Longtime Nintendo fans planning to purchase the company’s new Switch hardware when it releases in a few days received a nostalgia-tinged surprise earlier today. During an indie developer-focused Nintendo Direct, Nintendo revealed that Blaster Master Zero, a modern take on an NES classic, will come to both Switch and Nintendo 3DS in just over a week.
Shortly after that announcement, we were able to go check out Blaster Master Zero for ourselves. In the video above, you can see 16 minutes of the game in action, which completely captures the feeling of running home from school to spend the afternoon blasting baddies in a rad tank.
As in the original Blaster Master, Zero will see players swapping back and forth between side-view sections where you use a powerful tank to platform around levels and top-down sections where your human character adventures through rooms, shooting at enemies and bosses.
Dialogue sequences progress the plot and show that the SOPHIA (the tank from the original game) is still the star. It’s less clear if the story still revolves around chasing after a runaway mutated pet frog.
The Blaster Master franchise has been dormant since 2010, when developer Sunsoft and publisher Gaijinworks released Blaster Master: Overdrive for the Wii U. Blaster Master Zero will revive the series on Switch and Nintendo 3DS on March 9.
