Blaster Master Zero 2

Inti Creates is back with a sequel to a remake that has a title that no longer makes any sense at all. I enjoyed the first game a lot. It had some serious backtracking issues. Hopefully that gets fixed in this one. From the last game Jason just saved the Earth from the mutant threat. Unfortunately his companion Eve was infected by the mutant virus and their new goal is to fly off into the cosmos to find her home planet.

The core of the game remains similar to the last one. It is split into two different sections. Whenever they are in the Blaster Master Tank it is focused on exploring a 2D environment. Using the different tools like the ability to hover and different weapons like a drill to solve puzzles. Whenever Jason goes into a cave it switches into a top down mode that is focused on wiping out any mutant in his way. He also gets access to a assortment of weapons and alternate bomb attacks that can be used to take down enemies & bosses.

While this revels in retro NES like style it doesn’t try to punish the player with impossible feats of gaming skill. Blasting through all the enemies should be fairly easy although if you do die the check pointing can be very bad during certain areas. Needing to backtrack most of the level is never a fun time. For the most part that wasn’t a huge issue for me but I think it was worth noting.

As for backtracking in general it is actually very minor. The way each level is laid out is linear in nature with a few side paths at most. Especially since this time multiple planets are visited instead of one big one. At most you’ll have to go back to 3 planets near the end of the game. Since this adventure went by so quick I was bummed that it didn’t have more for me to do.

I won’t go into any details but unlike the first game this one changes it up in a cool way near the end. Definitely worth seeing to the end if the gameplay interests you. Unfortunately not much to do once the credits roll. No extra difficulty or boss rush to incentivize the player to play more. Which was not true with the first game thanks to all the extra stuff they added. Time to will tell if that will be true for this game as well.

Overall I enjoyed my time with BMZ2. More so than the first because it does more with all the new mechanics that it added. More reasons to use all the abilities the tank has to offer is never a bad thing. Not quite true with Jason since his powered up blaster is to good. But if you liked the first foray into the revitalized Blaster Master then this is a game worth playing.