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Blaster Master Zero Blaster Master Blasting Again

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Chou Wakusei Senki (Super Planetary War Chronicle) - Metafight is a series of action-chance games originally created past Sunsoft.

It's the year 2052. On the distant planet Sophia the 3rd, located in the Epsilon Milky way, a flourishing advanced civilization is suddenly attacked by the evil emperor Goez and his "Invem Dark Star Cluster" army of mutants, who have conquered every other planet in outer space. The only survivors of the raid are a modest sect of the local Science Academy known equally "Nora Satellite", who escape and decide to build a weapon to defeat the Invem Dark Star Cluster and Goez. With the help of designer Dr. Jennifer Cornet, they create an all-purpose mobile tank known as Metal Assaulter, and enlist a boyfriend by the proper noun of Kane Gardner to pilot Metal Attacker and destroy Goez.

At least, that's the Excuse Plot if you live in Japan and bothered to read the manual. If y'all lived anywhere else, the game was chosen Blaster Primary and followed the (frankly ridiculous) story of Jason Frudnick, a loftier school senior on (then) modern-day Earth who finds a frog and names him Fred. One day, Fred escapes from his fish bowl and encounters a crate of radioactive material, causing the pet frog to abound several times larger and subsequently fall down a large hole. Jason, in pursuit of Fred, leaps downward the hole himself and comes confront to face with a giant armored vehicle called SOPHIA THE 3RD, which was designed to fight radioactive mutants living Beneath the Earth. Jason, ever the hero, puts on a gainsay suit and gets inside the vehicle on his style to detect Fred and destroy the mutants' leader — the Plutonium Boss.

While the original Metafight accomplished but middling success in its home country, Blaster Master became far more than popular in the West, and has since been deemed a Cult Archetype for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Sunsoft would later continue the series with multiple sequels (and i unofficial Brøderbund sequel) of varying quality.

The original Blaster Master serial:

  1. Chou Wakusei Senki — Metafight/Blaster Primary (NES, and Wii and 3DS Virtual Console)
  2. Blaster Principal 2 (Sega Genesis) annotation Developed by Brøderbund. Due to its lackluster quality, radically unlike gameplay and the fact that it wasn't made by Sunsoft, its existence is mostly ignored by future installments, with Enemy Below being the proper sequel to the original game
  3. Equalizer Master Boy/Blaster Master Jr. (Game Boy) note This was actually the sequel to Robowarrior that was remarketed for international release.
  4. Metafight EX/Blaster Main: Enemy Below (Game Male child Color, and 3DS Virtual Console)
  5. Equalizer Master: Blasting Again (PlayStation)
  6. Blaster Master Overdrive (WiiWare)

Post-obit the release of Overdrive in 2010, the series went dormant until 2016, when Inti Creates (of Mega Man Nada and Azure Striker Gunvolt fame) announced that they had caused the license from Sunsoft. Inti Creates went on to develop and release a trilogy of remakes/reboots of the franchise under the championship Blaster Master Zero, pulling elements from across the previous Equalizer Primary and Metafight sagas and combining them into i definitive package.

The Nix trilogy:

  1. Blaster Master Zero (2017, Nintendo 3DS / Nintendo Switch / PC)
  2. Equalizer Master Zero II (2019, Nintendo Switch / PC)
  3. Equalizer Principal Goose egg III (2021, Nintendo Switch / PlayStation 4 / PC)
  4. Blaster Chief Zero Trilogy (2021, Nintendo Switch / PlayStation four)

There was too a Worlds of Power novelization of the outset game, written past Peter Lerangis (under the pen name A.L. Singer). Elements from the novel were used in Blasting Over again and Zilch, making it the merely novel in the series to become canon.

Blaster Main does non, by the way, run Bartertown.

Equalizer Main provides examples of:

  • Adaptation Expansion:
    • The Worlds of Power novel adds Eve, a daughter from another planet, as the original owner of the SOPHIA Iii vehicle. These details would later get canon in Blasting Again.
    • Zero's reimagining of the original adds a lot more meat to the original Excuse Plot.
  • Adaptational Backstory Change: In Blasting Over again, the Lightning Beings are entities made of free energy who escaped their world afterward the Plutonium Boss destroyed it; Eve is a fellow member of their species. In Aught III, the Lightning Beings are deviant mutants who are disobeying the will of Eve, who has become the Mutant Queen and a beingness of pure thought that resides in superdimensional space.
  • Alien Invasion: The invading Invem Dark Star Cluster is doing this to planet Sophia in the Metafight continuity.
  • All There in the Transmission: The backstory of Blasting Again, specifically the grapheme of Eve and the origin of the Plutonium Boss, does not appear in any of the previous games. It does, withal, appear in the Worlds of Power novelization of the original Blaster Master, making it the merely Worlds of Power novel to be canon.
  • Alternate Dimension: A lot of Nothing Three deals with superdimensional space, an alternate reality overlaid on top of "normal" reality that abides by different rules and is non habitable to beings from "normal" space. It also happens to be where the mutants live. Jason somewhen deduces that Area 9 in Equalizer Primary Zero is itself a form of superdimensional infinite overlaying planet Earth, but compared to superdimensional space on Sophia it'due south really possible to stay at that place for an extended period of time without the Accel Charger.
  • Alternate Techline: Copen remarks in Luminous Avenger iX 2 that the Metafight universe is far more than technologically advanced than the Gunvolt universe, given that even he, a prodigy scientist who developed technology complex enough to re-create superpowers and accomplished effective immortality by converting himself into a Cyborg, has problem comprehending the powers and limits of the Blaster Rifle.
  • Amphibian at Big: The boss of Area 4 in the first game is a giant frog named Fred that attacks with its long tongue.
  • Angst Nuke: In Blasting Over again, the Acceleration Smash is a Moving ridge-Motion Gun version of this, as its power is implied to be derived from Roddy's emotions.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: In the original game, if you have to use a Continue confronting the Final Boss, in one case you lot reach the boss room, the game skips the Plutonium Boss automatically and goes direct to the final fight.
  • Fine art Evolution: While in that location's almost no stylistic change, in the first Zero game the colors of the key art were somewhat washed out and more than gritty; by Nada Ii the art looks more full and vibrant.
  • Ascended Extra: The Plutonium Dominate was upgraded to Large Bad status in the West, despite only being the game's penultimate dominate. This was reversed with Zero, which is based largely on Metafight and thus demotes the Plutonium Boss back to actress while re-elevating the Mutant Lord to Big Bad.
    • Eve from Diggings Once again onwards.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: The grenades in Blasting Again expect keen coming out, only they're about-useless on mooks that aren't amassed together due to their triangular placement. Enemy Below's grenades also take a pathetically brusque range, and Zip'due south aren't much amend.
  • Bag of Spilling: Happens in both Null II and Cypher Three. In both cases it's justified for plot reasons; in the former, Jason wrecked the SOPHIA-Zero while looking for a cure for Eve's mutant infection and could only bring the cannon over to the Thou-SOPHIA, while in the latter, the G-SOPHIA is stripped of its upgrades by the Sophia Force afterwards they imprison Jason.
  • Ancestral Power: Near the terminate of the True Ending dungeon in Zero Ii, Eve acquires a damaged Blaster Rifle formerly endemic by a deceased MA airplane pilot named Roddy. She uses this to accept control of the ANDREIA, Roddy's Metal Assailant, and ultimately uses information technology to help Jason defeat Drolrevo. Jason and Eve later fashion this detail into Jason's Subweapon Launcher that he uses in dungeons during Zero Iii, every bit a manner to keep his retentiveness alive. An Alternate Timeline version of Goose egg II results in the Creator passing downwardly the Blaster Rifle to Copen from Luminous Avenger nine, resulting in the cosmos of the Razor Wheel.
  • Big Bad:
    • In the Metafight continuity, the Mutant Lord Goez is the Big Bad. This also holds true for Zero, which uses elements of Metafight catechism.
    • In the Equalizer Master continuity, the Plutonium Boss is the Big Bad.
    • In Blasting Once more, the Large Bad is Kaiser.
  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: The serial has a lot of maggots crawling on the flooring.
  • Blackground: When yous enter a dominate fight room, the phase starts flashing before cutting to an open up, pitch-black room containing only the boss.
  • Boss Alert Siren:
    • In the NES game, after entering a Dominate Room, the screen begins to repeatedly wink as an alert siren stops the music, earlier fading out the screen completely and revealing the dominate. Interestingly, you can leave the room just before the screen fades out completely.
    • Blasting Over again prefaces boss fights with a "WARNING" screen and alarm that besides doubles equally a loading screen.
    • The Zero serial likewise has them, and they now come with Boss Subtitles. Goose egg 3 reveals that they actually exist in-universe as the tank's A.I. generates a codename for the target based on a preliminary assay. This is how Jason gets the title of "Blaster Principal", since Kane's Metal Aggressor chosen him as such.
  • Cleaved Bridge: The layout of the game is nonlinear, but diverse obstacles railroad you lot through the levels in a specific order, eg. locked doors (between Stage 4 and 5), gravity barriers (demand Hover, Swoop, or Wall powers), insurmountable waist summit fences (some barriers are indestructible until you're powered upwards), and beef gates (the Mini-Boss betwixt Stages one and 2 is unbeatable until y'all get the Hyper upgrade).
  • Bubble Gun: Hard Shell in both the original and Zero spits bubbles, and fires more as it gets low on health.
  • Catechism Discontinuity: The existence of Blaster Main II is generally forgotten by future games in the original series. Nevertheless, it did introduce the Lightning Beings, which were re-canonized in Blasting Again as Eve'southward species and a key antagonistic force.
  • Canon Immigrant: The Worlds of Power Blaster Chief novel is the only novel in the series to become canon, Elements from the novel are used in Blasting Again and Naught, particularly Eve, who in the novel is the original airplane pilot of SOPHIA III.
  • Compilation Rerelease: Following the release of Aught III, a pack called Blaster Principal Zilch Trilogy was released to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the franchise. In addition to combining all three Zero games into a single product, the compilation includes all DLC for Zero and Goose egg II and adds Japanese vox acting as an sectional feature.
  • Continuity Reboot:
    • Overdrive was billed every bit a "re-imagining" when appear, just certain details within the game suggest that it'southward a prequel.
    • Nada starts off with a reimagined plot of the first game and diverges into an original story for its sequel, but Zippo III retroactively changes it to being a Soft Reboot, with Iii all but confirming that the trilogy is set in the original Metafight serial.
  • Continuity Snarl: Blaster Master is known for effectively following at least two different canons that flip-flop depending on which game you're playing and what region version of which game you're playing. This is the effect of the U.S. localization heavily rewriting the plot and condign more popular than its original Japanese version, and so sequels only followed the Japanese version if you played them in Japan upwardly to Blasting Again, when it was decided that the U.S. canon was more favorable. The Zero series starts out dubious since it'southward a reboot that follows the full general plot structure of the Western version, simply by the end of Nada 3, the film is clear: It'south part of the Japanese canon simply with the U.S. canon injected to it, while likewise managing to weave in elements from ''Diggings Again'' in the ending.
  • Convection Schmonvection: 7th area, 1st game; and the third area of Blaster Main 2.
  • Absurd Machine: The SOPHIA, in all of its incarnations.
  • Cores-and-Turrets Dominate: Photophage, the third boss of the first game, which leaves clones of itself around the room that rapidly become indestructible until they assault once more if you can't destroy them quickly enough. Zero has multiple ones: in add-on to Photophage, there's Remote Blaster, which combines this with Crosshair Aware, and Ancient Freeze, which is an entire room filled with them, with the latter 2 throwing Frictionless Ice into the mix.
  • Cut-and-Paste Environments: Every Area in Overdrive looks most exactly the same.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: In Blasting Again, Kaiser is ultimately destroyed with the Acceleration Nail, a function of the SOPHIA J-seven that was never mentioned to exist at any betoken in the game.
  • Impairment-Sponge Boss: Bosses in Blasting Again are incredibly fond of having tons of wellness bars note although each health bar is for individual parts, so information technology'southward not equally bad as information technology seems. To wit, the first dominate has xviii health bar.
  • Distant Sequel: Metafight EX takes place 55 years after the original Metafight and stars Kane Gardner'southward descendant as the pilot of SOPHIA-III.
  • Dolled-Up Installment: Blaster Primary Boy is actually the localization of the sequel to the game Bomber King, released in the west every bit Robowarrior.
  • Down the Bleed: Phase 4 in the first game, Enemy Below, and Zero.
  • Drill Tank: An upgrade turns SOPHIA into one in both Equalizer Principal 2 and Overdrive. Besides, the second boss of stage 2 in Equalizer Main two.
  • Driving Up a Wall: Upgrades allow SOPHIA Iii to drive up walls and onto ceilings.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole:
    • Whereas the Japanese version of the first game takes place on an alien planet in the distant time to come, the American version changed the setting to hugger-mugger. Which doesn't make any sense considering the very first level has visible trees, mountains, a sky, and clouds in the background, indicating that it'due south at least starting out on the planet's surface.
    • Zilch rectifies this by explaining that humans had built artificial biomes during the time they spent living underground in the backwash of The Finish of the World as Nosotros Know It, and about of it was preserved fifty-fifty after the surface became habitable again and the humans moved back aboveground.
  • Energy Beings: The Lightning Beings from Blaster Master 2 and Blasting Again.
  • Energy Weapon: Zero'southward SOPHIA can obtain a Laser modern for its main weapon, which allows you to burn a laser beam as a Charged Assail that travels through walls and terrain. The SOPHIA-Zero gets a vastly superior upgraded version that allows you to instead fire information technology without charging, making it a better normal shot than your actual normal shot.
  • Eternal Engine: Area 3 of the first game and in Enemy Below.
  • Evolving Weapon: Jason's gun, SOPHIA's main cannon with the Hyper and Crusher upgrades.
  • Excuse Plot:
    • In the original, Jason is simply out to take hold of his irradiated mutant pet frog and stumbles upon a mobile tank, which he uses to defeat mutants from the underground. The original Japanese version has a plot almost foiling an alien invasion, just it barely comes up in-game.
    • In ii, four years subsequently the events of the first game, a new threat emerges, chosen Lightning Beings, which intend to become to the core of the planet and alter its axis to destroy the world. SOPHIA was scrapped when the building information technology was in was struck by lighting and its parts raided past the these new enemies to help build their army of machines to reach that end.
    • Ditto for Enemy Below, whose plot vaguely resembles something along the lines of "lab monster breaks out and sets other monsters costless, so Jason has to go kill mutants again".
    • Overdrive does information technology as well, although the plot is slightly more than believable, since it involves a virus that has started to infect all life on the planet, the protagonist'southward married woman and child are infected and SOPHIA was stripped of its gear by advanced mutants.
  • Eyeless Face: The frog bosses in the start game have mouths, but no eyes.
  • Fake Difficulty: In the start game, in an effort to curb the lag from having as well many enemies on the screen at in one case, enemies will despawn if they're likewise close to the screen'due south edge, and volition respawn and continue whatever they were doing after the screen scrolls to wherever they were cutting off. This unfortunately leads to cases where enemies will spawn in places that were articulate a second earlier you moved at that place, resulting in some very cheap harm or deaths.
  • Falling Harm:
    • If Jason falls his own maximum jumping summit or less, he takes no damage. One block more than that deals one bespeak of damage (and adds a hilarious 'bounce'), and ane cake more than that is fatal (unless he lands in water).
    • Averted with the Guest Fighters in Zero.
  • Falling into the Cockpit: In Blaster Master (NES), a male child finds an armored tank lying around and is able to drive it.
  • Flash of Pain: Enemies which take multiple hits to impale, tend to briefly change color when damaged.
  • Flunky Boss: The Final Boss of Overdrive largely fights by summoning other parts that spawn Mooks.
  • Foreshadowing: One of the very first enemies you meet in Area 1 in the first game will provide you with a power-up to fuel your Hover gauge. This would be a mystery to new players, since Sophia doesn't even have a Hover approximate at this time, and won't go one until the end of Expanse 3. Remembering this fact tin can assistance players discover the entrance to Area 4 on the cliff higher up the place they started the game.
  • Gaiden Game: Equalizer Primary Boy, a Dolled-Up Installment of Bomber Male monarch ii.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: A major plot point toward the end of Zero revealed Fred can teleport to a SOPHIA unit via wormhole. In the sequel, this is used as a gameplay mechanic, allowing Jason to go out dungeons and warp back to the vehicle on the overworld.
  • Giant Enemy Crab: The fifth dominate of the first game, the third and sixth bosses of the 2nd game, and the 1st and 3rd bosses of Overdrive.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The Final Dominate battle in the first game. After y'all defeat the Plutonium Dominate, your truthful final opponent is... some armored knight with a plasma whip. This is Goez, who was retconned out of the plot in the English version, then he's just at that place for no reason different his Japanese counterpart.
  • Glass Cannon: Jason, in the original and especially Nothing. While he'due south much more than vulnerable when he exits SOPHIA 3 in the side-scrolling sections, as he takes more impairment from hazards and loses a lot of mobility (as well as being unable to descend safely), his shots can still deal somewhat respectable damage to enemies. Downplayed in the summit-downwardly sections, as the enemies there are designed to be exclusively fought past him (or the other DLC airplane pilot characters in "Zilch"), and every bit such he becomes an (potentially) unstoppable Ane-Human being Ground forces.
  • Graphics-Induced Super-Deformed: In both the original and Zero, Jason (and EX Characters in Zero) look similar toys compared to their actual designs when in the overworld and in dungeons.
  • Grappling-Hook Pistol: The Anchor Kit in Overdrive allows the SOPHIA to burn down a hook that embeds itself into walls and ceilings to navigate high terrain. Information technology'due south obtained early on, but there's a later upgrade called the Anchor Kit two that improves the firing distance.
  • Grimy Water:
    • Present in Equalizer Master 2.
      • Aerosol and small pools of water will impairment non only Jason simply SOPHIA as well. As an immediate subversion, Stage v is a completely submerged level that's harmless, but all encounters with h2o after this level are of the grimy diverseness once again.
      • The h2o in the overhead areas of Stage 4 likewise counts.
    • In Nothing, the chief sources of harmful h2o is the pinkish water seen in phase 2/three (dungeons) and area v's dungeons. H2o elsewhere merely hinders SOPHIA'due south mobility (until getting the dive upgrade).
  • Hope Spot: In the ending of Zero II, Eve's mutant infection stabilizes after she fires the Acceleration Blast, with the implication that she is miraculously fully cured due to her newfound Heroic Willpower. Zero 3 reveals that she was never cured, the infection just stopped being malignant, and what actually happened was that when her infection stabilized, she became a mutant with the advent of a homo. This causes a host of new problems since it not only results in the events leading up to the first of Zero Three, only forces Jason to accept fifty-fifty more extreme measures and directly leads into the trilogy'south Bittersweet Ending.
  • Hubcap Hovercraft: Nigh SOPHIA models beyond the franchise have the ability to exercise this with the Hover upgrade.
  • Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: Both in Blaster Master and in Enemy Below. Expanse seven's overhead stages use recoloured water from the first Blaster Master game every bit lava. Touching information technology deals two points of health damage.
  • Leap of Organized religion:
    • In Metafight, the final section of Area 4 required yous to jump straight off a cliff and attempt to grab a single tile of ladder you lot can't run across until you're already on the way downward in order to access the lock needed become to Expanse five. Alternately, yous could just aim for the lock, but this kills you in the process. Understandably, this specific room was changed for Equalizer Principal into a elementary platforming section involving ladders.
    • The Metafight version of the room is brought back for Zero, but is made significantly easier by adding a broken ladder in the background that shows where you lot should aim and making it slightly longer, in addition to the removal of limited lives. In that location is also a pool of Soft Water under the ladder that can catch you lot if you fail to grab the ladder during your fall.
  • Lethal Lava Land:
    • Area 7 in the outset game and Zero.
    • And in Enemy Below, with recolored water equally lava.
  • Lightning Bruiser: SOPHIA Iii, at least in the original and "Zilch". From the get-go, it'due south already very mobile, tough, and packs impressive firepower. Turned Up to Eleven when fully upgraded.
  • Loads and Loads of Loading:
    • Blaster Master 2. On the Genesis. Yes, a cartridge-based game has this trouble.
    • A recurring theme in Blasting Over again.
  • Loose Canon: The exact canonicity of 2 in the western catechism is never addressed, as the events of the game are never mentioned by Blasting Again. However, Blasting Once again uses the Lightning Beings that debuted in 2, which leaves its canon status every bit "possible".
  • The Lost Woods: Stage 1, first game.
  • Malevolent Compages: Spiked pillars in the overhead stages in Enemy Below.
  • Mana Meter:
    • The SOPHIA III'southward subweapon gauge serves as this; it's consumed when performing specific actions such every bit using Subweapons and special maneuvers, and refills gradually over fourth dimension.
    • Zero's DLC characters have Subweapon judge replacements that office this fashion. Gunvolt has the EP Meter, Ekoro has the Eye Gauge, Shantae has a Magic Meter, and Shovel Knight has Magic Points.
  • Metroidvania: It was this blazon of game earlier the subgenre became popular.
  • Mission-Pack Sequel: Enemy Below has new maps, weapons, gameplay, and bosses, but similar graphics and music to the NES game.
  • Mirror Matches: A Boss Battle in Overdrive, which ends in a shout out to the Gaiden Game in a Brand My Monster Abound moment.
  • More Dakka: Equalizer Lv. five in Overdrive causes your gun to literally spew bullets not-stop like a gatling gun. Blaster Level 4 in Zilch does the same.
  • Mutant: The enemies that Jason fights in the Blaster Master continuity are created or mutated by the radioactive chest. In Metafight and Nil, though, they're a Horde of Alien Locusts; Jason calling them "Mutants" is a misnomer.
  • Nintendo Difficult:
    • The original NES game is notoriously difficult. Nine lives max, with no passwords or salve points. If you get a game over, have fun starting from the very starting time in a Metroidvania.
    • Zero added Destroyer Mode in Version 1.2, unlocked subsequently completing the game, which greatly increases difficulty: Free energy Guard is useless, Life Ups are functionally redundant and only refill you to max health, enemies are overall tankier, overworld enemies burn down decease bullets at you when you kill them, and dungeon enemies can only be destroyed with specific Guns or with Subweapons. As an added bonus, dungeon enemies with projectile attacks can now shoot through walls.
  • Novelization: Scholastic Publishing wrote a volume based on the game equally part of its Worlds of Ability series. While it takes several liberties with the plot of the first game, parts of it were elevated into canon in future games, particularly the character of Eve, whose novel backstory as the possessor of the SOPHIA-Iii was written into the series.
  • Nuclear Nasty: The enemies that Jason fights in the Blaster Main continuity are created or mutated past the radioactive chest.
  • One time an Episode: In the Nix trilogy, you fight a version of the Skeleton Boss in each game, and in each game you tin Ane-Striking Kill information technology with the game'southward ultimate weapon. Information technology's most obvious in the commencement game where the game outright encourages you to exercise and so, but it still works with the Full Accel Burst and Concluding Accel Charge.
  • Palette Swap:
    • Bosses two and six in the first game are similar in appearance, equally are bosses four and vii (which may explain why the grenade glitch (see Pause Scumming beneath) simply seems to piece of work on them).
    • In Zippo, playing as EX Characters will change the SOPHIA III's appearance to match the graphic symbol existence played. For example, when playing as Gunvolt, the SOPHIA III becomes yellow and blue. Destroyer Mode likewise gives SOPHIA and Jason a grayness color palette.
  • Pause Scumming: In the beginning game, it'due south possible to beat some of the bosses past hitting them with grenades and pausing at the right moment. If you lot do it right, the boss will keep taking damage while paused. Be conscientious, however, equally this also works in reverse.
  • Power Upwards Letdown:
    • In the original Blaster Chief and Metafight, several gun levels are these in one fashion or the other.
      • Gun levels four-5 cause the gun to pseudorandomly alternating between firing straight shots and shots that arc to the left or right of Jason/Kane and and so become behind him.
      • Gun levels 6-7 travel in sinusoidal waves. The principal problem is that the fashion the bullets travel make it hard to striking some objects in front of Jason/Kane, and that they are absorbed by walls so firing these when Jason/Kane is adjacent to one is useless. Attempts to shoot some bosses' tiny weak points can be frustrated by the wave pattern and the bullets' absorption when they hit another part of the boss.
      • Gun level 8 is like gun levels six-7, but its shots pierce walls instead of getting captivated by walls. It is slap-up at clearing out rooms of Mooks, but terrible at precision targeting. Attempts to shoot some bosses' tiny weak points tin can be frustrated past the wave pattern.
    • The upgrades for Jason's gun in Enemy Below. He can only collect iii, but good luck collecting more than than ane due to losing them quickly to enemy attacks.
    • And in Blasting Over again, where the max weapon upgrade transforms Roddy's gun into a powerful but extremely short-range flamethrower. The 2d-highest upgrade is far more practical.
  • Real Is Brown: In Overdrive.
  • Recurring Dominate: Despite not being a main adversary similar in the Western Blaster Master games, the Plutonium Boss's Zero counterpart, the Skeleton Boss, appears twice in every game in the series. First as the Skeleton Dominate, then as Cerbeboss (Skeleton Boss with three heads), and finally as Metal Cerbeboss (Cerbeboss with the main caput becoming a cyborg).
  • Recurring Element: The Acceleration Blast appears in every game in the Nothing series, even in the sequels where information technology has "successors" in the grade of new upgrades. While it information technology serves the role of the SOPHIA-Three's superweapon in the start game, it serves a plot critical role in the second game, and is a secret optional upgrade that can be found during The Very Definitely Final Dungeon in the tertiary game. This retroactively makes sense given the trilogy'due south ties to Blasting Again, which introduced the original Acceleration Boom.
  • Recycled Title: Averted with Blasting Again in Japan, which is merely called Blaster Master similar the Western counterpart of the first game, merely it is the beginning game in the franchise to utilise the "Equalizer Master" proper name in Nippon since all previous titles bore the Metafight name.
  • Revisiting the Roots: This was Overdrive'due south have afterwards the mixed handbag that was Blasting Again, which attempted 3D conversion of the traditional formula. Inti Creates tried this once again with Zero and was on the whole more successful than Overdrive.
  • Sequel Hook: Overdrive ends with the image of a comet approaching Earth, followed by the phrase "...the battle has only begun...".
  • Shapeshifting: Blasting Once more reveals that the Lightning Beings are Eve's species; survivors from when the Plutonium Boss destroyed their earth.
  • Shared Universe: Luminous Avenger ix 2 reveals that the Equalizer Master Zero trilogy has approved ties to the Azure Striker Gunvolt Series. Copen acquires Roddy'southward Blaster Burglarize from the events of Zero II due to the efforts of The Creator, and Jason later hops over to the parallel universe of 9 2 to spar with Copen.
  • Shielded Core Boss: The Area 6 boss in Overdrive. Dissentious the boss's feet eventually disables it, leaving its core vulnerable to set on for a curt time.
  • Shout-Out: The protagonist and his frog are named Jason and Fred...
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice Earth: Area half-dozen in the original, Zero, and Overdrive. Zero throws some twists into the formula, though: most rooms in the expanse beginning off normal, but you need to use control panels within caves to freeze them over in society to go along further in the surface area, and Jason tin can utilise his flamethrower weapon to cook icy floors inside dungeons, which also restricts the movement of some of the enemies.
  • Soft H2o: On country, Jason is subjected to Falling Damage when outside SOPHIA 3. However, he's perfectly safe if he lands in water, even from heights far exceeding what would ordinarily be fatal.
  • Spikes of Doom: Everywhere in the final area in the original and in Enemy Below.
  • Stealth Sequel: The Equalizer Master Zip trilogy is one to Metafight, set 10 years in the future. This is strongly hinted by the Golden Ending of the commencement game and later confirmed by the third game.
  • The Stinger: Overdrive has one in which a comet ominously approaches Earth, accompanied by the Sequel Claw text "The battle has just begun..."
  • Super Non-Drowning Skills: In the "overworld" sections, Jason has no trouble swimming through water — much more than so than SOPHIA until it gets the "Dive" upgrade. Inverted in the "on-foot" sections of Areas four and vii, where falling into h2o/lava ways instant death. In Null, falling into h2o or lava but damages you.
  • Super Paradigm: The Purposefully Overpowered Sword of Plot Advancement from the kickoff Zero, SOPHIA-Zero, is revealed to exist one in Goose egg II. Although vastly superior compared to the normal tank, beingness built on such short observe means it came loaded with design flaws, and the tank is ultimately pushed beyond its limits by the time Nil II rolls around. Jason ends up scrapping information technology for parts and using its cannon on his new tank, the GAIA-SOPHIA, which isn't quite as strong as the previous tank but makes upwards for it with its ain unique capabilities.
  • Sword of Plot Advancement:
    • While information technology has no meaningful gameplay stardom, information technology is stated in the setting of the Cypher trilogy that Blaster Rifles are required to operate Metal Attackers by inserting the gun into the tank like you would an bodily central, hence their cardinal-shaped designs (until Jason'due south G-SOPHIA, which has a more than gun-shaped Blaster Rifle). This is appropriately reflected in the Japanese translation, which calls them "Central Rifles".
    • The SOPHIA-Aught is a Tank of Plot Advancement, as it is a super-powerful variant of the SOPHIA III sent by Kane Gardner and Jennifer Gardner to help Jason rescue Eve and save the Earth at its most dire hr.
  • Temple of Doom: Stage 2 of the original.
  • Lawn tennis Boss: Venom Master in Destroyer Style can only exist damaged past reflecting shots back into him, whether his own or those of his flunky minions, which thankfully drib gun upgrades when killed in example you get hit to the point where yous lose Reflect.
  • This Is a Drill: The Drill Kit in Overdrive equips a large drill to the front of SOPHIA that can be used to destroy enemies with a Nuance Attack and bore through certain blocks.
  • Time Skip: According to Kane Gardner's profile in Zero Three, the Zero trilogy takes place roughly 10 years after Metafight.
  • Turns Red: The crab boss from the first game fires more and more than bullets at yous as you impairment it, and the Photophage'south turrets motility faster every bit more are destroyed.
  • Under the Body of water: The 5th areas in the first and second games, as well as the 'Water' surface area in Blasting Over again.
  • Underwater Ruins: Area 5 of both the original and Zero. In the original, it was represented past elementary turquoise pillars, just in Nada, going far down enough volition reveal actual ruins in the background.
  • Unintentionally Unwinnable: You lot go a weapon upgrade for your tank which allows you to blow away certain walls, which will respawn after a couple of seconds. Nonetheless, should you get out of your tank and walk through the passage, once information technology respawns, y'all have no mode to get back to your tank. Too, since you tin't shoot downward, you lot won't be able to go back in any case when blocks respawn below you. In that location are a number of places where you also tin't kill yourself, leaving you totally trapped, forcing you to reset.
  • Utility Weapon:
    • Subweapons in the series typically as well serve puzzle-solving roles that may or may not involve blowing things up.
    • Shovel Knight's Shovel Bract covers a broad range of functions that are typically relegated to special weapons, such equally existence able to break walls and destroy ice rocks.
  • Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Played straight in Blasting Once again with Roddy'south max gun upgrade. While information technology is powerful, unfortunately it's likewise much besides short-range to be practical confronting annihilation stronger than Goddamn Bats. Averted in Zero, where its primary flaw is being overshadowed by the Wave Beam, only information technology's a perfectly usable weapon otherwise and is the merely weapon that can destroy specific walls in Area 5 and melt icy floors in Area 6.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss:
    • The first boss of Overdrive. Only Alex's grenade launcher can reliably strike its weak bespeak, and it has barely enough range to avoid touching the dominate in the process.
    • Enemy Below'due south second boss teaches you why dodging is useful.
    • Aforementioned for the first boss of the original.
  • Wall Crawl: In the first game, yous can get two "Wall" upgrades — one that lets you cling to and drive up walls, and another that lets you transfer from walls to ceilings. This makes the Hover powerup nigh useless outside of very specific situations where there are no walls nearby to climb. The 2 upgrades take been merged into a single upgrade in Nil.
  • Moving ridge-Movement Gun: The recurring Acceleration Nail subweapon, which debuted in Blasting Again (via New Powers as the Plot Demands in a cutscene). It is simply actually usable in one game it appears in, where it is the epitome of Awesome, but Impractical, but damn, if it doesn't make for adept Cutscene Bosses.
  • Womb Level: The concluding stage of the first game, may appear in others.
  • Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: The lightning attack in Blaster Master is definitely the xanthous variety. Subsequent games have moved directly to blueish lightning.
  • Zerg Blitz:
    • The Concluding Boss of Overdrive.
    • Some of the Dungeon "bosses" in Zero, which require y'all to dispatch multiple mooks.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/BlasterMaster