Blaster Master (1988)

Beat at a comfortable 40 fps since default speed was a little too fast. I spent the 1st stage figuring out the controls, and this game had some interesting mechanics. Enemies seemed to only exist while on screen as I often seen them appear out of thin air close to the edge of the screen. This was slightly annoying and unintuitive as they should have appeared right at the edge of view. Unlike most similar games, enemies did not respawn as the player moved around or even when changing screens, which meant I could do tactical retreats to lure enemies to easier kills without worry. They seemed to respawn on a timer and only once in an optional dungeon did respawns happen right on top of me. Powerups dropped by enemies also lasted quite a long time and even survived screen transitions. I could leave health pick ups for later and even backtrack to the previous screen to get them. Sometimes it was difficult to avoid damage while transitioning due to enemies camping right at the entrance, but their positions were remembered when going back to the previous screen so the next try should be easier. The tank could only shoot straight ahead and straight up despite the cannon clearly pointing diagonally up during the animation to switch between normal and up mode. This animation took a few seconds so I had to plan well ahead to hit any enemies above. The special weapons worked very well to hit the angles that the main cannon could not. Missiles fired 3 in a spread, 1 slightly above and 1 slightly below, while also passing through terrain. Homing missiles were even better, and the lightning shot directly below or down at a slight diagonal. The main cannon was good enough for most fights so I only used the specials sparingly and had plenty of ammo for each. There was a control issue with the underwater tank mode because pressing down + shoot fired the special, and I often pressed up and down while shooting underwater since it played more like a space shoot em up.

There were low to the ground enemies that could not be hit by the cannon, reminding me of those damn slimes in Battle of Olympus. But the guy could get out of the tank at any time to defeat them. Not only that but him and the tank had separate hp, and his hp healed to full every time he got back in the tank, so it was possible to use the guy to kill enemies to preserve tank hp. Most of my deaths were from being knocked off a ledge while outside the tank though, and once I parked it with only 1 wheel touching ground and could not get back in. There were ladders and dungeons that required getting out of the tank, and the underwater stage had a significant portion on foot swimming before the tank gained the ability to swim. Dungeons played more like Zelda 1, only being much simpler. Some were sprawling with multiple ways to go but none were complicated enough to require a map, or had any kind of intermediate objectives, like finding keys or switches for locked doors. It was just enemies, spikes and instant death terrain. The only annoyance was in the ice stage with slippery floors leading to spikes, where it was very difficult to avoid damage. Whenever he took damage in a dungeon the power of his gun decreased. Max power was a wave beam that passed through walls, which felt like cheating. Below that the wave was physical projectiles, which was useless in tight corridors because it just hit the walls. It was a major fail of the game to not have the more powerful gun modes retain the basic straight long range shot, which was the most fun and skill based dungeon combat. In between the basic straight shot and the wave shot was a weird shot pattern where the shots went about half way across the screen before veering off to the side to go backwards. That seemed more like a down grade! The other button threw grenades, which did far more damage than the shot while having low range; useful against enemies that came in close and against some bosses. Most dungeons were just optional side areas with health and gun power for the guy, or ammo and hover fuel for the tank. Every stage had 1 dungeon that led to a boss which dropped a new ability that allowed access to the next stage, which was not always linear progression. The game was very much a Metroidvania with fully back trackable open world and new powers to unlock new ways of traversal, but there were no optional permanent upgrades nor optional areas that required powers from later in the game. It was a bit annoying to figure out where to go because there was no map in game. Getting to stage 2 was easy. Stage 3 was inside stage 2 behind destructible blocks. Stage 8 was in stage 3 past a narrow ascent with spikes. I figured the guy would get a jetpack to fly up there but the final upgrade was the ability to drive on the ceiling. Getting past those spikes required driving on the ceiling from the beginning of the room while not getting hit by flying enemies. Stage 8 really ramped up the platforming difficulty too with spikes everywhere. The tank became a bit more difficult to control at the end because it would try to climb or go down every wall rather than simply drop off platforms, so I had to do little hops. It was certainly valuable to be able to cling to walls and ceilings but I would have preferred it not be automatic. Stage 4 required using hover at the very beginning. I noticed the suspiciously high platforming at the beginning and figured there was something up there. Vertical screen scrolling was not great as I had to jump or fall down to make it scroll, often to see that there was only a short distance to the floor or ceiling. More dynamic screen scrolling or overall more zoomed out view would have helped. Stage 4 was a sewer and the most confusing stage with many samey looking screens. It led to the water stage, which led to the ice stage, which gave the wall climbing. The fire stage was up a wall in stage 2. I died a few times to some of the bosses with the bubble spitting crab being the hardest for me, mainly because I got hit and lost max weapon power. The bosses became significantly more difficult as weapon power decreased because it forced more risky play to actually hit them with the weaker gun, or go for higher risk and damage with grenades. Too bad there were no bosses or mini bosses to fight in the tank.

This was an excellent NES game that I can't believe I never even heard of before. It was better than Metroid and Castlevania but not as good as Zelda 1 due to the lack of maps, puzzles and sidequest upgrades, and some of the more awkward shooting mechanics. The tank had momentum that made the platforming a little awkward but that made perfect sense for a heavy vehicle. If only it tightened some things up, added more content, and had some kind of save or password or way to farm lives, then it would have been a legendary masterpiece like Zelda 1. As it was, it gets close with

8.7/10