[Review] Mr. Blaster – Nintendo Switch

  • Developer: Forever Entertainment
  • Publisher: Forever Entertainment
  • Release Date: 22/08/2019
  • Price: $1.99 / £1.79
  • Review code provided by Forever Entertainment

Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting

Early videogames were very simple. A game like Pong had the player controlling a paddle to keep a ball from passing by them, while also trying to get said ball past the competitor. Very simple design, but it worked. As the years progressed, so did the complexity of video games. Now we have massive sprawling worlds to explore, kingdoms to conquer, and heck, even cars can play sports now. But, every few years, a game will come out, simplistic in design, that can grab the imagination of gamers, just like Pong did. Can Mr. Blaster from Forever Entertainment be one of these games, or will its’ simplicity leave it stranded.

Mr. Blaster places you immediately into action as an adventurer who must battle other adventurers to the death! No explanation is given, other than you, an unnamed astronaut, must fight other combatants until they can no longer fight. While playing, you will eventually unlock more characters, some with special abilities, but most of these are just skins to differentiate you from your opponent.

Savior of the Universe

After your character is chosen, the game begins with you and your opponent standing on floating platforms a good distance away from each other. The action is turn based and uses physics. To launch an attack, adjust the power and trajectory to effectively hit the opponent. Headshots take the most damage, followed by body shots (main torso) and then everything else. Each combatant also has a satellite that acts as a shield that can block two hits. The shield can’t be controlled, and it orbits the platform in a set pattern.

Upon one opponent draining the others health, the losing opponent declares “Destroy Him”. This gives the winning player a chance to land one more hit, and if they do, a meteor or satellite will come down and crash into the loser. That is the basic gist of the game. There is no story mode to be found which is a disappointment. Since there are a good bit of unlockables, it would have been nice to have a story, even a nonsensical one to drive the player to get all of the characters.

Speaking of the characters, there are a ton of them, and many of them are based on popular cultural icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Darth Vader and even tennis pro Roger Federer. To unlock these characters, you need stars. To get stars, you need to play the game and hit your opponent. Standard hits give you 25 stars, while body shots and satellite shots give you 50. The best way to get stars is by getting head shots, which award a whopping 100 stars. You will need them as the last character requires a staggering 8000 stars.

Gameplay modes are pretty slim for Mr. Blaster, which include Vs. CPU and Vs. Player. Couch co-op for this game can be fun, and if you have a large group of people it could be a blast, but with no online play or story mode to be found, playing in sessions longer 10-15 minutes can be quite tiresome.

Paper Dolls

Mr. Blaster has a very simplistic art style that gets the job done. Characters look like their famous counterparts and have ridiculous rag doll physics which are great for a laugh. Ever wondered what the Joker would look like if his head exploded from getting hit with Darth Vader’s lightsaber? Mr. Blaster lets you see it. These explosions are very simple and just turn the characters head into a skull with a red silhouette. Backgrounds are also very basic, with random aliens and meteors flying in the background and sometimes in the foreground to make your job harder.

The music, while catchy, gets tired very quickly as there are only 3 songs to choose from. Again, this will vary drastically on the amount of time spent playing this game. For the sake of this review, I spent hours playing this game, over and over and the music quickly became stale. If you and your friends pop this in every now and then to play a few games before moving onto something else, there would not be a problem.

To Infinity and Beyond

During my playtime with Mr. Blaster, I found I preferred the experience as a handheld over docked, but that may just be my preference. It ran perfectly smooth in both modes, and the only issue I found, which is miniscule to say the least, involved unlocking characters that were the same number of stars. Even though the characters were both available, only the first one I unlocked at that star level showed as “unlocked”. I could choose the other character, but their icon would still show locked.

Final Thoughts

Mr. Blaster is not a bad game, especially considering the very low cost of entry. It is just not a game that is made for people looking for something deep and engaging. When discussing films, the term popcorn movie comes to mind. This would be a popcorn game. It’s simple and everyone in the family can understand and enjoy it. But after you are done playing it, it won’t bring you back 10 years from now with its deep and thought-provoking gameplay/story.

Pros

  • Easy to Pick Up and Play
  • Lots of Unlockables
  • Fun Multiplayer

Cons

  • Very Few Modes
  • Grueling Grind for Unlockables
  • Game is Almost Too Simple

Verdict

Mr. Blaster is an easy to pickup party game that doesn’t have a ton of substance, but for the price, you can’t go wrong with it.

2.5/5