Blaster Master Zero looks way better than it has any right to
Yesterday, Nintendo hosted an event to show off a bunch of upcoming Switch games from independent studios, and I do mean a bunch. I wasn't there to see it, since they had to go and show off their lineup before I made my way to Game Developers Conference. It's a shame, because I kind of feel like this lineup was specifically constructed with my tastes and interests in mind.
One game in particular has especially caught my eye: Blaster Master Zero from Inti Creates. Just gaze upon this majesty:
Zero isn't news, precisely; it was announced for 3DS and Wii U last year. This is the first time I've seen this much footage of it in a single spot, however, and the fact that it's not only coming to Switch but will be doing so next week definitely qualifies as a Rad Development.
I admit to having been pretty unenthused about Zero until seeing this trailer. There have been quite a few attempts to re-bottle the lightning that was the original Blaster Master, and none of them have ever quite worked out. Inti Creates certainly has the chops to put together a game like this — the name Blaster Master Zero hints at the studio's breakout title, Mega Man Zero — but the question is, do they get what made Blaster Master work?
It's hard to say until I actually play the game (which will happen next week apparently!?), but everything in this trailer suggests they've sorted all their ducks into proper rows. The only real question is, will the returning top-down sections include the original game's power-drain mechanic, wherein you lose offensive strength along with health any time you take damage? Honestly, that was one of the must punitive game design choices I've ever witnessed and turns the original Blaster Master into a brutal, borderline-unfair slog. It's one of the very few NES games I owned back in the day but never managed to complete, ultimately sputtering out a couple of times against the second form of the final boss before abandoning all hope for the rest of eternity. Battletoads? Crushed it. Dracula's Curse? Beat it with all three companions and Trevor solo. Every Mega Man? Cake. Life Force? One-life wins. Ninja Gaiden? Blasted through without a single continue. But Blaster Master... man, screw that game.
Assuming Inti Creates doesn't go hardcore on this one (the prospects of which don't fill me with optimism; the original Mega Man Zero's cyber-elf and ranking system beats out even Blaster Master's power drain mechanic for cruelty), this could be the game to finally give us the Blaster Master follow-up we've deserved for nearly 30 years. And I couldn't be happier about that. Despite my frustration at never finishing the game, I found Blaster Master really fascinating; it even inspired me to create my own trading card series, MUTANTS, which was basically a bunch of weird monsters you'd have fought in the game... and also some dad jokes, decades before my time (incl. "Mario Poppins" and "Rambozo"). Seeing Blaster Master given what appears to be a proper treatment all these years later warms my heart.
Zero seems to take the elements of Blaster Master and recreate them in a bigger, more ridiculously bold fashion without succumbing to aesthetic mismatch. The game looks too good to have run on NES hardware, but Inti are pros and don't do that awful thing you see in a lot of retro-inspired software in which you have NES-caliber elements combined with out-of-place high-resolution visual components. Instead, they've gone with a decidedly PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 look here: Better color depth and sprite detail than NES, but not quite at a Genesis or Super NES level. The color choices and heavy black outlining absolutely nail the PC Engine "look," and aside from the smoothness of the animation, number of interactive elements being thrown around, and the widescreen layout, this really looks like a Blaster Master game you might have played on TurboGrafx circa 1991 right before NEC gave up on America.
Anyway, you can bet your sweet bippy there'll be a review of the game here sometime soon. The game debuts on Switch next Thursday, March 9.
