Blaster Master Zero

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Overall Rating - Exceptional ★★★★★
First Impressions
The title of this game, Blaster Master Zero (BMZ), becomes humorous when you consider there's two sequels, meaning they're called Zero 2 and 3. I understand why they didn't just leave it as Blaster Master, as it's a remake of the NES original release. Having tried the original, I was always interested in the game, but not its difficulty. A more accessible version sounded great, so I got it on sale.
Gameplay
If you know anything about the NES version, you're aware of its brutal difficulty. You have limited continues and no way to save progress, so it'd have to be beaten within a single playthrough. Thanks to modern design choices and some quality of life improvements, the core game feel is similar, but much more approachable. Within either version, there's two main components. Starting off, you'll make use of the tank in order to traverse larger locations, relying on this vehicle to transport the squishy NPC. When you get out of the tank, you can platform, but the human is much less mobile and capable in the overworld. There's a few matters only he can take care of, but thankfully these are limited, considering a fall any greater than his jump height will kill him.
Across the different zones, the futuristic explorer will cave-dive and investigate abandoned areas from several years past. He's much more lethal in this overhead view, able to utilize a range of firearms. Taking damage will drain his arsenal, so if you're careless, he won't have access to his most powerful weapons. These locations are where you'll find maps, upgrades, and fight most of the bosses. I found switching between both sides made for a really engaging gameplay loop.
Controls
Something that takes time to adapt to is the floaty, momentum-based movement of the tank. It's hard to describe, but there are times you'll have to creep around carefully to make tight jumps. A few other nitpicky areas came from climbing ladders, moving through water, and firing the cannon without harming yourself.
Story
In BMZ, a young man stumbles across a strange frog and inexplicable tank, but compared to the original, he learns more about what's going on during the adventure. Saving a strange female acts as the source for most of this knowledge, as it turns out that Earth's mutant problem has an extraterrestrial origin.
Visuals
Although later areas include what I'd consider uglier and more threatening mutants, it's funny how many of them look fairly harmless. I don't find the walking rocks or jumping worms that threatening, even when they're dyed red. The surrounding environment looks much more disturbing than anything else. Comparing the visuals is hardly fair with how much technology has advanced over the years, but I like that BMZ still has a semblance of the original's aesthetic, while being willing to make improvements. For instance, boss fights have more structure with an actual arena and clear phases, instead of taking place in a black void.
Sound Design
Much of the music has an upbeat, energetic tone to it, supporting the mood of a young man going on an adventure. When necessary though, to help match the warped environment, the music makes use of less harmonic and more unsettling sounds, making for a creepier sensation as you're playing. The music seems to be composed using chiptunes, much like the original would have been. Unfortunately, due to their short compositions, even though I like how the music sounds, they can get repetitive from looping so often. There's only a few annoying sound effects throughout the game, such as the radar turning pink, but these don't last for very long.
Pros
🌟 There's cheap DLC and unlockable modes available after obtaining the true ending. For those who really enjoy the game, it gives replayability to what would otherwise be a single playthrough.
🌟 Although there's no fast-travel system, when going from area to area, the layout allows for reasonably quick transitions.
Cons
❌ Unless you're curious about boss weaknesses, there's little reason for using the range of weapons available. However, it can be worthwhile to learn a few exceptions, such as the zap that hits all on-screen enemies, or melting ice with the flamethrower.
❌ Some of the controls can be fickle, especially if an enemy crashes into you. I've found getting away is a real struggle.
Tips
🔍 Losing access to your gun might make you panic. You can always pause in order to collect your thoughts, and decide whether you should die to restart the boss fight, or swap your weaponry. As long as you activated the checkpoint, dying is a minor inconvenience.
🔍 Exploring every square or map tile isn't necessary for the true ending. Therefore, you can ignore areas that are hard to navigate, or don't have anything worthwhile.
Final Thoughts
Despite making many improvements to the original game, I think locking what weapons you can use to your health bar was a mistake. I understand it stems from the NES version, but most enemies' health melts under the onslaught of the 8th gun, making it your de facto choice. Most bosses were designed with at least one unique weakness, yet it's rarely worth using. When facing Gurnahide, it seemed to be weak against the flamethrower, because it was hit with such strong knock-back. Seeing it struggle like this was fascinating, but it died within seconds once I used the 8th weapon instead, which ruined its possible novelty. Locking more weapons behind secrets, making them options designed for specific locations and scenarios, would have made things much more interesting. As it is, I completely ignored a few of the weapons, like the shotgun. Despite this issue, I'm curious how the sequels turned out. Having made an NES original a title at least 25% are getting the secret ending for, I'd highly recommend this game. It's a master of the blast.
PC Specs
Performance
Ryzen 2700
RTX 2070
16GB RAM
ADATA SSD
1920x1080
The game ran without incident on default settings.
💖 - BMZ is healthy

having never played the original blaster master games, only knowing about them tangentially, i was pretty excited when i heard about these. i actually only got reminded of its existence when BMZ2 was revealed in a nintendo direct, and immediately went to go download both of them. seeing as i'm now reviewing these games on steam, with 11 hours of play time on this one alone, you can probably tell just how highly i think of them.

movement is great, very fluid, combat is reasonably tough to a point, not rage-quittingly hard and there's plenty of strategies to git gud. this game's freakin dynamite... and honestly? weakest of the trilogy in terms of gameplay, it only gets better from here. and that's saying a whole lot. cause i love how this game plays.

really i just love this game.

If we're using the moniker, it's most certainly closer to a 'Zero' mission like the one for Metroid, in that respect, and quite similar in what it sets out to accomplish. This is a neat arrangement of the original and a bit more forgiving, quite reminiscent of the above mention.
Doesn't mean it lacks a challenge. There are a few long, drawn-out parts to the game, especially in overall map design choices for some of the top-down areas, and some overall design choices with bosses and gun usages and expectations that you have to do a little digging on for some situations but overall it tries its best to remain true to the original, for better or worse. Probably my only real critique of the game because as an homage to the original it does a great job.

What a great blast(er) from the past. I played the heck out of the original NES Blaster Master, which with it's zero saves and low total of lives made the experience very difficult at first. What it was though, was fun, the most important aspect of any video game. Blaster Master Zero, is very similar. A lot of the "outdoor" screens are very similar to the original. The "inside" caves are quite a bit different. I've only played this through section 3, but I can tell this game, like it's grandfather, is going to provide hours of game playing fun. Highly recommend!

So I played the entire trilogy and decided to leave thoughts on what made each one good while it is all fresh in my mind as someone who only saw bits and pieces of the original NES game and dabbled with Blaster Master Overdrive on the Wii (fucking ew). I had a little bit of hesitation going in to BMZ1 due to my prior experience, but I had more confidence after hearing the first area theme and seeing the layout.
While you could play each BMZ game separately, there is a recurring plot for each game so you should start with 1 and play the trilogy in order proper. BMZ1 is a good entry point for anyone as it serves as a bit of a "remake" of sorts for the first game featuring similar area layouts as the NES game. Perfect for newcomers and those who haven't played since NES, most of the game will end up being pretty manageable to get through and 100%. There is no fast travel in this game much like in the NES game, but no limited continues that may have haunted some old school players. The one gripe I can legitimately give is that as long as you remained power up, the game is extremely easy to the point that several bosses won't do anything by the time you kill them and only a couple will potentially put up any kind of fight. It's a good game to get your feet wet and see if you like the general premise, and if you do should definitely move on to continue to the next two games as they are much better than 1 and build off of the first game's mistakes.

A short, but fun, bit of NES nostalgia.
Blaster Master was always dear to my heart when I was a kid, and this sequel nails the feel of those days.

Best played with a controller.

Blaster Master Zero is an excellent remake of the original Blaster Master, with improved graphics, controls, audio, story, and everything. It feels like the original game, but improved, and does so without a bunch of extra, unnecessary "stuff" added onto it. If you enjoyed the original on the NES, or if you just enjoy platformers in general, I have no doubt that you'll enjoy Blaster Master Zero!