BLASTER MASTER (F.X. Nine)
REVIEW for NES Player

How should I start my review? Sarcasm is good.. that should come after the facts. Maybe roleplay an overweight reviewer with a huge chip on my shoulder? YEAH! That's it! OK, OK, the review..

Well, I have to say first off that I really enjoyed reading Blaster Master. It's a quirky novel sporting some Disney-flavored jokes and a bit of good visual detail. I should say semi-visual detail, since like what movies do to books, the same can say about video games to books - ability to draw your own imagery of the scenery, characters, and progressing story.

Blaster Master succeeds at its main goal to associate a top-selling game in relation into an adequately enjoyable book. The book's audience is probably geared around the 5th-6th grade reading level since it introduces numerous examples of similes, metaphors, and symbolic expressional styles of writing that a younger reader probably wouldn't be able to fully comprehend.

That's not to say that not everyone can enjoy Blaster Master. This may be news to you, but I am in fact NOT in 6th grade. :D I do have to respect a few choice portions of the author's expressions. They can be quite good. At the same time, though, I cringed a number of times at the usuage of text that outlined the "played-out" jokes over and over.

A prime example of these jokes is the slang one of the characters uses time and again. She is supposedly from another planet so her pop culture phrasing is jumbled up, making her phrases seem ridiculous. Then right on cue comes Jason the hero of the book with a zip-bam-boom, cutesy/sarcastic correction. It appeared to be a nice touch at the beginning, but once I realized every other few pages recycles the same gag, it becomes as redundant as watching the same America's Home Videoes chuckles provided by Bob Saget. It's OK to hear it once and twice. It's NOT OK to further on beyond.

I'm not going to explain about the plot or story (since I typed up a lengthy summary elsewhere in the WOP coverage here), so I'll quickly make the final checkpoint on the report card under enjoyment. It rates high. Blaster Master seems to take on the video game's feeling as perfect as a never worn pair of shoes. What the hell does that mean? It means it fits tightly to work out the game's story to fit within 119 pages. Tender.

FINAL GRADE: B