Blaster Master Overdrive

[mumu]

Semi-qualifies for the main forum, but probably better to have it in OT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSbslfm3aoE

[Udderdude]

The company doing the remake is this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaijinworks

That's enough reason for me to not want anything to do with it (Aside from that I don't own a Wii and never plan to)

The video looks like they were deseprately trying to find anything in the game that wasn't boring and lame to show off, and pretty much failed.

And dear lord, it's like they remade the music by tossing it into a fucking $10 shareware MIDI program. Complete trash.

[Strider77]

After that response I expected something horrible.... after the video I am interested. Did the car look like plastic?

[Specineff]

Gah.

And I thought that GaijinWorks was going to do localizations only. Why are they developing? Why is Sunsoft outsourcing to an American company? Does Treasure charge that much?

[Battlesmurf]

I admit- Treasure would have been great- but this really doesn't look bad at all! Really kinda feels like a Super Nes sequel that could have been

[sven666]

on the contrary i think this does look terrible, where the original had tons of atmosphere this has absoluteley none.. bland uninspired visuals and the controls even look off in the vid!?

[EinhanderZwei]

Blaster Master is notable for being the only game series that I don't care about solely because of...

...its title!

[BryanM]

Looks better than the thing released on the Genesis.

From all the talk I was worried it was going to be another damn remake. I don't care if it completely sucks - if it isn't the same freakin' game we've all already played into the ground, it's better than a remake.

Remember how the fourth level in the original foreshadowed the boss in the music? Where the giant frog would ribbit toward the end of the melody? I still think that's one of the coolest things ever done in the NES era.

[The Coop]

Am I the only one who actually liked (not loved, liked) the Genesis sequel?

[Radiant Cinnabun]

Wow, I had no idea something like this was coming. I'm a huge fan of the original (I only just managed to beat it a month or two ago on the virtual console), so I'll definitely give this one a chance, even if I'm not sold on the look.

[Ex-Cyber]

Production does look a bit mediocre (why do so many "retro-style" games look and sound less like "classic console HD" and more like "Newgrounds HD"?), but it looks like it might actually be fun to play anyway.

[apple arcade]

looks weak

i was a fan of the original too

[Zeether]

I don't think it seems that bad. At least we get the overhead sections again.

[Dragoforce]

Looks awful to say the least, hopefully the gameplay will compensate for that.

[animefanjr]

I loved the first one and think this one looks great. At least they went back to the original formula. The genesis one was ok and the PS1 version (which I own) is acually very fun, once you get over its flaws

I hope its good because I loved the original.

[mumu]

http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/Bl ... ueEXOZXyol

[undamned]

Really kinda feels like a Super Nes sequel that could have been

As much as I agree w/ that, I can't help but think that tons more love would have been poured into something produced back then.
-ud

[Jeneki]

Anyone pick this up yet? I have some points to burn, although I also need some of the rebirth games.

[Raizen1984]

Gah.

And I thought that GaijinWorks was going to do localizations only. Why are they developing? Why is Sunsoft outsourcing to an American company? Does Treasure charge that much?

Gaijinworks is only the publisher; the game was developed by Sunsoft themselves. It's an attempt to get back into the western scene after Sunsoft USA shut it's doors a while back. Gaijinworks is just helping them out for now.

And everyone needs to leave Treasure alone for now! They need to finish their Xbox 360 shooter!

[Pixel_Outlaw]

The higher definition they try to make these games the more muddy they look. You can't even make out the eyes on the character when he leaves the vehicle which is very important in Japanese games. It is a smudgy mess. The NES version has sharper graphics as limited as it is.



The main problem is that the artists have tools that actually make it easy to create shyte. They have million color smudgy paint brush tools that while being fast lack precision. You can't get detail when your tool is painting clusters of pixels rather than individual pixels in a vain attempt to make "high def" (But low detail) 2d artwork.

[Strider77]

The wii ain't HD...... it would help to not judge the resolution and muddyness from a video uploaded on the web.

Cave games look like a resolution mess on youtube.

[Ed Oscuro]

PO's comments are still valid, Youtube or not.

What I want to know is if they added anything compared to the original - yep, never played the original here :O

[null1024]

The graphics look nice and 16-bit, but all that bloom and those alpha effects really kill the look.
Also, from what the video shows, it seems kind of meh.

Never played the original though, so I can't really compare anything.

[TigerCraneFist]

I picked it up, I enjoyed the original despite it being frustrating so figured what the hell... its only 10 dollars.

Truthfully-- it's just kind of whatever. Its not necessarily bad but it's not necessarily good either and it feels really crippled in my opinion by a few hard to overlook things.... firstly; you can only play with the wii remote?! The D-pad on that thing is tiny, awful and unresponsive and the gun direction lock is that shitty B button on the back of the remote under the Dpad. Good luck trying to comfortably ever use that function and they made it extra hurt by not giving an option to remap the buttons.

The other thing that kind of bothers me is the speed at which the little dude walks and climbs (outside of the tank).. maybe it was this slow back in the day (?).. I cant recall-- but even if it was it still sucks.

I'll play it some more I'm sure-- but truthfully as I get older I have less and less patience for games that suffer from poor design and controls.

[Jeneki]

Just played through the first level, and explored a bit with the extra tool you get for finishing the first boss (bit of level 2 and 4).

So far, the atmosphere and level design are very blah.

In the NES game, the first level starts out above ground, goes into a trench, leads to a cave, and ends up at an underground lake, all with different backgrounds and unique color schemes. There's a lot of variety and the way it progresses makes sense. The first level seems like a real journey and it really pushes me to keep playing.

In Overdrive however, we still get the outdoor part but after that it's just featureless boring identical-looking caves. It's really hard to keep myself motivated to play it.

On the bright side, there are a lot of health and energy boosting items to find, so fully searching each level is rewarded. It seems like the developer had the right idea, but just didn't have the time/money/energy to make the world actually interesting to explore.

The first boss has multiple attack patterns with both physical and ranged attacks, making it a decent fight. Definitely the highlight of what I've seen so far.

[Damocles]

After seeing this, I decided to go back and actually play the game. As a kid I never did, and have always felt bad about that. Damn this game is long! Last night I stopped at level 3 and kept my progress with a save state. Tonight I made it to level 5 (I think) and was totally destroyed by the crab boss because I had previously taken two hits and had a weak gun. I firmly believe later bosses become impossible without full power. Piss easy up until you lose your weapon level.

Oddly enough, I own the novelization of this and read it as a child. The only parts I remember were a woman and the fact that the final boss was your pet frog, leading to the main character having much anguish about defeating it. Apparently this came after the game, so I was quite baffled when these elements didn't pop up.

EDIT: As it turns out, the novelization did come after the game and expanded heavily on the story. Also, the novelization apparently served as the backstory for Blaster Master: Blasting Again on the PSX. Fun stuff I never would have known.

Also, grenade glitch. I found out about it too late. Damn you giant enemy crab.

[BryanM]

Lobster boss is probably the hardest until The Guy. Man, you just keep shooting and grenading and shooting and The Guy just won't die.

[BrianC]

I checked MobyGames and found out the GBC Blaster Master Enemy Below brought back some of the original staff (and not just the head of Sunsoft). If anyone has beat this game, could you tell me if any of the original staff worked on Overdrive?