Let's be honest...games are easy these days . You can set the difficulty, save anywhere anytime ( in most games ) . But in the days of the NES , there were games that were unforgiving on all accounts, and Blaster Master was the king of 'em . In my opinion one of the most difficult games of all time , but also one of the most rewarding . The story was so crappy, I won't even mention here . The gameplay was a bit Metroid style . You drive a hypermodern tank around in giant platform-based levels (8 of 'em), destroying a giant boss creature in each of them to aquire an upgrade that will let you reach previous inaccesible areas . The levels are woven through each other so it's a little search to find your next target once you've destroyed the boss in a level . Upgrades include better weapons , a hover power-up (fly baby) , a propellor that will morph your tank in a submarine and wall climbing abilities . The levels themself are mazes were you have to search for entrances too small for your tank to enter . There , you must leave your tank and haste your tiny character into the gate . Once inside, the view changes to an overhead perspective (Zelda style), and you have to search through the maze to the location of the boss , hoping that you have entered the correct gate , because only one entrance leads to the boss , and the others are dead ends . The bosses are extremely big and fill the entire screen . They also become ridiculously difficult as you progress through the game . The graphics were good for those days , and each level had its own setting , both exterior (in the tank) and interior (with the boy) . The bosses were cool (the background became black during a boss fight -I guess to reduce slowdown) and the tank was nicely animated . The sound effects were very good and each level had its own catchy tune . Did I mention this game was HARD ? 3 lives, 3 continues, game over . No extra lives, no cheats . Can't count the times when I threw the controller to the telly when the game over screen appeared in level 6 or so after 7 hours playing . But still, this game had a magical replay value, and the next day, you started all over again from level 1 . Conclusion ? Blaster Master was a true gem in it's days . It had all ingredients to make a great game (exept the storyline and a little slowdown) . Good graphics, a cool vehicle , lots of great gameplay hours , cool bosses with the "what's the weak spot of this one" syndrome and big levels that in combination with the high dificulty asured a long and rewarding gaming experience . Top notch !! Collectors all over the world , add this to your game library !!
This is one of those games where you don't remember purchasing but enjoyed playing. It was around 1989 and I just got my NES system. There wasn't many good games that stressed both gameplay and creativity. This game was ... Read Full Review
Although the reason for this game... AKA Save your mutated FROG.... could have been better the game itself makes up for it. Game is actually in 2 parts, the first is the outside world where you spend the majority of your... Read Full Review