" It is just so reminiscent of the original that you will eventually be able to forgive the poor graphics and many loads. "

      Title: Blaster Master: Blasting Again by Crave Entertainment

      Format: Action/shooter for PS One

      Reviewing Monkey: Simi N.

      The Hype: In the original Blaster Master a young lad Jason's beloved frog escaped and found his way onto the big radioactive box in the back yard. Jason's frog quadruples in size and jumps down a big hole. Jason follows; at the bottom he starts on an adventure that will have him blasting, jumping, swimming, hovering, and crawling through eight crazy levels in order to destroy the King of the lighting beings.
          In Blaster Master: "Blasting Again" it is years after Jason the hero in Blaster Master for NES passed away, the aliens are up to their old tricks again, and this time the responsibility of stopping them falls on his Daughter and her younger brother. Together they will use their Dad's old tank, with new modifications, to blast their way to the boss of the lightning beings in order to bring peace to the planet once more.

      What This Monkey Thought...

      Graphics: Oh wow! And before you get excited, I don't mean that in a good way. The graphics in this game are horrible. I mean really early, early PS One quality stuff. The textures are constantly shifting; I have actually never seen textures jump around this much before. The thing is that the enemies really are made up of a good number of polygons and I think that's why the game has otherwise shitty graphics. It does have some horrible slow-down at times though. 2.5 out of 5.

      Sound: Along the line of the graphics the sound isn't that great and the main reason for that is all of the sounds are high in the register. There are no sounds in this game that really use any amount of bass. As a result all of the sounds kind of get drowned out by each other. The music on the other hand isn't bad. It is a sort of techno music, but many of the tracks are new versions of the original's soundtrack, ah nostalgia, and is quite good at being decent music, but still unobtrusive. 3 out of 5.

      Playability: Here is what the fans of the original Blaster Master have been waiting for all these years. With this game there are two areas of interest with game play, In Tank, and as Roddy inside the sublevels. The In-tank part of this game is awesome. The tank acts the same way that it did in the original Blaster master, it moves shoots and jumps, but because this game is 3D the programmers, in all their genius, decided to add another dimension to the tank as well, that is it can strafe-jump to the left or the right which is extremely handy. It is just so reminiscent of the original that you will eventually be able to forgive the poor graphics and many loads. The play as Roddy is not as refined as the tank and that is really a bummer. They had it going so well. The problem with playing as Roddy is that you really don't a good degree of control and really can't avoid being hit most of the time. His control just isn't tight enough for you to develop any skill moving around, especially since the camera is mostly above you , sometimes behind due to low ceilings. The upside is that you don't have to use Roddy too much; most of the game involves the tank. 3.5 out of 5.

      Multiplayer and Replayability: The fact that it's as long as it is and that it has poor graphics and bad control as Roddy detracts from the replay value. But the game is just so reminiscent of Blaster Master fans of the series will not be able to help being caught up in the game. Although the chances of anyone playing through the game more than once are pretty slim. 2.5 out of 5.

      Story/Dramatics: The story in this game is actually better than it was in the original, although it comes in weird, ambiguous, short video sequences that will more often than not leave you asking: what was I supposed to get from that? 3 out of 5.

      The Verdict:

Those of us who are huge Blaster Master fans and have been waiting for this game for years will definitely find it adequate enough to play through. Otherwise the game is just not polished enough to be very good. It is definitely decent though.

      The Good: It feels like Blaster Master and the level designs are good.

      The Bad: Poor graphics, bad sound, and really horrible control for Roddy.

      The Overall Ugly: Fans need it, everyone else should give it a shot, if you can get past the graphics, the sound effects and the slowdown, it is a pretty sweet game.

      What it's Worth: Definitely worth the ten bucks you need to shell out to get it.