lose a life if their power meter runs out, and the game ends if they lose all of their lives. Players are given five continues in which they can restart the game where they left off.^[8][12] They can restore their power meter by collecting power capsules scattered throughout the game.^[12]

While outside SOPHIA in the top-down perspective, players can destroy mutants from any direction with their gun or with hand grenades.^[13] In this mode, players can upgrade their gun by collecting gun capsules, but their gun can degrade when hit by mutants.^[11] Players can obtain additional vehicle functions by destroying bosses at the end of each level. These functions include weapon upgrades for SOPHIA and the abilities for SOPHIA to swim freely underwater, walk on walls and ceilings, hover above ground.^[10] The hover ability cannot be obtained until after defeating the boss of the 3rd level, and players monitor the amount of thrust remaining in the vehicle via a "Hover gauge" located on the screen. Players can obtain additional thrust by collecting hover capsules.^[12] The game has a glitch in the game—colloquially known as the "grenade glitch"—to easily defeat some of the bosses.^[14] To exploit this glitch, the player throws a grenade at the boss, damaging it. While the grenade is exploding on the boss, the player pauses the game; while the remainder of the action on the screen freezes, the grenade remains active, continuing to damage the boss. After fifteen seconds, the player unpauses the game, resulting in the boss being destroyed.^[15]

[edit] Novelization

Scholastic Books published a novelization of Blaster Master, written by Peter Lerangis under the pen name "A.L. Singer" as part of the Worlds of Power series—books that were loose novelizations of various NES games.^[16][17] He also wrote similar novelizations for Ninja Gaiden, Infiltrator, and Bases Loaded II: Second Season.^[17] As with the other books in this series, all acts of violence portrayed in the games, including any death scenes, were removed in the novelizations. This led to the bosses to be portrayed in the book as "holographic projections placed over formless blobs".^[18] Shawn Struck and Shawn Sharkey from 1UP.com said that Blaster Master was the hardest book for Lerangis to write due to the lack of middle plot. As a result, Lerangis had to come up with details that were not in the game in order to connect the game's actual opening and conclusion. This led to Sunsoft adopting Lerangis' novel as the backstory for the game's sequel, Blaster Master: Blasting Again; hence, this was the only novel in the Worlds of Power series to be officially canonized in a video game series.^[17]

[edit] Reception

Blaster Master received praise from reviewers for its gameplay. Brad Hicks from SwankWorld calls the game "one of the most underrated games to have ever come out on the NES".^[2] He praised the gameplay referring to it as "seamlessly integrated".^[2] Alex Jedraszczak likewise praised the gameplay for its smooth controls and clean level layouts, comparing the game to Metroid.^[19] Julian Rignall, in a 1992 issue of Mean Machines magazine, praised the overall gameplay, including the tank movements, while Matt Regan enjoyed the game's fast-paced gameplay and abundance of rooms and bonus areas to explore.^[20] One criticism came from Levi Buchanan from IGN with regards to the top-down perspective, where the character holds his gun in his right hand, meaning that the player must compensate by moving left before shooting at enemies (if the player can move left on the screen).^[14]

The game received mixed reviews for its graphics and sound. Hicks lauded the visuals, referring to the game's detail in the main levels and in the caverns, graphical variety, and the animations in the tank and the enemies. He also praised the game for its sound effects and music, comparing the music on the first level to the Super Mario Bros. theme.^[2] Jedraszczak praised the game for its detailed level design, which he adds is "easy on the eyes", and gave good praise to the "ear-splitting soundtrack" of the game. In addition, he commended the game's large and well-drawn sprites used in the top-down perspective. He does slightly criticize the lack of identifiable detail found in the enemies. Jedraszczak likewise ^[19] Regan says that the game's sound effects and music further bolster the gameplay and graphical atmosphere.^[20]

One of the main criticisms of Blaster Master has been its difficulty. Hicks, Jedraszczak, and Buchanan criticize the game for its difficulty along with the lack of passwords or save features as used in Metroid, which meant that the game had to be completed in one sitting.^[2][19] Buchanan criticized the game for the difficulty in its on-foot portions, including difficult-to-beat bosses, enemies that regenerate when the player re-enters a screen, of losing a life from the player falling too far while on foot in the 2–D mode.^[14] Hicks and Buchanan also said that some players need to exploit the "grenade glitch" to beat some bosses.^[2][14]

[edit] Legacy

The game later received a North American-exclusive sequel titled Blaster Master 2, developed by Software Creations for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, followed by Blaster Master: Enemy Below (released in Japan as MetaFight EX) for the Game Boy Color, and then Blaster Master: Blasting Again for the Sony PlayStation. The Japanese version of the first game in the series, Chou-Wakusei Senki MetaFight, was re-released for the PlayStation along with Ripple Island in Volume 4 of Sunsoft's Memorial Series. Sunsoft has announced they will release the game to the Wii Virtual Console worldwide, with the assistance of Gaijinworks.^[21]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Blaster Master at MobyGames
• Blaster Master at GameFAQs
• Blaster Master guide at StrategyWiki
• Hardcore Gaming 101's In-Depth Article on the series
• Blaster Master: The Legacy - Explains the storyline of the Blaster Master series, with several canon and non-canon additions
• Blaster Master Underground (BMUG) - A complete record of all games in the series, including external media and background development history on each game
• Unofficial arrangements (ReMixes) of Blaster Master's soundtrack at OverClocked ReMix

v • d • e Blaster Master video games Blaster Master · Blaster Master 2 · Enemy Below · Blasting Again