Jeremy Parish
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Metroidvania Works 17: Blaster Master & Bionic Commando
🕑 Added 2023-06-21 11:21:07 +0000 UTCAh, we've reached the deepest depths of the part where the Metroidvania Works timeline-in-progress overlaps with material previously covered on NES Works. Thank goodness these are both stellar games that are always fun to talk about and see in action, eh?
Blaster Master would probably be the pinnacle of pre-metroidvania evolution if not for its over-reliance on the top-down sequences. Heck, just move the bosses into the main spaces and let players fight them in the tank and you've got a masterpiece. Instead, it's just a lot of really good design ideas with a single really bad design albatross around its neck.
And speaking of Albatros—heyo!!!—Bionic Commando is brilliant, no notes. Not quite a pure metroidvania game due to its map structure, but even as a series of self-contained levels it presents the player with a lot of freedom of movement around the game world and involves a great many interlocking elements that feel very true to what we would eventually come to know as... the metroidvania.
Anyway. Some good eating this week.
Comments
PT
Blaster Master is just one of the more frustrating "what ifs" in the NES library. Eliminate the power down mechanic and offer a password system and it is mostly there. I also really don't like how the wall climb upgrade actively gets you killed way more often than not when you just casually drive into spike pits in the final level. With that said, the Blaster Master Zero games have done a fine job with the series' legacy and I'm very glad they exist.
