History YMMV / BlasterMaster

* ToughActToFollow: The soundtrack for the original game is pretty hard to beat. Despite Ippo Yamada's best efforts, renowned Inti Creates music director as he is, some fans are disappointed about the soundtrack of ''Zero'' in comparison to the NES classic.

* CatharsisFactor: Hated the [[DemonicSpiders searchlight guards]] in ''Zero''[='=]s Area 7 dungeons? Play as Gunvolt in EX Characters Mode, get Voltaic Chains, then laugh in their faces as you proceed to OneHitKill entire swaths of them simultaneously.

** The bosses can mostly be trivialized by Jason with the Flamethrower and Wave Gun, and Ekoro plays most similarly to him, meaning she can destroy enemies efficiently as well with charge shots and the Ekoro Kick. Shantae can't cheese the bosses with a single form, but between the Storm Puff's gradual damage, the Mutant Dance's piercing shots and the Brainy Dance's mobility and explosive shots, she can handle things as well. Gunvolt and Shovel Knight, on the other hand...

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Kanna (the plant girl) from ''Blaster Master Zero 2'' quickly became popular the moment she appeared in the trailer for... [[MsFanservice obvious reasons]]. Even the developers [[https://twitter.com/MegaMattTV/status/1108429259171717122 are aware]] of this.

** Ancient Freeze can be trivialized by Jason with the Flamethrower and Wave Gun, Gunvolt's Flashfield lets him focus more on mobility once the nodes are tagged, and Ekoro's charge shots and Shantae's Mutant Dance stop for nobody, allowing them to defeat several nodes in succession. Shovel Knight, on the other hand, has his work cut out for him. His main form of damage is melee based, and you have to bust this boss to get the Ultimate Shovel Blade, meaning you have to play footsies with the nodes' lasers and the bladed discs at the same time while trying to avoid CollisionDamage. The Phase Locket lets him mitigate damage, but since it costs magic, it won't last forever. The fight gets easier as the nodes get destroyed, but see about lasting that long first.
** Area 5 has Gurnahide and Hard Shell. It's not that it's a problem for Jason, who has the [[GameBreaker Wave Gun]], but rather, it's a problem for the EX Characters, to varying degrees.
*** Shovel Knight has no problem against Hard Shell as he can dig through the bubble walls and its bubbles can be reflected; with his damage output, the fight won't last long. However, Gurnahide without the Ult. Shovel Blade upgrade is pretty hard if tackled recklessly as he can't keep it back at his normal attack rate and its head takes less damage. It boils down to keeping one wing alive as long as possible to whittle it down, strafing to keep the shots aimed as straight as possible, and when both wings go down, using the Phase Locket to dig away at Gurnahide's face hoping it dies before you do. Given that it has an inert item for him, you'd be better off coming back with the Shovel upgrade to tackle him.
*** Hard Shell can be trivialized with the piercing shots from the Wave Gun, Ekoro's charge shot, Shantae's Mutant Dance and Shovel Knight's reflected projectiles, but because Gunvolt has none of these options, he actually has to ''properly'' fight the boss. Hard Shell happens to be a BullfightBoss that can only be significantly injured after a charging attack, and constantly sprays out bubbles that Gunvolt has problems punching through because his Tagging mechanic means he can only hit a few targets at a time without Skills. Luxcalibur is thankfully long enough to hit his back when he's facing you, and Gunvolt can continue dealing damage to Hard Shell once he lands a Tag, but he has to restore Tags once they wear off, and Hard Shell can give you a hard time while you're trying to do that.

** Ancient Freeze can be trivialized by Jason with the Flamethrower and Wave Gun, Gunvolt's Flashfield lets him focus more on mobility once the nodes are tagged, and Ekoro's charge shots stop for nobody, allowing her to pop the bladed discs without wasting shots on the boss. Shantae and Shovel Knight, on the other hand, have their work cut out for them. The room is perpetually covered in ice, which Ancient Freeze can renew with ice spikes at any time, and since their fiery options consume magic, that means you will have to endure the ice at some point. Also, their main form of damage is melee based, and you have to bust this boss to get the Ultimate Shovel Blade, meaning you have to play footsies with the nodes' lasers and the bladed discs at the same time while trying to avoid CollisionDamage. Shantae's Storm Puff lets her passively damage the boss while Shovel Knight's Phase Locket lets him mitigate damage, but since these use magic as well, unless you're willing to drag out the fight and risk getting shredded by something, they won't last forever. The fight gets easier as the nodes get destroyed, but see about lasting that long first.

*** Gurnahide is kind of a joke if you're playing as Jason or Shantae [[note]]if you have the Brainy Dance[[/note]] and bearable as Ekoro; as Gunvolt, however, you're in for a ride. The boss advances upon Gunvolt's position all the time, and can only be pushed back by any significant degree with Cerberus auto-fire, which due to a lack of strafing option demands standing in the boss's face and holding the Shoot button while praying Prevasion saves you. It's also surprisingly resilient to Flashfield, which forces you to rely on Luxcalibur as your main damage dealer, the inherent problem here being that Luxcalibur eats two of your 3 SP, which means you're going to be running circles around Gurnahide's BulletHell salvos while waiting for your SP to recharge. If you're unlucky enough to get pinned at the far edge of the ring despite your best efforts, you're screwed.
*** Or you could just spam Dragonsphere, which eats through Gurnahide's HP and only costs half as much as Luxcalibur. 3 Dragonspheres plus a few uses of Flashfield and the battle is over.

*** Hard Shell can be trivialized with the Wave Gun, Ekoro's charge shot and Kick can pierce the frontal carapace, and so can Shovel Knight's reflected projectiles, but because Gunvolt has none of these options, he actually has to ''properly'' fight the boss. Hard Shell happens to be a BullfightBoss that can only be significantly injured after a charging attack, and constantly sprays out bubbles that Gunvolt has problems punching through because his Tagging mechanic means he can only hit a few targets at a time without Skills. Luxcalibur is thankfully long enough to hit his back when he's facing you, and Gunvolt can continue dealing damage to Hard Shell once he lands a Tag, but he has to restore Tags once they wear off, and Hard Shell can give you a hard time while you're trying to do that.
*** Shantae doesn't have it much easier against Hard Shell. The pain is mitigated by the fact that Shantae's Storm Puff ignores enemies when deployed and can be moved by hair whips, allowing it to shock the boss' sensitive rear; the downside is that Storm Puff consumes a lot of Magic, meaning that if Shantae can't keep stocked, she has to whip the boss in melee range, and it inflicts a whopping two units of CollisionDamage when you only have 13 health at the most the first time around, and 16 at the most period. Brainy Dance doesn't help, as the 'projectiles' are large and can hit the boss' invulnerable legs instead. Have fun.
*** Made much easier with Mutant Dance, whose piercing shots can both damage Hard Shell's weakspot and shred through its bubble attacks. As each popped bubble has a high chance of dropping a power-up that replenishes Shantae's magic, this also allows the player to spam Storm Puff with impunity.

*** This battle is a joke if Shantae uses Mutant Dance, as the piercing shots can take down several nodes in quick succession. Stand in a corner, keep pressing the fire button and Ancient Freeze should be destroyed in no time.

** The Brainy Dance is the only transformation Shantae has to go out of her way to unlock, and for good reason. Once obtained roughly halfway through the game, it completely obsoletes the Mutant Dance and Elephant Dance dungeon transformations. The Brainy Dance transforms Shantae into Mother Brain, which allows her to move as fast as her untransformed running speed, gives her a powerful exploding projectile that can be used indefinitely and can be redirected while in use, and, uniquely, gives Shantae flight properties, which allows her to fly over bodies of water and drastically cut down travel time in later dungeons, especially Area 5 and Area 7 dungeons.
** Shovel Knight in general can be called one for the most part as far as dungeons are concerned as he has no defense penalties, his attacks do hefty damage and he can reflect projectiles into equally damaging and piercing shots. He has an invincibility sub weapon, and can fish up more life/magic at low cost. And he can get an upgrade to give him a projectile (at max life), faster attack rate, and a wide arc charged attack. Navigation wise, his shovel can break through Area 4's special blocks and cracked walls (despite how the attacks may reach you have to hit the cracked wall from the proper side). People wonder if his damage output would get nerfed or not. What keeps him from being utterly broken is the hefty MP costs of his relics, but a cautious and/or skilled player can work around that. His Phase Locket is arguably even more broken that it is in his own game, since it lasts much longer and allows him to walk through bosses and go to town on them (very useful on Hard Shell, but [[ThatOneBoss Gurnahide]] is immune to it because you cant walk through it to get to its weak spot).

*** This battle can be trivialized if Shantae uses Mutant Dance, as the piercing shots can take down several nodes in quick succession. Stand in a corner, keep pressing the fire button and Ancient Freeze should be destroyed in no time.

*** Made much easier with Mutant Dance, whose piercing shots can both damage Hard Shell's weakspot and shred through its bubble attacks. As each popped bubble drops a power-up that replenishes Shantae's magic, this also allows the player to spam Storm Puff with impunity.

*** Or you could just spam Dragonsphere, which eats through Gurnahide's HP and only costs half as much as Luxcalibur. 3 of them plus a few uses of Flashfield and the battle is over.

* ItsEasySoItSucks: A common criticism of ''Zero'' is the lack of challenge, especially owing to the [[GameBreaker game breaking]] Wave Gun, which can be acquired very early on in the game, and easily defeat most bosses. Difficulty issues aside, it's revered as a well-done retro remake overall. The difficulty issue has been remedied with the addition of a "Destroyer Mode", a NintendoHard variant of the game unlocked after beating the game, as of the version 1.2 update.
* PlayerPunch: The seventh boss battle, if one reads the aforementioned Scholastic Publishing tie-in, becomes one, as it turns out that the boss is Jason's escaped pet frog, Fred. But when you beat the game, you see Jason and Fred sitting on SOPHIA's roof watching the enemy's stronghold crumble, so either Fred turned back to normal after being defeated and the game never bothered to show it or neither of the frog bosses was Fred and Jason found him somewhere between beating the final boss and escaping the enemy stronghold. The ''Worlds of Power'' novelization explains that the frog boss' appearance was merely a disguise, meant to torment Jason psychologically. The real Fred was alive and well.

*** Gurnahide is kind of a joke if you're playing as Jason or Shantae[[note]]if you have the Brainy Dance[[/note]] and bearable as Ekoro; as Gunvolt, however, you're in for a ride. The boss advances upon Gunvolt's position all the time, and can only be pushed back by any significant degree with Cerberus auto-fire, which due to a lack of strafing option demands standing in the boss's face and holding the Shoot button while praying Prevasion saves you. It's also surprisingly resilient to Flashfield, which forces you to rely on Luxcalibur as your main damage dealer, the inherent problem here being that Luxcalibur eats two of your 3 SP, which means you're going to be running circles around Gurnahide's BulletHell salvos while waiting for your SP to recharge. If you're unlucky enough to get pinned at the far edge of the ring despite your best efforts, you're screwed.

** This is so fantastically prominent that while ''Metafight'' practically fell by the wayside, America got a UK-developed ''exclusive'' sequel, a novelization, inspired several GameBoy ports, and by the time the ''Blasting Again'' rolled around, the American plotline ''superceded'' the Japanese one, even in Japan. And the game got a re-release on the Virtual Console due to, you guessed it, American pressure.

* {{Woolseyism}}: The Famicom version, ''Chō Wakusei Senki (Super Planetary War Chronicle) Metafight'' had a pretty standard space opera plot and setting. The game was set in the distant future on an alien planet and instead of a young boy looking for his missing frog, the main character was a space soldier sent to destroy an alien overlord. However, most of the plot is detailed only in the manual and only the opening and ending are actually different.

** The name of Metafight's planet, "Sophia III", being given to the Metal Attacker tank in the American release, making the CoolTank even cooler.

* {{Woolseyism}}: The Famicom version, ''Chō Wakusei Senki (Super Planetary War Chronicle) Metafight'' had a pretty standard space opera plot and setting. The game was set in the distant future on an alien planet and instead of a young boy looking for his missing frog, the main character was a space soldier sent to destroy an alien overlord. However, most of the plot is detailed only in the manual and only the opening and ending are actually different.

* SignatureScene: Even people who've never played it remember [[https://youtu.be/Vb8b02474FM?t=43s SOPHIA III's initial start up]]. ''Zero'' replicates that as well as doing one for [[spoiler:Spohia ZERO before the TrueFinalBoss]]

*** Shovel Knight has no problem against Hard Shell as he can dig through the bubble walls and its bubbles can be reflected; with his damage output, the fight won't last long. However, Gurnahide without the ult. Shovel Blade upgrade is pretty hard if tackled recklessly as he can't keep it back at his normal attack rate and its head takes less damage. It boils down to keeping one wing alive as long as possible to whittle it down, strafing to keep the shots aimed as straight as possible, and when both wings go down, using the Phase Locket to dig away at Gurnahide's face hoping it dies before you do. Given that it has an inert item for him, you'd be better off coming back with the Shovel upgrade to tackle him.
*** Hard Shell can be trivialized with the Wave Gun, Ekoro's charge shot and Ekoro Kick can pierce the frontal carapace, and so can Shovel Knight's reflected projectiles, but because Gunvolt has none of these options, he actually has to ''properly'' fight the boss. Hard Shell happens to be a BullfightBoss that can only be significantly injured after a charging attack, and constantly sprays out bubbles that Gunvolt has problems punching through because his Tagging mechanic means he can only hit a few targets at a time without Skills. Luxcalibur is thankfully long enough to hit his back when he's facing you, and Gunvolt can continue dealing damage to Hard Shell once he lands a Tag, but he has to restore Tags once they wear off, and Hard Shell can give you a hard time while you're trying to do that.

** Interestingly, the remake of the original by Inti Creates, ''[[http://inticreates.com/blaster-master-zero-3ds/ Blaster Master Zero]]'', quite clearly uses the Blaster Master name and aspects of the Blaster Master NES story, but in an entirely new continuity closer in tone to ''Metafight'' - for instance, Jason is a robotics engineer who has the design of Kane Gardner from Metafight, Fred is an alien creature rather than a normal frog, humanity has been driven underground for a time by an ice age before they came back to the surface and restored it, and Eve is present with the design of Nora Satellite from the original Metafight.

** Shovel Knight in general can be called one for the most part as far as dungeons are concerned as he has no defense penalties, his attacks do hefty damage and he can reflect projectiles into equally damaging and piercing shots. He has an invincibility sub weapon, and can fish up more life/magic at low cost. And he can get an upgrade to give him a projectile (at max life), faster attack rate, and a wide arc charged attack. Navigation wise, his shovel can break through Area 4's special blocks and cracked walls (despite how the attacks may reach you have to hit the cracked wall from the proper side). People wonder if his damage output would get nerfed or not. What keeps him from being utterly broken is the hefty MP costs of his relics, but a cautious and/or skilled player can work around that.

** Shovel Knight in general can be called one for the most part as far as dungeons are concerned as he has no defense penalities, his attacks do hefty damage and he can reflect projectiles into equally damaging and piercing shots. He has an invincibility sub weapon, and can fish up more life/magic at low cost. And he can get an upgrade to give him a projectile (at max life), faster attack rate, and a wide arc charged attack. Navigation wise, his shovel can break through Area 4's special blocks and cracked walls (despite how the attacks may reach you have to hit the cracked wall from the proper side). People wonder if his damage output would get nerfed or not. What keeps him from being utterly broken is the hefty MP costs of his relics, but a cautious and/or skilled player can work around that.

** Shovel Knight has no problem against Hard Shell as he can dig through the bubble walls and its bubbles can be reflected; with his damage output, the fight won't last long. However, Gurnahide without the ult. Shovel Blade upgrade is pretty hard if tackled recklessly as he can't keep it back at his normal attack rate and its head takes less damage. It boils down to keeping one wing alive as long as possible to whittle it down, strafing to keep the shots aimed as straight as possible, and when both wings go down, using the Phase Locket to dig away at Gurnahide's face hoping it dies before you do. Given that it has an inert item for him, you'd be better off coming back with the Shovel upgrade to tackle him.

** Shantae doesn't have it much easier against Hard Shell. The pain is mitigated by the fact that Shantae's Storm Puff ignores enemies when deployed and can be moved by hair whips, allowing it to shock the boss' sensitive rear; the downside is that Storm Puff consumes a lot of Magic, meaning that if Shantae can't keep stocked, she has to whip the boss in melee range, and it inflicts a whopping two units of CollisionDamage when you only have 13 health at the most the first time around, and 16 at the most period. Brainy Dance doesn't help, as the 'projectiles' are large and can hit the boss' invulnerable legs instead. Have fun.

** Gunvolt, while vastly more capable than Jason on the overworld and still more capable than the other DLC characters, has a tougher time with quite a few dungeon bosses. Kinda funny when you consider both the bosses from [[UnderTheSea Area 5]] are his worst nightmares incarnate.

** Shovel Knight has no problem against Hard Shell as he can dig through the bubble walls and its bubbles can be reflected; with his damage output, the fight won't last long. However, Gurnahide without the ult. Shovel Blade upgrade is pretty hard if tackled recklessly as he can't keep it back at his normal attack rate and its head takes less damage. It boils down to keeping one wing alive as long as possible to whittle it down, strafing to keep the shots aimed as straight as possible, and when both wings go down, using the Phase Locket to dig away at Gurnahide's face hoping it dies before you do. Given that it has an inert item for him, you'd be better off coming back with the Shovel upgrade to tackle him.
** Ancient Freeze can be trivialized by Jason with the Flamethrower and Wave Gun, Gunvolt's Flashfield lets him focus more on mobility once the nodes are tagged, and Ekoro's charge shots stop for nobody, allowing her to pop the bladed discs without wasting shots on the boss. Shantae and Shovel Knight, on the other hand, have their work cut out for them. The room is perpetually covered in ice, which Ancient Freeze can renew with ice spikes at any time, and since their fiery options consume magic, that means you will have to endure the ice at some point. Also, their main form of damage is melee based, and you have to bust this boss to get the Ultimate Shovel Blade, meaning you have to play footsies with the nodes' lasers and the bladed discs at the same time while trying to avoid CollisionDamage. Shantae's Storm Puff lets her passively damage the boss while Shovel Knight's Phase Locket lets him mitigate damage, but since these use magic as well, unless you're willing to drag out the fight and risk getting shredded by something, they won't last forever. The fight gets easier as the nodes get destroyed, but see about lasting that long first.

* Shovel Knight in general can be called one for the most part as far as dungeons are concerned as he has no defense penalities, his attacks do hefty damage and he can reflect projectiles into equally damaging and piercing shots. He has an invincibility sub weapon, and can fish up more life/magic at low cost. And he can get an upgrade to give him a projectile (at max life), faster attack rate, and a wide arc charged attack. Navigation wise, his shovel can break through Area 4's special blocks and cracked walls (despite how the attacks may reach you have to hit the cracked wall from the proper side). People wonder if his damage output would get nerfed or not. What keeps him from being utterly broken is the hefty MP costs of his relics, but a cautious and/or skilled player can work around that.

* Shove Knight in general can be called one for the most part as far as dungeons are concerned as he has no defense penalities, his attacks do hefty damage and he can reflect projectiles into equally damaging and piercing shots. He has an invincibility sub weapon, and can fish up more life/magic. And he can get an upgrade to give him a projectile (at max life), faster attack rate, and a wide arc charged attack. Navigation wise, his shovel can break through Area 4's special blocks and cracked walls (despite how the attacks may reach you have to hit the cracked wall from the proper side). People wonder if his damage output would get nerfed or not.

** Gunvolt, while vastly more capable than Jason on the overworld and still more capable than Ekoro, has a tougher time with quite a few dungeon bosses. Kinda funny when you consider both the bosses from [[UnderTheSea Area 5]] are his worst nightmares incarnate.

*** Shovel Knight has no problem against Hard Shell (as he can dig through the bubble walls and its bubbles can be reflected. With his damage output, the fight won't last long). However, Gurnahide without the ult. Shovel Blade upgrade is pretty hard if tackle recklessly as he can't keep it back at his normal attack rate and its head takes less damage. It boils down to keeping one wing alive as long as possible to whittle it down and when it goes down, using the Phase Locket to whail away at it hoping it dies before you do. Given that it has an inert item for him, you'd be better off coming back with the Shovel upgrade to tackle him.
*** Hard Shell can be trivialized with the Wave Gun, and Ekoro's charge shot and Ekoro Kick can pierce the frontal carapace, but because Gunvolt has neither of these options, he actually has to ''properly'' fight the boss. Hard Shell happens to be a BullfightBoss that can only be significantly injured after a charging attack, and constantly sprays out bubbles that Gunvolt has problems punching through because his Tagging mechanic means he can only hit a few targets at a time without Skills. Luxcalibur is thankfully long enough to hit his back when he's facing you, and Gunvolt can continue dealing damage to Hard Shell once he lands a Tag, but he has to restore Tags once they wear off, and Hard Shell can give you a hard time while you're trying to do that.