Platform: Switch
Inti Creates, developer of Mega Man and Mega Man-like games, are not-so-good when it comes to first goes around. To me, a lot of the developer’s initial games in a franchise seem more like a proof of concept for an eventual, better sequel.
This is fitting for a company that’s made so much of its career with Mega Man spin-offs. Capcom’s own Mega Man 2 was better than Mega Man just in the same way as Inti Creates’s Mega Man Zero 2 was better than Mega Man Zero. Whether or not the same would be true of a hypothetical Mighty Number 10 is anyone’s guess, but the theory does hold water when applied to the latest retread of the Blaster Master franchise, Blaster Master Zero 2.
Blaster Master Zero was a nice surprise on Switch and 3DS when it released in 2017, though, there was a lot to gripe about – the game was on the easy side, the on-foot sections were plodding, and the game felt too simplistic. Zero 2 addresses most of the issues that I had with he first game presenting a more feature-rich and assured package.
One of the things that is noteworthy of the Blaster Master series, and particularly of Zero 2, is the way the developers make the alien landscapes feel alien. They are inhospitable, dangerous, and out to get you. When you’re out of the relative safety of your vehicle, SOPHIA, you can expect the fearsome flora and fauna to make short work of your soft and breakable body. There’s a quickly developed and necessary skill to falling and catching a ladder at the last possible second or manipulating yourself into the safety of a pool of water. Miss the rung or the pool and you’re dead.
In the SOPHIA ,things are different. You do well against most creatures provided you know what weapons to use against them. It’s the old Mega Man dance here. Some things work better than others, and it’s up to you to figure out what kills what fastest. An early example of this is a crab-like creature that only exposes its weak spot after a blast of missile fire. Later examples are more elaborate. Trial, error, and experimentation are your allies in beating the beasties and bosses.
Blaster Master Zero 2 is kind of two games in one. You have the on-foot and in-SOFIA 2D platforming sections on the surfaces of the various planets you visit. Then you have the top-down exploration sections inside the various caves and dungeons that you happen upon. I preferred the SOPHIA segments over the interiors.
There’s a loose, bouncy feeling to the platforming on the planet surface that’s relaxing as it is maddening. Even if you fall and have to clamber your way back up some razy structure, the SOPHIA’s controls and general manoeuvrability make short work of most platforming challenges.
In the interior sections, the controls feel less responsive and offer a stilted degree of movement. One of the major gimmicks of the top-down areas is this turning dodge move. When an enemy is about to attack, a visual cue goes off and you can dodge the bullet and fire a counter shot back at the enemy. There’s this neat cut-away effect that flashes across the screen when this happens. It looks flashy, and it’s easy to get caught up in wanting to dodge everything. but there’s a downside to dodging willy nilly.
Get too dodge happy and you’ll waste your energy. When your energy is low, you’ll lose access to some of the more interesting weapons at your disposal. The risk reward of the system is straightforward. There’s a knack to balancing regular attacks with dodge attacks, and it can all look swish. But to me, the dodging didn’t make up for the overall clumsy feeling of the exploration sections. If anything, the dodge felt like an admission that the normal controls weren’t fully capable of dealing with the combat scenarios you’re going to face throughout the game.
But Blaster Master Zero 2 is one of those games that does both styles of gameplay well enough that one can fall back on the other when it needs to. When I was sick of cave diving, another driving section would pop up. And just when I was done with planet hopping, a cave would lure me in. The variety is limited, but it’s there and somehow manages to carry the game and make it feel more than the sum of its parts.
In two years time, when Blaster Master Zero 3 rolls around, you can be sure that Inti Creates will have made the top-down stuff as good as the platforming. In the meantime, as it was and ever shall be, Blaster Master Zero 2 is a worthwhile proof-of-concept. Now, where’s Dragon Marked for Death 2?
