As soon as you will start playing Blaster Master, you will be greeted by an opening cutscene about a boy, Jason, and his pet frog who grew to gigantic size after jumping down a hole. So Jason leaps into a battle tank just lying there and proceeds to chase his frog. Yeah... Japanese games sure have weird stories.
Except that this story was dreamed up by the US localisation team. And they weren't trying to match what was on screen: those cutscenes are specially made for the NA/non-Japan version!
In the original Japanese version, the game takes place on the planet Sophia the 3rd, located near the center of the Epsilon Milky Way, in which an advanced civilization flourished. In the year 2052, the emperor Goez, who has conquered the rest of outer space and of whom Goez declared himself as a god, invades and conquers Sophia the 3rd. The only survivor of Goez's raid is the Science Academy's Nora Satellite, who has escaped and plans to build a weapon to defeat Goez's forces. They build an all-purpose tank called "Metal Attacker", commandeered by a boy named Kane Gardner, to take the lead in the counterattack. The game's opening sequence shows Metal Attacker dropped into the battlefield.
No, it doesn't make more sense at all. But why the change at all? No one knows.
Probably more important than the story, is the gameplay: Blaster Master follows in Metroid's footsteps, with a giant labyrinthine map, countless upgrades that augment your mobility and exploration capabilities, and challenging combat. Oh, and caves that "Jason" has to enter without his tank, played from an overhead perspective.
So it's definitely its own beast. But with finite (3) continues, weapon upgrades in the overhead segments that downgrade each time you get hit and a really confusing world layout, it's quite possible that this is one RGC game no one on NW will finish... At least you will get to experience excellent music, great graphics, and overall, solid action.
Why not add
Blaster Master to your collection, and indicate you are currently playing it? And don't forget to rate it when you're done!
List of AwesomeComplete the game.@chrisbg99@nate38@X-pert74List of AwesomerComplete the game, and draw your own maps! Now that's old school...@X-pert74List of AwesomestComplete the game without using continues.@chrisbg99URL to share (right click and copy)
I got a copy of Blaster Master for the first time last Christmas, but didn't get far in it. I beat the third boss, but couldn't figure out where to go after that, and since there's no save feature I lost my progress. Maybe I'll make a map this time around 
I have no issue dealing with that kind of limitation. A one-credit clear would be interesting to try with this game; I dunno if I'll do it, but I'll at least attempt it, probably.
