The Nintendo Switch could be many things as its game library grows and develops; one of these is a haven for 'old-school' experiences. Considering the core loyal Nintendo audience and its love of past generations, retro-styled titles have a decent shot at finding a keen audience.
Blaster Master Zero is a good example, out now on 3DS and Nintendo Switch. Inti Creates, often praised for its work in the precious art of pixels - in titles like Azure Striker Gunvolt - was handed the keys to Blaster Master by Sunsoft. The end result, as we argued in our review, is rather good.
Now the rather fun DF Retro series by Digital Foundry has taken a look at Zero, the NES original and some of the sequels. It's a nice blast from the past and well worth a watch, though some of the summary is also below.
Controls are improved now (allowing Sophia to fire at an angle, for example) and the stages are modified in many ways. There's even a new map system and save points here - modern sensibilities we take for granted, but simply weren't there back in the day. When you stack it up against the NES original, it immediately becomes clear that a lot of changes have been made. Sophia now has an idle animation, grass blows in the wind and detailed backgrounds fill the environment. When you hit the ground, little plumes of smoke and dust are kicked up while weapons produce a beautiful neon shot.
The parallax scrolling added to the game is truly beautiful as well, with a huge number of layers that can overlap smoothly. Once you jump into the top down maps, things improve further with greatly enhanced sprite-work and fleshed out visuals. It certainly helps give these areas some additional character. It also runs more smoothly. The original game operates at 60fps but many scenes trigger significant slowdown. That is not the case with Blaster Master Zero, which delivers a perfectly stable frame-rate. Blaster Master Zero is also available on 3DS where we understand that it's much the same game - albeit with a 30fps lock.
Unfortunately, there is one disappointing issue with the game on Switch - it uses non-integer scaling. We covered something similar back in the DF Retro Symphony of the Night episode where every fourth pixel was an extra pixel wide leading to distorted artwork. In this case, the resulting artefacts from this improper scale result in noticeable shimmering and distortion while scrolling. It's distracting in docked mode but is noticeably worse when playing the Switch in portable mode. But the positives far outweight the negatives here. Take the soundtrack, for example. The main theme from the original game is retained but most of it is brand new. What's interesting here is that all the music has been create to sound quite like audio produced by the Sunsoft 5B audio chip that was used in NES classic, Gimmick. It certainly sounds great.
Have you tried out Blaster Master Zero, or are you yet to jump into it?
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 24
B-but I haven't played Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 yet!!!1!11!
But no I have not played it yet, too busy with Zelda.
It's amazingly good. And as a fan of the original on NES — it's my favorite NES game — that tells you something.
Wish I had time to sit and try to point pixels out.I'd rather just enjoy the game
Yeah I love it. I was way more interested in this than Zelda but that's just what kind of gamer I am. I can play all the classics if I want because I have them already. What I want now is to see more modern remakes (never thought I'd say that) like this and the Wonder Boy game and I will buy them immediately. This is a better game than the Wii Blastermaster I think because it looks original 8 bit. These moden retro games can be so awesome. One day I want an in depth modern day retro sports game(s). i.e. Blades of Steel with modern roster, line changes, better looking fighting, season mode etc.
Remember the Mutant Football league? That would be a great remake.
I love the original, so i didn't hesitate for a second to pick this up. I figured I'd play for half an hour or so to get a feel and see how I liked it. Before I knew it I was 4 hours in and enjoying every minute.
The only problem I found was that it was way too easy. Where the original was "NES hard" I just breezed through the first 7 worlds barely getting a scratch and never seeing what the bosses in the top-down sections actually do before melting them. I still adore this game.
I really can't see what they were saying about the pixel issues on Switch. The game looks and plays fine. Nothing is distracting. Been playing it for 2 hours now. I'd love to see this team make us a new Startropics!
Fun little distraction. Definitely worth the asking price.
I have been having a blast with this game!
Is there going to be a physical copy available? I refuse to buy new games digitally.
On the wish list. No time for it, I'm sort of set with retro right now fortunate enough to have an NES mini. Will probably get it before Shovel Knight double dip. Wish there was a small discount on that to help push me over the edge.
@Slim1999 I completely agree with you and I gotta say on this one I disagree with digital foundry about it being soo noticeable that big fourth pixel and all and how it is worse in portable mode, LoL come on I did not notice anything like that at all in any way shape or form these people pick games apart so bad they have to hate playing them and its all a big bunch of BS .. I loved the original and I thought Blaster Master Zero was better in every way its a great game and it looks great in docked mode and in portable mode on the Switch as well .
Just finished Blaster Master Zero myself, it was alright. Nothing I would write home about, but with the $10 price tag I'd say its worth it.
@Romeo-75 I didn't notice the non-integer scaling either and I've completed the game twice now with a mixture of TV and handheld play. It's such a great game.
The only minor criticism I have with the graphics are the small black borders on the left and right of the screen. I suspect the game was originally designed for the 3DS and that's why it doesn't quite scale up to fit the screen properly.
I disagree with some of the guys opinions in the video but the one I really disagree with is the sound in the blaster master 2 he was saying it sucked and I thought it was awesome.
"Save point"
"Modern sensibilities"
lol
Anyway, this looks like good stuff and I'll maybe get to it soon. Too busy for any games right now, but I try to keep my backlog in check so we'll see.
@Romeo-75
"these people pick games apart so bad they have to hate playing them and its all a big bunch of BS"
Really? Do you even watch the video? The guy keep talking about how much he LOVE the game (and Blaster Master franchise as a whole). Accusing him to hate the game because he pointed some flaws of the game is just immature.
It's his job and DF specialty to pick apart technical aspect of video games, regardless how they feel about. But doesn't mean that by pointing flaws they hate the game in question. You should know that if you really love something, you have to accept and recognize the flaws it has, otherwise it's just blind fanboyism. In fact, if you love a game so much you probably play it enough times to spot something that other people don't.
Oh yes you never notice nor care about the pixels integer or whatever, that's fine and all but doesn't mean the problems don't exist or other people shouldn't care too. Remember, no product is perfect. DF just did their job because they have tools and knowledge at their disposal; their findings can be useful (or just making it some interesting facts) for some people. Also, this video here isn't some review that encourage/discourage people to buy the game, it's not like they said "hey, don't buy this game because one pixel is off", it's just technical analysis.
Loving this game!
Love this game have 3ds version
Blaster Master Zero was an awesome little game. I quite enjoyed it. Didn't know the 3DS version only ran at 30 FPS. It makes me more happy that I picked up the Switch version.
I actually didn't know about most of the games in this video. Thanks for sharing it!
@Rontanamo_Bay I have no experience with this NES title or Bionic commando but I Loved the remake of it, the strider one was... ok.
The Cutscenes in the Ducktales remake are not the problem, not being to able to quickly skip them is. I love that the old cast returned and it is propably one of the last times Alan Young reprised his role as mr. Mc D. and as a fan of the show makes up for a lot!
That said game looks great and if my budget permits it I would love to buy it someday.
@Hikingguy
I'm pretty sure all PS3s play PS1 games. Not PS2 games though, only the first models do that.
@Hikingguy
All PS3 model can play PS1 games but only the earliest PS3 model can play PS2 games
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