Inti Creates announces Blaster Master Zero for the Nintendo 3DS

Today, Inti Creates held the Inti Creates Fan Festa 20th Anniversary, and during the stage presentation, several announcements were made. One of them is for a game that was originally released almost 30 years ago on the NES… Blaster Master (known as Chou Wakusei Senki Metafight in Japan). To be more precise, Inti Creates announced a game called Blaster Master Zero for the Nintendo 3DS.

It turns out Inti Creates acquired the licence to Blaster Master from Sunsoft, and is now working on a new title for the series. The developers are using the original game as base in order to create a “fully 8-bit experience” that is both filled with nostalgia and takes advantage of current generation hardware to “optimise and power up” the game for modern players.

Inti Creates promises:

• new areas;
• new bosses;
• new gameplay elements (such as extra sub-weapons);
• improved gameplay when battling outside of your SOPHIA 3rd tank;
• a more robust scenario;
• refined and expanded exploration mechanics.

Here’s what the story of Blaster Master Zero will be about:

In the near future on planet Earth…

 

Many kinds of creatures once coexisted on this verdant planet, but after countless wars and untold environmental destruction, the planet was plunged into an ice age, and humanity was left with no choice but to migrate en masse underground.

 

When the ice age finally came to an end, humanity begin developing methods while they were living underground to one day restore their planet to the lush green landscape it once was. During this time, a large mysterious comet fell to the earth, but the progress of restoring their lost ecosystem was coming along well, and humanity was eventually able to live on the surface once again.

 

Several hundred years have passed since then.

 

Enter a young man named Jason Frudnick, a genius in the field of robotic engineering. One day, he came upon a creature he had never seen before. No records of this creature existed, so with his interest in this mysterious creature piqued, Jason named it “Fred” and began to observe it closely. But, after some time had passed it found a way to escape.

 

Jason gave chase, and before he knew it he had stumbled into the subterranean world where humanity once resided. A large vehicle awaited him there.

 

Almost as if this vehicle with the name “SOPHIA 3rd” on the side was inviting him in, the door the cockpit opened up. In order to bring Fred back, Jason hopped into SOPHIA 3rd and set out on his adventure.

In Blaster Master Zero, you will have to explore a subterranean world inhabited by strange mutants in order to bring Fred back. To explore it, you will have to hop in your armored tank SOPHIA 3rd in order to find dungeons and items. Unfortunately, you have to exit your armored tank to enter dungeons, and they are some areas you cannot reach while in your tank. Fortunately, Jason is more than able to defend himself while on foot!

In those dungeons, you are on foot, and you can use a gun as a weapon. As you progress through the game, you will earn “many different types of new weapons”. For example, with the Gun Level 6, you can use Striker: an explosive lightning-based attack.

In some rooms, you will have to defeat hordes of enemies, and using the terrain to your advantage will be key. Some areas are located underwater, where your mobility is greatly reduced. To make your way through such areas, you will have to use a certain sub-weapon…

Naturally, the game features bosses and sub-bosses, and both allow you to get power-ups. For example, defeating Chalmeatle (the Area 1 boss) will net you the Hyper Shot, which is powerful enough to defeat enemies you previously couldn’t defeat.

Blaster Master Zero will be released in Spring 2017, on Nintendo 3DS. While we wait for more details, here’s the first screenshots and an artwork for the game:

Source: Inti Creates