Blaster Master

aka: Chōwakuseisenki Metafight
Moby ID: 10094
NES Specs
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Description official descriptions

The game begins with a classic story of a boy and his frog who runs away, becomes radioactive and jumps into a hole. More importantly however, it is a story about a boy named Jason who finds a fully functional battletank, SOFIA the 3rd, and goes adventuring around the underground. His mission is to find new weapons and add-on parts to the battletank, which will in turn allow him to explore more areas until eventually he finds that freedom-loving mutant frog. And while he's down there he might as well defeat the Evil Plutonium Boss who wishes to threaten the Earth.

Blaster Master is an action game that mixes platform and overhead segments. Most of the platforming levels are spent in the tank, which can fire its main cannon as well as secondary weapons with limited ammunition: homing missiles, lightning ball, and warhead missile. The tank cannot access every area in the platform levels; in order to advance, Jason often has to step out and explore on foot.

At that point the view switches to top-down. Jason can use his gun and toss grenades to dispatch of regular enemies and bosses encountered on his way. The gun can be upgraded by collecting power-ups. The goal of the top-down stages usually involves obtaining special abilities for the tank, such as swimming, driving on walls, and hovering in the air, which must be used at specific locations in the platform stages.

The game uses a "continue" system and ends when Jason has lost all his lives. There is no password feature and no possibility to save game progress.

Spellings

  • 超惑星戦記メタファイト - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (NES version)

15 People (13 developers, 2 thanks)

Director
European Version Director
Manager
Game Design
Character Design
Art Design
  • PGM F1
Music Composer
Sound Program
Program
Special Thanks
Presented by
  • Sunsoft

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 81% (based on 21 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 45 ratings with 1 reviews)

One of the true classic console action games

The Good
It was early in my NES playing days when I was introduced to this masterpiece. It was just so awesome-- you got to cruise around the underworld in a futuristic tank. The stock factory model could already jump, shoot straight upwards, and be armed with heat-seeking missiles and lightning. But the tank (curiously named "Sophia III Nora MA-01") could be powered up to perform remarkable feats such as hovering, swimming, and cruising up walls and along ceilings. And wouldn't you know it? You actually had to use each and every one of these abilities throughout the game.

I even love the story for this game, arguably the silliest in NES history. Boy has pet frog in easy-to-escape-from container, frog jumps on top of box in backyard, grows to enormous proportions thanks to quick-acting radiation from box, falls in deep hole, boy follows suit, doesn't find frog but does find super tank and matching suit. It has become one of the most infamous storylines in history but I think it's top-notch as far as brainless action plots go.

But this game is anything but brainless, mind you. Pilot that tank through all kinds of mazes and then hop out when it becomes clear that your tank can not go where you need to. Hunt down that boss and get the tank part needed to get to the next level.

I really need to give mention to the music-- Excellent music almost all the way throughout (the last level is quite a disappointment, melodically). Some of the tunes still get remixed to this day.

I also appreciate the fact that this game was so difficult to complete. Whenever I purchase games for $35-$50, I like it when the game took some time to complete. This game was just right and made me feel like I really got my money's worth.

The Bad
I didn't like that darn crab at the end of level 5. It took me forever to beat him, and of course the notorious Blaster Master cheat does not work against him.

Now that I think about it, I still carry a secret shame knowing that I have never completed this game without using the aforementioned cheating procedure.

The Bottom Line
This is one of the all-time action classics that must be experienced on the 8-bit NES. Just be glad that the lead character, Jason, is a master mechanic and that installing all of these advanced weapon and propulsion systems into the tank is second nature for him. Either that, or the hardware represents the ultimate in plug and play technology.

NES · by Multimedia Mike (20664) · 2005

Discussion

Subject By Date
Awesome Blaster Master Tribute Album Jesse Bishop Aug 1, 2009

Trivia

Japanese version

The Japanese version differs from other oversea releases in that it doesn't have the intro sequence that explains the whole bit about your frog, radiation and the underground cave. This is because the Japanese version has a completely different story in which the main character is the hero of the planet Sophia and has to fight off an alien invasion (this difference also introduces minor changes to the game's beginning and ending).

Sound effects

Most of the sound effects in Blaster Master were eventually reused for several other SunSoft NES games, the most notorious of which was Fester's Quest which features similar gameplay to Blaster Master's overhead-view sequences.

Awards

  • EGM
    • 1989 Buyer's Guide - Best Original Game

Information also contributed by Zovni

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 10094
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Shoddyan.

Wii added by Charly2.0. Wii U added by Michael Cassidy. Nintendo 3DS added by CrankyStorming. Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77.

Additional contributors: Satoshi Kunsai, chirinea, Alaka, Игги Друге, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger, Thomas Thompson.

Game added August 23, 2003. Last modified March 3, 2024.