Blaster Master
Blaster Master is a video game series that was originally developed and published by Sunsoft. It began with the 1988 video game Blaster Master for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and the series has been rebooted more than once. The first reboot, Blaster Master: Overdrive, was released in 2010 and intended to "rebuild the Sunsoft brand in North America", but it received mediocre reception from critics and did not see a follow-up.
| Blaster Master | |
|---|---|
 Logo of the first game in the series | |
| Genre(s) | Action, platformer, run-and-gun |
| Developer(s) | Sunsoft, Inti Creates |
| Publisher(s) | Sunsoft, Inti Creates |
| First release | 1988 |
| Latest release | 2019 |
After another hiatus, the rights for the original NES game were acquired by Inti Creates, who rebooted the series again with the 2017 video game Blaster Master Zero, which retained an 8-bit style of graphics and similar gameplay to the original.[1] It was more successful, and went on to receive a critically praised original sequel, Blaster Master Zero 2, in 2019.
The premise of the series revolves around Jason, a young man who uses a special tank known as SOPHIA to explore areas and battle radioactive mutants. The games feature both on-foot and tank sections with unique gameplay for each section.
Games
| 1988 | Blaster Master |
|---|---|
| 1989 | |
| 1990 | |
| 1991 | Blaster Master Jr. |
| 1992 | |
| 1993 | Blaster Master 2 |
| 1994 | |
| 1995 | |
| 1996 | |
| 1997 | |
| 1998 | |
| 1999 | |
| 2000 | Blaster Master: Enemy Below Blaster Master: Blasting Again |
| 2001 | |
| 2002 | |
| 2003 | |
| 2004 | |
| 2005 | |
| 2006 | |
| 2007 | |
| 2008 | |
| 2009 | |
| 2010 | Blaster Master: Overdrive |
| 2011 | |
| 2012 | |
| 2013 | |
| 2014 | |
| 2015 | |
| 2016 | |
| 2017 | Blaster Master Zero |
| 2018 | |
| 2019 | Blaster Master Zero 2 |
Blaster Master
Blaster Master is a platform 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 Chō Wakusei Senki Metafight (超惑星戦記メタファイト, lit. "Super Planetary War Records: Metafight", also simply called Metafight), which was released on Jun 17, 1988. The game was released in North America in November 1988 and in Europe on April 25, 1991.
Blaster Master Jr.
Blaster Master Jr., known as Blaster Master Boy in North America and Bomber King: Scenario 2 (ボンバーキング シナリオ2) in Japan, is an action video game developed by Aicom and published by Sunsoft. The game was released in 1991 for Game Boy. It is a spin-off that has little in common with the main series, being a sequel to Robowarrior, a spin-off title in the Bomberman series by Hudson Soft. The game was marketed in Western territories as a game in the Blaster Master series.
Blaster Master 2
Blaster Master: Enemy Below
Blaster Master: Blasting Again
Blaster Master: Overdrive
Blaster Master Zero
Blaster Master Zero is an action-adventure platform video game developed and published by Inti Creates for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch. The game is a reboot of the original Blaster Master, and was released worldwide in March 2017. It was subsequently ported to Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 in June 2019 and June 2020 respectively.
The game remains relatively close to the original, such that it can also be seen as a remake. Its story combines aspects of Blaster Master, Metafight, and the novelization of the game. The character Jason is changed to be an older and more experienced scientific genius, although the game retains the "absurd" frog subplot.[2]
Blaster Master Zero 2
Other media
In the early 1990s, the series received a novelization under the Worlds of Power series of children's books released by Scholastic. While heavy liberties were taken with the source material, elements of the novel would go on to become canon in later games, namely the character Eve, who went on to become a major character in the Blaster Master Zero series.
References
- "INTI CREATES CO., LTD. | BitSummit". Retrieved 2021-01-12.
- Carter, Chris (2017-03-09). "Review: Blaster Master Zero". Destructoid. Retrieved 2021-01-13.