u/CIRCLONTA6A

The Blaster Master franchise is a series of games (mostly) developed and published by Sunsoft, starting from 1988 to current day. The original Blaster Master is consdiered a pioneer of the Metroidvania genre, along with the original Metroid and Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest, combining open ended levels with gated progression and top down shooting segments.

The original game saw release in June 1988 for Japan and November of the same year for America. In it, players control the protagonist Jason who, upon chasing his radioactive pet frog Fred down a hole, uncovers a giant tank known as Sophia the 3rd, which he uses to confront a race of mutants living underground. The original Japanese version of Blaster Master was titled Chō Wakusei Senki Metafight (Super Planetary War Report Metafight) and featured an entirely different story set on the planet of Sophia the 3rd, focusing on pilot Kane Gardner taking on the invading Invem Dark Star Army in his Metal Attacker tank. While the game was unsuccessful in Japan, it wound up as a surprise hit in the United States. In response to the game’s sudden popularity, Sunrise set to expand the game into a franchise with the release of Blaster Master Boy (a retitled Bomber King game) on the Game Boy, an expanded port in 2000’s Blaster Master: Enemy Below for the GBC, as well as a western only sequel on the Sega Genesis. This was developed by British studio Software Creations, perhaps best known for creating the cult SNES game Plok! and the infamous Silver Surfer NES title.

Futhermore, the original game would see a novel adaption done by author Peter Lerangis for Schooltastic’s Worlds of Power line, a set of short books aimed at children that adapted numerous classic Nintendo titles such as Mega Man 2, Metal Gear and Ninja Gaiden. Notably this book would introduce the character of Eve to the story, an alien girl who assists Jason in fighting the Plutonium Boss. Unusually for a semi-obscure tie in novel, Eve would be adapted into the series canon with 2000’s Blaster Master: Blasting Again for the PS1, the series first and only fray into the 3rd dimension.

So far, there have been two reboots of the franchise. A 2010 Wiiware title called Blaster Master: Overdrive, directed by original game art director Yoshiaki Iwata, and the much more popular Blaster Master Zero series by Inti-Creates, a trilogy of games which combine elements of the original games, the Worlds of Power novel and even the plot of MetaFight.

What are your thoughts on this franchise? Do you have a favorite or least favorite game in it? Any fond memories playing these?

1. Orange-huty (ZOE 1)

2. Cream-huty (2nd Runner)

3. Golden-huty (HD Collection)

4. Corpse-huty (Enders Project)

If people want I’ll make ones for other entires, god willing.

Splatterhouse is a franchise of titles developed and published by Namco, starting from 1988 to 1993 with an American led reboot/remake by Bottlerocket Studios and Namco being released in 2010. The series revolves around Rick Taylor and his repeated run-ins with an ancient Mayan artifact known as the Terror Mask, as well as the titular mansion, where horrific experiments are said to take place. The series spanned 3 main games, with a parody spin-off entitled Wanpaku Graffiti being released for the Famicom in 1989. A JRPG sequel to Wanpaku Graffiti, known as Splatterworld, was also in development for a 1993 release but was cancelled. However, a nearly finished ROM was dumped online in 2025, allowing the title to finally be played.

Splatterhouse was created by Shigeru Yokoyama, creator of Galaga and producer of titles like Klonoa, Ridge Racer Revolution and Tales of Phantasia. Perhaps owing to the game’s content, the mainline games never appeared on a Nintendo console, sticking to the Turbografx 16 and Sega Genesis. That was until the second game appeared on the Wii Virtual Console in 2008, the only VC title on the service to have an M rating.

If there’s anything these games are known for, it’s their graphic violence and various references to horror iconography. The Terror Mask is a clear reference to Jason Voorhees’ iconic hockey mask from Friday the 13th, while each title contains a slew of references to movies like Evil Dead, Alien and even Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. The arcade version of the first game saw only a limited release in America due to concerns by arcade owners over its gore, while the Turbografx port was censored to remove some of the game’s more visceral scenes. Despite its short length and simple gameplay, Splatterhouse proved a success on the Turbografx and became a killer app for the system.

What are your thoughts on this series? Were you around when it released? Any memories of playing it? Favorite title in the franchise?

Featuring seamlessly integrated new footage, improved visuals, a new score by Sawano and updated sound effects, Sunrise’s new remaster of 0079 is exactly what fans have been clamoring for. Finally, the original 1979 anime can be experienced by everyone.

I’ve been playing Beyond the Beyond recently. It was designed by Camelot, the same studio that worked on Shining Force and was responsible for the Golden Sun games. It’s the first turn based RPG for the PS1 and it’s basically been totally forgotten about over the years. Most people don’t have much positive to say about it for a variety of reasons, one of which is Samson.

He joins the party early on in the game and is positioned as the big strongman character. He hits hard and tanks damage. However; not one battle after you get him, he’s cursed by one of the villains. This curse affects him during combat too, sending his level back to 1 and nuking his stats. Now during battle, there’s a 1/4 chance he’ll either take damage whenever he hits or lose a turn altogether. You’re saddled with him for a good *15 hours* before he finally breaks the curse and starts pulling his weight in the party. On one hand, this adds some extra strategy to the combat as you now have to work around his flaws and utilize the (poorly explained/documented and RNG based) APA gimmick that the game features, which usually involves mashing buttons in hopes you’ll get a critical hit in. On the other, you’re basically carrying around deadweight for almost half the game.

This got me thinking, what are some other weird/gimmicky characters in classic RPGS? Ones who either have some unique drawback or odd quirk to them. To give another Camelot-related example, there’s Jogurt in Shining Force 1 who is perma stuck at Lvl 1 and is more or less a joke character.