Lik-Sang Attacked For Massive Damage
Mini-Review: Family Guy

The Master Of Blasters

Blaster MasterRanking up there on the list of third-party favorites for the Nintendo Entertainment System is Sunsoft's Blaster Master, a 2D platformer/shooter adventure in which Jason Frudnick (our intrepid hero) travels both on foot and in a small battle vehicle named SOPHIA in search of his radioactive lost pet frog.  The story may not go down in history, but the gameplay certainly has.  The folks at Metafilter are sharing warm fuzzy Blaster Master memories and exchanging a whole slew of related links (including yet another entry in the Worlds of Power book series).

Props to arguably the finest NES game ever! I was a game counselor during the NES years, and this game never left my top 5 list the entire time. Fans loved it, kids loved it, all the R&D guys wanted to make another game like it - I never understood why there wasn't a sequel...  Interesting Note: I was one of the game counselors asked to confirm the exploding grenade / start button pause boss trick for the Nintendo Power magazine article.

Actually, there were sequelsBlaster Master 2 for the Sega Genesis followed up on the original adventure, as did Blaster Master Boy for the Game Boy, Blaster Master: Enemy Below for the Game Boy Color, and Blaster Master: Blasting Again for the Sony PlayStation; as expected though, the NES game has more charm than the sequels.  Somehow the original game fell through the cracks of my childhood, as I was aware of the game but had never played it.  In fact, I played the Genesis sequel long before I got my hands on the original.  Normally I'd say that the series is ripe for a renewal, but somehow I don't think a new modern 3D adventure could live up to the game's nostalgic legacy.  Blaster Master is fantastic fun, but perhaps we should let the franchise rest for now.

Comments