Developed and published by Lost Cabinet Games, Master Blaster is an Air Hockey based 3D Arcade Puck- shooter with a lot of flashy lights and gameplay choices.
A good idea is like a stomach ache. Whether you got diarrhoea or just trapped gas, most of the time it’s nothing to worry about. So that is my opening impression of Master Blaster, a pain in the abdomen.
Pucks ahoy!
An Air Hockey based Shooter! From the very utterance of that statement is enough to catch the attention of steam scrollers. Sadly, it’s too good to be true.
While yes, we are playing on an Air Hockey table and our choice of weapon is air-hockey pucks, the implementation of this gameplay mechanic is poor at best.
Let me explain.
When a round starts, you’re positioned in front of an enemy who immediately begins launching pucks at you. Your objective is simple but frustrating: you must either deflect their incoming pucks or aim to hit them directly with your own shots. The round drags on until one of you finally runs out of health.
You control your aim by moving an arrow left or right from the centre of your side. Unfortunately, said arrow moves slower than a snail with arthritis. On top of that, your shots are also sluggish, only launching one at a time. Each puck explodes on impact, and you can’t fire again until the previous one has finished exploding.
As you can tell, the pacing of these matches is slow, and the lack of variety in how you can approach the enemy makes the gameplay feel repetitive long before a winner is declared.
The game gives you special shots and other slight upgrades as you play. However nothing brings about enough change for this extremely monotone system to be any fun.
Rounds seem to end before they even begin and if you are doing good and win, they feel pointless and without any real fun reward.
Master Blaster
The game comes with two modes. An infinite Mode where you fight till you lose and a story mode where you fight till you lose.
I am not going to write any detailed description of it and not because I am trying to avoid spoilers. It is because I don’t want to be reminded of my time playing.
Imagine going through enemy after enemy, getting one look at their actually well designed models and then returning to the same slog of the game play all over again.
Maybe if I am feeling very generous, I can say that the one thing this game gets right is the looks. The Table, the enemies and the location really capture the eyes.
It might just be the lighting doing all the talking, but I’d still suggest giving these games a try; if only to appreciate the models and animations. Those are some pretty pucks!
There’s no denying that this is the only part of Master Blaster where the developers seemed to put any real effort or care. You might not get much out of the gameplay, but at least you can admire the visual flair.
Yeah, Whatever!
Master Blaster should’ve been a quirky, fun arcade shooter with an air hockey twist. Instead, it’s a slow, lifeless slog that you’ll struggle to remember after 10 minutes of playtime. Even the ‘flashy lights’ couldn’t swerve me into any kind of enjoyment.
The looks are nice and the models really deserve another look but that can be achieved via the Steam page.
So unless you’re a fan of torturing yourself with repetitive, uninspired puck mechanics, I’d recommend saving your money and your sanity. This one’s not just a blaster; it’s a complete bust.
