As we can return us, this game is hopin' rap!

Mega Man Zero and Azure Striker Gunvolt developer Indie creates has recently released

a remake of NES Classic Blaster Master for Nintendo 3DS and Switch.

This is a remarkable turn of events for a few reasons, but most notably because it's

the first follow-up in the long-running series that actually feels better designed and

more fun to play than the original game.

Blaster Master, which debuted in 1988 in the US and Japan, stands out in memory as one

of the more ambitious games of its era.

Certainly it seemed to mark something of a turning point for publisher Sunsoft, who until

that point had been turning out some very well-meaning but ultimately unsatisfying games

for the system, especially in Japan.

For example, their top-down shooter Iki, set on the rice paddies of MediaEvil Japan, was

something of a go-to whipping boy example for bad Famicom games during the early years of this

podcast.

And their bold pitfall derivative Atlantis No Nazo remains one of the most infamous Famicom

releases of all time thanks to its hateful combination of awkward controls, arcane secrets,

cruel traps, combined with an expansive treasure hunting world.

Sunsoft wanted to do great things.

It's not like Atlantis No Nazo was terrible because it lacked ambition, the game had

ambition to spare with its 100 inigmatically linked stages packed full of mysteries.

It just wasn't any fun.

Likewise, Madolino Subasa, a gutsy 1986 release that may well have been the first side-scrolling

...