Blaster Master 2

Blaster Master 2
This game is certainly lacking in the 'Master' department.
Protagonist(s): Jason Genre(s): Metroidvania Platform(s): Sega Genesis Developer(s): Software Creations Publisher(s): Sunsoft Country: United Kingdom Predecessor: Master Blaster

Blaster Master 2 is a Metroidvania developed by Software Creations, and published by Sunsoft. It serves as the sequel to Blast Master and is the second game in the Master Blaster series. It was released on the Sega Genesis exclusively in North America on March 15th, 1993. It received mostly negative reviews. It was rumored to be planned for the SNES by Nintendo Power in 1992, but that port never saw the light of day. Unlike the original Blaster Master, this game was never rereleased in any form, likely due to Sunsoft not seeing it as part of the canon.

Plot

The game takes place four years after Jason's Encounter with the Plutonium Boss and the radioactive mutants under the Earth. His only reminder of the incident is S.O.P.H.I.A., the vehicle he used to stop them, which he has hidden in an abandoned barn. One day, one bolt of lightning struck the house and caused the ceiling to crumble, knocking Jason unconscious. When Jason woke up, S.O.P.H.I.A. was in pieces and the parts he had collected from his first dealings with the Mutant Bosses were missing. Little does Jason know that there are more lightning beings where the first one came from and they are planning to destroy the Earth. The beings started digging towards the Earth's core in order to shift the planet's weight off its axis, leading to total annihilation. The parts from SOPHIA are being used to create a robotic army to assist the being in accomplishing their mission. Now, Jason must stop them, but he won't make it without the help of SOPHIA. Since he can't recover the parts, he decided to redesign it to better prepare himself for the ordeal facing him. After 29 days, SOPHIA was completely rebuilt and ready for battle. Remembering where he saw the being's footsteps, Jason jumped in his vehicle and headed towards the mountains where the challenge begins.

Why It's an Amateur

1. The music in levels 3, 5 as well as the boss areas & the ending sound like the Sonic the Hedgehog special stage music but put into a Blender. It's incredibly bad. The main reason why it sucks is because of the poor use of the instrumentation in those tracks. Those 4 tracks are some of the most ear-grating music you will probably hear on the Genesis. They could've done so much better. Heck, even when games like Ecco The Dolphin had similar instruments, but they still sounded good thanks to knowing when to use them properly.
   • The music in level 3 is notably very poor, with poor use of the twangy instruments as well as playing in a faster pace than it should alongside the lack of other instruments aside from other annoying little instruments here & there.
   • Level 5 tries to go for an awesome cinematic danger gripping theme, but the instruments used make it sound rather awkward & poor.
   • The boss theme is just an annoying 26 second song that can get grating really fast.
   • The ending theme sounds rather generic for an ending theme, complete with annoying instruments here & there as well as some poorly placed parts here & there.
2. The controls are somehow worse. Why did they feel the need to change them so much?
   • For example, to get out of your tank, you need to press Down and C, which is fine, but now you need to press Up and A to enter a door. It would be better to just use C for everything.
   • They now require you to manually aim the tank. So you must press Up and Down to aim your cannon. This is an okay change, but the original still handled it better.
3. The top down sections for Jason were removed. So Jason now just feels like a weaker clone of Sophia. That's a fundamental screw-up when what set the original Blaster Master apart from the likes of Metroid.
4. And to top that off, Jason's Sections are now either just a poor man's Commander Keen, or just bosses. Most - if not all of them can be cleared in about 1 minute.
5. The top down sections are now for the tank, but while there are games with worse controls, the implementation of the controls in these sections is really stupid. To aim, you have to press B and C to change your direction. This makes the controls very annoying.
6. The story, like the first game, is an absolute drug trip. Jason's house gets struck by lightning, S.O.P.H.I.A. is scattered to pieces, and then the lightning guys want to take over the world.
7. You now bounce off walls. Did they not learn anything from the beta versions of Sonic 2?!
8. The absolute worst part about the game is the enemies. Many of them are tiny, and most will blindsight you. The hitboxes are also janky. Many of them will look like they won't hit you, but they do.
   • The absolute worst enemy is the water drops. Not only are you dealing with some somewhat cramped sections, but these blue drops of deadliness drop right where your Tank can't squeeze past them.
9. The ending is awful. Not only is it incredibly anti-climactic, but the game ends on a cliffhanger as well. The credits also scroll by way too fast. There's no satisfaction. In the original game, you actually felt like you accomplished something, with the soft and somber music playing in the background. In this game, it's just, "Hooray! You did it!", and then title screen, thus making this game feel like it was rushed.
10. The level design usually sucks. The frustrating enemy placement, the bouncing off walls crap, the downright boring Jason segments, all add up to make an annoying and frustrating experience.
11. A sequel should improve on the game, but in many instances, this game falls short on that. Several of the problems from the original Blaster Master weren't fixed at all.
    • The limited lives and continues return from the international versions (although you can get 9 continues, which is better from the 5 you get in the NES version of Blaster Master).
    • Jason can still easily die from very short falls.
    • Instead of improving on the Gun upgrades meter, they just straight-up removed them.
    • There's no map system.
    • The aimless dungeons that just contain items weren't changed in the slightest.
    • There's no saving, and the list goes on.

Redeeming Qualities

1. While you're in the tank, the level design can be okay, but it doesn't even compare to the first game.
2. The graphics look pretty good. They tend to be quite colorful and detailled, even for a 1993 game.
3. Some of the music is actually really good.
   • The title screen music, while not as great as the level 1 music from the original game despite sounding similar, is a nicely made tune with some neato techno-rock combining to give one the impression that things have gotten serious once again.
   • Level 4's music has a tense pace similar to that of the theme song to Bucky O' Hare And the Toad Wars mixed with some sweet mechanical instruments added to the mix.
   • The music in level 6 is a cool techno-glow beat of a tune that features a variety of different instruments near perfectly stringed together to give off a great futuristic aesthetic to it.
   • Level 7 is all about the sweet half-bass & strings that were combined together instead of having drums that would've easily ruined the music if added in. Its tone & pace sounds like a blazing fast train sequence, which while not making sense within the actual game, is a cool atmosphere to have anyway.
   • Level 8 is like a scarier version of the level 7 theme, complete with fitting eerie sounds as well as a mix of triumphant sounds as it is about reaching the final level scared at first, but then gaining confidence as you move forward & march on.
   • The game over theme is actually a well produced sorrow song that, unlike the ending theme, isn't very annoying, though you could get annoyed by it if you heard it too much due to many lives being lost due to how bad the rest of the game is.
4. The electric bombs are awesome. They shoot in 8 directions, and they usually kill everything in one hit. This helps with the bats in the first level.
5. The upgrades are still fun to use.

Reception

Blaster Master 2 received an average review score of %46.67 according to GameRankings based on 3 reviews. On MobyGames, based on 11 users, it holds a score of 3/5. MobyRanks has more positive reviews, however. Honest Gamers said "Blaster Master 2 exists only as a sobering example of completely missing the entire bloody point." on GameFaqs, it has a score of fair, but user reviews are averaged at 1.70/5, and Critic reviews are averaged at 2.33/5.

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