Blaster Master
Encyclopedia
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 (also simply called Metafight or Meta Fight), which was released on . The game was released in North America in November 1988 and in Europe on . The game is the first in the Blaster Master series, and it spawned two spin-off titles as well as two sequels.
The game features a character named Jason who follows his pet frog Fred down a hole in the earth. There he finds a tank and uses it to battle radioactive mutants. The player controls Jason and the tank SOPHIA THE 3RD through eight levels of gameplay to find the whereabouts of Fred and to defeat the mutants and their leader, the Plutonium Boss. The game was praised for its smooth play control and level designs, detailed and clean graphics, and music, and it was criticized for its high difficulty level and lack of passwords
or save points
. The game was novelized by Peter Lerangis
, as part of the Worlds of Power
series published by Scholastic Books.
The plot of the adapted Western release (Blaster Master) is shown at the beginning in a cinematic slideshow as ominous music plays in the background. The game starts with a person named Jason who has a pet frog named Fred who, one day, decides to leap out of his fish bowl and out the door. Fred then touches a radioactive chest, and he grows to an emormous size; Fred and the chest then fall into a hole in the earth. Jason chases Fred down the hole, which leads to a large underground cavern. While most sources say that Jason chased Fred down the hole, the game's instruction manual says that Jason fell into the hole while trying to reach for Fred. Jason mounts SOPHIA to find the whereabouts of Fred and to destroy the mutants and their leader – the Plutonium Boss. There, he finds an armored tank named SOPHIA THE 3RD – a vehicle designed to battle radioactive mutants that live inside the earth. Jason mounts SOPHIA to find the whereabouts of Fred and to destroy the mutants and their leader – the Plutonium Boss. The opening sequence has been described as "one of the great scenes in all of video games".
that depends on the situation and location of the player. The first mode is where the player controls SOPHIA in a two–dimensional platform mode
; the second mode is where the player controls Jason while outside SOPHIA in either the same 2D platform mode or in a top-down perspective. Gameplay in the top-down perspective consists of a series of labyrinths in which players navigate and defeat enemies along the way. Gameplay is non-linear
, and players must return to earlier levels in order to advance to later levels in the game. The objective is to complete all eight levels and destroy the mutants and their bosses
with various weaponry such as guns, grenades, and special weapons.
While Jason is inside SOPHIA in the 2D platforming mode, the player can attack the mutants with the main cannon (which can shoot up, down, left and right determined by the orientation of the tank) or with one of three special weapons. Special weapons are accumulated by collecting certain objects scattered throughout the game. They have limited ammunition and include the following: homing missiles that, when fired, shoot 1 missile at each enemy on screen up to 4; "Thunder Break", which always fires a high damage lightening bolt downwards; and "Multi Warhead Missiles", which simultaneously fires a set of three missiles at enemies in front of and diagonally up and down. Players select their special weapon and monitor the amounts of each special weapon left by accessing the Menu Screen by pressing the Start button.
Gameplay in the top-down perspective consists of a series of labyrinths in which players defeat enemies along the way. The player switches between the 2D platforming mode and the top-down perspective by leaving the tank and entering small doorways located throughout the game. While in the top-down perspective, players can move Jason in any direction and destroy mutants with a gun or with hand grenades. In this mode, players upgrade the gun by collecting gun capsules, but the gun degrades by one point if Jason receives damage from mutants or hazardous objects. Here players obtain additional vehicle functions by destroying bosses; these functions include weapon upgrades as well as abilities to swim freely underwater, drive on walls and ceilings, and hover above the ground. The game has a glitch
– colloquially known as the "grenade glitch" – to easily defeat some bosses. To exploit this glitch, the player throws a grenade at the boss, and while the grenade is exploding and causing damage 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 to find that the boss is destroyed.
Jason and SOPHIA have separate power meters
, and they decrease whenever they sustain damage by an enemy or any other hazardous object or whenever Jason falls from a high place. Players can replenish these power meters by collecting power capsules that appear throughout the game. The player loses a life if either power meter runs out, and the game ends
when all lives are lost. Players get five continue
s that allow them to restart the game at the same level in which they have lost all their lives. A "hover gauge" monitors the amount of thrust remaining in SOPHIA and is located on the left side of the screen above the power meter; additional thrust can be obtained by collecting hover capsules.
in Volume 4 of Sunsoft's Memorial Series
in 2002. The game was released for the Wii
's Virtual Console
service in North America on . The game's Virtual Console release marked Sunsoft's first North American release since deciding to return to developing video games for the Western market through its partnership with Gaijinworks
. Metafight was released for the Virtual Console in Japan on .
Blaster Master was created by Yoshiaki Iwata, who would also direct the reimagining Blaster Master: Overdrive
. The game was made by a part-time development team of about five people, which included a main programmer, sub-programmer, lead designer, character designer, and sound programmer. Iwata did the game's opening sequence and designed the map, overall layout, and bosses; and he oversaw all phases of the game's development. In a 2010 interview, Iwata said: "we were trying to make the best action game to date, with all that entails. With SOPHIA (the game’s vehicle), we wanted to bring to life a sense of action that incorporated all 360° of the environment in a way that players hadn’t really experienced up to that point. Along with that, we wanted large, expansive maps so that we could support that vision."
The game's design came from Iwata, who was able to transport his original ideas directly into the game as far as the NES' graphical capabilities could be taken at that time. He said: "the goal was really to try to pull off the best graphics on the NES to date. Simple graphics were more or less the standard on the NES at the time but I had this firm belief that it was possible to do something better, something prettier. I feel like we pulled it off and were able to show people what could be done [on the NES]. It left an impression around the office, and from what I've heard [the visuals] influenced the work of other games that were later made by other NES developers as well." The game's music and sound were designed in cooperation between Sunsoft's staff and an outside composer who had previously worked on scores for many of the company's other titles. Iwata credited the composer for giving the company a good reputation for video game music in the late 1980s and lamented that "none of those people are working together anymore since they've all separated from Sunsoft [over the years]".
The other members of Blaster Masters development team created the system of alternating between the 2D platforming and top-down modes. During the game's planning, the team came up with the idea that SOPHIA would eventually be able to go anywhere in the game, including navigating on the ceilings and walls. The team created the top-down portions to allow Jason to shoot in all directions and to enable them to "express large bosses that really had an impact". They did not want to design the gameplay in a linear progression; instead they drew inspiration from and were influenced by Nintendo's Metroid to create a game that allowed players to freely move between levels. According to Iwata: "We wanted the player to experience the feeling of excitement that comes from discovering something after endeavoring through a difficult search, which is why we composed a map that allowed the player to move freely between different areas. We really put a great deal of thought into that element of the game design and, I mean this in the best possible way, but we wanted the player to have to struggle."
The game was localized
from Metafight in Japan to Blaster Master for Western markets. In North America, plot elements normally present in anime
(as featured in Metafight) were not yet popular; Sunsoft's U.S. division asked the Japanese development team to change the game's original plot elements. Hence, the game's plot changed to that of Jason and his pet frog Fred, and name of the planet "Sophia the 3rd" in Metafight became the name of Jason's tank in Blaster Master. The original staff also omitted a portion of the map in the fourth level in which "the player was forced to control Jason and make a desperate suicide-leap for a ladder suspended in mid-air," after complaints from the U.S. staff.
and Fester's Quest, in which the latter's main designer helped design the characters for Blaster Master. Iwata incorporated many of the gameplay elements in the remake Blaster Master: Overdrive
, which his goal was "for players to recall and think back upon (the original) Blaster Master, and so my goal was to find a way to evoke that through this game."
Blaster Master received praise from reviewers for its gameplay. In a 1988 Electronic Game Player (later known as Electronic Gaming Monthly) review, Steve Ryno lauded the concept of combining two "radically different" video game genres into one continuous game. He added that the top-down portion contributes further to the depth of gameplay and said that "everything works well without the game becoming crowded or unbalanced". The game was featured as one of the "Truly Awesome" games in Game Players
1988 buyer's guide. In a 1992 review in UK magazine Mean Machines
, Julian Rignall
, praised the overall gameplay and the tank's control and movements, while co-reviewer Matt Regan
enjoyed the game's fast-paced gameplay and abundance of rooms and bonus areas to explore. Jeremy Parish from 1UP.com
praised the gameplay, saying that the player can explore the map "Metroidvania style" in a large, responsive tank while occasionally having to leave the tank to explore on foot – something that he compares to the Warthog
sequences in the original Halo
video game. Nintendo Life's Corbie Dillard praised the game's responsive controls and for its non-linearity.
The game received positive reviews for its graphics and sound. Ryno praised the attention to detail in the graphics, adding that they transition well between levels as new and diverse environments are introduced. He also praised the fluid animation and movement of creatures in the top-down perspective and its music; he found music "pleasing" and noted that different tracks were scored for each separate level. Dillard praised the game's impressive graphics, saying that the graphics are varied, distinctive, and well-drawn; he adds that Sunsoft "did their homework" in this regard. He called the music in the game as one of the best chiptune
s in the 8-bit
era, noting the up-tempo tracks and high-quality sound effects. IGN's Mark Syan Sallee described the music "as memorable as anything from Nintendo", while Regan said that the game's sound effects and music bolster the gameplay and graphical atmosphere.
One of the main criticisms of Blaster Master has been its difficulty. IGN
's Levi Buchanan mentioned the lack of passwords
or save features as used in Metroid; the game had to be completed in one sitting. They added that some players need to exploit the "grenade glitch" to beat some of the bosses. Buchanan criticized the game for its difficulty in the on-foot portions, saying that the bosses are too difficult to beat, that the enemies regenerate upon re-entering a screen, and that players can lose a life from falling too far in the 2D platforming mode. IGN's Lucas Thomas agreed about the lack of passwords or save features, saying that because of the game's difficulty, dying near the end of the game and having to restart the game all over again without passwords or save points have caused much frustration for players. Parish criticized the game for having a limited number of continues and for the graphics in the top-down perspective, saying that the display is "incredibly cutesy compared to the tank sections, with the protagonist's head providing about 50% of his total body mass".
Some reviewers have found other criticisms in the gameplay. Buchanan mentioned that the character holds his gun in his right hand, requiring the player to compensate by moving left before shooting enemies (if the player can move left on the screen). Thomas echoed Buchanan's concerns in a later review, adding that this requires players to mentally adjust and to target enemies off-center. Thomas criticized the control of the tank, in particular the lack of traction, which he said may cause players to roll off a platform or cliff. Parish criticized the gameplay in the top-down perspective, saying that the gun the players uses is too weak; he continues by adding that there are too few upgrades for it and that, whenever the player takes damage, it downgrades from a "high-powered beam of death" to "a stupid unreliable peashooter of mild discomfort".
The game has received notable recognitions in gaming magazines. It was featured on the cover of the premiere issue of VideoGames & Computer Entertainment in December 1988. Electronic Gaming Monthly
listed the game at #1 in its "Top Ten Games" list in the premiere issue. In Nintendo Power
, the game debuted at #12 in its "Top 30" NES games list in its March–April 1989 issue; it later climbed to #6 from May to August 1989, before it peaked at #5 in September, behind Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
, Super Mario Bros. 2
, Ninja Gaiden, and The Legend of Zelda. The magazine listed it at #63 in its "100 Best Games of All Time" list, while Electronic Gaming Monthly listed it at #184 in its "Top 200 Games of Their Time" list. IGN listed it as #22 in its "Top 100 NES Games" list.
Nintendo Power reviewed the game in its February 1993 issue, as part of an overview of NES games that the magazine felt were overlooked or otherwise did not sell well. The review said that Sunsoft should have used a licensed character to improve sales. However, they praised its graphics and gameplay, saying that "the action switches between side-scrolling stages and stages that have a Zelda-ish view". Later, in its 100th issue in September 1997, the game was listed 63rd in its "100 Best Games of All Time" list, citing its "fast and furious" gameplay.
in Las Vegas
, Sunsoft announced that they were planning to develop a sequel for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
, but it never came to be. Instead, Software Creations
developed the North American–exclusive sequel Blaster Master 2 for the Sega Genesis. Later releases include Blaster Master Boy for the Game Boy
, Blaster Master: Enemy Below
(released in Japan as MetaFight EX) for the Game Boy Color
, and Blaster Master: Blasting Again
for the PlayStation. A re-imagining of the first game, Blaster Master: Overdrive
, was released for Nintendo's WiiWare
service in North America on .
Scholastic Books
published a novelization of Blaster Master, written by Peter Lerangis under the pen name "A.L. Singer". The book was part of the Worlds of Power
series – a collection of loose novelizations of various NES games. He wrote similar novelizations for Ninja Gaiden
, Infiltrator
, and Bases Loaded II: Second Season. As with the other books in the series, all acts of violence portrayed in the games, including any death scenes, were removed. As a result, the bosses were portrayed in the book as "holographic projections placed over formless blobs". Shawn Struck and Shawn Sharkey from 1UP.com said that Blaster Master was the hardest book for Lerangis to write because of the lack of a middle plot; he had to come up with details that were not in the game to connect the game's actual opening and conclusion. Sunsoft would use Lerangis' novel as the plot for the game's sequel, Blaster Master: Blasting Again, making the novel the only one in the Worlds of Power series to be canonized in a video game series.
In a 2010 interview with Iwata, he was surprised about the game's reception outside Japan, which retrogamers
have named it as one of their favorite and most memorable 8-Bit titles. He said: "It’s kind of funny that the first time I ever really had any sense of the game’s success was about 10 years following the original release of Blaster Master, when a young staff member from the U.S. office said something to me like, 'You’d definitely have become a super famous game designer if you were an American.'" Alex Neuse, creator of the Bit.Trip
series, reminisced his memories of playing Blaster Master as a child. He acknowledged that the game was a clone of Metroid that featured a tank that could jump and a corny storyline, but he said it was all "presented in a way that it felt meaningful". He added that the game's music convinced him "that video game music could be high-quality, memorable, and evocative". 1UP.com listed the game as the 11th best NES game of all time in its "Top 25 NES Games" list; the 1UP.com staff said the game was "an action game that worked like a mishmash of every NES game before it", noting the expansive map like in Metroid. Paste
magazine ranked Blaster Master as the 2nd greatest NES game of all time, behind The Legend of Zelda; they cited the tank's additional abilities as a main reason behind its ranking.
On December 15, 2010, SOPHIA the 3rd made an appearance in the Flash
game Super Mario Bros. Crossover
, in its Version 1.2 release. In the game, the tank possesses all abilities from Blaster Master and is the first character in the game to have a limited supply of ammunition; players need to collect power-ups from enemies in order to fire homing missiles, which is necessary to defeat Buzzy Beetles, Spike Tops, and Bullet Bills. The version also allows SOPHIA to grapple onto ceilings.
on , Sunsoft announced that a sequel to the game would be released on the Virtual Console titled Blaster Master: Destination Fred. According to their press release, the game was only purported to be tested on several PlayChoice-10
machines in the Los Angeles
area between 1988 and 1989. Upon discovery of copies of the game in Sunsoft's headquarters in Japan, Gaijinworks
' founder Victor Ireland said: "I was blown away when I saw these. When I was going through boxes of stored code, promotional items, and ROMS to see what we had on hand to release for the U.S. Virtual Console market, finding these nine completely unknown cartridges literally stunned me. I knew it had to be put up on the Virtual Console as fast as we could make it happen."
The story was supposed to continue with the English plot of the first Blaster Master game. The Plutonium Boss originally intended to inject Jason and Fred with microbots that, even if Jason managed to defeat him, would kill both Jason and Fred, but he could only inject Fred. Jason and SOPHIA the 3rd are then shrunken and injected inside Fred to do battle with the microbots and their contraptions – something in which Ireland described as "a pretty clear video game spin on Fantastic Voyage
kind of adventure". It was planned to be released for the Virtual Console on for 500 Wii points. IGN's Daemon Hatfield, after discovering nothing about Blaster Master: Destination Fred in any video game archives, suspected that this was an April Fools' Day hoax; he said, however, that after the release of Dark Void Zero
it was possible for Sunsoft to release a new 8-bit title. Destructoid
's Conrad Zimmerman strongly suspected that this was also a hoax; he said that there was no proof of the game's existence except for it temporarily being mentioned on Wikipedia
and that "Nintendo
never lets anybody say when their games are coming out on Virtual Console". Sunsoft later confirmed on their website that the sequel was an April Fools' Day hoax.
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
and run and gun video game released by Sunsoft for the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
. It is a localized version of a Japanese Famicom game titled (also simply called Metafight or Meta Fight), which was released on . The game was released in North America in November 1988 and in Europe on . The game is the first in the Blaster Master series, and it spawned two spin-off titles as well as two sequels.
The game features a character named Jason who follows his pet frog Fred down a hole in the earth. There he finds a tank and uses it to battle radioactive mutants. The player controls Jason and the tank SOPHIA THE 3RD through eight levels of gameplay to find the whereabouts of Fred and to defeat the mutants and their leader, the Plutonium Boss. The game was praised for its smooth play control and level designs, detailed and clean graphics, and music, and it was criticized for its high difficulty level and lack of passwords
Password (video games)
In many video games of the 8-bit and, to a lesser extent, 16-bit eras , after a level was beaten and/or when all continues were used, the game would display a password, that when entered in the game would allow the player to return to this part in the game...
or save points
Saved game
A saved game is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. This saved game can be reloaded later, so the player can continue where he or she had stopped...
. The game was novelized by Peter Lerangis
Peter Lerangis
Peter Lerangis is an author of children's and young-adult fiction.-Career:Lerangis's work includes The Viper's Nest and The Sword Thief, two titles in the New York Times–bestselling children's-book series The 39 Clues, the historical novel Smiler's Bones, the YA dark comedy-adventure novel wtf,...
, as part of the Worlds of Power
Worlds of Power
The Worlds of Power books are a series of novelizations of video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System released in the early 1990s. The series was created by Seth Godin and is characterized by the fact that they are mostly "male-oriented titles," that take creative liberties with their source...
series published by Scholastic Books.
Plot
In the original Japanese version (Chô Wakusei Senki Metafight), the game takes place on the planet Sophia the 3rd, located near the center of the Epsilon Milky Way, in which an advanced civilization flourished. In the year 2052, the emperor Goez, who has conquered the rest of outer space and of whom Goez declared himself as a god, and his "Inbem Dark Star Cluster" invade and conquer Sophia the 3rd. The only survivor of Goez's raid is the Science Academy's Nora Satellite, who has escaped and plans to build a weapon to defeat Goez's forces. They build an all-purpose tank called "Metal Attacker", commandeered by a boy named Kane Gardner, to take the lead in the counterattack. The game's opening sequence shows Metal Attacker dropped into the battlefield.The plot of the adapted Western release (Blaster Master) is shown at the beginning in a cinematic slideshow as ominous music plays in the background. The game starts with a person named Jason who has a pet frog named Fred who, one day, decides to leap out of his fish bowl and out the door. Fred then touches a radioactive chest, and he grows to an emormous size; Fred and the chest then fall into a hole in the earth. Jason chases Fred down the hole, which leads to a large underground cavern. While most sources say that Jason chased Fred down the hole, the game's instruction manual says that Jason fell into the hole while trying to reach for Fred. Jason mounts SOPHIA to find the whereabouts of Fred and to destroy the mutants and their leader – the Plutonium Boss. There, he finds an armored tank named SOPHIA THE 3RD – a vehicle designed to battle radioactive mutants that live inside the earth. Jason mounts SOPHIA to find the whereabouts of Fred and to destroy the mutants and their leader – the Plutonium Boss. The opening sequence has been described as "one of the great scenes in all of video games".
Gameplay
Blaster Master has two modes of gameplayGameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and player's connection with it...
that depends on the situation and location of the player. The first mode is where the player controls SOPHIA in a two–dimensional platform mode
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
; the second mode is where the player controls Jason while outside SOPHIA in either the same 2D platform mode or in a top-down perspective. Gameplay in the top-down perspective consists of a series of labyrinths in which players navigate and defeat enemies along the way. Gameplay is non-linear
Linearity (computer and video games)
A video game with nonlinear gameplay presents players with challenges that can be completed in a number of different sequences. Each player sees only some of the challenges possible, and the same challenges may be played in a different order. A video game with linear gameplay will confront a player...
, and players must return to earlier levels in order to advance to later levels in the game. The objective is to complete all eight levels and destroy the mutants and their bosses
Boss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
with various weaponry such as guns, grenades, and special weapons.
While Jason is inside SOPHIA in the 2D platforming mode, the player can attack the mutants with the main cannon (which can shoot up, down, left and right determined by the orientation of the tank) or with one of three special weapons. Special weapons are accumulated by collecting certain objects scattered throughout the game. They have limited ammunition and include the following: homing missiles that, when fired, shoot 1 missile at each enemy on screen up to 4; "Thunder Break", which always fires a high damage lightening bolt downwards; and "Multi Warhead Missiles", which simultaneously fires a set of three missiles at enemies in front of and diagonally up and down. Players select their special weapon and monitor the amounts of each special weapon left by accessing the Menu Screen by pressing the Start button.
Gameplay in the top-down perspective consists of a series of labyrinths in which players defeat enemies along the way. The player switches between the 2D platforming mode and the top-down perspective by leaving the tank and entering small doorways located throughout the game. While in the top-down perspective, players can move Jason in any direction and destroy mutants with a gun or with hand grenades. In this mode, players upgrade the gun by collecting gun capsules, but the gun degrades by one point if Jason receives damage from mutants or hazardous objects. Here players obtain additional vehicle functions by destroying bosses; these functions include weapon upgrades as well as abilities to swim freely underwater, drive on walls and ceilings, and hover above the ground. The game has a glitch
Glitch
A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system. It is often used to describe a transient fault that corrects itself, and is therefore difficult to troubleshoot...
– colloquially known as the "grenade glitch" – to easily defeat some bosses. To exploit this glitch, the player throws a grenade at the boss, and while the grenade is exploding and causing damage 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 to find that the boss is destroyed.
Jason and SOPHIA have separate power meters
Health (game mechanic)
Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
, and they decrease whenever they sustain damage by an enemy or any other hazardous object or whenever Jason falls from a high place. Players can replenish these power meters by collecting power capsules that appear throughout the game. The player loses a life if either power meter runs out, and the game ends
Game over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...
when all lives are lost. Players get five continue
Continue (video gaming)
Continue is a common term in video games for the option to continue the game after all of the player's lives have been lost, rather than ending the game and restarting from the very beginning.-Arcade games:...
s that allow them to restart the game at the same level in which they have lost all their lives. A "hover gauge" monitors the amount of thrust remaining in SOPHIA and is located on the left side of the screen above the power meter; additional thrust can be obtained by collecting hover capsules.
Development
The game was released by Sunsoft in Japan as Chô Wakusei Senki Metafight (also simply called Metafight or Meta Fight) on . It was released under the title Blaster Master in North America in November 1988 and in Europe on . Metafight, along with Ripple Island, was re-released for the PlayStationPlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
in Volume 4 of Sunsoft's Memorial Series
Memorial Series
The is a series of re-released Famicom video game titles for the Sony PlayStation game console by Japanese developer Sunsoft. Each volume cost 1575 yen .Even Volume 3 is delivered in the game archives as of September 27, 2007.- SunSoft Vol...
in 2002. The game was released for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
service in North America on . The game's Virtual Console release marked Sunsoft's first North American release since deciding to return to developing video games for the Western market through its partnership with Gaijinworks
Gaijinworks
Gaijinworks is a United States video game publishing company founded by Victor Ireland in July 2006. The company was established shortly after the dissolution of Working Designs in December 2005 of which Ireland was president...
. Metafight was released for the Virtual Console in Japan on .
Blaster Master was created by Yoshiaki Iwata, who would also direct the reimagining Blaster Master: Overdrive
Blaster Master: Overdrive
Blaster Master: Overdrive is a platforming and run and gun video game released by Sunsoft and Gaijinworks as a WiiWare title for the Wii game console...
. The game was made by a part-time development team of about five people, which included a main programmer, sub-programmer, lead designer, character designer, and sound programmer. Iwata did the game's opening sequence and designed the map, overall layout, and bosses; and he oversaw all phases of the game's development. In a 2010 interview, Iwata said: "we were trying to make the best action game to date, with all that entails. With SOPHIA (the game’s vehicle), we wanted to bring to life a sense of action that incorporated all 360° of the environment in a way that players hadn’t really experienced up to that point. Along with that, we wanted large, expansive maps so that we could support that vision."
The game's design came from Iwata, who was able to transport his original ideas directly into the game as far as the NES' graphical capabilities could be taken at that time. He said: "the goal was really to try to pull off the best graphics on the NES to date. Simple graphics were more or less the standard on the NES at the time but I had this firm belief that it was possible to do something better, something prettier. I feel like we pulled it off and were able to show people what could be done [on the NES]. It left an impression around the office, and from what I've heard [the visuals] influenced the work of other games that were later made by other NES developers as well." The game's music and sound were designed in cooperation between Sunsoft's staff and an outside composer who had previously worked on scores for many of the company's other titles. Iwata credited the composer for giving the company a good reputation for video game music in the late 1980s and lamented that "none of those people are working together anymore since they've all separated from Sunsoft [over the years]".
The other members of Blaster Masters development team created the system of alternating between the 2D platforming and top-down modes. During the game's planning, the team came up with the idea that SOPHIA would eventually be able to go anywhere in the game, including navigating on the ceilings and walls. The team created the top-down portions to allow Jason to shoot in all directions and to enable them to "express large bosses that really had an impact". They did not want to design the gameplay in a linear progression; instead they drew inspiration from and were influenced by Nintendo's Metroid to create a game that allowed players to freely move between levels. According to Iwata: "We wanted the player to experience the feeling of excitement that comes from discovering something after endeavoring through a difficult search, which is why we composed a map that allowed the player to move freely between different areas. We really put a great deal of thought into that element of the game design and, I mean this in the best possible way, but we wanted the player to have to struggle."
The game was localized
Language localisation
Language localisationThe spelling "localization", a variant of "localisation", is the preferred spelling in the US and Canada. is the second phase of a larger process of product translation and cultural adaptation to account for...
from Metafight in Japan to Blaster Master for Western markets. In North America, plot elements normally present in anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
(as featured in Metafight) were not yet popular; Sunsoft's U.S. division asked the Japanese development team to change the game's original plot elements. Hence, the game's plot changed to that of Jason and his pet frog Fred, and name of the planet "Sophia the 3rd" in Metafight became the name of Jason's tank in Blaster Master. The original staff also omitted a portion of the map in the fourth level in which "the player was forced to control Jason and make a desperate suicide-leap for a ladder suspended in mid-air," after complaints from the U.S. staff.
Reception
While Sunsoft's development team, headed by Iwata, were confident that they produced a great game, Chô Wakusei Senki Metafight did not sell well in Japan and, as a result, was not received well within Sunsoft. No sequel was originally planned due to the game's poor sales; Iwata already started development on another game when the North American release Blaster Master sold well. The game's impact led Sunsoft to develop titles with similar top-down gameplay like Gremlins 2: The New BatchGremlins 2: The New Batch (video game)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch - also known as in Japan - is a video game developed and published by Sunsoft in conjunction with the movie Gremlins 2: The New Batch.Sunsoft released versions for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy in 1990...
and Fester's Quest, in which the latter's main designer helped design the characters for Blaster Master. Iwata incorporated many of the gameplay elements in the remake Blaster Master: Overdrive
Blaster Master: Overdrive
Blaster Master: Overdrive is a platforming and run and gun video game released by Sunsoft and Gaijinworks as a WiiWare title for the Wii game console...
, which his goal was "for players to recall and think back upon (the original) Blaster Master, and so my goal was to find a way to evoke that through this game."
Blaster Master received praise from reviewers for its gameplay. In a 1988 Electronic Game Player (later known as Electronic Gaming Monthly) review, Steve Ryno lauded the concept of combining two "radically different" video game genres into one continuous game. He added that the top-down portion contributes further to the depth of gameplay and said that "everything works well without the game becoming crowded or unbalanced". The game was featured as one of the "Truly Awesome" games in Game Players
Game Players
Game Players was a monthly video game magazine founded by Robert C. Lock and published by Signal Research, in Greensboro, North Carolina. The original publication was titled Game Players Strategy to Nintendo Games...
1988 buyer's guide. In a 1992 review in UK magazine Mean Machines
Mean Machines
Mean Machines was a market-leading multi-format gaming magazine released between 1990 and 1992 in the United Kingdom. Its style was popular with gamers of the time for its irreverent humor, anarchic editorial tone and style, and its sometimes outrageously outspoken reviews.- Origins :In the late...
, Julian Rignall
Julian Rignall
Julian "Muppet" Rignall is a longterm publishing veteran with experience launching and managing numerous video game magazines and websites...
, praised the overall gameplay and the tank's control and movements, while co-reviewer Matt Regan
Matt Regan
Matt Regan was one of the original team that launched UK multiformat videogame magazine Mean Machines. He and Julian Rignall started off as the two main reviewers....
enjoyed the game's fast-paced gameplay and abundance of rooms and bonus areas to explore. Jeremy Parish from 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
praised the gameplay, saying that the player can explore the map "Metroidvania style" in a large, responsive tank while occasionally having to leave the tank to explore on foot – something that he compares to the Warthog
Warthog
The Warthog or Common Warthog is a wild member of the pig family that lives in grassland, savanna, and woodland in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the past it was commonly treated as a subspecies of P...
sequences in the original Halo
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved, frequently referred to as Halo: CE, or Halo 1, is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The first game of the Halo franchise, it was released on November 15, 2001 as a launch title for the Xbox gaming system, and is...
video game. Nintendo Life's Corbie Dillard praised the game's responsive controls and for its non-linearity.
The game received positive reviews for its graphics and sound. Ryno praised the attention to detail in the graphics, adding that they transition well between levels as new and diverse environments are introduced. He also praised the fluid animation and movement of creatures in the top-down perspective and its music; he found music "pleasing" and noted that different tracks were scored for each separate level. Dillard praised the game's impressive graphics, saying that the graphics are varied, distinctive, and well-drawn; he adds that Sunsoft "did their homework" in this regard. He called the music in the game as one of the best chiptune
Chiptune
A chiptune, also known as chip music, is synthesized electronic music often produced with the sound chips of vintage computers and video game consoles, as well as with other methods such as emulation. In the early 1980s, personal computers became cheaper and more accessible than they had previously...
s in the 8-bit
8-bit
The first widely adopted 8-bit microprocessor was the Intel 8080, being used in many hobbyist computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, often running the CP/M operating system. The Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 6800 were also used in similar computers...
era, noting the up-tempo tracks and high-quality sound effects. IGN's Mark Syan Sallee described the music "as memorable as anything from Nintendo", while Regan said that the game's sound effects and music bolster the gameplay and graphical atmosphere.
One of the main criticisms of Blaster Master has been its difficulty. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Levi Buchanan mentioned the lack of passwords
Password (video games)
In many video games of the 8-bit and, to a lesser extent, 16-bit eras , after a level was beaten and/or when all continues were used, the game would display a password, that when entered in the game would allow the player to return to this part in the game...
or save features as used in Metroid; the game had to be completed in one sitting. They added that some players need to exploit the "grenade glitch" to beat some of the bosses. Buchanan criticized the game for its difficulty in the on-foot portions, saying that the bosses are too difficult to beat, that the enemies regenerate upon re-entering a screen, and that players can lose a life from falling too far in the 2D platforming mode. IGN's Lucas Thomas agreed about the lack of passwords or save features, saying that because of the game's difficulty, dying near the end of the game and having to restart the game all over again without passwords or save points have caused much frustration for players. Parish criticized the game for having a limited number of continues and for the graphics in the top-down perspective, saying that the display is "incredibly cutesy compared to the tank sections, with the protagonist's head providing about 50% of his total body mass".
Some reviewers have found other criticisms in the gameplay. Buchanan mentioned that the character holds his gun in his right hand, requiring the player to compensate by moving left before shooting enemies (if the player can move left on the screen). Thomas echoed Buchanan's concerns in a later review, adding that this requires players to mentally adjust and to target enemies off-center. Thomas criticized the control of the tank, in particular the lack of traction, which he said may cause players to roll off a platform or cliff. Parish criticized the gameplay in the top-down perspective, saying that the gun the players uses is too weak; he continues by adding that there are too few upgrades for it and that, whenever the player takes damage, it downgrades from a "high-powered beam of death" to "a stupid unreliable peashooter of mild discomfort".
The game has received notable recognitions in gaming magazines. It was featured on the cover of the premiere issue of VideoGames & Computer Entertainment in December 1988. Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...
listed the game at #1 in its "Top Ten Games" list in the premiere issue. In Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
, the game debuted at #12 in its "Top 30" NES games list in its March–April 1989 issue; it later climbed to #6 from May to August 1989, before it peaked at #5 in September, behind Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, released as in Japan and often mistakenly called The Adventures of Link, is an action role-playing video game with platforming elements. The second installment in The Legend of Zelda series, it was developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment...
, Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 2, often abbreviated SMB2, is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System as a sequel to the 1985 game Super Mario Bros. The game was also remade as part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection for the Super Nintendo Entertainment...
, Ninja Gaiden, and The Legend of Zelda. The magazine listed it at #63 in its "100 Best Games of All Time" list, while Electronic Gaming Monthly listed it at #184 in its "Top 200 Games of Their Time" list. IGN listed it as #22 in its "Top 100 NES Games" list.
Nintendo Power reviewed the game in its February 1993 issue, as part of an overview of NES games that the magazine felt were overlooked or otherwise did not sell well. The review said that Sunsoft should have used a licensed character to improve sales. However, they praised its graphics and gameplay, saying that "the action switches between side-scrolling stages and stages that have a Zelda-ish view". Later, in its 100th issue in September 1997, the game was listed 63rd in its "100 Best Games of All Time" list, citing its "fast and furious" gameplay.
Legacy
At the 1992 Winter Consumer Electronics ShowConsumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, Sunsoft announced that they were planning to develop a sequel for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
, but it never came to be. Instead, Software Creations
Software Creations (UK)
Software Creations was a video game developer based in Manchester, England, first established in 1987. They are primarily known for their video games based on movie and comic licenses like Marvel Comics, Cutthroat Island, Disney's Beauty and the Beast and original titles Solstice and the sequel...
developed the North American–exclusive sequel Blaster Master 2 for the Sega Genesis. Later releases include Blaster Master Boy for the Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
, Blaster Master: Enemy Below
Blaster Master: Enemy Below
Blaster Master: Enemy Below, known in Japan as , is a video game for the Game Boy Color.-External links:* - a complete record of all games in the series, including external media and background development history on each game...
(released in Japan as MetaFight EX) for the Game Boy Color
Game Boy Color
The is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...
, and Blaster Master: Blasting Again
Blaster Master: Blasting Again
Blaster Master: Blasting Again is the fourth game in the Blaster Master series. It was released for the PlayStation on February 7, 2001...
for the PlayStation. A re-imagining of the first game, Blaster Master: Overdrive
Blaster Master: Overdrive
Blaster Master: Overdrive is a platforming and run and gun video game released by Sunsoft and Gaijinworks as a WiiWare title for the Wii game console...
, was released for Nintendo's WiiWare
WiiWare
WiiWare is a service that allows Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications can only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel under the WiiWare section...
service in North America on .
Scholastic Books
Scholastic Press
Scholastic is a global book publishing company known for publishing educational materials for schools, teachers, and parents, and selling and distributing them by mail order and via book clubs and book fairs. It also has the exclusive United States' publishing rights to the Harry Potter book...
published a novelization of Blaster Master, written by Peter Lerangis under the pen name "A.L. Singer". The book was part of the Worlds of Power
Worlds of Power
The Worlds of Power books are a series of novelizations of video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System released in the early 1990s. The series was created by Seth Godin and is characterized by the fact that they are mostly "male-oriented titles," that take creative liberties with their source...
series – a collection of loose novelizations of various NES games. He wrote similar novelizations for Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden (NES)
, known in Japan as and as Shadow Warriors in Europe, is a side-scrolling platforming video game. It was developed and published by Tecmo for the Nintendo Entertainment System ; its development and release coincided with the beat 'em up arcade version of the same name. It was released in in...
, Infiltrator
Infiltrator
Infiltrator is a 1986 video game published by U.S. Gold/Mindscape. It was developed for the Atari 8-bit family, Apple II, DOS, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System and ZX Spectrum by Chris Gray Enterprises....
, and Bases Loaded II: Second Season. As with the other books in the series, all acts of violence portrayed in the games, including any death scenes, were removed. As a result, the bosses were portrayed in the book as "holographic projections placed over formless blobs". Shawn Struck and Shawn Sharkey from 1UP.com said that Blaster Master was the hardest book for Lerangis to write because of the lack of a middle plot; he had to come up with details that were not in the game to connect the game's actual opening and conclusion. Sunsoft would use Lerangis' novel as the plot for the game's sequel, Blaster Master: Blasting Again, making the novel the only one in the Worlds of Power series to be canonized in a video game series.
In a 2010 interview with Iwata, he was surprised about the game's reception outside Japan, which retrogamers
Retrogaming
Retrogaming, also known as old-school gaming, is the hobby of playing and collecting older computer, video, and arcade games. These games are played either on the original hardware, on modern hardware via emulation, or on modern hardware via ports or compilations...
have named it as one of their favorite and most memorable 8-Bit titles. He said: "It’s kind of funny that the first time I ever really had any sense of the game’s success was about 10 years following the original release of Blaster Master, when a young staff member from the U.S. office said something to me like, 'You’d definitely have become a super famous game designer if you were an American.'" Alex Neuse, creator of the Bit.Trip
Bit.Trip
Bit.Trip, officially spelled BIT.TRIP, is a series of six video games developed by Gaijin Games and published by Aksys Games for Nintendo Wii and Nintendo 3DS, Arc System Works for WiiWare in Japan, and by Namco Networks America Inc for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad...
series, reminisced his memories of playing Blaster Master as a child. He acknowledged that the game was a clone of Metroid that featured a tank that could jump and a corny storyline, but he said it was all "presented in a way that it felt meaningful". He added that the game's music convinced him "that video game music could be high-quality, memorable, and evocative". 1UP.com listed the game as the 11th best NES game of all time in its "Top 25 NES Games" list; the 1UP.com staff said the game was "an action game that worked like a mishmash of every NES game before it", noting the expansive map like in Metroid. Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
magazine ranked Blaster Master as the 2nd greatest NES game of all time, behind The Legend of Zelda; they cited the tank's additional abilities as a main reason behind its ranking.
On December 15, 2010, SOPHIA the 3rd made an appearance in the Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
game Super Mario Bros. Crossover
Super Mario Bros. Crossover
Super Mario Bros. Crossover is a crossover platform flash video game launched on Newgrounds on April 27th, 2010 by Exploding Rabbit. It is based mostly on the game-play of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. for the NES. The only major difference is the ability to control characters that debuted in other...
, in its Version 1.2 release. In the game, the tank possesses all abilities from Blaster Master and is the first character in the game to have a limited supply of ammunition; players need to collect power-ups from enemies in order to fire homing missiles, which is necessary to defeat Buzzy Beetles, Spike Tops, and Bullet Bills. The version also allows SOPHIA to grapple onto ceilings.
April Fools' Day hoax
On April Fools' DayApril Fools' Day
April Fools' Day is celebrated in different countries around the world on April 1 every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day, April 1 is not a national holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day when many people play all kinds of jokes and foolishness...
on , Sunsoft announced that a sequel to the game would be released on the Virtual Console titled Blaster Master: Destination Fred. According to their press release, the game was only purported to be tested on several PlayChoice-10
PlayChoice-10
PlayChoice-10 was an arcade machine which could consist of as many as 10 different games previously available only on the Nintendo Entertainment System home console...
machines in the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
area between 1988 and 1989. Upon discovery of copies of the game in Sunsoft's headquarters in Japan, Gaijinworks
Gaijinworks
Gaijinworks is a United States video game publishing company founded by Victor Ireland in July 2006. The company was established shortly after the dissolution of Working Designs in December 2005 of which Ireland was president...
' founder Victor Ireland said: "I was blown away when I saw these. When I was going through boxes of stored code, promotional items, and ROMS to see what we had on hand to release for the U.S. Virtual Console market, finding these nine completely unknown cartridges literally stunned me. I knew it had to be put up on the Virtual Console as fast as we could make it happen."
The story was supposed to continue with the English plot of the first Blaster Master game. The Plutonium Boss originally intended to inject Jason and Fred with microbots that, even if Jason managed to defeat him, would kill both Jason and Fred, but he could only inject Fred. Jason and SOPHIA the 3rd are then shrunken and injected inside Fred to do battle with the microbots and their contraptions – something in which Ireland described as "a pretty clear video game spin on Fantastic Voyage
Fantastic Voyage
Fantastic Voyage is a 1966 science fiction film written by Harry Kleiner, based on a story by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby.Bantam Books obtained the rights for a paperback novelization based on the screenplay and approached Isaac Asimov to write it....
kind of adventure". It was planned to be released for the Virtual Console on for 500 Wii points. IGN's Daemon Hatfield, after discovering nothing about Blaster Master: Destination Fred in any video game archives, suspected that this was an April Fools' Day hoax; he said, however, that after the release of Dark Void Zero
Dark Void Zero
Dark Void Zero is a platform video game released by Capcom for DSiWare download service. It was made as an April Fool's parody of the video game Dark Void and it was later decided to make it an actual title; it was promoted as a game "found" in Capcom's vault...
it was possible for Sunsoft to release a new 8-bit title. Destructoid
Destructoid
Destructoid is an independent video game-focused blog based in San Francisco, California that was founded in March 2006. It has since grown into one of the most widely read video game sites on the Internet, reaching more than 3 million unique visitors per month...
's Conrad Zimmerman strongly suspected that this was also a hoax; he said that there was no proof of the game's existence except for it temporarily being mentioned on Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
and that "Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
never lets anybody say when their games are coming out on Virtual Console". Sunsoft later confirmed on their website that the sequel was an April Fools' Day hoax.
External links
- Hardcore Gaming 101's In-Depth Article on the series
- 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 Masters soundtrack at OverClocked ReMixOverClocked ReMixOverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs with new technology and software, as well as by various traditional means...