Insanely Difficult Blaster Master Coming to Wii Virtual Console

[Greg Tito]

Insanely Difficult Blaster Master Coming to Wii Virtual Console

The notoriously difficult 8-bit classic, Blaster Master, is coming to the Wii Virtual Console this month, and no one will ever beat it this time either.

Sunsoft, a Japanese studio known for creating many 8 and 16-bit classics, is joining with Victor Ireland's Gaijinworks to revive the brand in North America. The first collaboration will be porting the infamously difficult and genre-busting Blaster Master to the Wii Virtual Console later this month, where it will cost 500 Nintendo points. Blaster Master, itself a port of the Japanese title, Meta Fight, was originally released on the Nintendo Entertainment system in 1988.

As part of the reboot, Sunsoft has a new barebones website [http://www.sunsoftgames.com/index.php] but they plan to offer more games by using their partnership with Gaijinworks. For now, they are keeping mum on what those titles might be.

Part of what made Blaster Master so good was that it was a mix of many different genres. It was a side-scrolling platformer when you were in the vehicle, SOPHIA, it was a shooter when you were on foot, which was sometimes 2d and sometimes top-down. The story was ... meh, who really cares about Jason's pet toad and another journey to the center of the Earth? To be honest, I forgot what the game was about but I do remember that it was freaking hard.

The game was similar to Metroid in that you had to go back to previous levels once you unlocked abilities to blast down doors, etc. But unlike Samus's first adventure, there were no save codes to enter so you had to complete the whole game in one sitting, or leave it on pause and hope to hell that your little sister didn't get to the TV before you did.

"What? You turned off the Nintendo and erased 8 hours of my life just so you could watch Gummi Bears? Are you kidding me?"

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/26400/Victor_Irelands_Gaijinworks_Helping_Rebuild_Sunsoft_Brand_In_US.php]

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[Eric the Orange]

The game is hard, but it's no battle toads.

 

[MysticnFm]

I may be missing something here, but is the name of the game Master Blaster as mentioned in the article, or Blaster Master, like it says on the boxart.

 

[Digikid]

Pft. You call that hard? You gotta be kidding me.

I LOVED this game!!!!!!

and it is called Blaster Master.

 

[era81]

I don't remember master blaster being all that hard.

 

[Greg Tito]

I may be missing something here, but is the name of the game Master Blaster as mentioned in the article, or Blaster Master, like it says on the boxart.

Fixed. I had too much Thunderdome on the brain. Who rules Bartertown?

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Dectilon]

"The notoriously difficult 8-bit classic, Blaster Master, is coming to the Wii Virtual Console this month, and no one will ever beat it this time either."

I think you're lying... about the difficulty that is. Sure, it's hard to find where you're supposed to go, but the actual fights weren't particularly hard.

 

[MetaKnight19]

This game is sweet, especially the tank driving segments. Definite purchase.

The game is hard, but it's no battle toads.

True words of wisdom. I can't even get past the third stage on BattleToads.

 

[machineiv]

"The notoriously difficult 8-bit classic, Blaster Master, is coming to the Wii Virtual Console this month, and no one will ever beat it this time either."

I think you're lying... about the difficulty that is. Sure, it's hard to find where you're supposed to go, but the actual fights weren't particularly hard.

Yeah. It's not harsh like say... Kid Icarus.

That's a game that got me to break a controller or two.

 

[Artemicion]

"What? You turned off the Nintendo and erased 8 hours of my life just so you could watch Gummi Bears? Are you kidding me?"

Oh, does that bring me back.
When I first got a PS2, I didn't have a memory card. I could always get to the second island in GTA3 before I had to turn it off. Few things could possibly be as abysmal as doing something over and over without any sense of progression.

Except assembly-line working. I suppose that would be about the same.

Anydangway, no matter how hard this game is, it will never be as hard as Ghosts n' Ghouls.

 

[Therumancer]

It sounded interesting up until the name of the company "Gaijinworks". Despite where it's located I find that somewhat offensive, especially given the context in which Gaijin is typically used.

Also I figure if they were going to salvage old 8 bit Nintendo games, this one isn't all that far up on my list of titles I would have wanted to see.

Difficulty is subjective, truthfully as I've gotten older (and other problems have intensified) I find myself a lot less capable of manipulating controls with precisian. I doubt I could skill play the game like I used to, but I never found it paticularly difficult.

But then again I used to be able to pwn Contra (the original) like many games it basically came down to pattern recognition. The only level I remember having trouble with was the "Hangar" level.

Now honestly if they wanted to mess around with games that I remember being tricky even back then, they should be looking towards "Rolling Thunder" and it's various rip offs (like Code Name Viper). Although admittedly those games tended to mostly be difficult when they got to platforming sections when they really weren't designed for presician jumping.

 

[Doug]

Am I the only one who thought "Who runs Barter Town?" "Master Blaster" when they saw the title?

 

[Carlston]

Oddly I beat this one...it wasn't that hard if...but it is one of the first games farming comes to mind. In tank, thank has 1 life bar, jump out of tannk draw monster, attack with guy outside tank, energy dropds get back in claim repeat till bout half


Battletoads wasn't that hard when you learned the lame hover bike warp points...

It's no Total Recall.

 

[Carlston]

"The notoriously difficult 8-bit classic, Blaster Master, is coming to the Wii Virtual Console this month, and no one will ever beat it this time either."

I think you're lying... about the difficulty that is. Sure, it's hard to find where you're supposed to go, but the actual fights weren't particularly hard.

Yeah. It's not harsh like say... Kid Icarus.

That's a game that got me to break a controller or two.

Icarus wasn't that bad...what shamed me on it is my Mom would watch me play then ask to do the bonus rooms, and with no gudie she figured the pattern out perfectly in like 6 times.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Battletoads wasn't that hard when you learned the lame hover bike warp points...

Ah, but that would be cheating (at least in my mind).

 

[nohorsetown]

I freakin' LOVED Blaster Master! Pretty sure it was the second game I owned (after Metroid).
That game has the most awesome intro.. boy loses frog, frog jumps in hole, there's big crates of radioactive waste or something just sitting outside his house.. boy jumps in the hole and finds silly pink armor and silly pink tank.. yeah! Onward to blastin'! I never beat it, but I made it to the last level. I forgot the tank was named Sophia.. weird that's my daughter's name.. damn Sunsoft, get outta my subconscious!

Now I gotta fire up the NES emulator.

 

[Carlston]

Battletoads wasn't that hard when you learned the lame hover bike warp points...

Ah, but that would be cheating (at least in my mind).

You stoned? They put the points in there for the simple fact you lose count you had a chance to get past them. Even on slow mo the BT bike scenes were far to gimmie another quatrer hard.

 

[Pimppeter2]

Psht, this game is nothing

*FLEXES*

 

[Grampy_bone]

Blaster Master wasn't that hard until you hit the 7th or 8th world. The water level could be tough before you got your bearings.

Still it was nothing compared to the NES Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania. Those games become damn near impossible by the second level, let along the later ones.

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

I have many, many fond childhood memories of Blaster Master.

And by "fond" I mean "nearly put the controller through the television screen in sheer frustration."