Topic: Newscast Game Club Discussion - Blaster Master: Overdrive

[Jonnyboy117]

You can't shoot down in Metroid, either. It makes platforming a lot more interesting while in the tank. Early on, you have to use good timing and just be very quick to shoot. Later, the drill is extremely useful for taking out small enemies, including ones below.

[Mop it up]

Have you played Super Metroid? You can shoot downward in that game.
Unless you were specifically referring to the NES Metroid, in which case, never mind.

Yep    That was self plagiarization.  My account for rize there was lost.  I no longer have the email associated with it.

Ah, I see. I was just wondering because I have seen people copy stuff as their own.

[Jonnyboy117]

Super Metroid is the third of the series... and you still can't shoot straight down, even in that one.

[Halbred]

You can shoot straight down in every Metroid game while falling, can't you? I KNOW you can in  the original, pretty sure you can in Metroid 2.

[Mop it up]

You can shoot straight down in Super Metroid when you jump in the air and press "down" on the D-pad. I'm pretty certain that you can not shoot down in the original Metroid or Metroid 2, but I'm not sure. Does anyone want to check to confirm?

[Jonnyboy117]

I took a little time off from Overdrive but finally beat Boss 7 (which is very cool, by the way) and cleaned up Area 8. Now I'm saved right before the final boss cave...

For those wondering, the crab is the only repeated boss, which means it was probably a deliberate reference to the first game.

The final upgrade was disappointing at first, as the effect is subtle. But after getting around Area 8 for a while, I'm starting to appreciate it more. I think I've found every upgrade in the game except one health notch for Alex, and hopefully that's in the final boss cave. It would be awesome if beating the final boss gave you a secret tank ability that could be used to mess around the overworld post-game, but Dave/Rize probably would have mentioned that.

[noname2200]

For those wondering, the crab is the only repeated boss.

Are you sure about that? I recall that the Area 2 boss returned in Area 5 as well. Am I just misremembering?

Anyways, I just gave the podcast a listen. I'm sad to hear that you guys were so turned off by the game. I personally really enjoy it, and I think it gets better as it goes on. That said, I agree that the game has so many bizarre decisions in it: we've covered the controls already, and the save points were not placed as well as they should have been, but I also have to say that the level design felt really uninspired when compared to the original's. The boss battles also last a bit too long for my taste, although I think the bosses themselves are great overall. The Area 6 and 7 bosses in particular were really cool. And oddly enough, I think this game is much harder than the original.

In the end, I think the game is a worthy follow up to the original Blaster Master, but it also feels like a series of missed opportunities. I would have loved it if they had updated a lot more features; being able to permanently power up your guns a la Metroid, for instance, or perhaps fighting a boss battle inside your tank. Even having more varied backgrounds would have been nice: there is more variety starting with Area 5, but it's sad that the first screen of the game obviously had a ton more attention paid to it than anywhere else. (And for the record, the original took place underground, but there was still a lot of variety between the areas, both in the fore-and-backgrounds. I know someone in the podcast asked that).

So it's a missed opportunity, but I'm still looking forward to seeing what else Sunsoft has up its sleeves.