I'm glad to see comments on this upload that pointed it out already, but I always liked how they changed the ending in the English version so that there's a frog chilling out on the tank next to the player in the final shot. Not there in the Japanese game! There was no frog in the Japanese opening! So either Fred got better after being blown up twice, it was never Fred who got blown up to begin with, or Jason picked up a new frog on his way out. Take your pick.
I never played Blaster Master before, but I love the concept of driving a tank. Not many NES games like this one. I like the fact you can get out of the tank and explore.
The Meteoidvania combined with the top-down shooter was a unique combination. I would love to see a modern remake of this one in the Metroid Dread style of adventure with dungeons requiring either FPS or third-person over-the-shoulder play.
Honestly, I wish that this game, its Super Planetary War Records: Metafight predecessor, Blaster Master: Enemy Below, and an 8-bit demake of the other Blaster Master game that was from the early 2010s, would be future DLC to Blaster Master Zero and that an 8-bit demake of Blaster Master 2 for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive (but done more like Blaster Master) would be some future DLC for Blaster Master Zero 2. Also, I would love to see the DLC characters in those other DLC packs for Blaster Master Zero as well.
You make watching a playthrough something to watch other than "just needing to see how to do something or where something is"! You can watch an entire playthrough as a "show". Thank you!
Loved this game as a kid, was just playing it last night. Clutched the lvl 5 boss with 1/2 gun only to lose on crabulus 2. Trying again after I watch this. ( I have beaten it in my youth) I'm going to give your beeline a 7/10 definitely room for efficiency.
Yeah that's fair, there's a cut here or there where I could've shaved off a little time but this is a serviceable route. And yeah, it's like a different game with or without the fully charged gun.
Love playing this game in the 90s 1 kid came from over seas had this game the only 1 of a group of friends that had the game we would have sleep overs and play NES games all night,
That's great; this is definitely one of those "campaign" games that I have similar fond memories of getting together with friends, seeing how far we could get, making incremental progress.
So happy for this 101. Because this game has a non-descriptive title like "Magician" it took me a bit to find it then instantly became among my favourites. Though this game has a good reception IMHO this is the most underrated game that has a good reception, in the sense that when gaming magazines, sites make NES lists Blaster Master is rarely in the top 20. Blaster Master is very easily at least top 20 IMHO.
Blaster Master I was never able to get anywhere playing when I was little. The sounds and the critter were so cool, I just had fun bouncing around the intro area. I really enjoy attending your classes.
Thank you Bill! And yeah, the controls made this a lot of fun to play. The tank has a good bit of lift, so the platforming with it alone was lots of fun.
My favorite trick here is, when you have a landmine that you can't shoot, just pop out of the tank and shoot it on foot. They detonate with one shot, you're pretty safe, and furthermore Sofia can't take damage when you're outside of it. I think it's accidental that the frog bosses resemble Fred. They're holdovers from Meta Fight, of course. Note, not only do the frog bosses return, in tiny form, as enemies in Fester's Quest, but little versions of the crustacean bosses show up as enemies in its end-game spaceship, too.
Also: the one gameplay difference between Blaster Master and its predecessor Meta Fight is, in the room with the locked doors in Area 4, after climbing up the long long ladder, there are _no platforms_ on the way back down the other side to unlock the second door! It's just a long fatal plunge with a short ladder just off the ground to grab to save your life! It's like a little kaizo trick to frustrate players halfway though the game!
Couple things I would note in here: 1. I use the first door as Jason to cheese my way into maxing out my gun. A bit of back and forth goes a long way there. 2. 7-11 is definitely worth the Big Gulp, but no love for the Nachos? C'Mon, Bruz. Not repping DIY Cheese, Chili, and Jalapeno action? 3. I wouldn't necessarily think of this game as a set of areas, since they're all connected. Maybe more like zones... filled with danger...
Fair points ZC! But yeah getting that gun sorted early on is a game changer. Ha I will say I used to load up the 7-11 hot dogs in my 20's, hitting the cheese and chili dispensers and making sure I got my $1 whatever's worth, heh.
I got this one from my grandma back in 1992 from a yard sale. That hover ability is a real pain because it depletes so fast and trying to find enemies that carry it is very hard.
Surprised some kid parted with this in 1992 at a yard sale! Probably had just gotten their SNES and figured "I'LL NEVER PLAY THIS 8-BIT STUFF AGAIN" and likely instantly regretted it. Agreed on the hover; only a very few types of enemies reliably give this to you, and while they're somewhat concentrated in the places where you typically need the hover, it's hard to come by out in the rest of the world.
So it was Blaze under the helmet all along, huh? Yet another example of that amazing Sunsoft music. My favorite odd trick to do with Sophia is to jump right in front of a stage door. Once you're through the other side, if you tap forward, you will roll automatically for a bit and look like you are a bit lower to the ground, then do a single jump. After that, your controls are normal again. Stage 4 music gives me more of a Gremlins 2 vibe. If you don't mind losing a life, you can actually fall down onto the lock for the key from above and skip the ladder crawling. Not that it's a better move, but it is an option. Also, the blue hair at the ending matches the ending screen for the Famicom game!
Fair point and someone else mentioned doing that for the caterpillars. I get a little skittish outside the tank and know how quickly you can die if you make a wrong move so I don't practice or recommend it myself, but it certainly bears worth mentioning.
Yeah it's the best move for them, but still the hit radius is surprisingly small and leads to some very frustrating moments now and then like I have here as the bolts just miss their left and right sides ha.
Lightning is for the long vertical descents, especially in water, ironically, like the one you were going down while he was whining about lightning. It is great for when there are enemies coming from below.
I remember the arcade cabinets you talked about while in Area 7. It was the Nintendo PlayChoice 10. My parents ran a gas station and bait shop that had one of those cabinets in it. I spent hours on that thing. My whole allowance went into playing Double Dragon, Punch Out, and Dr. Mario.
Ha that's awesome that you essentially had a PlayChoice 10 in the family. My extended family would meet at a seafood place right on the water once a year when I was a kid and they had one out front. Thought it was the coolest thing.
Yep! Fluff covered it in a different class so I'm much better versed on it now but yeah, I remember they had both the side down and upright cabinets for it. Thought it was so cool, having so many great games crammed into one machine.
0:01 - Boop! 0:20 - 0:35 - Post-grads really know how to party, don't they? 0:51 - I hope Fluff's riding shotgun. 0:56 - Oh, they went to Defcon. Oh, shit. 3:03 - That's actually not too uncommon from where I grew up in Pennsylvania.. 7:05 - Firepower. 32:00 - Just like Fester's Quest. 33:55 - Nice dodge! 46:30 - AW HELL NO 46:45 - 52:23 - Hazmat suits aren't body armor. Jason should have chosen his wardrobe a bit more wisely, but needs must sometimes. 56:59 - The dive engine has the unhelpful side effect of making liquid hazards everywhere else in the game more deadly. It switches on whenever you try to jump out of a lava pit in level 2, for example. A deviously clever bit of coding. 1:08:25 - They just went sadistic with the hazards, here. 1:41:11 - It's Cover Boy! 1:42:49 - If Jason ganked Fred (twice!), why is Fred sitting there chilling on Sophia's spoiler? The world may never know. 1:43:55 - Somebody Etsy has to have made a patch or a pin or something of that insignia.
Such an awesome game to play and one of many NES games worth coming back to, sadly me and my cousins never beat this game though i've beaten the second one. also love the underwater pillars in Area 5, makes you wonder what ancient race was once there.
I remember hearing about this game, but never had much of a chance to play it outside of its cameo in the old "SMB Crossover" flash game by Exploding Rabbit. Then I managed to find a copy at an old retro game store. I remember this game had a port to GB Color and a sequel on the Genesis, though both weren't very well regarded.
Yeah I think this is generally considered to be the best of that early "trilogy" if you will, though I remember 2 on the Genesis being okay. There's been a lot of decent games in the series in the last 10 years or so, but this will always be my favorite.
Blaster Master was such a classic game, but it gets boring so quickly lol. I always started this game out PUMPED with a RELENTLESS dedication to beat it FOR REAL THIS TIME. Never happened. You are a legend. edit: I definitely see how after 40 minutes it is like, "ugh.. no more of this!" Still a classic
This is a good game to step away from after the underwater area. Go out for Saturday evening dinner with the fam like I did as a kid, leave the game on and come back to finish it with that second wind, champion.
Ahh this is a truly great game. More brutal than most Nintendo Hard games, simply because of the lack of infinite continues. Or passwords. Or mercy in the later areas. But soooooo good. An enjoyable class! For this one, I have a tidbit to add: 13:37 Jason can take out the worms with 4 shots, which is pretty easy to spam for two worms. I always just pop him out, blast the worms, then hop back in. Even if I take a few hits, I just hop back in for the free refill. Jason takes the same damage as Sophia, so no big risk here! There are other places where you can take advantage of his low profile and easily filled health bar, too. Abuse the lad, it's fun!
Excellent supplementary tip, Kevin. Yeah I don't like to leave the safety of the tank, but every now and then Jason is more effective outside of it than in.
1:21:30 I am somewhat taken aback that a channel such as this would remember everything about the PlayChoice-10 arcade system, except its actual name! Really dropping the ball there.
Yeah that's fair; quite genuinely this was right before Fluff covered the PlayChoice-10 in depth in a subsequent class, so we talked about it at length in that class which has since refreshed my memory. I was just going by hazy early childhood memories here.
I guess it was a staple over at Sunsoft to make their games have that extra frustration level. Like the one hit and you lose your power up weapon- Blaster Master and Fester's Quest are notorious for this. As well as some challenging boss fights that can sometimes be cheesed through.
You can kill the caterpillars by jumping out of the vehicle and shooting them. You can also jump out, get into a crawling position, and shoot the land mines.
Ah I was under the impression that the second mutant frog was Fred but we "fixed" him by beating him, but I could be misremembering it. And yeah I see him there in that final scene now.
Those arcade-style cabinets with NES games are known as PlayChoice-10, and except for the addition of the timer, the hardware is pretty much the same as the NES. I have played on a single cabinet in the wild, the only one I ever saw, and I remember playing Super Mario Bros. 3 for sure, on it. As far as what other games were inside the cabinet, I can't remember.
I can SWEAR that I remember there being a fire stage where you get an upgrade like the Varia suit that allows you to not take damage from lava and the whole level... well most of it was under lava. I must be losing my mind. As a 7 or 8yo it took FOREVER to figure out where to use hover.... it never occurred to me to backtrack all the way to the beginning. Of course this was pre-internet and I wasn't a Nintendo power kid.
Yep if you didn't have NP you were reliant on word of mouth as a kid, or maybe hoping if you rented the game some generous previous renter shared some tips or passwords in the manual.
@@VideoGames101I was just wondering why didn't Blaze and Fluff invite you to go to Vegas... You seem like a cool Gen-X dude (like myself)... And they left out Gary too... Lol
There's another youtuber out there called Displaced Gamers, that goes into some of the programming and mechanics that go into some old NES games like Blaster Master. There was some specific unique things that were done with RAM and looping subroutines that they explain in that channel. it explains virtually everytime Video Games 101 says "I don't know why about that"... there's a limit in sprites and processing to the NES, and using a turbo controller to generate a lot more objects the game needs to take care of than it can display on screen helps cause those glitches... why enemies disappear or enemies take more hits because the game is struggling processing. also, it's been annoying to see that Video Games 101 doesn't realize that in the top down levels, you can hug the bottom wall, like in area 6, 2, and 1 to avoid taking spike damage, and to get to the extra items that are in the level that got skipped.
@@VideoGames101 That's ok, when I was younger, I thought Jason's blue hair at the end in still pictures was a glitch or printing error above his helmeted head.
5:12 Incorrect or misleading, there are eight levels of gun: 0 = Short range straight 1-3 Long range straight 4-5 Long range straight & left/right curve 6 Zigzag 7 Zigzag wall-penetrating OK, so 8 (full Gun) is the same as 7. What happens is when you have full Gun, and take damage, you go down to what appears level 7, but is actually level 6. Down to level 1 is like level 0, short range. That said, on full Gun, each hit will be actual level, starting with full being same as level 7: 8 Zigzag wall-penetrating 7 Zigzag 6-5 Long range straight & left/right curve 4-2 Long range straight 1-0 Short range straight The only way to workaround this issue is not max out Gun, but go up to level 7. For instance, if you have level 0, and get a flashing power-up, you have level 4, which is the long straight left/right curve. If you are hit, you are down to the third long-range straight. What is strange that level 1, 2, and 3 are the same strength, as level 4 and 5 are the same strength. Level 6 is the same power as 7, the strongest, but only difference is level 6 cannot penetrate through walls and defenses of certain bosses.
Yes! I've got all 3 and I love them. Still not as good as this original NES game, but Inti Creates did a good job capturing the look and spirit of the Sunsoft game. One criticism is that I wish they went with the more simple classic spacesuit design from the original during the overhead walking around segments.
But did you ever read the book? Yes, the book. There was a series of books, the "Worlds of Power" series, targeted toward younger audiences based on NES games. Castlevania, Metal Gear, Mega Man, and even, yes, Blaster Master.
Are you supposed to be able to get the flashing P on the floating platform at around 45:58? I’m assuming it’s just something the put there for no real purpose.
I'm sure it's just there to taunt you or trick some kids into thinking they can get to it somehow, but nope that's an instant drowning if you go for it.
They should’ve just made all the upgrades and new abilities equip-able so u could turn them on and off whenever you want. Like the different guns in Super Metroid
I never thought "Fred" was any of the bosses in the game. Especially because you see him with Jason at the end of the game. Jason wouldn't have/ didn't have time to replace him (lol)- so I think Fred must have been "the princess" Jason needed to rescue; it is THE Nintendo way (LOL) afterall. Both the green & red frog bosses must have been other evil frogs. Even with radiation exposure, surely Fred wouldn't have attacked Jason.
Yeah that's fair, RS, I've heard it was the latter mutant boss but it's not confirmed in the manual. I'd also like to think our buddy Fred wouldn't have come after us like that.
Booooo 🤡 Very proud of myself 😁 I discovered all those tricks with only one television in the house and borrowing the cartridge. That grenade trick was discovered while pausing the game trying to make a bowl of cereal on a Saturday morning😂 after finishing the bowl the boss was dead 😮 that was a cool find back then
You had to wait your turn and put your A game on. . It's much easier now. you don't know what it's like being a young wiz with a hating family with only one TV in the house
, let me guess, you rode dinosaurs to your school, you walked in 100 feet of snow to there in the winter, as well as uphill both ways, you chiseled your work onto stone tablets, and you liked it, right?
Ahhh there's our old pal... funny how you (I) can look at something again and again that's right in front of my face. I must've been taking in that beautiful view.
Part of my job is showing everything you can do in this game, all the exploits. Whether people use them or not is entirely up to them but it's not a complete walkthrough if it's not covered.
@@paxhumana2015 Blaster Master was the 1st game i owned on NES that wasn't Mario and duck hunt...I grew up playing and loving it even till this day it's one of my all time fav games and is my fav NES game...just because you can't don't be raged...Play it as much as me and I'm sure you can legit beat it without cheats.
And this game is the number one reason why I asked the Foundation to give me a tank for Christmas. I’m SCP 049-J, and giving the tank to Doctor Gerald instead would be a horrible idea.
They should’ve just made all the upgrades and new abilities equip-able so u could turn them on and off whenever you want. Like the different guns in Super Metroid
It was both the best and most frustrating show to watch. I would yell at the kids for not touching the switches/power ups in the right spot but now I realize it was just some awful/awkward green screening and likely no way their fault. The kids on Legends of the Hidden Temple on the other hand... different story.
Blazeter Meowster Intro - 0:00
Blaster Master Intro - 2:48
Blaster Master Walkthrough - 3:35
Boss 1 (Mother Brain) - 10:08
Area 2 - 13:37
Boss 2 (Crabullus) - 20:50
Area 3 - 24:03
Boss 3 (Photophage) - 33:27
Area 4 - 40:43
Boss 4 (Fred) - 46:26
Area 5 - 52:13
Boss 5 (Hardshell) - 56:00
Area 6 - 1:01:37
Boss 6 (Frozen Crabullus) - 1:10:50
Area 7 - 1:19:26
Boss 7 (Enhanced Fred) - 1:26:34
Area 8 - 1:34:05
Boss 8 (Plutonium Boss) - 1:41:10
Boss 9 (Underworld Lord) - 1:41:29
Blaster Master Ending - 1:42:14
1:23 What if my pet feeds me radioactive waste?
1:42:58 Fred the Frog is sitting on the tank to the right of Jason. 1:42:35
These last few episodes have been absolutely blasting my nostalgia. I don’t think I can take it anymore, I’m setting up the nes tonight🎉
Do it!
I'm glad to see comments on this upload that pointed it out already, but I always liked how they changed the ending in the English version so that there's a frog chilling out on the tank next to the player in the final shot. Not there in the Japanese game! There was no frog in the Japanese opening! So either Fred got better after being blown up twice, it was never Fred who got blown up to begin with, or Jason picked up a new frog on his way out. Take your pick.
Ha I guess the American localization folks were just more sentimental.
One of, if not my favorite NES game. I loved the book that went along with it 😄
Yep, it's on my shortlist, as well.
I never played Blaster Master before, but I love the concept of driving a tank. Not many NES games like this one. I like the fact you can get out of the tank and explore.
Yeah this is on the shortlist of best NES games which fused two (or more) completely different styles of play and did it extremely well.
The Meteoidvania combined with the top-down shooter was a unique combination.
I would love to see a modern remake of this one in the Metroid Dread style of adventure with dungeons requiring either FPS or third-person over-the-shoulder play.
The Blaster Master Zero Trilogy exists, you know.
Honestly, I wish that this game, its Super Planetary War Records: Metafight predecessor, Blaster Master: Enemy Below, and an 8-bit demake of the other Blaster Master game that was from the early 2010s, would be future DLC to Blaster Master Zero and that an 8-bit demake of Blaster Master 2 for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive (but done more like Blaster Master) would be some future DLC for Blaster Master Zero 2. Also, I would love to see the DLC characters in those other DLC packs for Blaster Master Zero as well.
You make watching a playthrough something to watch other than "just needing to see how to do something or where something is"! You can watch an entire playthrough as a "show". Thank you!
Exactly the vibe we're going for with all of this so thank you very much!
Loved this game as a kid, was just playing it last night. Clutched the lvl 5 boss with 1/2 gun only to lose on crabulus 2. Trying again after I watch this. ( I have beaten it in my youth) I'm going to give your beeline a 7/10 definitely room for efficiency.
Yeah that's fair, there's a cut here or there where I could've shaved off a little time but this is a serviceable route. And yeah, it's like a different game with or without the fully charged gun.
Love playing this game in the 90s 1 kid came from over seas had this game the only 1 of a group of friends that had the game we would have sleep overs and play NES games all night,
That's great; this is definitely one of those "campaign" games that I have similar fond memories of getting together with friends, seeing how far we could get, making incremental progress.
So happy for this 101. Because this game has a non-descriptive title like "Magician" it took me a bit to find it then instantly became among my favourites. Though this game has a good reception IMHO this is the most underrated game that has a good reception, in the sense that when gaming magazines, sites make NES lists Blaster Master is rarely in the top 20. Blaster Master is very easily at least top 20 IMHO.
Fair point, and yes Blaster Master absolutely deserves to be at least in the NES' top 20.
This game was the bane of my existence when I was a kid. I never beat it. Here I am 30-35 years later going at it again. I must beat this game!!! 😂
I know what you mean. Who would think to go back to the beginning to the game to get to Area 4??
Blaster Master I was never able to get anywhere playing when I was little. The sounds and the critter were so cool, I just had fun bouncing around the intro area. I really enjoy attending your classes.
Thank you Bill! And yeah, the controls made this a lot of fun to play. The tank has a good bit of lift, so the platforming with it alone was lots of fun.
If you look closely, Fred is sitting to Jason's right in the ending.
Ha yep, I see it now.
My favorite trick here is, when you have a landmine that you can't shoot, just pop out of the tank and shoot it on foot. They detonate with one shot, you're pretty safe, and furthermore Sofia can't take damage when you're outside of it.
I think it's accidental that the frog bosses resemble Fred. They're holdovers from Meta Fight, of course. Note, not only do the frog bosses return, in tiny form, as enemies in Fester's Quest, but little versions of the crustacean bosses show up as enemies in its end-game spaceship, too.
Also: the one gameplay difference between Blaster Master and its predecessor Meta Fight is, in the room with the locked doors in Area 4, after climbing up the long long ladder, there are _no platforms_ on the way back down the other side to unlock the second door! It's just a long fatal plunge with a short ladder just off the ground to grab to save your life! It's like a little kaizo trick to frustrate players halfway though the game!
Couple things I would note in here:
1. I use the first door as Jason to cheese my way into maxing out my gun. A bit of back and forth goes a long way there.
2. 7-11 is definitely worth the Big Gulp, but no love for the Nachos? C'Mon, Bruz. Not repping DIY Cheese, Chili, and Jalapeno action?
3. I wouldn't necessarily think of this game as a set of areas, since they're all connected. Maybe more like zones... filled with danger...
Fair points ZC! But yeah getting that gun sorted early on is a game changer. Ha I will say I used to load up the 7-11 hot dogs in my 20's, hitting the cheese and chili dispensers and making sure I got my $1 whatever's worth, heh.
I got this one from my grandma back in 1992 from a yard sale. That hover ability is a real pain because it depletes so fast and trying to find enemies that carry it is very hard.
Surprised some kid parted with this in 1992 at a yard sale! Probably had just gotten their SNES and figured "I'LL NEVER PLAY THIS 8-BIT STUFF AGAIN" and likely instantly regretted it. Agreed on the hover; only a very few types of enemies reliably give this to you, and while they're somewhat concentrated in the places where you typically need the hover, it's hard to come by out in the rest of the world.
So it was Blaze under the helmet all along, huh? Yet another example of that amazing Sunsoft music.
My favorite odd trick to do with Sophia is to jump right in front of a stage door. Once you're through the other side, if you tap forward, you will roll automatically for a bit and look like you are a bit lower to the ground, then do a single jump. After that, your controls are normal again.
Stage 4 music gives me more of a Gremlins 2 vibe.
If you don't mind losing a life, you can actually fall down onto the lock for the key from above and skip the ladder crawling. Not that it's a better move, but it is an option.
Also, the blue hair at the ending matches the ending screen for the Famicom game!
Gotta get into Gremlins 2 very soon.
@@VideoGames101 Can't wait for that! Would make a great Halloween game!
Love Blaster Master. The one thing I always did that it doesn't seem like you needed to do was jump out of the tank to shoot the landmines.
Fair point and someone else mentioned doing that for the caterpillars. I get a little skittish outside the tank and know how quickly you can die if you make a wrong move so I don't practice or recommend it myself, but it certainly bears worth mentioning.
I love this channel so much
Thank you kindly!
i hope you never stop making these.... I think you have surpassed UCBVG in quality (which isn't easy).
Never, we're having too much fun! Thank you for the extremely kind words, as well!
I find the thunder bolt that shoots out the bottom of Sophia is good for the low to the ground enemy's like those slug looking things
Yeah it's the best move for them, but still the hit radius is surprisingly small and leads to some very frustrating moments now and then like I have here as the bolts just miss their left and right sides ha.
Lightning is for the long vertical descents, especially in water, ironically, like the one you were going down while he was whining about lightning. It is great for when there are enemies coming from below.
Landmines and Caterpillars are more enemies that Lightning was designed to counter
I remember the arcade cabinets you talked about while in Area 7. It was the Nintendo PlayChoice 10. My parents ran a gas station and bait shop that had one of those cabinets in it. I spent hours on that thing. My whole allowance went into playing Double Dragon, Punch Out, and Dr. Mario.
Ha that's awesome that you essentially had a PlayChoice 10 in the family. My extended family would meet at a seafood place right on the water once a year when I was a kid and they had one out front. Thought it was the coolest thing.
Love that Sunsoft music!
Soundtrack is so good, one of many great Sunsoft soundtracks and up there with their Batman.
You've won me with the Meowster Intro
Blazeter Meowster!
I remember that arcade cabinet your talking about... It was call The Nintendo Playchoice 10...
Yep! Fluff covered it in a different class so I'm much better versed on it now but yeah, I remember they had both the side down and upright cabinets for it. Thought it was so cool, having so many great games crammed into one machine.
0:01 - Boop!
0:20 -
0:35 - Post-grads really know how to party, don't they?
0:51 - I hope Fluff's riding shotgun.
0:56 - Oh, they went to Defcon.
Oh, shit.
3:03 - That's actually not too uncommon from where I grew up in Pennsylvania..
7:05 - Firepower.
32:00 - Just like Fester's Quest.
33:55 - Nice dodge!
46:30 - AW HELL NO
46:45 -
52:23 - Hazmat suits aren't body armor. Jason should have chosen his wardrobe a bit more wisely, but needs must sometimes.
56:59 - The dive engine has the unhelpful side effect of making liquid hazards everywhere else in the game more deadly. It switches on whenever you try to jump out of a lava pit in level 2, for example. A deviously clever bit of coding.
1:08:25 - They just went sadistic with the hazards, here.
1:41:11 - It's Cover Boy!
1:42:49 - If Jason ganked Fred (twice!), why is Fred sitting there chilling on Sophia's spoiler? The world may never know.
1:43:55 - Somebody Etsy has to have made a patch or a pin or something of that insignia.
Haha those are pretty apt descriptions beat for beat in that opening.
Such an awesome game to play and one of many NES games worth coming back to, sadly me and my cousins never beat this game though i've beaten the second one. also love the underwater pillars in Area 5, makes you wonder what ancient race was once there.
Agreed! The music on that level is very calming and pleasant, as well.
I remember hearing about this game, but never had much of a chance to play it outside of its cameo in the old "SMB Crossover" flash game by Exploding Rabbit.
Then I managed to find a copy at an old retro game store.
I remember this game had a port to GB Color and a sequel on the Genesis, though both weren't very well regarded.
Yeah I think this is generally considered to be the best of that early "trilogy" if you will, though I remember 2 on the Genesis being okay. There's been a lot of decent games in the series in the last 10 years or so, but this will always be my favorite.
That was a VERY underwhelming ending :'( Never seen it before. Thank you for the Lets Play!
Yep, still better than most of the NES library, sadly, heh.
I might now be able to finally beat Blaster Master on Nintendo Switch Online!
Excellent! Yeah I love that the best of the NES library is very available on their modern console(s) like that.
Blaster Master was such a classic game, but it gets boring so quickly lol. I always started this game out PUMPED with a RELENTLESS dedication to beat it FOR REAL THIS TIME. Never happened. You are a legend.
edit: I definitely see how after 40 minutes it is like, "ugh.. no more of this!" Still a classic
This is a good game to step away from after the underwater area. Go out for Saturday evening dinner with the fam like I did as a kid, leave the game on and come back to finish it with that second wind, champion.
Ahh this is a truly great game. More brutal than most Nintendo Hard games, simply because of the lack of infinite continues. Or passwords. Or mercy in the later areas. But soooooo good. An enjoyable class!
For this one, I have a tidbit to add:
13:37 Jason can take out the worms with 4 shots, which is pretty easy to spam for two worms. I always just pop him out, blast the worms, then hop back in. Even if I take a few hits, I just hop back in for the free refill. Jason takes the same damage as Sophia, so no big risk here! There are other places where you can take advantage of his low profile and easily filled health bar, too. Abuse the lad, it's fun!
Excellent supplementary tip, Kevin. Yeah I don't like to leave the safety of the tank, but every now and then Jason is more effective outside of it than in.
This is Metroid . Should be a cross over . So good.
Fluff looks exceedingly cool in this episode ✌️👌
He's a busy cat!
1:21:30 I am somewhat taken aback that a channel such as this would remember everything about the PlayChoice-10 arcade system, except its actual name! Really dropping the ball there.
Yeah that's fair; quite genuinely this was right before Fluff covered the PlayChoice-10 in depth in a subsequent class, so we talked about it at length in that class which has since refreshed my memory. I was just going by hazy early childhood memories here.
Thanks Video Games 101🤘
You got it DBD!
I guess it was a staple over at Sunsoft to make their games have that extra frustration level. Like the one hit and you lose your power up weapon- Blaster Master and Fester's Quest are notorious for this. As well as some challenging boss fights that can sometimes be cheesed through.
Too true. Despite the two games having a lot in common (plus this coming out BEFORE) Fester, it's crazy how much better this game is than Fester.
The music in "Blaster Master" was almost as exemplary as other classics like Mega Man, TLoZ, and Kid Icarus.
Fully agree; Sunsoft was on their game musically (and otherwise) in this one.
You can kill the caterpillars by jumping out of the vehicle and shooting them. You can also jump out, get into a crawling position, and shoot the land mines.
Didn't think about leaving the safety of the tank to shoot the caterpillars, but that's a great tip!
@@VideoGames101 your video inspired me to dust off my NES Advantage and revisit this classic. (Original hardware only 🤓.)
Fred is sitting right next to Jason on top of the tank, the boss frogs were just other mutants.
Ah I was under the impression that the second mutant frog was Fred but we "fixed" him by beating him, but I could be misremembering it. And yeah I see him there in that final scene now.
Those arcade-style cabinets with NES games are known as PlayChoice-10, and except for the addition of the timer, the hardware is pretty much the same as the NES. I have played on a single cabinet in the wild, the only one I ever saw, and I remember playing Super Mario Bros. 3 for sure, on it. As far as what other games were inside the cabinet, I can't remember.
I can SWEAR that I remember there being a fire stage where you get an upgrade like the Varia suit that allows you to not take damage from lava and the whole level... well most of it was under lava. I must be losing my mind. As a 7 or 8yo it took FOREVER to figure out where to use hover.... it never occurred to me to backtrack all the way to the beginning. Of course this was pre-internet and I wasn't a Nintendo power kid.
Yep if you didn't have NP you were reliant on word of mouth as a kid, or maybe hoping if you rented the game some generous previous renter shared some tips or passwords in the manual.
I would love to go to Vegas with Fluff and Blaze to see the fights 🤣
That did look like a good time.
@@VideoGames101I was just wondering why didn't Blaze and Fluff invite you to go to Vegas... You seem like a cool Gen-X dude (like myself)... And they left out Gary too... Lol
There's another youtuber out there called Displaced Gamers, that goes into some of the programming and mechanics that go into some old NES games like Blaster Master. There was some specific unique things that were done with RAM and looping subroutines that they explain in that channel. it explains virtually everytime Video Games 101 says "I don't know why about that"... there's a limit in sprites and processing to the NES, and using a turbo controller to generate a lot more objects the game needs to take care of than it can display on screen helps cause those glitches... why enemies disappear or enemies take more hits because the game is struggling processing. also, it's been annoying to see that Video Games 101 doesn't realize that in the top down levels, you can hug the bottom wall, like in area 6, 2, and 1 to avoid taking spike damage, and to get to the extra items that are in the level that got skipped.
“What about the frog?” The frog was literally sitting beside him on Sophia in the ending scene.
Ha yeah someone mentioned that and I feel silly. Beat it countless times and never saw it when it's right in front of my face.
@@VideoGames101 That's ok, when I was younger, I thought Jason's blue hair at the end in still pictures was a glitch or printing error above his helmeted head.
lightning weapon is the least useful weapon cause it only fire downwards, but can hit the caterpillars and landmines easily
Agreed, I just wish it was a bit wider in its effect range or they were a bit more generous with the hit box.
5:12 Incorrect or misleading, there are eight levels of gun:
0 = Short range straight
1-3 Long range straight
4-5 Long range straight & left/right curve
6 Zigzag
7 Zigzag wall-penetrating
OK, so 8 (full Gun) is the same as 7. What happens is when you have full Gun, and take damage, you go down to what appears level 7, but is actually level 6. Down to level 1 is like level 0, short range. That said, on full Gun, each hit will be actual level, starting with full being same as level 7:
8 Zigzag wall-penetrating
7 Zigzag
6-5 Long range straight & left/right curve
4-2 Long range straight
1-0 Short range straight
The only way to workaround this issue is not max out Gun, but go up to level 7. For instance, if you have level 0, and get a flashing power-up, you have level 4, which is the long straight left/right curve. If you are hit, you are down to the third long-range straight. What is strange that level 1, 2, and 3 are the same strength, as level 4 and 5 are the same strength. Level 6 is the same power as 7, the strongest, but only difference is level 6 cannot penetrate through walls and defenses of certain bosses.
Excellent supplementary and corrective info on how the gun works there TM, very much appreciated.
Anyone ever played the Blaster Master Zero series?
Yes! I've got all 3 and I love them. Still not as good as this original NES game, but Inti Creates did a good job capturing the look and spirit of the Sunsoft game. One criticism is that I wish they went with the more simple classic spacesuit design from the original during the overhead walking around segments.
@@rodneyabrett Well...can't win them all I guess. Still, they did their damn hardest to combine both cannons.
I've played a bit of Zero and Zero 2 and both seemed like a lot of fun.
@@VideoGames101 Zero 3 brings you back to the original Metafight game and even battle Kane Gardner and the OG Sophia III.
Speaking of Arcade cabinets, who remembers The Nickelodeon Arcade show???? Used to think that was the coolest as a young kid
I imagine the frog as the fourth boss fit for the Japanese version.
True.
But did you ever read the book?
Yes, the book.
There was a series of books, the "Worlds of Power" series, targeted toward younger audiences based on NES games. Castlevania, Metal Gear, Mega Man, and even, yes, Blaster Master.
A variant of Eve was later adapted into Blaster Master: Blasting Again, and the Blaster Master Zero Trilogy.
I've looked it up since this class and yeah, I do remember that series now. Very cool concept.
I still have a copy of the Blaster Master one.
Are you supposed to be able to get the flashing P on the floating platform at around 45:58? I’m assuming it’s just something the put there for no real purpose.
I'm sure it's just there to taunt you or trick some kids into thinking they can get to it somehow, but nope that's an instant drowning if you go for it.
You can grab it if you use i-frames. But of course you need to take another hit to get off the platform.
They should’ve just made all the upgrades and new abilities equip-able so u could turn them on and off whenever you want. Like the different guns in Super Metroid
I never thought "Fred" was any of the bosses in the game. Especially because you see him with Jason at the end of the game. Jason wouldn't have/ didn't have time to replace him (lol)- so I think Fred must have been "the princess" Jason needed to rescue; it is THE Nintendo way (LOL) afterall. Both the green & red frog bosses must have been other evil frogs. Even with radiation exposure, surely Fred wouldn't have attacked Jason.
Yeah that's fair, RS, I've heard it was the latter mutant boss but it's not confirmed in the manual. I'd also like to think our buddy Fred wouldn't have come after us like that.
Wait the Frogs just back to normal chilling with him again??? Or is that a different frog?? Lmao
Guess it was just that 24 hour toxic waste that he drank!
They didn't change the ending from the original Japanese story. (Figured we would not make it that far) Lofuckingl
Try the blaster master zero trilogy
I'd very much like to, that's encouraging that they made three of them, plus I've heard good things.
Wait a sec... wasn't his frog sitting next to him on top of Sophia at the end?
Yeah... it definitely is.
@@VideoGames101 love the video btw, glad it got suggested!
Booooo 🤡
Very proud of myself 😁 I discovered all those tricks with only one television in the house and borrowing the cartridge. That grenade trick was discovered while pausing the game trying to make a bowl of cereal on a Saturday morning😂 after finishing the bowl the boss was dead 😮 that was a cool find back then
You had to wait your turn and put your A game on. . It's much easier now. you don't know what it's like being a young wiz with a hating family with only one TV in the house
, let me guess, you rode dinosaurs to your school, you walked in 100 feet of snow to there in the winter, as well as uphill both ways, you chiseled your work onto stone tablets, and you liked it, right?
That was definitely a great feeling stumbling on something like that, like finding treasure!
Which one is blaster and which one is master. Wasn’t Tina Turner in this game?
Somewhere in Area 6 I believe.
Who control barter town?
What?
@@paxhumana2015 Master Blaster run barter town.
They could’ve made some bosses for Sofia to fight too…… weird
True, with all the upgrades we got for her, too.
It reminds me of Gradius mixed with Mega Man mixed with Metroid. Gradiegatroid
Definitely, Gradius was another game which showed how to blend different styles of gameplay in one game successfully.
And I mean Gradiegatroid is just an epic name lol
And I mean Gradiegatroid is just an epic name lol
Did you not notice Fred at 1:42:14? That green thing beside Jason while sitting on Sophia isn't his helmet. It's Fred! Happy ending after all.
Ahhh there's our old pal... funny how you (I) can look at something again and again that's right in front of my face. I must've been taking in that beautiful view.
Good thing i can actually beat this game without cheating...this is a let down seeing all this cheating
Part of my job is showing everything you can do in this game, all the exploits. Whether people use them or not is entirely up to them but it's not a complete walkthrough if it's not covered.
@@VideoGames101 I understand that, which it's cool would of liked seeing it with and without it nice video though
Sure you can, kid..
@@paxhumana2015 Blaster Master was the 1st game i owned on NES that wasn't Mario and duck hunt...I grew up playing and loving it even till this day it's one of my all time fav games and is my fav NES game...just because you can't don't be raged...Play it as much as me and I'm sure you can legit beat it without cheats.
And this game is the number one reason why I asked the Foundation to give me a tank for Christmas.
I’m SCP 049-J, and giving the tank to Doctor Gerald instead would be a horrible idea.
This is freaking awesome but make the screen bigger it will make ur videos more awesome Thanxxxxxx keep up the great work
Thank you! And ha I actually had this at full screen but got a lot of comments asking for the original aspect ratio.
They should’ve just made all the upgrades and new abilities equip-able so u could turn them on and off whenever you want. Like the different guns in Super Metroid
Good point! I guess that would've been asking too much for the age, seeing as the recently released Metroid didn't have that yet, either.
Speaking of Arcade cabinets, who remembers The Nickelodeon Arcade show???? Used to think that was the coolest as a young kid
It was both the best and most frustrating show to watch. I would yell at the kids for not touching the switches/power ups in the right spot but now I realize it was just some awful/awkward green screening and likely no way their fault. The kids on Legends of the Hidden Temple on the other hand... different story.