When Blaster Master Zero launched last week some were dismayed at the lack of Pro Controller support - something that developer Inti Creates was quick to point out would be added in a future update.
The good news is that the update has just gone live and will automatically download to your Switch console without you having to do a single thing.
If you were grumbling about not being able to use your lovely Pro Controller with this sublime 2D action title, now's the time to turn that frown upside down and get playing. We gave the game a glowing 8/10 review, so you really have no excuse not to own it now.
Comments 54
That's cool. I've not tried this game in docked mode yet.
Ah cool, I was waiting for this. Now I can actually play the game.
@Expa0 did your switch not come with joy-con?
Just in time, was planning on buying today.
Is this game pretty awesome?
I feel like the only one "not feeling it' with this game.....I just can't get into it and shovel knight: spectre is far more appealing to me at the moment despite having played the original shovel knight already.
Is this one of those things that if you didn't play the original in its own time it's not going to be as interesting?
Anyone know how this runs on 3DS? I know it's not a graphically intense game, i'm just curious if there's any performance issues since they seem to be focusing on the switch version.
Awesome. I was bummed when I started it up the other night, with pro controller in hand...only to realize it was useless.
@RedMageLanakyn No issues on the 3ds on my 4+ hours of playtime.
This has been the surprise of the Switch launch for me. Never played the original, so my enjoyment isn't just nostalgia. Definitely worth checking out if you think you even MIGHT be interested. Nice mix of old school and modern between the aesthetics and mechanics.
Quick update! Glad they didn't sit and waits
@manu0 THAT made me laugh louder than it should have done
But yeah, as much sh*t as i gave the JoyCons for lacking a proper D-Pad in the beginning, i now finished 6 playthroughs of Shovel Knight with them.
So yeah, the JoyCons themselves are a valid controller, even if they don't look the part
It's nice to have options, but this one's an undocked game for me, and Joy-cons are just better then.
@MarinaKat Thank you, made my purchase decision a bit easier!
@manu0 Haha. That's what I've been thinking. People keep talking like the Switch is controllerless. I'm like...uh, your system came with a controller. Two, actually.
Well, happy to hear they were at least quick to address such a glaring omission.
@Einherjar Yeah, I told everyone this. The Joy-Con may not have proper d-pads but the four buttons are now so small and close together that they pretty much are also a d-pad at this point. I see no good reason they wouldn't be perfectly good for playing basically any game where people would normally want to use a traditional d-pad—at least in Grip mode, portable mode with both Joy-Con attached, or tabletop mode using two Joy-Con at once. They wouldn't, however, make sense in tabletop mode only using one of them, since you'd have no proper face buttons to press if you were using the buttons as the directional pad, and the analog stick would be a garbage replacement for multiple actual buttons—obviously.
What I find most interesting is how much faster Nintendo are allowing/processing patches when compared to 3DS.
I'm still not sure on this one though. I'll wait for a sale.
Oh the Joy! This is amazing news. I have the game already and I have being having a blast but adding Pro Controller support is just great.
Best news of the day
@rallydefault it is!
@NEStalgia I didn't play the original and for me this is doing it.
@KidRad Snake Pass interest me but is mostly because of the music.
@impurekind I have to admit, it required some learning.
With bigger thumbs its not unlikely that you'll hit both directions at the same time (While pogoing in Shovel Knight for instance).
But at the end of the day, they did their job the same way a good D-Pad would have done.
And honestly, tabletop mode is such a fringe thing, i don't really take it into consideration most of the time.
For me, single Joy Con multiplayer is a bridge solution until i can afford another controller
@Jessica286 @KidRad Yeah Snake Pass is one of my most anticipated. And releases on the same day as Has Been Heroes. Busy day!
I'll have to give this one another shot. Something about it just isn't clicking, yet I can see so much potential in it.
@Einherjar @impurekind I'm strangely finding that I actually like the 4 buttons better than the proper D-pad on the Pro. That might not be true in street fighter where diagonals are critical though. Technically this setup is more like Playstation D-Pads people seem to love.
@Damo
Can you please ask the developers of Snipperclips why that game doesn't support the Pro Controller? I have four of them for a reason, and the game does support handheld mode and Joy-Con grip, so there is no reason why Pro Controller support should be left out.
This is exactly how I feel about Snipperclips. I want to use my Pro Controller! They are very expensive, and I even bought four of them!
@Expa0
"Ah cool, I was waiting for this. Now I can actually play the game."
My excuse is I don't want to try it.
@NEStalgia The simultaneous L/R, U/D input is still an "issue", especially in more hectic games.
And there even are a few retro games that actually freak out wen they register those inputs
But other than that, its perfectly fine and i really grew fond of the micro switches they used rather than the usual rubber thingy ^^
Awesome, because if you left the game paused while playing it in portable mode, docked it, and were trying to use the pro controller, you'd get stuck in the game and would have to use the joy-cons to exit to the home menu cuz the game shut off the pro controller. That and having a d-pad will make this game easier to control.
@NEStalgia I played the original, and I still don't want to get it. Sometimes it just doesn't click with you. Don't worry about it.
Question for anyone with the 3DS version: Is the 3D used? This affects which system I buy this for. Please advise
@NEStalgia I'm having fun with it, and it's my first Blaster Master game. What exactly do you not like about it?
I mean, the writing is utter garbage, but I love the big, non-linear level design and tight controls. Catchy music, too. Bosses are a bit too easy, but whatever.
@Einherjar Haha, yeah! I do like the clicky feel... I was never as attached to D-pads as some though. I played most of my 8 & 16 bit games on my NES/SNES Advantage joysticks anyway Even the Mario 3 and Metroid arcade cabinets used joysticks so in a way the D-pads were always bottom tier options I guess. Or coming from the arcade I view them that way. But I still thought I'd hate the 4 buttons way more than I am. Going from that to the d-pad on the pro feels almost unnerving at times!
@ballistic90 Yeah...I thought it sounded great....I pick it up and always feel like there's something I'm supposed to be getting but aren't Then I load shovel knight back up and get right into it. To me the controls or shooting mechanics feel like the "bad part" of the 8 bit era. But the overwhelming praise so many have for it tell me it shouldn't be feeling that way.
@Ralizah I think what gets me is the gun play in it feels very loose...(or is it that it's too rigid?) It definitely feels 8-bit, but it feels like some of the low points of 8-bit. I know it's NOT and that's why I was wondering if you had to play the original to really get it. I also can't quite get the level design in my head. Not sure why, but I feel like I'm aimlessly wandering. Which sounds funny considering I'm switching between this and BotW
Every game needs to support the pro controller!
@NEStalgia Gunplay with the tank, the guy, or both?
The levels aren't really meant to be entirely explored at once. There's a good deal of backtracking in this game, and you can open up new areas with upgrades to your car. It actually feels a bit Metroid-esque, which is funny, considering the first boss is "Mother Brain."
You know one thing in BMZ that annoys me? The fact that your guy, despite having a fairly high jump, takes fall damage from all but the smallest falls in the overworld. Want to let go of a ladder to get back to your car faster? Too bad! You have to climb allllllll the way down or your little guy dies.
Lets hope the 1.3 version update comes next to Europe for Azure Striker Gunvolt. There are no excuses for Inti Creates regarding that.
About time. We quickly learnt the lack of a proper d-pad on the left joy-con was a mistake. It doesn't quite work as deftly as required for Blaster Master Zero, and the stick is not precise enough either. Nintendo should always have had a d-pad and people use the points of it as buttons in the rare case a single joy-con is used as a controller. Just wait to try playing Street Fighter 2 with joy-cons , it'll be impossible.
@Einherjar
Yup, saved me money on the Pro once I realized how good they were for 2D games when I easily beat Blaster Master Zero with the Joy-Con "d-pad". Was even pulling off some decent combos in Waku Waku 7
@HalBailman Mayeb for you but I was pulling off precision movement and jumps/shooting with the Joy-Can "d-pad" quite easily and beat the game too. Also, diagonals and combos work quite well too using those buttons. I was actually surprised. So no, despite the usualy hyperbole that gets thrown about by ignorant gamers, the joy-cons are more than fine for any game type. Then again, I've been used to using a lot of funky controllers since my NES, Atari, and Coleco days in the mid-80s.
@NEStalgia I owned and beat the original around Xmas 1988 and beat it many more times before trading it away in 1991 and even owned the crappy sequels and still like this remake quite a bit and even beats it in a few areas. I actually like a lot of the newer music tracks as well. The new Area 3 was better than than I thought it would be and the overhead sections have great music too.
@TurboTEF Haven't played a fighting game with them yet. Still hoping the ACA line will include Garou or Samurai Showdown
But yeah, i was really surprised how good they actually turned out to be.
@Ralizah Mostly gunplay with the tank. I haven't done too much on foot, and that "fall off a ladder thing"...sigh I died like 8 times on the first ladder I found trying to figure that out
Maybe if I weren't playing it between bouts of BotW I'd be able to appreciate it more. As it it doesn't feel like it's offering anything appealing, and I keep swapping back out to Shovel Knight or RMX (followed your advice and bought RMX...that's got to be the most fun I've had with a racing game in AGES! Every track has a hook!) Even if this were still the 8-bit era, I suppose given the choice of loading this or my LoZ gold cartridge, that gold cart would be living in my toaster slot most of the time...
@NEStalgia Yeah, the logistics of fall damage in BMZ really threw me for a loop. The guy CONTROLS fluidly, but he takes so much damage from even small falls that I never want to leave my vehicle... except I have to, because some enemies are short enough that my stupid car can't hit them with its gun. I could use homing missiles or something, but that depletes my car's mana.
The game has a ton of little flaws, but I'm fundamentally enjoying it enough to overlook them.
I was kind of mixed on RMX when I first got it because I'm not used to lightning fast racers and I found the controls to be uncomfortable. I also had issues with the game's reliance on the boosting mechanic. Once I got used to the controls and the speed, though, I found myself enjoying its creative track design, Ikaruga-esque polarity switching when hitting boosts, and arcadey simplicity. It's also, as I mentioned, a FANTASTIC value for the money.
My only real issue with it now is this: why is the game so darn loud? I play every other Switch game at the same volume, but I have to turn my speakers down about halfway before I boot up RMX to keep it from destroying my eardrums and waking the family.
Regarding Shovel Knight: I love it, but considering I own all the content from when I purchased a copy for my 3DS at launch, I can't justify re-purchasing it. I'm also having that issue with World of Goo. I LOVE World of Goo. I bought it for $20 in 2009 not too long after it was originally released, and also got it for my tablet in later years. Now I own a Steam copy as well. I can't really justify paying another $10 for the same game.
The concepts in this game are great. I'm not usually big into just diving into indie games, but it SEEMED like a great formula
RMX: Yeah, boosting somehow felt natural to me. I don't play many "car" racers, and the last F-Zero I played was the original...but it felt all familiar to me I guess from WipEout. The polarity switching keeps it really fun and arcadey. The loudness thing, Snipperclips suffers from that too! Not sure why though you can adjust the game's volume settings to not start up so loud (I tend not to bother though.)
Shovel Knight: Yeah I played the original on 3DS, but hadn't played Spectre of Torment before, so that's all new to me and quite good! I actually like the slash jump mechanic more than the pogo shovel
@NEStalgia Exactly. And, I actually think it will be perfectly fine for Street Fighter too.
@MeloMan 3D sadly is unsupported. Also no bottom screen map.
@TurboTEF Good for you! Personally the joy-con buttons are inadequate as a d-pad and it will always be a design flaw.
@HalBailman Clearly not a design flaw if they work flawlessly. Nice logic there, yo :rolleyes"
@TurboTEF Not for me. Grow up and learn people can have different opinions.
@HalBailman So you're just crap at adapting to changing things, got it. Noted, will not reply to such a useless gamer such as yourself again.
@TurboTEF Nup. You're crap at being a decent person. Good riddance!
@manu0
Maybe your joycon came with a d-pad but mine did not. Some people (like me) find 2D games better with the d-pad. So we were waiting for this patch to play the game.
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