When Blaster Master Zero – an updated remake of 1988’s original Blaster Master – arrived exclusively on the Switch in March 2017, it flew under the radar somewhat but grew a devoted following through a generous amount of updates and DLC. It eventually became popular enough that its developers quietly began work on a sequel, which is now available after being announced and immediately released for sale on the very same day.
Blaster Master Zero 2 takes everything that made previous titles so enjoyable and somehow manages to make it all even better. It’s very much a game of two halves – 2D side-scrolling platform sections place your character Jason inside his vehicle Sophia, which gradually becomes more mobile and powerful throughout the game. Many of Sophia’s abilities are governed by a stamina meter of sorts, which is recharged by falling from a height and slamming into the ground.
Sometimes though, you’ll need to access an area that is too small for Sophia to get into, so Jason is able to jump out and explore on foot, often ending up in a series of top-down dungeon-like sections. Here we have access to Jason’s personal arsenal, consisting of several different weapon types, sub weapons/items, and a powerful counter move. There are more power meters to keep track of here, with separate ones for health, ammo/firepower, and stamina.
BMZ2 could almost be considered a Metroidvania game, except the world here is not interconnected, instead being split across several different planets. Jason will occasionally come across something that he isn’t yet able to deal with, so exploration is the name of the game in order to find whatever it is that might help your mission.
There’s some excellent graphical variety, with each planet looking and feeling different to the others, and the clean and crisp brightly coloured pixel art pops off the screen beautifully. Music is excellent too, with one of the most authentically retro soundtracks we’ve heard in ages. Bonus points are awarded for including something that sounds suspiciously like one of the sound effects from Fester’s Quest!
All in all it’s another win for the folks at Inti Creates, who seem to be absolutely on fire these days. There’s not a huge amount that could be improved upon with BMZ2, which itself should be a good enough recommendation, but the prospect of similar support to that afforded to Inti’s previous game Dragon Marked For Death (which has already seen a ton of updates and upgrades over the 6 weeks or so since its release) and, indeed, the original Blaster Master Zero, could well see BMZ2 become a bonafide classic over the coming months.
BLASTER MASTER ZERO 2 / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: INTI CREATES / PLATFORM: NINTENDO SWITCH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
